Marlon Williams calls in, complete with film crew

Multiple award-winning New Zealand singer/songwriter and actor Marlon Williams was in town yesterday with his father David “Frank” Williams (left) and film crew, cinematographer Tim Flower (second right) and soundman Dean Judd. They called in to Muirs Bookshop after lunching at a Gladstone Road cafe. Picture by Liam Clayton

Customers at Muirs Bookshop might have thought they had walked into a film studio during musician Marlon Williams’ visit to the store yesterday.

Trailed by a film crew that has followed him around the world for the past two years, the multiple award-winning New Zealand singer/songwriter and actor visited the bookshop where he was filmed by the crew, photographed by customers, and shot by a Gisborne Herald cameraman while his story was recorded in an impromptu interview by a bookshop assistant.

“The film crew has been with me on tour with Lorde through Europe, and in Hollywood,” said Williams.

“The film will be a long-form feature that follows the story of the development of my first record in te reo Māori.”

The film is expected to be released at the same time as the album next year.

“We’re colouring bits and pieces of my story and backstory and thought Dad and I could hang out and head down memory lane and soak up the sights.”

Now resident again in his hometown of Christchurch, Williams’ father, David “Frank” Williams has previously lived in Gisborne. Since arriving here on Monday, he, his son and film crew have visited local landmarks such as Titirangi-Kaitī Hill, Nick Tupara’s circular sculpture in honour of Te Maro at the Ruatanuika lookout, and co-designed Puhi Kai Iti installation

on Rakaiatane Road, as well as destination shops.

Of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāi Tai descent, Williams’ next stop is Tōrere, a small coastal settlement east of Ōpōtiki and ancestral home of the Ngāi Tai people.

Once described as “the impossible love child of Elvis, Roy Orbison and Townes Van Zandt”, Williams’ music style straddles folk, country, bluegrass and the blues. It often comes with the trebly, ringing guitar reminiscent of tunes heard on the wireless in New Zealand in the 1960s.

“Every generation picks up on the past,” Williams told The Gisborne Herald in 2019.

“That sound resonated with me and I fell in love with this classic sound. It’s nuanced with sweet nostalgia mixe           with real, immediate feeling. That’s my palette.”

The pace and solemnity of the jinga-jik East Coast guitar strum style is in his blood, he said.

“It’s light but at the same time it’s something so locked in it speaks to my heart.”