The Pop Culture Inspiring Singer-songwriter Marlon Williams

The New Zealand singer/songwriter is currently on a world tour to promote his album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka. He shares what he enjoys offstage.

My favourite movies…

I’m a massive Marlon Brando fan. So was my dad, which is one reason I have my name. The movies Brando starred in, like A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, have stayed with me my whole life. But Apocalypse Now stands alone. Brando gives such an intense and interesting performance as Colonel Kurtz, which is largely ad-lib because he hadn’t read the script. It’s terrifying and dangerous and angular – just an incredible feat.

The book I’m reading…

Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live Without a Self by Jay Garfield, a philosophy professor whose speciality is Buddhism. He makes the argument that the self doesn’t really exist and that when we try to see ourselves as separate from everyone else in the universe, we grab onto the wrong thing, which ends up causing us suffering. It’s a fascinating and ground-shaking book.

The podcast I’m listening to…

Making Sense with Sam Harris. I’ve been listening to it for years now and the critical thinking that he applies to different philosophies and arguments has, ironically, given me the tools to analyse his beliefs. I also listen to Short History of… It’s a very well-produced and well-written podcast about different moments in history. The last one that I heard was a short history of dictators, which scared me a little. To learn about the amount of power and fear that they can inflict on the world and how fragile democracies are is terrifying.

The TV show I binge...

Love on the Spectrum. It’s such a warm-hearted show. Watching the characters navigate dating – something that’s hard for everyone – with such truth and transparency has taught me a lot.