Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist Marlon Funaki will play his first Australian headline shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane next February after a breakout year of major festival appearances and his Warner Records debut EP.
Marlon Funaki will make his Australian live debut in February 2027, with three headline shows presented by Frontier Touring in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist steps onto Australian stages for the first time after a rapid rise that has taken him from self-financed bedroom recordings to major festival stages and a global deal with Warner Records.
Funaki, raised in Redlands and Highland roughly 40 miles east of Los Angeles, has built a distinctive sound that draws on soulful psychedelia, indie rock, R&B, shoegaze and jazz. Of Japanese and Mexican American heritage, he grew up in a music-loving household, began in school bands, then taught himself guitar, bass, keys and production. He funded early gear by busking and working at a local Guitar Center, constructing a makeshift studio in his brother’s bedroom.
His 2020 self-released EP The Universal Language and 2022 album Monterey Village introduced listeners to that self-contained approach. He played virtually every instrument himself. Word-of-mouth growth turned house parties into warehouse shows and sold-out club dates across the United States. Opening slots for Billy Currington and the UK band Palace followed, along with recognition as a winner of Southwest Airlines’ Artist on the Rise program, which delivered a main-stage performance at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion festival.
The past year accelerated everything. Funaki signed to Warner Records and released the single “Let You In” in January 2026, followed in March by the five-song EP Half Moon. The EP includes “Skin”, “Wish You Well”, “Million Things” and “Time and Place”. Festival appearances at Austin City Limits, Outside Lands in San Francisco, Lollapalooza in Chicago and Ohana Fest in California, plus sold-out headline dates across North America and the UK, have cemented his reputation as one of the more compelling new voices in indie music.
Reflecting on the distance his music has travelled, Funaki has said: “It still amazes me to this day that something that I made in my bedroom travelled this far. It’s cool to see how far that music travels.”
That sense of quiet surprise sits at the heart of his appeal. The songs often feel intimate and cinematic at once, built from patient grooves, jazz-tinged guitar lines and layered textures that reward close listening. Half Moon is positioned as a turning point rather than a full-stop, a bridge toward a larger body of work while retaining the Western psychedelic rock foundation that first drew attention.
Australian audiences will now have the chance to experience that material live for the first time. Frontier Touring has structured the run as three carefully chosen club rooms that suit Funaki’s current scale: intimate enough for the detail in the arrangements to land, large enough to capture the energy of a band that has already proven itself on bigger outdoor stages.
The timing places the tour in the Australian summer of 2027, giving fans several months to absorb the Half Moon material and any further releases that may arrive in the interim. For an artist who has moved deliberately from DIY beginnings to major-label support without losing control of his production and writing, the Australian dates represent a natural next chapter rather than a sudden leap.
Funaki continues to write, record and produce much of his own work. That independence remains central to the story even as the stages grow larger. The three February shows will mark the first time Australian crowds hear that music in the room where it was made to be felt.
Dates
Friday 5 February
Corner Hotel, Melbourne, VIC
Tuesday 9 February
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, NSW
Thursday 11 February
Crowbar, Brisbane, QLD
Artist presale via marlonfunaki.com/tour from 10am local Wednesday 14 October.
Frontier Member presale via frontiertouring.com/marlonfunaki from 10am local Wednesday 14 October.
Spotify presale from 10am local Thursday 15 October.
Public onsale from 11am local Friday 16 October.
All shows 18+.
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