Not all songs come easily.
Sure, some slip off the tongue, seemingly as if writing themselves. But others take grit, determination, and the bravery of looking at hard things head-on. That’s what Mama Kin Spender discovered while working on Promises.
The duo, made up of Danielle Caruana and Dingo Spender, are set to release their sophomore album on 15 August, and for Danielle, it couldn’t come soon enough.
Mama Kin Spender
- 12 September, 2025
- Brunswick Ballroom
- Tickets here
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“Get these out of my system and out of my body, please!” she says of the new songs. “Some of them were excruciating to write. The content even sometimes feels like a raw confession. I’m not proud of the behaviour that prompted the songs, but I’m so proud of the songs that changed my behaviour!” Dingo agrees: “Honestly, it’s a huge cathartic relief.”
Written over the span of three years, the album charts a period where both artists were going through “parallel experiences of heartbreak and despair”. Their latest single, Arrows, offers only a taste of the emotional turmoil to come.
“It’s basically a bunch of songs about all the stages of romantic love,” says Dingo. “The first drug-like euphoria, the domestic grind, all the way through to white-hot rage and despair, back to the deep realisation that the love we seek in others always lives within us first.”
It was only through working on the project that the two were able to find some solace and work towards healing.
“I am so grateful to have a friend and collaborator in Dingo,” Danielle says, “to have been able to sit in the centre of what felt like an abstract and frozen fog, and to extract meaning, to scratch a map together. To brew up a body of work that would guide us both through and back to love.”
The pair’s musical journey began more than 25 years ago when they met in a chance encounter on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles, “when neither of us were parents and there were no iPhones,” Dingo shares.
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After being housemates for a while, they parted ways, moving to opposite sides of the country. They were brought back together when Dingo’s project, Spender, supported Danielle’s project, Mama Kin, on a national tour.
“Later, we decided to put a band together because we were both miserable being solo artists and trying to do a music career with young kids. Then we made a record that was ARIA-nominated and toured around the world,” says Dingo.
Joining forces opened many doors for them, from bouncing songwriting ideas back and forth to crafting intricate vocal harmonies.
“We are word nerds,” Danielle says. “We need the words to mean something to us, to hit us and break us open. None can be wasted, so we work hard for them; sometimes that means being patient… A song will emerge as a clue and then hibernate for a couple of years until our lives catch up with the sentiment. I love that.”
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Early on in their collaboration, Danielle and Dingo envisioned working with choirs – something they now do regularly, on their recordings, but also as part of their Choir Camp events, which bring together people from across Australia for weekends of workshops, somatic practices and fireside sing-a-longs.
“We write all our songs knowing that there is space for a choir to fit in, because we’ve worked with choirs all over the world and understand the power that it brings – not just to our sound, but the energy is magnificent,” Dingo says. Danielle adds they use choirs more like instruments, layering human voices to build chord beds. “We are just hot for harmony! Romantics for resonance! Okay, I’ll stop now,” she jokes.
On 12 September, the duo will take over the Brunswick Ballroom for their first Melbourne show since before the pandemic, and they couldn’t be more thrilled to finally be bringing Promises to life.
“We’ve had people asking for years now, so it will be very exciting to bring all the elements together. Plus, we LOVE the venue!” says Dingo. Danielle finishes with a promise: “We will leave nothing at the curb, chests proud and ready to reveal, confess and celebrate this new album together with new friends and long-standing champions.”
To keep up with Mama Kin Spender, head here.
