Mama Kin Spender On Forthcoming Album ‘Promises’

A bewitching bullseye balancing soul folk, raw relatability and beguiling melodies, the new single Arrows out now from ARIA-nominated and WAM award-winning duo Mama Kin Spender tantalisingly parts the curtains further into what lies in wait on the pair’s upcoming sophomore album Promises, set for release on August 15. With the anticipated LP set to drop ahead of a special run of national album launch shows through September and October, Mama Kin Spender will be hit the road to share their new record with audiences in Pomona, Murwillumbah, Brisbane, Melbourne, Archie’s Creek, Belgrave, Sydney, Milton and Dashville.

Opening with gritty guitars, oozing harmonies and plenty of elegant swagger, Arrows evolves into a powerful yet delicate outing, wearing its heart defiantly on its sleeve as Mama Kin Spender, aka Danielle Caruana and Dingo Spender, detail bad behaviour in relationships. Also drawing inspiration from the likes of Alabama Shakes, Shovels and Rope, Liz Stringer and Pat Benatar for Danielle, as well as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nina Simone, The Motels and Sam & Dave for Dingo (all of which also permeate on the broader Promises album), Arrows explores.

Co-writing Arrows and the entirety of Promises together, the album saw Mama Kin Spender work alongside engineer, mixer and co-producer Dan Carroll, with mastering courtesy of Lacklan Carrick. A concept album that explores love’s optimism, decay, rampage and transformation, Promises is an enchanting journey, accompanied by a primal fusion of garage, soul and folk. A roaring yet tender and vulnerable collection of songs that plunge the depths of emotion and experiences, Promises begins with new single Arrows, before traversing into perky instrumentals and suggestive yet warmly relatable lyricism via Bleeding Out. From here, Mama Kin Spender weave their powerful spell over pounding percussion and raw ruminations (Promises), hazy soundscapes lined with hypnotic melodies (Desert Rain), and musing melancholia that goes down like a shot of smooth whiskey (We Are The Water). Heralding the album’s back end with potent urgency and sinuous harmonies (Dance With Me), Promises goes on to tug at the heartstrings with haunting, soulful beauty (A Love That Will Not Die). Danielle Caruana talks to Hi Fi Way about the album and tour.

It must be a real exciting period for you now with the album about to drop next month?
Such a relief to finally have it out. You spend so much time in the making, the wondering, the building of the team, getting the visuals right, the music, the mixing… and then to be at the bit where it’s just getting out, it’s awesome. I just want to be out there playing it now.

Yeah, it must be hard when the songs have been done for quite a while?
Totally. With the current release environment, you have to really back those big releases and give them their best chance not to be drowned out. You sit on them for a while and make sure you’re prepared, though the temptation is to release them straight away.

Does it get easier or harder working on new music?
Some things get easier and some harder. Streaming platforms like Spotify are debilitating. So much data can make you want to throw your hands up and open a bakery instead! But you can’t deny what happens when people connect with your music, messages from listeners saying it changed something for them or made them feel less alone. That’s the real currency. That’s why I do it: the human connection. I try to navigate the social media, streaming, all those bits, and mitigate their impact, just to get to the part I love most.

I guess streaming’s a mystery for everyone. Is that one of the frustrating parts for artists like yourself compared to high streaming artists such as Taylor Swift.
Three things are really frustrating. Streaming pays so little, even though people genuinely want your music. Algorithms decide whether followers actually see your content. You may have thousands of followers, but posts only reach seven to eight percent of them. People want to go to gigs and prioritise it in their spending, but they often hear about shows too late. There’s no mainstream media coverage, no mainstream radio play, so it’s hard to reach people who want to hear from you.

Then there’s touring costs. I know I sound like I’m having a whinge, but it’s genuinely really hard. You need a ton of grit and to remember why you’re doing it. I’m putting everything I can behind it because I believe these songs can connect people and break the myth of isolation and shame that can come with this stage of life.

Even in publishing, it is a similar issue in trying to beat the algorithm and help artists tell their story. Sometimes we post show reviews or photo galleries and people say, “How did we not know about this gig?”
It’s wild! And then there’s AI using artist content. Spotify’s got fake artists created using real music by actual artists, and those get priority in the algorithm. What it takes not to be defeated is a Herculean effort every day.

Absolutely, we need to keep supporting real artists creating real music in real, live venues, and sold in real record stores.
Buying vinyl, CDs, shirts, coming to shows, telling others about gigs, those are the only real ways to support now. We’re back to an old-school human chain link of connection, trying to cut through the algorithm fog. How many times have I said “algorithm” in this convo? I’m making myself laugh. It dominates our lives.

With the new album, was it clear in your mind sonically where you wanted to take it?
Great question. We started writing while both of us were going through tricky relationship situations. Writing was as much about creating new work as it was processing emotional debris. We let the songs be whatever they needed to be. After the fourth or fifth song, we saw a story emerging, one that unfolded in a particular order. By the time we wrote Promises (the first single), we realised there was a whole story here. Now, we’re working on a theatre show Promises and Wild Beasts premiering in 2026. It uses the songs as a cycle within a broader narrative. It’s been exciting to straddle contemporary music and multi-arts theatre work. The style really came from the emotional landscape we were writing from.

Did you expect that the songs would be so emotional and so personal? Even on reflection?
No, I don’t think we did. We had one old song idea that we brought forward, Arrows, which we started back in 2019 and kept in the bank, not quite ready to write it. The rest were brand new concepts. Even as we were writing them, especially Promises, we thought, wow, this is some really heavy stuff. We wondered if maybe it wasn’t for public release, maybe it was just for us. But we couldn’t not write it. Even when it first came out with lines like “lay next to me, darling, in a bed of snakes,” that image of a relationship being both the poison and the medicine, those songs became the language I was using to understand my internal landscape. The style was really driven by where they were coming from, and it felt like there was a thread being pulled out by the desire to make the work.

Did you feel like it was a therapeutic process, like unloading everything?
To be really honest, before I went to this writing session, my relationship was in such a difficult state. I had run out of words, run out of feeling, I was numb. When I came back from that session, I told my partner, “I have new information now. I’ve got new words and understanding about what’s happening.” It was beyond therapeutic, it was instructional. It gave me access to something deeper. I revisit some of the songs and think, “Oh my God, that was talking about something that hadn’t happened yet.” It’s like they were drawing us toward transformation. The next single, The Water, is about this awakening realization that all the places you feel separate are just imagined. You’re just a thought away, a breakthrough away, from being reconnected to everything again. So calling it therapeutic is probably an understatement.

Irrespective of whatever happens next, that’s got to be the win, right?
Yeah, thanks for saying that. It’s a good way to recenter, to treat that insight as a navigational tool. If nothing else happens, these songs have already been worth it. They’ve been incredible teachers. When we perform them live, it feels like we’re reinvigorating the healing space they hold. They’re precious to me, these songs are precious. I worked really hard for them, and they work really hard for me. Dingo feels the same way. We’re proud of this body of work, and that’s why we held it back and labored over it.

From your partner’s perspective, what was their reaction when hearing the songs for the first time?
We were both in tears. The songs have confessional elements and show responsibility. It’s not all blaming. There’s a shifting tide in the relationship. That line in Arrows about “we built this thing when we were kids, and we’ve grown out of it,” it’s a call to action. My partner, John Butler, is also releasing a body of work that reflects the same time period and emotional journey. So it’s been this shared experience among myself, Dingo, and John, we were all going through these situations and making art from them, and it’s all coming out this year.

Did personal experience override musical influences in shaping the sound?
Totally. We weren’t methodical, just following what felt right. “This should feel more dirty,” “this needs more syncopation,” or “this needs to feel uncomfortable.” we let the emotional tone guide the style every time. The songs made us work hard for them. They weren’t easy emotionally or technically. I had to improve my drumming, and Dingo had to navigate tricky hooks. We both had to level up to meet the standard those songs demanded.

As it all started coming together in the studio, was that the big moment of satisfaction?
Yes, definitely. But for me, it really comes alive when we perform live. When we embody the songs in real time, with an audience sharing the experience, that’s when it all makes sense. That energetic exchange, that’s everything. I do all of this to reach that moment.

Are you looking at playing the album in full on this tour?
We’ll play every song off the album, and a lot of our old favorites, Air Between Us will be in there,Underground, Deep Below, and all these songs that kind of had a birth through Golden. In a lot of ways, we’re seeing this album as the shadow to the first album. If the first album, Golden Magnetic, was about the blossoming of this collaboration, new love, connection, sweetness, then this one, Promises, is the disrupted scene at the same kitchen table.

This is what happens over time. Traumas and behaviors start eroding the very fabric of what you thought would save you. That kind of inverse reality is the only catalyst big enough to crack open your understanding of what you could become. But it’s hard, that breaking is hard, that shattering of self is excruciating, especially within a partnership, a family. It comes with so much grief, but it’s also a potent opportunity to become whatever is next. You’re in active design mode, who are we, who am I, what do we want to be?

You start reverse engineering the life you want to be living when you’re ninety, start that process now. It’s a very different space compared to falling in love in your twenties, when everything feels possible and you think you’ll do it differently than everyone else. Through your thirties and forties, there’s a real schooling that happens. Only people our age can tell that story, and I want to tell that story because I know there are plenty of people out there going through some version of this. I want them to know it’s not happening in a vacuum. Our collective experience feeds our collective healing, if we can see we’re not alone, that we’re all trying to become better versions of ourselves.

Do you see the tour going bigger than the dates announced? Maybe even a trip to Adelaide?
I was actually in Adelaide just a few weeks ago, playing a show out at Yukaria with Iain Grandage, though it wasn’t a Mama Kin Spender show. We have so much love for Adelaide. It’s just a bit tricky right now with costs, routing, and logistics. But you’re absolutely on our hit list. We’ll be coming either through a festival or with our own show as part of this album campaign for sure.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Promises is out August 15

On tour on the following dates, tickets HERE…