Today, I’m excited to introduce you to Mama Kin Spender, the soulful duo redefining roots with their latest album, Promises, which is out today With a sound that blends folk, soul, and raw storytelling, they craft a seismic musical journey exploring love’s many facets. They joined us for a quick Q+A
Hi, thanks for taking the time to chat with Hear 2 Zen, what have you been up to today?
Oh today has been a rolling thunder of moving around and appts, went to the physio, went to my office and worked on our upcoming Choir Camp, The Seed Fund and on our upcoming release of PROMISES the album AND the theatre show Promises & Wild Beasts! Look it is a full cup/overflowing cup kinda time – somehow in there I also took my darling doggo to the vet!
Tell us about yourself, how long have you been performing/creating music for?
I was born into a very musical family, there was a daily band in full swing by the time I was born – so making music felt inevitable, and yet somehow it took me until after the birth of my second child to finally get the guts to actually do it!
Who are your greatest inspirations? Why?
I am inspired by great writers, singers, protestors, activists.
My favourite writers right now are Arundhati Roy, Hannah Kent and Madeline Miller – I LOVE GREAT FICTION.
My favourite singers right now are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, my daughter Banjo Lucia, Joan as Policewoman, Liz Stringer and Emily Lubitz
My favourite activists are: The crew behind To Gaza From Here, Big Jarrah Walk working with West Australian Forest Alliance, Disrupt Burrup Hub and Environs Kimberley.
I’m inspired to make good, make beautiful, make connection, make maps back to ourselves and to each other.
How do you create music? Are you lyrics/story driven, or does the music/melody come first? Explain your process.
This current album I co wrote with my dear dear friend Dingo Spender (the band is called Mama Kin Spender and we have been friends for 25 years and doing this project since 2016). We write together by creating a creative container – we carve out time and buy a box of food and lock ourselves away for a few days. We use a method called object writing, and so first we go big and broad and abstract and then we extract a theme or a collision of words that strikes a chord for us, and then we build a world around it. In the case of this album, all the songs that were coming out turned out to be connected to each other and we soon realised we were writing a song cycle; a story strung together by songs.
What has been your greatest challenge so far in performing/creating music?
My own adopted, inherited and self designed ideas of self limitation. The idea that there is this thing called “the music industry” and they get to decide how and when and who and why. The idea that any of this could ever be about self validation rather than be about bearing our chests in a quest to find each other in the storm!
Tell us about your new release, Promises, how did it come about?
Both Dingo (Spender) and I were going through difficult transformations in our primary relationships, and as writers and dear friends who had supported each other through the thick and thin of those journeys, we realised there were common themes. When we came together to make a new body of work these themes all came bubbling/rushing/screaming/raging to the surface and demanded to be sung out!
What advice do you have to artists who are just starting out?
Fall in love with your craft. Be really good to it. Care for it. Nurture it. Grow it. Play with it. Laugh with it. Cry with it. Lean in. And if one day you decide you want to share that relationship with an audience, then know that that is a whole other aspect, which is distinct to that central love that you share with your craft… no one actually gets to tell you about it. Careful not to let anyone decide about that. Know that when you start taking it to an audience – you are opening the doors, you are commercialising, you are starting a small business, and that comes with a whole different set of challenges, opportunities to upskill, grow and expand. Let it take time. Chart your own course. Find what’s working and breathe steady air into it.
Tell us your favourite Zen practice.
When I wake in the morning I go straight to my mat, and after I have done some stretching I jump up and down and I hop and I do star jumps. It wakes me up and shakes all the sticky bits loose and then they fall to the ground and I am lighter.
MAMA KIN SPENDER – UPCOMING SHOWS:
Tickets available from mamakinspender.love
FRI 05 SEP | MAJESTIC THEATRE, POMONA/GUBBI GUBBI QLD
SAT 06 SEP | THE CITADEL, MURWILLUMBAH/BUNDJALUNG NSW
SUN 07 SEP | LEFTY’S MUSIC HALL, BRISBANE/MEANJIN QLD
FRI 12 SEP | BRUNSWICK BALLROOM, BRUNSWICK/BULLEKE-BEK VIC
SAT 13 SEP | ARCHIE’S CREEK HALL, ARCHIE’S CREEK/BUNURONG VIC
SUN 14 SEP | SOOKI LOUNGE, BELGRAVE/WURUNDJERI VIC
FRI 03 OCT | PADDINGTON UNITING CHURCH, SYDNEY/GADIGAL NSW
SAT 04 OCT | MILTON THEATRE, MILTON/BUDAWANG NSW
SUN 05 OCT | DASHVILLE SKYLINE, DASHVILLE/WONNARUA NSW
