Danielle Spencer – Talkin’ ‘Bout Regeneration
It’s only been 16 years since Danielle Spencer released her last album.
Having made big inroads with her debut LP, 2002’s White Monkey, marriage, children and life’s rich pageant meant that her sophomore LP, the Tony Visconti-produced Calling All Magicians, didn’t see the light of day until 2010.
A divorce from Russell Crowe in 2018, life as a single mother of two, and the now all-too-familiar best-laid-plans-laid-to-rest scenario of Covid-19 finally saw her third album, the aptly titled Regenerate, come out in March of this year.
Debuting at #8 on the ARIA Album Chart and receiving latter-career affirmation far and wide, it’s been a warm return to the creative spotlight for the singer/songwriter/actor.
“Obviously, it’s been a while since I’ve put something out there, so you never know how it’s going to go,” Spencer notes. “You just kind of throw it out there and hope that people are going to connect with it, and so far, it’s been very lovely.
“The reaction I’ve had… it’s been gratifying, and I’ve just enjoyed the whole process, really. I think the fact that I’ve done it independently and been able to pretty much control it all and do it in the way that I wanted to do it has made it even more enjoyable.”
When Spencer’s first album was released, the music industry was still basking in the glow of the old days. When the second dropped nine years later, streaming platforms were on the rise but the new model hadn’t quite been overhauled. Regenerate arrived in 2026 to a completely different market landscape.
“Oh, it’s so different, and I’m just kind of learning on the fly,” she says. “The whole landscape obviously changed completely. But there is something great – particularly for independent artists like myself – in the fact that you do have that control of what you’re pushing out, and you can keep pushing out to your audience through your social media platforms.
“So, in that way, it’s kind of better for artists like myself because back in the White Monkey days you’d do your round of press when the album first comes out and then that’s kind of it. But this way you sort of can keep feeding stuff out to your audience and keep them connected. So I’m enjoying that aspect of it too. With White Monkey, you sort of have that regimented record company rollout, and you do some shows, and then it’s like, ‘okay, onto the next thing’, but you can just kind of keep it all ticking over these days, which is great.
“I mean it’s also difficult. I don’t think there’s anybody in music these days who doesn’t find the industry difficult to navigate in ways as well. But there are pros and cons, and I am sort of enjoying the fact that you can stay connected with your audience more.”
It had to begin, however, with a reintroduction to her own musical spark. Spencer had in many ways fallen away and aside from the creative practice that had for years propelled her previous artistic life. Time and circumstances finally allowed her the space to embrace it once again.
“It felt great,” Spencer says. “There was a period of time where I didn’t think that I would release another album. I mean, I’m always musical and playing and writing and whatever, but I didn’t necessarily think that I would officially release an album again. But once I got writing, I did rediscover my passion for it, and then the momentum just built, and then it all just felt right.
“It felt like a really good time for me to say the things that I want to say at this at this point in my life. So it was actually really good for me, mentally, to re-engage with it because I think I was coming out of a bit of a flat spot, and I think if music is in you and you feel like you need to write songs when you’re not writing songs, there is something in you that isn’t that doesn’t feel great. So when you re-engage with that, it does actually wake you up.”
Guided by her celebrated musical father Don, Spencer began learning piano at the age of four. Years had gone by, however, without the proper tinkling of an ivory. When that did happen, it was like meeting an old friend again.
“Yeah, it was because I write on my own,” Spencer explains, “Some people say that must be sort of lonely, a lot of people collaborate with their writing and they enjoy that method, and I love collaborating once I get beyond the writing, in terms of getting into the studio and then performing and all of that, but I love writing on my own. It’s a very happy place for me to just sit in my own imagination and lock myself away. It’s where I feel most engaged, and I just find it very fulfilling locking myself away and getting lost in it.”
Naturally there were some cobwebs, but the first creative steps emerged and the creative flow made itself known.
“The first song that I started writing – and this was at the point where I had no idea that I’d kind of keep going and write a whole album – was The Game,” she recalls. “That kind of came out of having some health issues for a few years, and I was actually finding it very difficult to spend time at the piano. I have a pain syndrome that was making it very hard to be at the piano long enough to write. So The Game is kind of harking back to that difficult period where I didn’t have agency over it. My body was letting me down a bit, and then I kind of improved things health-wise and could actually sit there and write.
“So then The Game came out, and I vented a bit of the frustration there of battling myself, of battling my illness at the time. So that was the first one, and then I finished that and felt it was cathartic. Then I felt myself kicking into gear, and other things started coming out.
“I felt a bit like a kid again, like back when I was writing White Monkey. When you feel enthusiasm and positivity about it, because I think I’d been feeling negative because I couldn’t write and it was frustrating. So it put me into a much more positive mindset and then the songs just started coming out.”
An album that soars from Spencer’s more traditional piano ballads, to ethereal and cinematic moments that reveal artistic ambitions hitherto unveiled, Regenerate ululates upon a triptych of songs – the title track, Older and The Rest of Your Life. AKA Regenerate one, two and three.
“It’s that thing of just standing there and reassessing where you are and having a look around and going, ‘okay, there are things that are different. Life is different when we land at different ages and different stages’. So yeah, it’s regenerate, wake up, then you wake up and you go, ‘I’m older. Where am I? What’s going on?’
“There are things about getting older that scare us all, and things about getting older that are positive. So it’s about looking at that and owning it, and then the rest of your life is about going, ‘okay, I’ve woken up. I’m older, and the rest of my life is coming at me’. It’s embracing it in a really positive way, and trying to see all the great things that are still there and that are in front of you.”
Spencer is planning on returning to the stage as part of a multi-artist stage initiative via Glow, a streaming platform that champions Australian and New Zealand music, with a strong emphasis on female artists.
Meanwhile, with an album that literally speaks of her own reawakening, Spencer is hopeful that in the listening, that feeling will be shared among her audience.
“I would like them to take away a sense of hope and positivity in the face of the fact that yes, we all get older each day, and life can be challenging, but it can still be wonderful and amazing and interesting,” she says. “And I would like people to maybe re-engage with themselves if they’ve fallen into any kind of rut, or are at the point that I was at, where I just felt like I was a bit blunted and treading water, and not really pushing myself into something that would light me up and stimulate me.
“Try and stay engaged, however you manage to do that, and whatever it is in your life that sparks you. Stay the central role in your life and don’t put yourself aside just because you’re getting older.”
