Mama Kin Spender took time out of their busy album cycle to perform a stripped-back Rolling Stone AU/NZ In My Room session.
The ARIA Award-nominated duo of Mama Kin (Danielle Caruana) and Dingo Spender recently released Promises, a concept album that explores love’s optimism, decay, rampage, and transformation.
It made its ARIA Chart debut at No. 20 last month, and peaked at No. 2 on the Top 20 Australian Albums chart.
The “coming-of-age/coming-of-rage” collection is the follow up to 2018’s Golden Magnetic, which was shortlisted for Best Blues and Roots Album at the ARIAs. In 2020, Mama Kin Spender released Are You Listening?
“These are songs hewn from real life journeys,” the band told Tone Deaf in a track-by-track breakdown. “Bruises, shame, rage, desire, contempt, bad behaviour. Death by a thousand cuts of carelessness, small unkind moments, projections, stacked up and smothering the innocence of love’s true desire — to change the very shape of us.”
On the title track “Promises”, they said: “This is the volcano erupting! The lava that spills from her mouth is a fury that claims and lays waste to everything in her path. Rage and fury!
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“This song is the release of catharsis after the numb limbo of rumbling, rolling, unmet, unexpressed energy; however, in this case, this song is more of “a fire in the belly” than a “burn the whole fkn thing down.” It’s tempting and can feel like the most obvious thing to do with such a glorious, mesmerising flame; however, the light was more interesting than the ashes, and so that rage lit up the shadowy corners of the world.”
The multiple WAM Award winners are supporting the album’s release with live shows through September and October. They’ve already made stops in Pomona, Murwillumbah, and Brisbane, and are due for Melbourne, Archie’s Creek, Belgrave, Sydney, Milton, Dashville, and Queenscliff in the coming weeks.
Then, premiering in early 2026, the songs will be brought to life through live music, design, movement, and storytelling, with a special theatre show Promises & Wild Beasts, led by award-winning director Craig Ilott.
Before they continue their tour at Melbourne’s Brunswick Ballroom this Friday (September 12th), the duo took part in our In My Room series — watch their full session above.
Check out the duo’s full track-by-track breakdown of Promises here.
