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Byron Shire
March 29, 2024

The two of them and all of you at Bello

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The lineup for 6–9 July Bello Winter Music Festival is out.

It’s the third time round the dance floor for this NSW village and this time featured acts include dub-and-bass heroes Salmonella Dub, Texan singer/songwriter Joe Pug, taking leave from Gomez: Ben Ottewell, Melbourne’s Husky, US country star, Courtney Marie Andreys, lo-fi folkers Tin Pan Orange, pop punk of Bec Sandridge, insanely danceable, The Senegambian Jazz Band, Bello’s own Jack Carty, hip-hopsters 30/70, spoken-word artist Radical Son, the soul of Teskey Brothers, the unexpected thrill of Ukulele Death Squad, old-time soul man Archer, and bastards of boogie, Vaudeville Smash… and a new collaboration with the much-loved Mama Kin and Spender.

When these two friends t

Mama Kin (aka Danielle Caruna) and Tommy Spender
Mama Kin (aka Danielle Caruna) and Tommy Spender

eam up magic happens.

Mama Kin (aka Danielle Caruna) and Tommy Spender have been friends for 16 years.

‘You know the kind of friendships you have when you think, thank God I didn’t know you at school – I wouldn’t have made it through!’ laughs Danielle of Spender.

‘It’s like being 14 again. Tommy is the perfect audience for the crappy joke repertoire I have. I basically see him and I start giggling.’

The two musicians had mused about the idea of doing a music project together, but until recently the time wasn’t right. Now while they are both on hiatus from their usual outfits, the duo just seemed to be right. And by the time the two started, they already had a swag of songs, written in the I ‘Heart’ Songwriting club.

‘You have 10 people in the club,’ says Caruna.

‘And you have one hour to write the song from the prompt. You have to have it up in an hour.

‘It’s so terrifying and paralysing for me but freeing at the same time because I don’t usually release a song until it’s ready. So I said, Tommy, let’s do this, because we were both in a rut. I thought I would hate it but I like this Quick Draw McGraw vibe.

Meanwhile I sent Tommy a Rufus Wainwright video performing Hallelujah with this massive choir and we were both weeping over the phone. I asked what’s happening here? None of your jokes are funny. I said, let’s do our music project together. Let’s make a body of work that has a vocal section that uses a musical group wherever we go.’

And that’s the plan. With recording almost done, Mama Kin & Spender will be working with a Bellingen choir for their first show.

‘Every show in every town will be different. It’s a triple bottom line; everyone will get a win out of this. It can be a lonely business rolling into town. You are tired, you do you gig and you don’t really get to connect with a community. But doing this will change the paradigm with us. Our dream is to do house concerts on our own and then do workshops with the chorus and deliver the songs by creating a platform for the voices to perform in their town.’

It was a way of giving their music more meaning. And as parents of small children both Caruna and Spender weren’t interested in doing another standard tour. ‘I just can’t do another album campaign,’ says Danielle, ‘make the music, release it, go out and tour it, talk about it. I can’t do that right now. It had to be different.’

At Bello Mama Kin & Spender will play with the choir, but they’ll also do a more intimate show presenting songs with just the two of them. And that has a few treats in store as well. Such as Danielle playing reverse standup drum kits.

‘I look like a puppeteer; it’s so much fun!

Although, let’s just be clear, I am not playing complex drums patterns! Sometimes Tommy says you are going cross-eyed, make the pattern simpler. I was having a moment, about my drumming and looking like a hack and I told Tommy and he said, don’t worry you’ll get really used to people watching us and judging you.’

Classic.

Tickets and camping information are available now at bellowintermusic.com.


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