INTERVIEWS
Mama Kin Spender
“In the end, nerves are just excitement, and they’re always required for you to be able to get up on stage and deliver your work with real presence.”
In February, two staples of the Australian music industry dropped an album borne of friendship, experience, and a love of music that had previously been lost. Mama Kin and Spender joined forces to produce Golden Magnetic, a journey through experimental songwriting and interpersonal reconnection. “Everywhere we go, we perform with a local choir,” Danielle Caruana AKA Mama Kin, explains. Their upcoming show at Howler is no different, with Caruana and Tommy Spender – who performs under Spender – keeping it in the family. The pair recruited their old friend Virginia Bott to bring the First Chorus Band of Singers along for a jam, Caruana adding that it’s a bit like “that one time on band camp” whenever they all get together. Golden Magnetic can be easily described as an almost entirely community-based project; old friends Spender and Caruana at the heart of it, while they invited and encouraged other old friends such as Bott and the First Chorus Band of Singers, to get involved too. “It’s about hanging with people you love and trust, which may be where the title of the album comes from; everyone we love is drawn like a magnet into the project, and they’re the golden ones,” Caruana says. Mama Kin and Spender are already heavyweights of the Australian music industry, Mama Kin with two albums under her belt including the ARIAnominated The Magician’s Daughter, while Spender released a critically-acclaimed EP and toured the
festival circuit extensively. So what brought these two artists’ different paths together? The pair both felt the same way: having put in the hard yards in music for a long while, eventually they both felt that they had lost that romantic notion for the industry that new artists feel. “We were both at that time in our careers where it’s a bit of a slog, and a bit of an effort,” Caruana says. “That being said, I think Tommy and I really had to go out and make our own music first. But you reach a point where you want to get away from that feeling of being on the grind: touring, selling tickets to shows, organising babysitting – all the arduous shit. We were set on not being outcome-driven with it; we agreed, ‘Let’s just be driven by the motivation to enjoy the craft again.’” The album itself is a triumph of classical singersongwriter prowess, though experimental writing techniques are at the heart and soul of the album. In fact, throughout the writing process Spender and Caruana signed up for the I Heart Songwriting Club – an online club that gives you a word per week to musically respond to for ten weeks. The duo then came together with 20 pre-written songs, and out came the album. The only song to have been
completely co-written by the pair was ‘Air Between Us’, exhibiting Caruana’s strong vocals and Spender’s talent for harmonising. The pair have now rediscovered the love of music that they felt when they first started out. That being said, Caruana refuses to become numb to the process, though she has every reason to be entirely sure of herself and her artistic decision-making. “I’m still as nervous as I was when I was first performing, but just about different things. I’d be worried if I weren’t nervous. I know how much work it all takes, so I don’t take it lightly,” she says. “In the end, nerves are just excitement, and they’re always required for you to be able to get up on stage and deliver your work with real presence.” Though it’s only been about two months since the release of Golden Magnetic, Caruana and Spender are wholly invested in their Mama Kin Spender project and its continued creative endeavours. “We’re keen to do more albums together; we’re already planning our next recording dates. Now we can say we love how [our signature sounds] sound together. We’re not ready to let go just yet.” BY LEXI HERBERT
Geelong After Dark Geelong After Dark’s new guest star isn’t a local artist – in fact, they’re not even from our dimension. Mx.Red – pronounced as “misread” – is a vermilionskinned, androgynous pop star from a utopian future in which gender distinctions have been swept away. Visitors to the arts festival will be able to see the character using a Pokémon GOstyle augmented reality app on their smartphones. Mx.Red is the brainchild of Jonathan Homsey, a Melbourne-based artist and choreographer whose eclectic list of past credits includes lecturing at the Victorian College of the Arts, opening for Ja Rule and Ashanti and achieving a bronze medal at the U.S Hip Hop Championships. “Mx.Red is the non-binary pop star of the future,” Homsey says. “If we’re in a utopian world where racism and gender inequalities don’t exist and we turn on MTV, who’s going to come onto the screen? Would it be Ariana Grande? Would it be a trans-femme woman? A trans-male? What would the pop star of the future be if we didn’t have white, systematic patriarchy controlling our pop culture?” The inter-dimensional pop artist made their debut at Footscray’s Festival of Live Art in March, where attendees were able to see their dancing form by pointing their smartphone cameras at visual “trigger” images. Before the FOLA exhibit, Homsey imagined Mx.Red as a conventional stage act, with a flesh-andblood performer in the role of the character.
Mama Kin Spender will perform at Howler on Thursday May 3. Their debut album Golden Magnetic is out now via ABC Music.
“I think Mx.Red is a very good way to address the idea of consent in this satirical, fantastical way, with this sci-fi, disco, anime aesthetic.” “Originally, I was just going to have Mx.Red live, like they were doing a pop concert, on tour from this other dimension,” he says. “Then, through a series of fortunate events, we received more funding and were able to make this into an augmented reality party. I was like, ‘This is it. I’m going to make a pop star who is a Pokémon GO character,’ and I just went with it from there.” In their first show at Geelong After Dark, Mx.Red will dance to the music of Joyce Wrice at Geelong Performing Arts Centre. Later, at Beav’s Bar, a more intimate performance is planned, in which selected audience members will enter a separate room and participate in a performative ménage à trois with Mx.Red and a dancer. The Beav’s Bar event concretises the idea of sexual consent by allowing the dancers the power to select their partners from the audience, Homsey explains. “There’s no way you can book tickets,” he says. “The performer is the one who has to give consent. I would approach you in the space, and say, ‘Hello, do you wish to watch Mx.Red and I make love? Do you wish to have consent to join our polyamorous relationship?’ I don’t just come up and tell you that I’m going to perform for you.”
Homsey believes the weird, playful and enticing character of Mx.Red is a good way to get people thinking about ideas of gender and sexuality that are often seen as off-putting, heavy or abstruse. “I think Mx.Red is a very good way to address the idea of consent in this satirical, fantastical way, with this sci-fi, disco, anime aesthetic,” he explains. “Some people may not absorb it if I say, ‘Come listen to my monologue about consent and queer ideology.’ What if I said, ‘Hey, come have a beer and I’m gonna give you a sexy lap dance?’ They might come along. That’s how I use Mx.Red and the pop star aesthetic – to change their perspective.” “It’s always a step-and-a-half forward and two steps back,” Homsey says. “The internet age gives us more freedom of speech, but, unfortunately, it gives us freedom of speech in both directions. We get to hear the queer voices very loudly, and we get to hear people who don’t necessarily agree with us very loudly. I’ve got my fingers crossed, and I meditate on it daily. Hopefully we’ll keep stepping forward.”
You can catch Mx.Red performing as part of Geelong After Dark on Friday May 4 at Geelong Performing Arts Centre and Beavs Bar. Further details on the festival program are available via the Geelong After Dark website.
BY ZACHARY SNOWDON SMITH
BEAT.COM.AU
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