MAKE MUSIC DAY 2025
The global celebration of music making is back, with Make Music Day taking place on Saturday 21st June around Australia and the world.
Originating in 1982 as Fête de la Musique in France, now taking place in a thousand cities and places across 120 countries, Make Music Day is a musical free-for-all celebrating music in all its forms. People are encouraged to band together and play in free public concerts in many different locations and online.
“Music making is something that resonates with people from all walks of life, all over the world,” said Australian Music Association CEO and ARIA Award winning musician Alex Masso. “Make Music Day is an opportunity to celebrate the way music making brings us together and gives us an outlet for expression, connection and so much else.”
Rock bands, songwriters, ukuleles, community bands and choirs, schools and individuals will be part of the musical offerings at Make Music Day events across Australia and online.
The City of Adelaide is cementing itself as a Make Music Day destination city. With 2025 being the 10th Anniversary of their UNESCO City of Music designation (the only designated city in Australia), they’ve organised a full Make Music Day takeover of the city, with over 200 performers playing in 40 venues from 9am to midnight.
In Victoria, Wyndham City Council has provided grants to community members to encourage and support accessible, participatory music-making activities on the day, which has resulted in a fantastically diverse range of interactive opportunities including a morning walk and sound listening experience, a community drum circle for kids and families, recording and music production sessions for emerging musicians, public piano and choir workshops and more.
“The best part of Make Music Day is that anyone can get involved”, says organiser of Make Music Day in Australia, Emma Bienvenu, Projects Officer for the Australian Music Association. “While we love to see local councils hosting large scale community events, we are equally as excited to see the smaller gatherings being planned in places like music stores and conservatoriums. All across Australia we have individual musicians and bands creating their own performance spaces in local parks, town halls and recording studios.”
Guitars Plus, a guitar store in Sandringham Victoria are hosting ‘Music of the Ages by Musicians of All Ages’, where the youngest performers will be twin girls age 7 and the oldest a solo artist, who turns 90 this year.
The Wollongong Conservatorium of Music Community Ensembles in New South Wales are celebrating with an early evening set outside Lux Bistro Bar, featuring the Curious Rendition Orchestra, a 35-piece dynamic, inclusive community band known for their spirited performances and diverse repertoire.
The City of Moreton Bay in Queensland are turning up the volume at their galleries, museums, libraries and beyond with a month-long music trail featuring free events, live performances, jam sessions, workshops, and more, with over 60 individual events planned in the lead up to and on Make Music Day.
“It’s wonderful to see the diversity in event types, as well as the participants ages, music styles and skill levels. It really is a day for everyone,” says Emma, “Whether you’re playing for a crowd or just getting together in your back yard to jam, it’s all music and it’s all worth celebrating.”
Join the celebrations this Make Music Day, Saturday June 21st.
Search for an event near you or register your own performance at makemusicaustralia.org.au.
Participate online by tagging @makemusicaustralia, or search #makemusicday to watch what’s happening around the world.
Make Music Day is presented in Australia by the Australian Music Association and the NAMM Foundation.
MAMA KIN SPENDER SHARE BEWITCHING NEW SINGLE ‘ARROWS’, ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘PROMISES’ AND ANNOUNCE ALBUM LAUNCH TOUR
A bewitching bullseye balancing soul folk, raw relatability and beguiling melodies, the new single Arrows out today from ARIA-nominated and WAM award-winning duo Mama Kin Spender tantalisingly parts the curtains further into what lies in wait on the pair’s upcoming sophomore album Promises, also announced today and set for release on Friday August 15. With the anticipated LP set to drop ahead of a special run of national album launch shows through September and October, Mama Kin Spender will be hit the road to share their new record with audiences in Pomona, Murwillumbah, Brisbane, Melbourne, Archie’s Creek, Belgrave, Sydney, Milton and Dashville.
Opening with gritty guitars, oozing harmonies and plenty of elegant swagger, Arrows evolves into a powerful yet delicate outing, wearing its heart defiantly on its sleeve as Mama Kin Spender, aka Danielle Caruana and Dingo Spender, detail bad behaviour in relationships. Also drawing inspiration from the likes of Alabama Shakes, Shovels and Rope, Liz Stringer and Pat Benatar for Danielle, as well as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nina Simone, The Motels and Sam & Dave for Dingo (all of which also permeate on the broader Promises album), Arrows explores, as the band puts it, “the drifting apart through small acts of carelessness, and yet somehow aching to connect. Near misses – every attempt landing awkwardly, landing wrong, lashing out, sly evasive remarks eroding the fabric of love.”
Co-writing Arrows and the entirety of Promises together, the album saw Mama Kin Spender work alongside engineer, mixer and co-producer Dan Carroll, with mastering courtesy of Lacklan Carrick. A concept album that explores love’s optimism, decay, rampage and transformation, Promises is an enchanting journey, accompanied by a primal fusion of garage, soul and folk. A roaring yet tender and vulnerable collection of songs that plunge the depths of emotion and experiences, Promises begins with today’s new single Arrows, before traversing into perky instrumentals and suggestive yet warmly relatable lyricism via Bleeding Out. From here, Mama Kin Spender weave their powerful spell over pounding percussion and raw ruminations (Promises), hazy soundscapes lined with hypnotic melodies (Desert Rain), and musing melancholia that goes down like a shot of smooth whiskey (We Are The Water). Heralding the album’s back end with potent urgency and sinuous harmonies (Dance With Me), Promisesgoes on to tug at the heartstrings with haunting, soulful beauty (A Love That Will Not Die).
“These are songs hewn from real life journeys,” shares Danielle. “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. This is a coming-of-age/coming-of-rage album. This is the doorway of the domestic debris that we accumulate, which ultimately needs to flush out to make way for who we might become as adults; real adults, responsible to ourselves and others, accountable, respectful, liberated from our child wounds and teenage tantrums.”
“The songs are essentially taking any single journal entry from the last 3 years of my love life and adding music to it,” Dingo adds. “The ending and transformation of a marriage, the pain of grief, the yearning for love, the twisted top lip of sarcasm in response to the honesty of accountability, the owning of a great many slippery truths that lay hidden in my guts, the searing, cleansing power of rage, of letting go, of accepting something I just couldn’t stand to accept… It’s basically very complicated and ornate therapy but woven into songwriting, self-expression, the joy of singing, and ultimately, the power of our friendship as we held each other through storms that were set to break us…”
Renowned for their raw, percussive energy and beguiling harmonies, Mama Kin Spender is the collaborative creative project from long-time friends and creative partners Mama Kin (Danielle Caruana) and Dingo Spender. With a stalwart reputation for songwriting that grips at your core, as well as their unforgettable live performances, Mama Kin Spender released their debut full-length album in 2018, with Golden Magnetic scoring an ARIA Award nomination for Best Blues and Roots Album. The pair have previously won Best Folk Act (2013) and Best Blues / Roots Act (2018) at the West Australian Music Industry Awards, and have also performed at the likes of WOMADelaide and Woodford Festival, Perth, Darwin and Vivid Festival, and toured across North America and Ireland and across Australia; with plenty more to come.
With the impending arrival of Promises this August, the stage will also be firmly set for an expansive new Mama Kin Spender chapter that extends beyond the new album and into the theatre. The theatre show; Promises & Wild Beasts, led by multi-award-winning director Craig Ilott, transforms the album Promises into a powerful live theatrical production; a multi-disciplinary show that will bring the album’s themes to life through live music, design, movement and storytelling. Set for an early 2026 premiere through international arts festivals, Promises & Wild Beasts is guaranteed to transcend audiences with its gripping and relatable adaptation of Promises.
“You’re gonna laugh, you’re gonna feel uncomfortable and at the same time, not alone, you’re gonna yell with us, and then most likely cry,” says Dingo of what fans can expect from the upcoming album release shows this September and October. “You’re gonna reflect on your own heart, your own little journey with love and pain and grief and happiness. You’re gonna feel elation, you’re gonna feel brave and also need a hug and a whiskey at the end.”
“We are storytellers,” adds Danielle “we mine the depths of our experiences to build the bridge of connection. Our songs are the vehicles, the embodiment of our shared experiences, joys, grief, confusion, and transformation. We seek to reach towards each other, play our hearts out, howl in harmony.”
But before Mama Kin Spender return to stages later this year, the arrival of Arrows today and the upcoming release of Promises are truly landmark moments from the pair, ultimately serving as a universal vessel for catharsis that pulses with honesty, resonant vulnerability and astonishing craftsmanship.
“It’s a relief to be putting these real and gritty songs into the world,” reveals Danielle. “Cathartic to reach from the depths of personal experiences into distilled works that will reach into other’s lives. I understand myself better because of these songs – they have been doorways through to becoming a better person, to forgiving myself, to making changes, to owning my shit, to realising the impact of promises that I made when I was too young and naive to understand what keeping them would really mean.”
“It really has been a labour of love”, Dingo concludes, “nurturing and growing these songs from strange and challenging seeds in the odd weather of the current music industry and in the dark and, at times, gritty soil of singing about things that feel uncomfortable. This album is a coming of age into the realisation and understanding of mature relationships, mature love, actually listening to love and letting it humble me in its wisdom and, at times, brutal truth. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders, to be honest.”
Arrows is out today.
Promises tour tickets are on sale today.
Promises is due out Friday August 15.
MAMA KIN SPENDER – UPCOMING ALBUM TOUR DATES:
FRI 05 SEP | MAJESTIC THEATRE, POMONA QLD
Tickets available from https://www.trybooking.com/DCRQO
SAT 06 SEP | THE CITADEL, MURWILLUMBAH NSW
Tickets available from https://events.humanitix.com/mama-kin-spender
SUN 07 SEP | LEFTY’S MUSIC HALL, BRISBANE QLD
Tickets available from https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/3f3d0a57-6292-43f9-a87f-8f323901e9fe
FRI 12 SEP | BRUNSWICK BALLROOM, MELBOURNE VIC
Tickets available from https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/mama-kin-spender/181349
SAT 13 SEP | ARCHIE’S CREEK TAVERN, ARCHIE’S CREEK VIC
Tickets available from https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1416568?embed
SUN 14 SEP | SOOKI LOUNGE, BELGRAVE VIC
Tickets available from https://sookilounge.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/8b1839a3-e2d9-4cd4-93f5-bd67b48ae868
FRI 03 OCT | PADDINGTON UNITING CHURCH, SYDNEY NSW
Tickets available from https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/0ade135c-14c9-47b4-9f15-b461f0d88f84
SAT 04 OCT | MILTON THEATRE, MILTON NSW
Tickets available from https://www.stickytickets.com.au/uz0rr/mama_kin_spender.aspx
SUN 05 OCT | DASHVILLE SKYLINE, DASHVILLE NSW
Tickets available from https://www.dashville.com.au/dashvilleskyline
PETE MURRAY SHARES ROUSING NEW SINGLE ‘HOME TO ME’ CURRENTLY TOURING NATIONALLY ON 56 DATE SOLO ACOUSTIC RUN
A warm and rousing new addition to the Pete Murray universe, today the beloved singer-songwriter shares a brand new single Home To Me. Embracing folk and country flavours into Pete’s trademark tranquility, Home To Me also arrives amidst Pete’s extensive 56-date national acoustic solo tour, supported by Rachael Fahim and Brett Wood across the country.
Sparkling with acoustic guitar and honeyed vocals alongside country twangs and soft, shuffling percussion, Home To Me is a sublime meeting point between Pete’s uplifting folk-rock roots and some fresher sonic terrain, as Pete explains, “I don’t know if he has influenced me, but I’ve been listening to a bit of Kenny Rogers over the last few years. He has some classic songs. The country artist I’ve been listening to is Chris Stapleton. Chris has a killer voice and guitar tone.”
Initially penned during time spent in Nashville, Home To Me sprang to life quickly ahead of Pete’s first-ever co-writing session in the ‘Country Music Capital of the World’. And while a strikingly intimate outing that blossomed alongside Phil Barton, producer Garrett Kato and some engineering from Luke Palmer, Home To Me is a universal love letter to finding ‘the one’, with the country flavours that Pete was seeking ultimately expanding via Kato’s contributions, as well as Benny Edger adding some lap steel to proceedings. “I was doing some co-writing for the first time in Nashville,” shares Pete of Home To Me’s origin story, “and I wanted to write some country music for someone else. I was really nervous that I would rock up to the session the next day and have nothing to offer so I started writing the song that night. I pretty much had half of the music and lyrics written before I turned up to the session. I was writing with Aussie songwriter Phil Barton and Phil is a killer writer so it didn’t take long for him to work his magic and before we knew it, the song was done. It wasn’t written about anyone, it was more about what love means to people when you get it right. As the lyrics say, ‘No matter where we are or where we’re going to be, when we’re apart you’re the missing piece – there’s one thing you should know and one thing you gotta believe, honey you’re always home to me’.”
Having sold over 1.2 million albums, and generating hundreds of millions of streams, releasing three ARIA chart-topping albums and scooping up 17 ARIA Award nominations over the years, Pete Murray is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most enduring and endearing success stories. From the release of this debut full-length album, 2001’s The Game, through to his breakout 2003 album Feeler and, most recently, 2017’s Comacho, Pete has maintained his status for blending laidback charisma and magnetic live performances for decades while cultivating airplay, sales, streams and a dedicated fanbase that most could only dream of. Armed with a potent sonic brew that spans acoustic, rock, folk and more, witnessed on his multiple hits like Better Days, Feeler, Opportunity and So Beautiful, Pete’s live show has also been repeatedly praised for his smooth delivery, expert craftsmanship, and his inescapable ability to make you feel right at home in any venue and setting.
With countless headline shows with his band at home and across the world under his belt, and previous performances alongside the likes of Missy Higgins, Icehouse, Rob Thomas, James Blunt and more, 2025 has also found Pete ticking off yet another career first: performing an entirely acoustic headline run around Australia, with a mammoth 56-date tour currently in motion that spans practically every pocket of the country.
“I’m loving it!” enthuses Pete of his current tour. “So many shows have sold out and others are close to selling out on this tour. It’s been a very different tour for me being my first solo tour in Australia. Lots of stories and lots of song-a-longs.”
And while playing the Melbourne Recital Centre in April has been a recent standout for Pete on this current tour (with Lilithia Reviews praising: “Murray is a natural performer, an incredible songwriter, and in a room as large as Melbourne’s Recital Centre, he makes it feel like it’s just the two of us, huddled around a campfire, exchanging life stories.”), Pete’s ultimate favourite thing about touring regionally and so extensively is the chance to dig even deeper on home soil. “Getting to see new places is my favourite thing,” Pete concludes. “Australia is such a massive country, even though I’m doing a massive 60 date tour I haven’t even scratched the surface of places to go in this country.”
Home To Me is out now.
Tickets for Pete Murray’s solo tour are onsale now from www.petemurray.com.
PETE MURRAY – UPCOMING SHOWS:
Tickets available from www.petemurray.com
THU 12 JUN | MONCRIEFF ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, BUNDABERG QLD | AA
FRI 13 JUN | GLADSTONE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, GLADSTONE QLD | AA
SAT 14 JUN | TOWNSVILLE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, TOWNSVILLE QLD | AA
SUN 15 JUN | TANKS ARTS CENTRE, CAIRNS QLD | AA *SOLD OUT
WED 18 JUN | MACKAY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, MACKAY QLD | AA
THU 19 JUN | PILBEAM THEATRE, ROCKHAMPTON QLD | AA
FRI 20 JUN | EMPIRE THEATRE, TOOWOOMBA QLD | AA
SAT 21 JUN | QPAC – LYRIC THEATRE, BRISBANE QLD | AA *SELLING FAST
THU 26 JUN | TORQUAY HOTEL, TORQUAY VIC | 18+
FRI 27 JUN | BARWON HEADS HOTEL, BARWON HEADS VIC | 18+ *SOLD OUT
SAT 28 JUN | THE CAPITAL, BENDIGO VIC | AA *SELLING FAST
SUN 29 JUN | HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE, BALLARAT VIC | AA *SELLING FAST
THU 3 JUL | ART HOUSE, WYONG NSW | AA *SELLING FAST
FRI 4 JUL | PANTHERS PORT MACQUARIE, PORT MACQUARIE NSW | AA
SAT 5 JUL | SAWTELL RSL CLUB, SAWTELL NSW | AA
SUN 6 JUL | TAMWORTH TOWN HALL, TAMWORTH NSW | AA
THU 10 JUL | TWIN TOWNS, COOLANGATTA QLD | AA
FRI 11 JUL | REDLANDS PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, CLEVELAND QLD | AA *SELLING FAST
SAT 12 JUL | IPSWICH CIVIC CENTRE, IPSWICH QLD | AA
THU 17 JUL | ANITA’S THEATRE, THIRROUL NSW | AA *SELLING FAST
FRI 18 JUL | ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW | AA *SELLING FAST
SAT 19 JUL | YUIN THEATRE, BATEMANS BAY NSW | AA *SOLD OUT
SUN 20 JUL | CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE, CANBERRA ACT | AA *SELLING FAST
TUE 22 JUL | GOLDFIELDS ART CENTRE, KALGOORLIE WA | AA
WED 23 JUL | CUMMINS THEATRE, MERREDIN WA | AA
THU 24 JUL | QUEENS PARK THEATRE, GERALDTON WA | AA
FRI 25 JUL | RED EARTH ARTS PRECINCT, KARRATHA WA | AA * SOLD OUT
SAT 26 JUL | ROEBUCK BAY HOTEL, BROOME WA | 18+
WED 30 JUL | MANDURAH PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, MANDURAH WA | AA
THU 31 JUL | ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH WA | AA *SELLING FAST
FRI 1 AUG | THE RIVER, MARGARET RIVER WA | AA
SAT 2 AUG | ALBANY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, ALBANY WA | AA
SUN 3 AUG | BUNBURY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, BUNBURY WA | AA
WED 13 AUG | BEER GARDEN BREWING, PORT LINCOLN SA | 18+ *SOLD OUT
THU 14 AUG | BEER GARDEN BREWING, PORT LINCOLN SA | 18+ *SOLD OUT
FRI 15 AUG | NORWOOD CONCERT HALL, ADELAIDE SA | AA *SOLD OUT
SAT 16 AUG | SIR ROBERT HELPMANN THEATRE, MT GAMBIER SA | AA *SELLING FAST
SUN 17 AUG | LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE, WARRNAMBOOL VIC | AA
THU 21 AUG | WEST GIPPSLAND ARTS CENTRE, WARRAGUL VIC | AA
FRI 22 AUG | THE UNION THEATRE, WONTHAGGI VIC | AA *SOLD OUT
SAT 23 AUG | THEATRE ROYAL, CASTLEMAINE VIC | AA
THU 4 SEP | THE QUEANBEYAN PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, QUEANBEYAN ACT | AA
FRI 5 SEP | GARDEN HOTEL, DUBBO NSW | 18+
SAT 6 SEP | REVESBY WORKERS CLUB, REVESBY NSW | AA
SUN 7 SEP | BLUE MOUNTAINS THEATRE, BLUE MOUNTAINS NSW | AA *SELLING FAST