Back in the game: The evolution of Danielle Spencer
It was the pandemic that sparked Danielle Spencer’s musical renaissance and her new album Regenerate is the result.
For Danielle Spencer, a return to music was not part of a carefully mapped comeback strategy. It began quietly, almost accidentally, during the strange pause of the pandemic years.
“I didn’t actually set out thinking I was writing an album,” Spencer explains on the line from her home in Sydney. “I just started writing again. We had all been a bit like prisoners during COVID, and I needed something that would wake me up creatively.”
What began as a few tentative songs eventually grew into Regenerate, Spencer’s first album in 16 years. The album marks a new chapter for the singer-songwriter best known for her 2002 debut White Monkey and its 2010 follow-up Calling All Magicians.
Written entirely by Spencer, 60, the new work explores themes of renewal, ageing and rediscovery. And it seamlessly fits alongside her past recorded output.
“I do feel like this album completes a kind of trilogy,” Spencer explains. “The records are all quite different because they come from different stages of my life, but they feel connected somehow.”
When White Monkey was released in 2002, Spencer was already well known to Australian audiences through her acting career. Roles in television dramas such as The Flying Doctors, Home and Away and All Saints had made her a familiar face, while film work including The Crossing (alongside her now ex-husband Russell Crowe) demonstrated her versatility on screen.
Music, however, had always been part of her life. The daughter of Australian children’s entertainer Don Spencer, she began singing and playing piano at the age of four. Despite the work, and the lineage, juggling two creative careers was not always straightforward.
“In my 20s and 30s there was this constant tug-of-war between acting and music,” she says. “Back then people expected you to be one or the other. My acting agent would send me for auditions and people would say, ‘Is she doing music now or acting?’”
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When she focussed on one stream, or the other, it never felt right.
“I’d be acting and missing music, then I’d be doing gigs and missing acting,” she says. “It was frustrating because I loved both.”
For now, however, Spencer’s focus is squarely on music.
The seeds for Regenerate were planted during lockdown, when she returned to the piano simply to experiment with ideas.
“It started with just dabbling,” she says. “I thought maybe I’d record a couple of songs. Then it slowly gathered momentum and I realised I might actually be writing an album.”
The songwriting process varied from track to track. Some songs arrived quickly – the closing track Hummingbird, for example, came together in a rush of inspiration. Others took longer, particularly those with more elaborate arrangements.
The sound of Regenerate also reflects Spencer’s longstanding fascination with film music
“If something isn’t quite working I’ll often step away from it,” she continues. “When you come back later you can suddenly see what needs fixing.”
The recording sessions were deliberately low-key. Spencer collaborated with producer Peter Holt in small studios in Sydney’s inner-west and Botany.
“It was just the two of us working away,” she says of the process. “Peter played guitar and bass and I did the piano and keyboards. It was actually a really lovely way to make a record because there were no distractions.”
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The sound of Regenerate also reflects Spencer’s longstanding fascination with film music.
“One of my earliest influences was actually movie soundtracks,” she says. “I remember loving the music from The Omen and The Exorcist. Those eerie, cinematic sounds stayed with me.”
That influence is evident in the album’s visual aesthetic as well. The video for the single Older (Regenerate Part II), directed by Tim Madden, unfolds like a gothic short film, drawing on theatrical imagery and stylised performance.
“I’ve always loved that dark fairytale kind of world,” Spencer says. “We built mood boards with hundreds of images and gradually shaped the look of it.”
Lyrically, the album centres on themes of renewal and self-determination – ideas that Spencer believes resonate particularly strongly for women entering middle age.
‘It’s about realising you can reboot yourself. You just need to find the thing that gives you purpose again’
“I think a lot of women reach a point where they start sidelining themselves,” she says. “They’re busy looking after children or ageing parents and they stop putting themselves at the centre of their own life.”
Regenerate, she says, is about resisting that instinct.
“It’s about realising you can reboot yourself. You just need to find the thing that gives you purpose again.”
Beyond her own music, Spencer is also involved in Glow, a new initiative aimed at promoting female singer-songwriters from Australia and New Zealand. The project includes a dedicated radio station, podcast series and touring showcases.
“The idea is to create more platforms for women’s voices,” she says. “There’s a lot of incredible talent that doesn’t always get the same visibility.”
With the album complete, Spencer’s next goal is to take the songs to the stage.
“I’ve done a few performances and it’s been really fun,” she says. “I’d love to perform the whole album live.”
Danielle Spencer’s Regenerate will be streaming from March 27. To order CD and vinyl, go to: daniellespencer.bandtshirts.com.au
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