Born into a family of magicians and musicians, Danielle Caruana’s horoscope seemed cast for performance.

“My grandfather was a professional magician and my mother was his assistant for quite some time,” the voice of Mama Kin told the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner.

“They shared all these secrets around magic and of what it was to create an illusion.”

While those performances in Malta after World War Two, when Danielle’s mother Iris was just a girl, were strictly rehearsed, Danielle’s believes something magic was afoot.

“When you create the idea of possibility, that something might be magical, in that moment magic exists,” she said.

“I am fascinated by that.

“The relationship between them held so much trust, so much investment.”

Danielle plays with that fascination on her latest album, The Magicians Daughter, and intends to bring her own brand of mischief to the stage on October 17, when she performs at Moruya’s three-day Food, Jazz and Funk Festival.

“Mama Kin is playful and cheeky,” Danielle said.

“I love my band and I love singing and performing those songs and having fun on stage.”

Yet, on stage, she’s also in earnest.

“I take performing seriously,” she said

 “I like to bring presence to the stage, to clear all my back log and forward log and be completely present for my songs, the audience and my band.

“It creates a channel and whatever happens from there depends on the energy and chemistry between the musicians and audience.”

“I am humble that people take their time away from all the other things they could be doing to listen to the songs I have crafted.

“When people choose to be with us for that short time, I owe them a debt and seek to repay it.

“I seek to have them leave feeling we have exchanged something that could not have happened had we not been together.

“The most amazing musical experiences when I have gone to see an act is when they have opened a space,” she said.

“They have not been up there behind a wall, they have invited me in. 

“That is what I intend.”

Danielle was born into a ready-made band of five siblings.

Her brother Michael will play keyboards in Moruya.

Theirs is a flying visit to the Eurobodalla, performing on Friday evening and then on the North Coast on Saturday.

She is about to steal a little time back from, and for, her self.

She has been busy collaborating as We Two Thieves with Emily Lubitz and their album, At Midnight, We Ride, will be released the day after Mama Kin’s Moruya show.

“That has been exciting and my main creative focus this year,” she said.

“I will tour that album, then get back into Mama Kin writing world.”