Joan & The Giants have shared their debut UK single ‘Mamma Don’t Cry’, a raw alt-pop track written by frontwoman Grace Newton-Wordsworth after leaving an abusive relationship and rebuilding her life in Western Australia.
Made up of Newton-Wordsworth alongside Riley Sutton, Chris Mackenzie and Liam Olsen, the Melbourne four-piece have spent the past year building serious momentum through touring and a run of emotionally direct releases.
Newton-Wordsworth wrote ‘Mamma Don’t Cry’ after moving into her first share house, which became what she describes as a safe haven during a difficult period in her life.
“I remember writing it on a warm WA afternoon in our rumpus room, not long after a really difficult conversation with my mum,” she says. “We’d gone for coffee in Fremantle, and that’s when I finally told her what I had been through.”
“She broke down in tears, heartbroken that I hadn’t told her while it was happening. But the truth is, when you’re in it, you don’t really tell anyone. It takes every ounce of strength just to stop excusing it and even more to finally walk away.”
Despite its subject matter, the track leans more towards resilience than reflection. “This song didn’t come from a place of victimhood,” Newton-Wordsworth says. “If anything, it came from a time when I discovered just how strong I really was.”
