I know I’m a bit late to the party, but have we all listened to Fanning Dempsey National Park’s debut single “Disconnect” yet? The brainchild of Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey, I thought this new act was likely to be good, but I didn’t quite prepare myself for how good. Clearly, because otherwise I absolutely would have listened sooner! I’m going to be bold and say it might just be better than anything either of them have released before.
“We agreed straight away there’s no point doing something together if it’s going to be what people think it’s going to be,” Paul explained. “It’s not the two of us with acoustic guitars singing campfire songs.”
Bernard says “Disconnect” is about “The idea of having to walk away from something that you love because it’s become unmanageable. ‘Disconnect’ always had a lot of ‘serious moonlight’ energy, right from its beginnings. The swapping lead vocal plays with the idea of connecting and disconnecting by juxtaposing the confidence/ indecision with each consecutive line. We originally wanted to use sax on everything. After we roughly finished a demo we’d say, ‘What else does it need?’ The answer was inevitably more sax.”
That fantastic saxophone comes courtesy of Ron Dziubla, one of the world’s best session musicians. If that name doesn’t mean anything to you, just take a look at some of the music he’s played on. Tracks from Chris Isaak, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, George Benson, The Crystal Method, and heaps more.
This is just a taster of all the exciting stuff in store for Fanning Dempsey National Park. They’ll release an album, The Deluge, on August 2, which I can’t wait to hear after playing this single obsessively (seriously, I’ve played nothing else since I started writing this article). They’re also heading around the country playing capital city shows in intimate theatres. Tickets are on sale now and probably won’t last long once everyone hears this track!
11 October 2024 – The Fortitude Music Hall, Meeanjin/Brisbane
12 October 2024 – Enmore Theatre, Eora/Sydney
18 October 2024 – Hindley Street Music Hall, Tarntanya/Adelaide
19 October 2024 – Forum, Naarm/Melbourne (SOLD OUT)
20 October 2024 – Forum, Naarm/Melbourne
1 November 2024 – Astor Theatre, Boorloo/Perth
Photo credit: Cybele Malinowski