Triple M’s Rosie Walton has described ‘Fanning Dempsey National Park’ – the new collaboration between two titans of Australian rock, Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey – as “The coolest Australian album I’ve heard in 15 years.” Bernard and Paul joined Triple M’s Rush Hour to explain the name, look ahead to touring together, and chat about flogging Coldplay at cricket.
Powderfinger’s Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey of Something For Kate have joined forces for a new album and tour.
‘Fanning Dempsey National Park’ is available for pre-order now. While the tour will hit Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth this October and November. They’ll play, in their own words, “all our favourite venues.”
Tickets and details at fanningdempseynationalpark.com
“We’ve been friends for ages,” Paul explained to James Brayshaw and Billy Brownless on Triple M’s Rush Hour with JB & Billy. “We toured together 25 years ago.”
JB asked if we can expect a few Powderfinger and Something For Kate covers on the tour. “No. We’ve done that.” explained the pair. This will be a brand new project that sounds like a ‘proper band’. It features tracks they have recorded as far away as Los Angeles, Norway and closer to home at Fanning’s Byron Bay studio.
So how did they come up with the name?
Bernard told the story of how originally they had used the name ‘Defenders Of The Realm’ “simply because that’s what Paul named our Dropbox folder!”
They, probably wisely, settled on something more memorable or as Bernard says “Fanning Dempsey National Park was definitely the most up itself… so we went with that.”
There was time to fit in a bit of cricket chat with Fanning a full nuffy. He even joined JB and the Triple M call team to commentate a bit of the Test Cricket last summer.
Which reminded Bernard Fanning of the time he played – and beat – a major rival English band at cricket. “We flogged Coldplay!”
Billy Brownless asked if they played the former New Zealand test bowler Chris Martin rather than the lead singer of the same name… “No, different guys… but same amount of hair” laughed Bernard.
Keep it on Triple M for more details on ‘Fanning Dempsey National Park’ and drive home with the Rush Hour with JB & Billy every evening!