Paul Dempsey & Bernard Fanning Confirm Collaborative Album

Something For Kate’s Paul Dempsey and Powderfinger’s Bernard Fanning have confirmed that they’ve made a collaborative album together under the moniker Fanning Dempsey National Park.

In case you missed it: earlier this week, The Music reported on the pair’s teasing of their new project, but at the time, we didn’t know what was coming.

In a joint statement, the pair wrote of their new collaboration (via Paul Dempsey’s Facebook account), “We’ve been cooking something up together, be the first to know and follow our new account Fanning Dempsey National Park to find out why BF ended up with Carol Brady’s hair and why this looks like the sequel to Twins.”

On X (formerly known as Twitter), Dempsey asked fans to follow the pair’s new account to tease “devious plans”.

Yesterday, to celebrate Double J’s tenth birthday, the duo released an exclusive piece of news that provided more information about Fanning Dempsey National Park.

Joining Zan Rowe live on the air yesterday, Dempsey revealed that we’ll be hearing new music from the pair before we know it, telling Rowe and listeners that new music is “imminent”.

“For the past two years, we’ve been working on a project, and in the last 48 hours, the cat is out of the bag,” Dempsey said, adding that he and Fanning have been “all over the place” working on an album.

The good news? “We’ve finished a record,” he shared, telling Rowe that it’s “done” and that the pair are currently “toying with people”.

Double J’s epic tenth birthday celebrations began at 8 am yesterday, with Jay & The Doctor reprising their triple j Breakfast show with Regurgitator.

From there, the day included presenters Dylan Lewis, Zan Rowe, Karen Leng, Caz Tran, Henry Wagons and Tim Shiel, alongside artists such as Dan Sultan, Spiderbait, Sarah Blasko, Bad//Dreems, Adalita, Tim Rogers, Bag Raiders, Sarah Blasko and many more.

Osher Günsberg and Yumi Stynes also reunited and reminisced over Big Day Out memories, and Rosie Beaton played your requests. The big day was sent off with an exclusive mix from Fatboy Slim.

Dempsey and Fanning have performed together on numerous occasions, including a benefit concert in March 2019 for You Am I’s former manager, Kate Stewart.

During Covid-19 lockdowns, the pair linked up as Dempsey shared cover videos online, taking on Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure.

Dempsey said about his 2020 collaboration with Fanning, “Bernard and I had sung Under Pressure together once before (with You Am I at the Concert For Kate benefit last year).

“I was singing it around the house, and it just felt particularly significant right now ("Watching some good friends screaming / 'Let me out!'"), so I thought about doing it again the next time I jumped on Instagram, and then I figured I may as well invite Bernard to try a stripped-back acoustic version. He was totally into the spirit of the thing and just wanting to give people a little something to brighten their day.”

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