Fanning Dempsey National Park

Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey are two of the most revered and successful Australian artists of the last 30 years.

The esteemed pair formally launch their new project Fanning Dempsey National Park with their first single ‘Disconnect’.

Fanning Dempsey National Park marks new terrain for both artists, “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,” says Paul. “It’s not the two of us with acoustic guitars singing campfire songs.”

Instead, they’ve crafted a bold sound, exemplified by the new single ‘Disconnect’. The sonic masterpiece combines ethereal synths, robotic pulses, thwacking drums, and stabbing sax (played by legendary saxophonist Ron Dziubla).

“We didn't want it to sound like a Fanning record or a Dempsey record, we wanted it to sound like a band,” says Bernard. That was the point of the National Park moniker, Paul says. “We wanted the sense of an organisation bigger than the two of us. We settled on the name,” he adds, “because it’s so pompous that it made us laugh every time we said it.”

The two singer-songwriters’ solo works and monumental respective bands, Powderfinger and Something For Kate, account for nine number one albums, millions of sales, a staggering 38 songs in Triple J’s Hottest 100, scores of awards from ARIA to APRA and beyond, and reputations among the most skilled and thoughtful writers of their generation.