Fanning Dempsey National Park: Bernard Fanning, Paul Dempsey to play Toowoomba, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast in final regional Qld shows
Two of Australia’s most celebrated songwriters will hit regional Queensland with their new project, in what shapes as the last shows the pair will be playing ‘for a while’.
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More than three decades after he first rocked the Garden City with legendary group Powderfinger, Bernard Fanning can’t believe how much Toowoomba has evolved.
“I haven’t played at the Powerhouse for I would say probably 30 years, so that’ll be pretty interesting,” he said, ahead of his final regional tour dates with fellow Aussie music icon Paul Dempsey (Something For Kate).
“I’ve spent heaps of time up there, and I love Toowoomba – it’s amazing how the city has just exploded in the last 15 years, isn’t it?
“This is our last weekend of shows that we’ll be doing for quite a while.”
Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast this week are the last cities on the inaugural regional run of shows for Fanning Dempsey National Park, a collaboration between two of Australia’s most celebrated songwriters.
It follows the release of the duo’s debut album last year The Deluge, which combines their ‘90s roots with ‘80s tones that has been hailed by critics and fans.
A project born during the Covid-19 pandemic, Fanning said it was the culmination of a long-running friendship with the enigmatic Dempsey.
“It was during all the Covid lockdowns that we started and we were just sending each other stuff by Dropbox, and kind of finishing each other’s ideas,” he said.
“That was sort of how it started out, and then once we got to five or six songs (we felt) it was really fun and it was a bit of a new direction for both of us.”
It was during this period that both men started dabbling with synthesisers, drawing inspiration from artists they’d grown up listening to but rarely applied to the acts that made them famous.
“We both wanted to use a different kind of template or palette for the songs, so we were both interested in that period where synthesisers really started to come into the game in the late ‘70s,” Fanning remarked.
“We were thinking that was the direction, that we would be using them as the kind of main thrust of what we were doing.
“We both listened to a lot of David Bowie and Gary Numan and Duran Duran and stuff like that.
“They’re references that wouldn’t probably normally be associated with either of us, but we both love that ‘80s pop stuff and especially just the production side of it.”
The regional tour, which kicked off in Cairns on May 1, has also reminded Fanning of the importance of live music outside of the big cities.
“We just love playing gigs – the gigs have been so fun, they’re so relaxed,” he said.
“We’re playing our record plus each other’s music that each of us have written over the last 30 years, so it’s really fun.
“Regional areas don’t get the exposure to live music that the cities get and it’s really important (to play there too).”
The 55-year-old said both the album and the tour had also helped him appreciate the nuances to Dempsey’s songwriting process.
When asked to name a Dempsey song he wish he’d written, Fanning didn’t hesitate.
“We’ve been playing Ramona Was A Waitress and that song, it just improves every time you hear it,” he said.
“It’s just a really cleverly put together song (and) great lyrics, imagining a robot waitress who’s kind of perplexed by the world.
“Paul writes in a really different way to me – his songs are generally a lot more complicated, I keep my songs as simple as I can, intentionally.
“But he is really keen on that idea of making things angular and looking at things from a different perspective, and I love that.”
Fanning Dempsey National Park plays Toowoomba’s Powerhouse on May 22, Venue 114 on the Sunshine Coast on May 23 and Gold Coast’s HOTA on May 24.
For tickets, head to the website.
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Originally published as Fanning Dempsey National Park: Bernard Fanning, Paul Dempsey to play Toowoomba, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast in final regional Qld shows
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