Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey have dropped a surprise new single, “King Pumpkin”, ahead of their regional tour kicking off tomorrow in Cairns.
The track is a bonus song from their Fanning Dempsey National Park debut album The Deluge, which has been getting rave reviews.
The album tour starts at the Tanks Art Centre in Cairns on April 30, with stops in Hobart, Ballarat, Geelong, Bendigo, Newcastle, Thirroul, Canberra, Toowoomba, and the Sunshine Coast, wrapping up on the Gold Coast on May 24. Limited tickets are still available at fanningdempseynationalpark.com.
Fans can expect a high-energy set blending tracks from The Deluge with classics from both artists’ catalogues. Each show will feature a local solo artist or duo as an opening act.
Fanning explains the new track: “’King Pumpkin’ opens with a quote borrowed and adapted from author Jonathan Swift. Falsehood lies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when man came to be undeceived it is too late. It’s a very accurate description of what is transpiring in the political and online sphere worldwide. Deception is apparently now, an attitude. We loved the idea of putting a sleazy funk backing to this.”
Dempsey adds, “It’s funny how far away it ended up from the original demo which was somewhere in brutalist industrial electronica territory…. All along it was trying to tell us it just wanted to shimmy.”
The Deluge debuted at #3 on the ARIA Albums Chart, #1 on the Vinyl Chart, and was Double J’s Feature Album. The debut single “Disconnect” was also shortlisted for APRA’s 2025 Song of the Year.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ recently caught up with the duo at Forbes Street Studios in Sydney for a candid chat about their debut album, an Eighties-inspired, synth-heavy collection that sounds like nothing they’ve done before.
Read the full interview here.
Fanning Dempsey National Park’s “King Pumpkin” is out now.
