News · 30 June 2024

Fanning Dempsey National Park Reveals Gorgeous New Tune ‘The Deluge’

This is the second single from Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey’s forthcoming debut album, The Deluge.

Fanning Dempsey National Park, the new project from singer-songwriters Bernard Fanning and Paul Dempsey, has released their second single, ‘The Deluge’.

The title track from their hotly anticipated debut album is an ‘80s-inspired creation featuring a wild electric guitar solo that gives off Kraftwerk vibes.

“It’s the first proper song we collaborated on,” says Fanning in a statement about the song. “The idea was to use the idea of ‘motorik’: chugging along on one riff and beat unchanged through the song, borrowing from German bands like Kraftwerk and Can. It’s a song about escape from reality and the grind of being dragged back into routines. Social, familial, political. The repetitive nature of the riff is supposed to reinforce that idea.”

“Lots of weird synths and atonal guitars to poke at your frontal lobes while that brutalist bass sequence keeps the train on the tracks.” adds Dempsey “This was early on in proceedings when we were pretty sure that we wanted saxophone on EVERYTHING.”

The music video for ‘The Deluge’ was shot by director Alex Badham in Berlin subway stations. “I've spent a lot of my life staring at the fantastic designs in Berlin's subway stations” explains Badham.

“I’ve been wanting to incorporate them into something trippy and strange for quite some time, so putting these designs into party mode for ‘The Deluge’ seemed like a fun thing to do. I whipped up an early version of this idea and sent it over, and Paul and Bernard's response was ‘This is cool, we should come to Berlin and be in it.’

“So they hopped on a flight and we had one of the most low-stress shoots of all time. Wandering around subway stations and knocking off with some beer and currywurst. 267 hours of animation work later, and here we are!”

The release of ‘The Deluge’ coincides with the band announcing Merpire as support for their forthcoming Australian tour, along with a new Brisbane gig taking place at The Tivoli on Saturday, November 9.

You can pre-order/pre-save The Deluge here. See Fanning Dempsey National Park play live at Hindley St Music Hall on Friday, October 18. Tickets on sale now via Moshtix.