Fanny Lumsden ProfileRocking a pale grey flannie over black T-shirt, hair pulled back in a high tousled bun, Fanny Lumsden is immediately endearing and admits she loves “a yap”.
She grew up on a sheep farm in Tallimba in central NSW and is salt of the earth. Fittingly, there’s a track called Salt Of The Earth on her deeply personal, latest and fifth album, Traditions.
Fanny explains her camera angle is “tilting up towards the roof”, because the room she’s in is messy. She’s delighted to be spending some “very rare, lovely” time at home in Tooma, a small rural village nestled in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains.
During busy touring periods, the Lumsdens typically stay on their family property “overnight and then head back out again”, she bemoans.
Introducing The Daddies
International Paul Kelly support slots, Glastonbury performances, Country Halls Tours (around Australia and also Scotland, her homeland) – Fanny and her newly rechristened backing band The Daddies (formerly The Prawn Stars) spend a lot of time on the road.
It’s a family affair, as well: Fanny’s two young sons have toured with her since they were newborns, and her husband Dan Stanley Freeman and brother Tom Lumsden are both members of The Daddies.
It has to be said that Fanny and Tom’s blood harmonies are essential to that distinctive Lumsden sound.
“He has been singing since he was born,” Fanny says of Tom. “Honestly, before he talked, he sang. He used to lay in the cot and Mum would know he was awake, because he would be singing [laughs]. And I was a showpony. I'm six years older than him. So there's four of us [siblings] in total, and we all kind of sang together – kids singing in the car.”
So what kind of music dominated the Lumsden family’s car stezza? “A lot of classical music, choir music”, Fanny recalls. “Dad loved country music. And then, when we were little, we had kids' music. But it wasn't really Top 40, or anything.”
When Fanny got a Discman, she remembers, “One of the CDs that I got given was called Fyvie’s Embrace, which is all, like, Scottish fiddle tunes. All of us played violin, fiddle, viola, cello and – my siblings and stuff – we were all in fiddle groups. So I played a lot of those songs growing up, as well.”
There’s a Lumsden tartan, which her brother Tom proudly sports on stage.
“We've been taking our Country Halls tour to Scotland for the last few years now and my brother's always like, ‘I can't explain it, but my body feels so comfortable here, it just feels right’,” Fanny shares. “And I think it's so true. You get there, and – especially up in the Highlands – the people feel right, everything just feels right, which is lovely.
“And I feel the same here in Australia, obviously, which is nice. And, I mean, my husband – his family's from Malaysia, and he has similar feelings. So every time we go to the tropics, he starts to glow. His skin starts to glow and his genetics are meant to be there.”
When asked whether any long-lost relatives come up and introduce themselves at her shows in Scotland, Fanny exclaims, “Oh my god! Yeah, so many. Actually, not just in Scotland, just everywhere we go, for some reason. It's so hilarious. My brother's partner jokes about it, he's like, ‘You guys are related to ridiculous amounts of people. Wherever we go, your family just pop up out of the woodwork’.”
Sweet Hurt
“I have this beautiful email – I'll just get it, actually, because I printed it out.” Fanny stands up, turns around and wanders off to retrieve it. “I got it from my grandpa – not on my Lumsden side, on the Hardy side, but I mean, they're also Scottish. So, like…”
She returns to her seat in front of the computer. “Mackenzies, Hardys, Ross – all the different families, ‘cause all our families have Scottish backgrounds. And this letter actually inspired the song Sweet Hurt on this record.
“I sent him a CD, I think it was the Fallow record, and he said: ‘[reads from the printout] Thank you for sending this disc. We played it last night and the maturity and style's coming through. A Celtic bard, indeed! This too shall pass. I remember from almost 80 years ago, while standing outside my grandparents' home, while thinking of my family and the joy inside…’ and then he goes on to say, ‘They were all warm-hearted Scots with a sense of fey.
“It gives me a sense of meaning…’ and he just keeps going on in this beautiful way, and then at the end, he says, ‘We love you all so much increasingly that it has a sweet hurt to it. All the best for each one, from two people still in love, Glen and Edith.’ And I was like [traces lines from her eyes down her cheeks using both index fingers, mimicking rolling tears]...
“Isn't it beautiful? I remember getting the email and being like, ‘What?’ And that's why I printed it out, because I was like, ‘That's so incredible’. And that's why I wrote that Sweet Hurt song, because I just love the idea that opposites come with an extreme feeling – I mean, it's not a new idea.
“So, you know, there's always a little sadness that comes with love or happiness. I think it's the idea you could love something, but lose it at the same time.”
By The River (feat. Paul Kelly)
Blackberries, and a black snake, on the riverbank, the marks that grass leaves on your knees – just like the album as a whole, By The River has a strong sense of place. Fanny paints entire scenes and landscapes with her words.
“I just write from flow – so whatever comes out,” she reveals. “And then I work out what the songs are about after, usually. I don't go, ‘I'm gonna write a song about this,’ or, ‘I need to write a song about this,’ it's just usually what comes out.
“With By The River – I mean, rivers are a tradition in my family; we’re big-time river rats, always seeking out a river. I'd been on tour with Paul in the UK and in Europe, and then we'd been singing The Pretty Place [a deep cut from Kelly’s 2001 album, Nothing But A Dream] every night in his show. And I remember, at first, he was like, ‘Would you sing this song?’ He's like, ‘Don't worry if you can't get it, we can do something else – it's got so many lyrics.’
“I find lyrics really hard to learn, and I was like, ‘No, I actually found this one so easy, because the visual image that you're painting with these words is actually the safe place I go in my head when I'm stressed or worried or anxious, or when I can't sleep; the exact place you have painted with those words is the place that I go.’
“So I was like, ‘I already know this place. I am already here.’ So all those words, for some reason – it was really weird, actually, I was like, ‘I've never had that before.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, that's kind of amazing.’
“Then we sang it on that tour. And then, straight after, we went to the Peak District [an upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines] with my kids. And Dan came over – he had four days before my band tour started.
“We'd go out and go for hikes along these creeks. I just remember walking along there, and then [By The River’s] first verse just was like vvvvvrrrrrrr! [twirls one hand like a twister]. Then I went back to the house and just sat down, and I wrote it. So I suppose I was in a space that kinda brought those images to life, in a way. And then, yeah, when I was recording it, Steven Schram, our producer, said, ‘Paul Kelly would be good on this song.’ I was like, ‘Really? You think so? Should I ask him?’ [laughs].
“He's like, ‘Send him a message,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I'm too scared.’ And he goes, ‘Don't be stupid!’ [laughs]. And I was like, ‘Okay’. Then I sent him a text, and he was like, ‘Send it over,’ and then when I sent it over, he didn't write back to me for, like, four days!
“And I was like [does her best impression of Edvard Munch’s The Scream]. He left me on read! And then Steven was like, ‘He's just busy. Don't worry about it, he'll get back to you.’ And then [Paul] wrote back to me. He was like, ‘Yeah, I love it. I'd love to sing on it.’ And I was like [fake sobs and traces lines from her eyes down her cheeks using both index fingers again].
“I don't take it for granted at all, because he's a busy guy. And he's important, and a lot of people want a piece of him. I think just hearing him sing my words was so incredible.
“I remember when I got [the finished version] sent through. So we'd recorded the song live – my band and I – and I did all my bits live. And then we were in the UK. I remember it was just really stressful, because obviously I do the management side of things and I was having a pretty stressful few days, business-wise. I was in London, and we were playing C2C [Country To Country Festival] and doing a bunch of press before we started a tour over there.
“And I was just like, arrrrghh – I think it was most likely money-related. And then I remember going back to our Airbnb, and that [version of By The River] came through with Paul's voice on it. And I have this video – Dan filmed me listening to it and I'm just, like, ugly crying, because I was like, ‘Oh my god, some things are so amazing!’ I mean, I’d put it on the internet, but I don't love putting performative crying on the internet [laughs].
“[Duetting with Kelly] wasn't even on my bucket list, you know? It's so incredible. Like, you don't even imagine that kinda stuff. And I obviously just respect him so much. He's such an incredible songwriter and person, and I got to spend time with him last year on tour, and got to know him a bit, and that was so lovely.”
Mother’s Eyes
Mother’s Eyes, the first song Fanny wrote for Traditions, explores the pressure on female artists to maintain unattainable beauty standards.
“Always swore I was going to age with grace/And I bitched about the girls with filler in their face/But now I’m getting older, I don’t know/But my body made two babies and I’m glad it shows.”
Fanny discusses her decision to ‘age gracefully’: “You can be really steadfast in your opinion of it. I was like, ‘No, I'm gonna stick to my guns on this.’ And hats off to anyone who does, but I'm not gonna get any work done; I don't agree with that. I feel like we should just be who we are.
“But that's not an easy choice, you have to keep making that choice over and over again, and you have to keep battling with that all the time. Ugh, it’s so hard.”
“Now we’ve got to sell our songs with our faces/So I guess I’m gonna have to go get braces/I didn’t really care but now they’ve moved a lot/Gonna sell a lotta tickets when I get hot.”
“There is this societal obsession with youth,” Fanny laments, “and I do think it is getting better at the moment – not in terms of how [women of a certain age are expected to] look, but how women are not getting chucked out at a certain age. More than ever, I think there’s women in their forties and fifties just continuing their careers, which is amazing.
“Ten years ago, there wouldn't have been an album called Perimenopop – amazing how Sophie Ellis-Bextor did that. These women are just slightly ahead of me, you know? They're forging on. Kate Miller-Heidke’s record [The Kiss And The Abyss] and Missy Higgins, Kasey Chambers, Vika & Linda, and Kate Ceberano – all these women are doing incredible stuff.
“There's so many incredible examples that I can draw on, which I find so inspiring. And they're like, ‘I don't have to stop. I don't have to change. I can make good shit, I'm just gonna keep going!’ [laughs].
“All the women that usually kind of peel off haven't; they're just forging forward ahead of me, which is amazing to see. And I'm just behind, so that's fabulous. So I think that there is a change in: people don't care if you're young or old when they listen to you anymore, and I think that that's kinda coming through. But, yeah, the beauty standards definitely have not [eased off]. If anything, they've gotten worse.
“But it is something that I'm passionate about – maintaining just who I am – and that's always been so important to me. However, it's not easy. I have to keep going, ‘Yep, it's fine. People are still listening to my music whether I look like this or not.’ I have to keep making the art this way, because this is what I believe in. Otherwise, it's not authentic.”
Traditions
The week of our chat, Fanny & The Daddies had just filmed “a massive clip” – “which includes me cutting up a cake with a chainsaw!” – to accompany the album’s eponymous single release.
“We collaborated with our long-time collaborator Sam Brumby who's done 19 video clips with us now, over the years,” Fanny marvels.
“He's an incredible cinematographer. And then also we had my cousin – or he's married to my cousin; he is an actor and a director. They lived in LA, they'd only just moved home, and he came and directed [the Traditions clip] for us. ‘Cause I had the vision of all the things I wanted, and I wrote them all down, but he was just amazing at bringing all these things to life.”
My Brilliant Career
Fanny feels an affinity for Miles Franklin’s novel, My Brilliant Career – particularly the main character, Sybylla, who she’s described as her “favourite fictional character”.
“I've read My Brilliant Career forever,” she elaborates. “I love that book and that whole world. But I started creating this [Traditions] world two years ago. I had all the vision and how I wanted it all to look, and the songs were all coming. And then I decided it would be called Traditions last December when we recorded it.
“Then I was starting to build the world, and I remember I was talking to a friend in the industry, and I was showing her the world that I was building, and My Brilliant Career was kind of in there. And she goes, ‘They've just made this [as a Netflix series].’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’
“So then we released our album trailer, which is this little sting of, like, all this vision of me in that [floor-length red tartan] skirt, and then on the farm and in the bush. It's [soundtracked by] Prelude, the start of the album.
“And then the next week, My Brilliant Career came out. So we released it first, and I was like – usually I'd be pissed off [laughs], but because I love My Brilliant Career so much, I was just like [shrugs], ‘Oh well, you gotta go with it!’ Yeah, that was absolutely nuts, actually – all the timing through that.
“And then also Yesteryear [the novel by Caro Claire Burke] came out after I'd decided [the album] was called Traditions. That book's been such a big discussion topic – whether you like it or not, doesn't matter. And the tradwife thing – all of that had become a huge discussion; well, I'd realised after I'd written it. So that was, yeah! I suppose it's just that everyone's thinking about similar things,” she trails off laughing.
“The whole essence of the record is that I wanted to celebrate my family traditions. For the first time, I kind of decided that it could be nuanced, like, I can celebrate these things. I can also throw some of them out. We also just have to change a lot of them to fit now.
“That tagline is ‘my autonomy and my ambition and my family farming traditions all in one’... I think beforehand – up until now – I really struggled, because I really value my farming family traditions, but I knew how they were wrapped up in a lot of my, mmm, maybe troubled past? And I think I'd thrown them out, I'd thrown the baby out with the bathwater a little bit. And then I haven't really celebrated – like, I love this classic Australiana art. It's on the [Traditions] front cover, in the background; I really wanted that kind of Hays Hansen vibe, gum trees, and I grew up with all of that.
“I grew up with all of these battler, pioneering stories as well. But then I've rejected them for a while now, because there's a lot of colonialism and racism and stuff all so tangled up. And I think I got to the point where I was like, ‘You know what? You can celebrate elements of it and understand that it's got issues.’ I do love that classic Australiana art – it is all up in my house where I grew up, it is here [gestures behind her] – I love it so much.”
“I Was ADHD And Just Didn't Have Any Outlet”
We’ve gained some valuable insight into the type of kid Fanny was by reading some of her excellent Substack articles.
She sometimes struggled to fit in at school and was given the nickname Beaver. Did that sting at the time? Fanny guffaws for a bit. “Oh my god, this is the first time I've ever talked about that, in actual fact; I've never talked about it since. And I just think it's so funny now. I'm actually so happy with it.
“Yes, it did! It did hurt me, ‘cause, I mean, I've even chewed the end of this pencil [holds up the evidence]. But I used to chew the whole thing!’”
Fanny then demonstrates, chewing the pencil like she’s eating a corn on the cob using the typewriter method.
“Like a corn on the cob! Oh my god, that's so funny. Yeah, I do remember being deeply embarrassed by that, but I couldn't help it. And I was ADHD and just didn't have any outlet – no one told me that. They didn't give fidgets, they didn't stand me up at my desk at that age, they just told me to shut up.
“I went to a very small school – there were 26 kids in total from kinder to Year 6 – and I remember them making a horseshoe with the tables – like, the Year 6s at the back and then little kids at the side. But I couldn't sit still and I couldn't stop talking, for obvious reasons, and so they put me right in the middle of the ‘U’. And [the teacher] just humiliated me, and I just remember that feeling so much. Now, as I get older, I dunno, I feel so compassionate towards that little girl that was just, like, bursting out of her skin – she couldn't help it!
On whether she ever felt pressured to conform, Fanny admits, “I probably did for a while. I probably did go inside myself and was quiet. However, I turned into a high achiever – a classic story, right? That wasn't ‘til later in school. But I always just did every sport I could, every creative pursuit I could. I'd be putting on a lot of plays – I just had a lot of energy, always, so I was pushing it out. I mean, I was always doing things wrong that I didn't mean to, ‘cause I just couldn't contain myself [laughs].
“I think it was just the time, too, like, we weren't really talking about this kind of stuff back then. My mum did. My mum was incredible. My mum was a school principal, and she realised very early that I was like this, and so she gave me a lot of tasks – I think I had said it in one of the Substacks. So I would get up really early – and I would, anyway – but I'd go out and feed the animals, and practice the piano, and do homework, and do all these different things before school, because I just was like [whirlwinds her hands around her head, laughs]. So yeah, my mum was really amazing with it.”
“Nah, Fuck You. I Can Have A Baby And I Can Also Have A Career”
As Fanny Says in one of her Substack pieces:
Traditions and ambition are so intertwined that when you finally get one of them, you automatically reject it for the other.
We discuss how women are taught from a young age that they can't have it all and have to make sacrifices, which totally sucks.
When asked whether she felt any bad vibes from people in the biz when she announced her first pregnancy, Fanny recalls, “It wasn't blatant, but I could feel it. I had a manager at that point and I remember having to tell him that I was pregnant. And we were just on the rise, things had just started clicking into place and a lot of things were happening all at once. We'd won our first rounds of awards, we were getting, like, ‘Best New…’ kinda stuff. And I remember becoming pregnant during that period and just being terrified to tell him.
“And so I would say that that was because it was so ingrained in me that women go off and then they don't come back again. And I think what happened is that that then forced – not forced me – but when I had my first baby, I went hell for leather. [Touring] three weeks later, after having an emergency C-section – like, I could hardly walk – and then tearing my scar, two weeks in. I was on stage in Adelaide.
“Then I'd been to four states [within] four weeks, with a newborn screaming in the car – I was a mess. And I toured flat-out from that point on. We went to Nashville at ten weeks, with a newborn. It was all so stupid [laughs]. But that was because I felt this pressure, like, if I stopped, I would fall off the perch and everyone would forget who I was. And they'd be like, ‘She just went and had a baby, and that's the end,’ which is super-interesting.
“Now I look back on it, and I can see that that was the pressure. But also, at the same time, I was very defiant, because I just took our baby everywhere. We took him to awards ceremonies. I was like, ‘I have to feed him, he has to be on me.’ So I remember we took him to the ARIAs. We got nominated for an ARIA and I took him to the event, because I was like, ‘Well, I gotta take him. I don't have anyone; he has to be with me.’ So I was also very much like, ‘Nah, fuck you. I can have a baby and I can also have a career. And he has to be with me, so here we are!’”
So how do we make the industry more welcoming for muso mums returning to work?
“I suppose it's just by example, right?” Fanny ponders. “I mean, the industry kind of changes anyway, and I feel like if you really do wanna come back, you could do it these days.
“I think just having more facilities for a baby, more spaces. Like, I remember being at the ARIAs and pumping milk in the bathroom while people were doing coke [laughs]. I didn't care about that at all – I thought that was hilarious, because there's photos of me plugged in with my pump; I also just didn't really care about that. And women are amazing, they're always so helpful.
“But I think that, yeah, just having this clarity, like, the industry will still – people will still write about your stuff, fans will still come to your show. And I don't know if it's even an action from the industry [that’s needed], it's just more artists being like, ‘Alright, here we are. I'm back again!’”
“I think entrusting your stories, entrusting yourself and then trusting that there is an audience out there for you; it just might not look like the old audience.
“The platforms that you were going for when you were younger, or maybe before [you had] kids, might not be the right ones after that. They change, but that's okay, because the audience is changing with you and maybe the way that they consume is also changing. So, for example, I'm not like, ‘Oh my god, get me on triple j! I'm not on triple j anymore,’ like, it's just not right for me – it's just not the right audience – and it never was, really.
“I think having a really thorough understanding of the industry and how it functions – and where it serves you and where it doesn't – rather than feeling like, ‘I'm not getting anything’ – I just hate the victim mentality as well, so that kills me. And I don't think going into it that way is ever gonna help – just keep creating really good shit!
“People just wanna hear stories, and if you've got stories to share, go share them. And be open-minded about how you share them, perhaps.
“Go and create your own world, and keep talking passionately about whatever is important to you. I think it's kind of fun reinventing it all, anyway. I don't wanna just keep doing the same thing, that would be boring, to me.
“I think regularly updating what your idea of success is is really important, as well. We do it all the time. I mean, I always do it per campaign, but I'm also doing it during the campaign. I'm constantly checking in with myself, ‘cause otherwise I'd go insane.
“I do some mentoring and I always do this at the start of the sessions: write a sentence about what your idea of success is for right now. And then if you're doing things, and they don't apply to that, then don't bother doing them. Stop banging your head against a brick wall, you know?”
“I'm about to turn 40 at the end of the year, which is amazing. And I think that all we can do is just keep going, and, yeah, hopefully I do inspire people to – if they do want to have a family, do that as well. I mean, you gotta have some support around you, and you also have to have a certain kind of attitude towards it, I think. But, yeah, my kids are great. They're fine. They're doing their thing.
“They're four and eight [years old]. One of them's home today – the four-year-old. They go to school locally, but then when we're on the road we take their work with us. I don't try to be, like, alpha mum [laughs]. I just try and do my best, and I'm fine with that. I'm not trying to win a medal of being, like, alpha mum with the tidiest house – you’ve just gotta be okay with stuff giving. So, like, when we're touring, we just have this massive pile of washing in the lounge room. And I also have an extremely proactive husband; he is probably parenting slightly more than me.
“And right now he's working, but he got up and got the kids to school this morning, ‘cause I had other stuff to do. And he does that most mornings, actually. So I think that that is probably important to mention. I have a good teammate, and that helps. But, yeah, I don't try to be perfect, I just accept that I'm gonna miss stuff, but that's okay.”
Reclaiming Independence As An Artist
Fanny’s last two records – 2020’s Fallow and 2023’s Hey Dawn – were released on her own independent label, Red Dirt Road Records, in partnership with Cooking Vinyl Australia.
Traditions marks a return to self-releasing, on Red Dirt Road Records, which initially launched in 2017 to release Fanny’s second album, Real Class Act.
“It's a little nerve-wracking,” Fanny admits of reclaiming her independence as an artist. “Dan and I forgot how much we had to crank out at the same time as doing everything else, but, I mean, having him as a partner, in the business side and creatively – I couldn't have done it without him. We truly did do it all together. He kind of took on the role of the [air quotes] label manager, but it's still very intertwined. But it is fun!
“One of the things that we really love is being reactive. When we do have an idea, or something that we wanna do, being able to act on it really quickly is really important to us, like, grabbing the first motivation and excitement of an idea, and then being able to action it straight away. I mean, if you don't do that, a lot of ideas die. So we love having the flexibility to do that.
“Also just financially, in this climate, signing to a label – unless you're making huge money or have financial stability; someone else makes money in your situation – you just can't do it. It's ridiculous.
“Even when we were signed to the label we were still running all the marketing, we were still sending stuff out, we were still doing a lot of it anyway. So we were like, ‘We may as well do the same amount of work, or maybe slightly more, and make 80% rather than 20’.”
“Dolly Said Fanny On The Telly!”
At the 2023 ARIA Awards, Dolly Parton appeared via video link to announce Fanny’s Hey Dawn as winner of the Best Country Album category. When she took the podium to accept her award, Fanny looked suitably gobsmacked: “Dolly said Fanny on the telly!”
When we bring this up, Fanny places a hand over her heart and beams, recalling, “It was so amazing. Imagine living at the same time as Dolly Parton, let alone her saying my name!” Fanny opens her mouth and goes all wide-eyed.
Aside from Dolly’s incredible musical legacy, obituaries highlighted her philanthropy and “all the incredible things she did and what a kind person she was”, Fanny notes: “I think that's just such a lesson, isn't it? They're not talking about the accolades, they're not talking about all that stuff, they're just talking about all the good that she did and all the joy she brought so many people.
“She was such a trailblazer. She paved the path for all of us, pretty much. I love that she was a walk-the-walk, not a talk-the-talk person, which is my favourite type. She didn't bang on about stuff too much, she just went out and did it, and I was like, ‘Oh, Queen!’”
When Dolly did speak out against injustice or make a formal statement, Fanny commends, “She didn't do it out of anger, which I think is so inspiring and such a good way; she didn't go anger-first. She wasn't divisive, she was inclusive. Somehow she pleased everyone, I don't know how she did it!”
Fanny Lumsden’s Traditions will be released on Friday, October 30th, with a Countrytown exclusive edition of the record – a stunning sky-blue stained-glass window-coloured variant, pressed on 140-gram vinyl – available for pre-order now via the Suitcase Records website.
