INTERVIEW: Fanny Lumsden on her fifth album 'Traditions': "If you can look at it in a light of your own empowerment, maybe you'll get some meaning from it"
Words: Jett Tattersall
Interview: Shalane Connors
Published: 30 October 2026
“I was hazed to believe / That I was raised to believe / That tradition was avoiding ambition,” sings the celebrated Fanny Lumsden on the title track of her fifth studio album, Traditions.
Lumsden, the eldest of four children, grew up on a sheep farm in regional Australia where tradition wasn't enforced by strict doctrine. Instead, it lingered as an unwritten script—subtle domestic expectations woven into needlepointed wall hangings and cushions, where women quietly absorbed the family's emotional labour. “I rejected that really early,” Lumsden assures us.
On Traditions, Lumsden finds the melodies and signature lyricism in the very things she questions. But this isn't an album of spiteful 180s. It's about taking inherited roots and weaving something new from what remains. "Traditions and families are messy,” Lumsden says. “I can value the traditions of my family whilst also understanding that they were borne of a flawed system."
When it came to recording, Lumsden and her band, The Daddies (formerly the Prawn Stars), tracked the entire album live in the studio over nine intense but magical days — a feat she had never attempted: recording each track live in a single take. “Tracking everything live was initially a daunting concept for me,” Lumsden said, describing how the band heard each song for the first time on the studio floor. They'd listen, play and experiment with notes, instrumentation and inflections, finding each arrangement together. "I am a perfectionist, but I'm learning to like a perfectionist differently."
Traditions opens with a few notes exhaled from the bagpipes, a piano tinkling in the background, before Lumsden, at the microphone, turns to her band: “Are you ready? Let’s go.” The joy and shared history between them are palpable —a melodious leap of faith.
The spirit of shared abandon carries across eleven tracks of closed-circle anthems, wry observations, and tender declarations. Among them is the campfire call-to-arms, ‘Difficult Woman,’ where Lumsden (and the collective spirit of her listeners) stamps her heel and repurposes ambition into a badge of honour: “And we’re throwing streamers while they’re throwing knives,” she sings.
In the slow waltz of ‘Salt of the Earth,’ Lumsden connects the land directly to her family bloodline. Written from the perspective of her father, who lives with Parkinson’s, the song picks through the quiet grief of leaving the property after a lifetime on it - wrestling with what it means to let go when the dirt and bones are indistinguishable.
Through this musical reckoning with duty, expectations, and desire, Lumsden’s Traditions asks us to reassess what it truly means to belong. “There is more to traditions than being steadfast,” she says. By letting her songs - her thoughts - breathe, stretch, and evolve, Lumsden has crafted a rich, life-affirming tome for anyone ready to rewrite their story, fashioned from the fragments of what came before.
We recently caught up with Lumsden to find out all about the album’s creation.
Hi Fanny, thank you so much for joining us today. Your new album, Traditions, is out today, we're very excited. It's your fifth album, you've obviously gone through this many times before. Does it get any easier?
No, it definitely doesn't get easier. If anything, it gets harder. I feel like your expectations are shifting. The first time, I had no expectations. I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know how it was going to go, and so everything was thrilling. As you go on, you build these weird expectations that only you put on yourself.
But at the same time, I am really excited, and this time I'm really excited because we're putting it out on our own record label. The thrill of creating something we're so proud of, and then putting it out yourselves and connecting with people who want to connect with it directly is really exciting.
You've always been fiercely independent and you've been offered label support throughout your career. Talk to me about the choice to to remain independent. What were the pros and cons in your eyes, and developing your own record label ?
The pros obviously are having a team around you and having other people to do it. And financially at the start, they're going to give me a lump sum of money, that looks so attractive. Everyone's going to take care of it. But I think what I realised, and I realised this pretty early on, as I watched friends mine go through it, is that even if you have all of that big support, there's still only a tiny percentage of people that make it through that system in a way that's really satisfying to them, I could just see that what would happen is it would be just me having a big ego boost by everyone saying “you signed a record deal," and then just being eternally frustrated because things would be slowed down by bureaucracy and things that couldn't be passed because someone else didn't agree. I have such a fierce vision of what I want to create, and I consider every single thing. There's nothing by accident. To have someone to reject that on some basis that I don't agree with, that sounds like a nightmare.
We were offered on a few records with major label deals, and I almost considered one for this record. I was like, "maybe I am ready to do it." And then something changed in me, I cannot tell you what it was. I remember it was in March, and I turned around and I was like, "that is not who I am" And this record is deeply who I am, and I need to honour that.
I think it's really easy to look at musicians from the outside, and just see the fun part of what they do, and go,, ‘you're living the dream’. But it is so much fucking hard work. The behind the scenes stuff is not glamorous at all. I don't know how you're managing to handle a seven-piece band whilst also dealing with motherhood at the same time. How are you actually balancing this?
You don't balance, things just wildly swing one way and then wildly swing the next way. if you're striving for balance, you will choke yourself in the process. Obviously my kids are the most important thing, and if anything in the balance tipped, I would go to them first and look after them first. But when it's all rolling, they kind of fit in. I don't try and be a super mum. I don't try and be alpha mum or anything like that. I forget everything, I never know what's going on at school. I'm trying to support them best I can, but I'm not pretending to be the best at any of that. My lounge room is this massive pile of clean clothes we just kind of get through.
I'm not doing this alone. My husband Dan does huge amount of the parenting, and my mum and dad really helped me a lot too. On tour, my band helped parent my kids, so that helps. I don't have a social life. I am social, I have friends, i have family. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything at all, but I don't go to drinks or stuff like that ever. I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, where am I going to go to do that? You have to sacrifice something.
Let's talk about the new album Traditions. There's a massive throughline of expectations on women, both in society and in a familial sense. Talk to me about what traditions in your life that you found, or expectations that you found the most hardest to grapple with or shake as a woman.
That's a great question. This album is definitely deep in all of that. I grew up on a farm in a very traditional farming family. I didn't audibly have those expectations put on me, but they're obviously just all there. About being a mum and having the woman taking on the responsibility and the mental load of everything. I rejected that really early. I rejected the idea that women were expected to fulfil a certain role that men weren't, and that really bugged me. I live in a really different scenario in my marriage, which I think enables me to be able to appreciate more of the traditions of my family. For a while I felt like I had to throw out the baby with the bathwater in the traditional sense, I’ve got to throw this whole tradition thing out. I can't be part of this world that I grew up with because it doesn't fit me. But when I'm trying to navigate through this album, through this time in my life, it’s like, no, actually, I can celebrate parts of that world, and I can take parts of that and bring those traditions forward, but I doesn't have to look like they used to do it. I don't have to be in the kitchen or running all of the school things. My husband does way more of that than me. I never cook, for example. I make pizza dough on Friday, that's all I do. We'd starve if I was cooking!
I still live in a farm, I'm still able to live within these values that I love for my kids and my family and myself, like the small communities and family focus and really honouring meal times and all these different things. I'm able to honour all of these things, but I didn't have to sacrifice myself to do that. I didn't have to dampen my ambition to maintain some of those traditions.
I'm also able to appreciate the traditions in a different way as well, and also appreciate when someone does want to do them. I don't feel like I need to vilify them anymore because it's not a threat to me.
Let's talk about the recording of Traditions. I believe you did all the songs in one take?
Yeah, the vocals we added after, all the harmonies and stuff, and some of the vocals for some of the tracks I did later. But all of the music for all of the songs is one take. I wanted to create an album that just felt really alive and much more similar to our feeling that we get when we play live, I wasn't out to prove anything at all, and I was actually terrified of doing it live. I was really worried because I love all of the details in a record. I love little minor changes in dynamics or little changes in musicality or the different melody lines swapping around. And I was worried because we were recording all at the same time that we'd lose some of that nuance, but we actually didn't. It was actually all in there. It was terrifying, but we did it.
It really does show. There's a different energy that comes to an album. There have been so many instances where I've loved someone live, and then you go to their record and it doesn't capture that same energy, and it's a bit of a shame in some ways.
Because I'd been touring with my band for so long, I knew they were all just incredible in their own right, and I also knew they respected me and my wishes and what I wanted to create. None of them had heard the songs before, so no one was rehearsed. I was really adamant on not letting them premeditate on how they were going to do each part. I didn't want them to think about it too hard. I wanted their instinct and reaction. We'd do two or three songs a day, and I'd play the song on my acoustic and sing it, and this would be the first time they hear it. Our producer was really respectful [with the process], he was really amazing. As a woman, I work with so many men, and my band are unbelievable, they all respect me and they're all amazing, but as a collective, sometimes they just forget, right? I'll have to fight for something more than I would previously. I'd never worked with Stephen, the producer, before and I didn’t know how it was going to go, and he was amazing. He goes straight to me first, and if I don't really like that thing, he goes delete, do it again. It was just a great experience. So I was really encouraged by that because I was able to just get into my weird, production mode.
It’s all quite experimental, so you're not a perfectionist at all?
I am, but I was really happy with all the choices. I intentionally didn't want things to be perfect on this record. As we started, i told everyone you need to leave your feelings at the door because, if I say something, you cannot be offended. I'm not here to protect your feelings. I am a perfectionist, but I'm learning to be a perfectionist in a different way. I'm a messy, chaotic perfectionist.
You’re a grassroots marketing genius. Everything you put out there has just got this flavour of fun about it. The Fanny float and I love the Fanny merch, being your own billboard. All the choices you've made are just so insanely awesome, and you don't necessarily get that from being with a label.
No one knows you more than you do and no one ever's going to care as much. I worked with a great label for two albums, and they were really helpful in lots of areas that maybe I'm not great at, and had really positive aspects to it. But what we found in the end was Dan and were still churning out the same amount of work. We were still doing all the marketing because we can't help it, and we really are so passionate about it. We also just really care about stuff being done well. I suppose that's where the perfectionism comes in. I really want to do things well in a way that is authentic to us. If that's being done in a short cut way, or just because someone doesn't care.
I do love the marketing. Marketing is absolutely so fun. We've had a few a few peak moments this year. I reckon it might quit because we might have peaked! The Fanny fans have been a great moment - I'm a Fanny fan fan. Then we had the OnlyFans tour, I was like pretty pleased with myself on that one! And also the ‘will Fanny see you in the NT’ billboards in Darwin. Also probably my greatest work. You got to be able to laugh a little bit and it needs to have a little bit of a wink with it, otherwise it's kind of boring.
I think it's safe to say at this point you're a bit of an Aussie icon. You had another Aussie icon along to duet with you on your album, the wonderful Paul Kelly, on ‘By The River’. How did that union come about?
I've toured with him a few times, most recently last year in Europe. I'd already toured with him before, but it was in covid, so it was very isolated. Whereas this time we were together at all the meals and travelling and driving in the vans and stuff. I just have so much respect for him as an artist. He's so considered. He's got so much time for other people, and I love the way he synthesises stories and words,. We talked a lot about poetry. We talked a lot about life. I was on a bookshop ban actually because I'd buy too many books, and I was at the start of a 10-week tour. I was like, if I start buying books at the start, I'm screwed by the end. But when we were in Ireland. we went to a bookshop in Dublin, and I bought him a present there, it was on the last day. When we got to the show, he's like, "Oh, I got your present," and I was like, "I got you one too." And we bought each other the same book!
I just find him so inspiring about how he's always stuck to his guns. He's got his own unique sound. He fits in everywhere, he doesn't fit anywhere at all. I find that like helpful because I'm not country enough for country. I'm not folk enough for folk. Not pop enough. We're just not one thing. So I find it really inspiring that he's just stuck to his guns on his own sound.
Speaking of not fitting into a genre, how has that journey been for you? Have you felt the pressure to try and fit in a box musically?
I am broadly country, obviously, and I'm proud about that. I am very proud to be in the country genre and represent my version of country. When it comes to anything that’s curated it’s difficult because we don't fit neatly into a box, so for festivals or Spotify playlists or algorithms, I'm just not an algorithmic artist. I've learned to be really proud of that because it means I'm creating something that's different. Have I felt pressure? Not enough to change anything. Do I have flashes of it? Sure, I'm a human being. Sometimes I'm like, ‘maybe I should do it’ bur I hate being the same as everyone else. It makes me actually really annoyed and cranky when something comes up that I was already done, and then somebody else does it because obviously we're all just inspired by the same shit. And then I'm like, ‘I can't do it now, I'm not doing it.’
You're a fierce, proud feminist, and a lot of this album is about the female experience of dealing with expectations. There’s been this horrible rise of the manosphere and this merging of the feminism title. I've seen a couple of friends actually who have gone ‘I'm not a feminist or anything’, and I'm like, you're not a feminist, you don't believe in equal rights. How? What's your journey been with being a feminist within the music industry?
My attitude's always been, let's go out and show, don't tell. That's not changed, I would rather go and be a woman out doing something than fucking talk about it all day. Not that I'm afraid to talk about it, I'm not afraid to talk about it at all, but I just prefer action. Go and be the person that you can't see, rather than talking about how we can't see anyone out there. Just go and fucking do it. What are we even talking about? Just go and do it. I understand, absolutely understand how much more difficult it is as a woman, but I've just always been like let's fucking do what we can. Let's change by example, and let's take people with us where we can.
If you do it, and you do it as a woman, you do have to do it like 10 times as well. It's frustrating I get paid less than dudes and have to fight with other women for that one spot, of course it's annoying. But I've just tried to create a world where I don't spend my time banging my head against a wall. I just go and find somewhere else that I can build something better.
Like I said, I come from a traditional farming family background, and there's a lot of inbuilt sexism, and they're the traditions I'm rejecting. Those gender roles and views about women and where they belong, I've rejected them forever. I remember when I was little, my first MSN handle, because I'm that old, was ‘I don't make sandwiches’. I understand the nuances involved, and I still don't accept that sexism, but I am happy to make the sandwiches as long as the guys are making sandwiches too. I don't reject it as a world as long as it's a choice. That's the point.
Traditions is a deeply personal album. What experience do you hope your listeners get from it?
I hope that they get some reflection on their own traditions and how nothing is black and white. How all is so nuanced, but how so much meaning can come out of something that maybe you previously rejected for one reason. But if you can look at it in a light of your own empowerment, maybe you'll get some meaning from it, or maybe you won't. Maybe you'll like actually, that part needs to fuck off!
Album’s out now, you've got an East Coast tour in November. Then what?
Next year we going out on the country hall tour. The country hall tour started in 2012, and we've done over 350 halls all over Australia and New Zealand and Scotland. Put on shows, full band shows in little halls, and I've had 120 apply for next year. So we probably won't do that many, but we will do as many as we can, and then we're going to UK and Europe again, and then we'll come back and do our city tour. So lots of touring. We just want to play this record because we recorded it all together. We just want to play the songs, no frills, just play the songs.
Traditions is out now. You can buy and stream here.
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TRADITIONS ALBUM TOUR 2026
For tickets and information visit fannylumsden.net
31 October Tooma Rec Grounds, Tooma NSW *Album Launch show
6 November Barwon Club, Geelong VIC
7 November Meeniyan Town Hall, Meeniyan VIC
8 November Castlemaine Royal Theatre, Castlemaine VIC
27 November Keystone 1889, Bathurst NSW
28 November Milton Theatre, Milton NSW
29 November The Stag & Hunter, Newcastle NSW
23January 2027 Tamworth Town Hall, Tamworth, NSW
UPCOMING FESTIVAL DATE:
19 – 21 February 2027 Riverboats Festival, Echuca VIC
