EXCLUSIVE: Sheppard Talks About Life On The Road, Dreams + More!

We recently had the opportunity to talk with one of our current obsessions, Sheppard! Sheppard is an indie-pop group from Australia consisting of George Sheppard, Amy Sheppard, Emma Sheppard, Jason Bovino, Dean Gordon, and Michael Butler. They’ve had a crazy year, with many wonderful accomplishments including 2 incredible singles!

Check out the video for their hit song Geronimo and our exclusive interview after!!

For our readers who have yet to check you out, can you describe your sound in three words?

Fun! Colorful! Energetic

You guys have had a lot of great things happen lately with Geronimo being the highest selling song of the year, how does that make you feel as a musician?

In an industry that has a very small success rate it’s a dream come true. We’re constantly pitching ourselves and when we hear that it’s charting in a new country its just like wow, it’s incredible that so many people are hearing our music. It’s mainly when we go to live shows and we’re performing and people are singing our songs back to us. As writers that’s a dream come true knowing that your song and seeing it first hand how it’s impacting people, it’s a really cool feeling.

If you could put together your dream tour who would be on it?

Probably Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks; I’d currently like to tour with Fun; Rixton!; I would say Coldplay.

What would your dream tour bus look like?

Glitter, colors and a Jacuzzi on the top. We actually have never been inside a proper tour bus so we have no idea what’s in there. Definitely candles, you’re on there all day and night so there’s a lot of BO and you can’t shower on a tour bus, so a lot of nice scented candles, healthy snacks, plenty of water, and a vacuume because if you don’t have one it starts to get really dirty.

What is the hardest part about being a musician?

I think just traveling its kind of like a blessing and a curse. Its hard to be away from home all the time and for us we literally go home for one day, chuck all of our clothes down the laundry shoot, pack and then your off again for another two months. I guess if your traveling and touring that’s already the hard part . Being a musician its hard to stand down and be seen with so many people that are trying to make it. I think it would be so disheartening to work your whole life at your craft and actually be a brilliant musician and have no one get to hear your music.

What is your favorite song to currently perform live?

We recently started doing this acoustic section and for me that’s really nice because it brings it back down, it’s just the acoustic guitar and harmony’s. There’s a song called Lingering on the album which is my favorite on the album and when we get to perform it live its just a nice moment on stage where we bring everything close and intimate and I like that stuff; I like Halfway To Hell, which is our last song, it just really pumps everyone up and is a really good song.

What is the best advice you can give your fans and our readers who are trying to follow their dreams?

Buy the Sheppard album haha No, I think the most important part is and the element that will set you apart is song writing because that’s something that you will have control of and when you can write a good song then that’s what helps you rise through the ranks. I guess just work really hard no matter what your craft is because there’s always going to be a gap that you have to try and bridge where your writing terrible songs or your painting terrible pictures and a lot of people get discouraged by that year or two year gap that you have to try and cross. You can only learn from those bad experiences and those bad mistakes, I know we’ve written horrible songs that will never see the light of day but you have to go through that. When we first started out we obviously had no idea what we were doing but eventually you learn how to do it properly.

Do you guys have any preshow rituals?

We just like to be separate and just gather our thoughts. I know that Dean puts tiger balm all over his arms because he’s the drummer and it’s so annoying because it stinks, maybe that’s why we all separate hahah. I don’t really like to talk to people right before and just want to center myself. Just focus and Zen out for a bit and then like five minutes before well come together and plug into our Iphones and listen to some pumped up music to try and get energized.

Do you have any last words for our readers?

Be good kids. Stay in school, don’t do drugs!