I first saw this Australian band performing on the Ellen Degeneres show a few months ago and I was intrigued! The band performed with such gusto and confidence and their song, “Geronimo”, is catchy too.

Fast forward a few months later, little did I know that The Fifth Parlour would be given a chance to meet and interview Sheppard. Making their rounds on a 5 week world tour promoting their new album “Bombs Away”, Singapore was Sheppard’s last stop before they went back to their home country, Australia.

A little background on the band, Sheppard was formed in 2009 and have been making music ever since. The band consists of (from left) Dean Gordon, Emma Sheppard, Jason Bovino, George Sheppard, Michael Butler, and Amy Sheppard. Michael and Dean were unfortunately not in Singapore.

When asked to describe “Bombs Away”, George shared that it is a collection of pop songs that were written by the band over the past 3 years. He also mentioned that the songs are mostly upbeat, catchy, and “sing-a-longable”. It is not your typical pop-album as it has an eclectic mix of sounds influenced by jazz, pop, electro, folk, and many more.

One of the most memorable performance they have ever had was at a music festival in South Africa. It was their first performance ever.

Did you know that if Sheppard was not named as such, they were considering “Third Culture Kids”? And the reason behind it is because most of them grew up in Papua New Guinea and did not grow up with typical Australian culture.

If given a chance to switch bodies with any of their band members, the general consensus would be that they want to swop bodies with Jason as he is one of those people who can eat their hearts out and not gain weight. How lucky! Emma also mentioned that she would like to switch with Dean as he is always so energetic.

Being the two girls in the band, Emma and Amy feel like they have to take care of the boys, regardless if they want to be taken care or not. When not performing, the girls and the boys tend to hang out separately.

Although they are a relatively new band, Sheppard have had their fair share of the weird and “creative” gifts from their fans. George and Jason shared that they were once given a bit of a fan’s hair in a bag. Up till today, they do not fully know what to do with that bit of hair! Poor Sheppard.

Five fun facts of the band:

1) Before the band formed, George was a theatre actor.
2) Amy is terrible at sports
3) Jason is a really good artist – His Instagram page is proof of his skills.
4) Sheppard’s first ever show was in Asia (The Philippines) and not their homeland Australia
5) Sheppard is an independent artist in Australia. Even though they’re signed to Universal all over the world – which is an advantage as they can try out their songs in the Australian market before releasing it all over the world. Also, the fact that they’re nominated for Australian Recording Industry Association awards, ARIAs (Australia’s equivalent of the Grammys)is even much more meaningful and impressive. (Right before this post went up, The Fifth Parlour got the news that Sheppard won the “Best New Band” award. Yay!)

Right after the ARIAs, the band is given time off and some of the are planning to head to Thailand over the Christmas. Afterwards, Sheppard is going to join Meghan Trainor on her US tour! They are positive and hopeful that this tour would be making the rounds in Asia.

Thank you Sheppard for spending some time with The Fifth Parlour and sharing with us a little snippet about yourself. and our sincerest thank you to Universal Music Singapore for this opportunity.