The Sit Down with Amy Sheppard
For more than a decade, Brisbane based sibling trio Sheppard have been one of Australia’s most commercially successful bands who have extensively toured around the globe and have worldwide streams well into the billions. Whilst the reach and success of the band continues, the blue-haired middle child in the band has begun to dip her toes into the world on her own on her journey into country music where Amy Sheppard is set to join the ever growing list of stars in Australian country music with the release her debut album “Born To Be Country” on October 10th which is available to pre-save HERE.
Hey Amy, thanks for taking the time to hang, I know it's been kind of a really busy day and you shared some really lovely news, so firstly congratulations.
“Thank you so much.”
I know you've been trying for a long time, so it’s lovely you've got some good news and been able to share it.
“Yeah, it feels great to be able to share with the world now, because I've just had this little secret for a few months. Of course, being cautious as well, but sure, everything's looking good, so was excited to share the news.”
It’s really cool because whilst we’ve been speaking to more and more Australian artists over the last couple of years, it's usually with someone that's never been to the UK before or is just about to come to the UK for the first time but you've obviously been here quite a bit in the past.
“Yeah, I was last there earlier this year actually, we had a show in Camden and I love visiting. It's always such a great time and I hope to get back there soon for some of my country stuff, because it did shock me at first when I did sort of enter the country music world here in Australia, I had no idea that there was a country music scene in the UK. I actually get that in a similar way when I go to the States and people are like, oh, there's a country music scene in Australia. I'm like, of course. it’s a rural landscape and farmers, so it makes sense.”
Well, I first saw you, George and Emma play in 2014 maybe, when you played at V Festival in Chelmsford, which is where I grew up. One of the things I remembered most about you guys on stage was that you had the best marketing thing that I've ever seen with those beach balls which work so well at festivals as even though you were on first, they were still flying around all the way through the rest of the day.
”I think we still have one of those. We always keep like a little piece of the festival, whether it's the lanyard or I think we kept a beach ball so that's somewhere in the archive, in a box in the garage, somewhere.”
I did see from your socials that you were back this year, looked like Electric Ballroom from the pictures but you've done a lot of really big shows when you've been to the UK in the past like as well as V Festival the first time, you did Hyde Park with the Biebs and did all of those Little Mix shows as well, meaning you already know about the audiences over here.
“Yeah, they're a great audience and it's been amazing to see the audience come back time and time again, so we've actually got to know a lot of our fans since 2014 when we first started coming to the UK. So, it's been great, it was really, exciting for us to go back this year and see some of our fans that have followed us through the whole journey. It's really, really lovely to see.”
Then this journey of yours has a new chapter starting or almost a spinoff maybe, so firstly, what was your like gateway drug to get you into country music that kind of made you think, actually, this is something that is right for me?
“Well, it's been on my mind for a really long time and when I first started writing music, it was country music. My dad is a huge country music fan and used to blast the country music channel waking us up to Dolly Parton and The Mavericks are one of his favourites too. When I finally found his old guitar and started taking guitar lessons, the first song I went to play on guitar was Country Roads by John Denver, and a bit of some Trisha Yearwood and all those 90s artists. Anyway, so when I started writing music about the age of 12, it just so happened to be sort of country style, because that's all I really knew. After school, I went and studied music and started to write, I was a big fan of Lily Allen, and I sort of started to dabble in that pop space, then my brother and I started writing music and it sort of took on another life. Like it was definitely pop, but I'm sure you'd hear like those acoustic elements and yeah, I mean, we wrote “Geronimo” and sort of the rest is history. That took us on a whole whirlwind but in the back of my mind I still loved country music and always thought that I would be in country music, but it just never really worked out that way.”
Hey Amy, thanks for taking the time to hang, I know it's been kind of a really busy day and you shared some really lovely news, so firstly congratulations.
“Thank you so much.”
I know you've been trying for a long time, so it’s lovely you've got some good news and been able to share it.
“Yeah, it feels great to be able to share with the world now, because I've just had this little secret for a few months. Of course, being cautious as well, but sure, everything's looking good, so was excited to share the news.”
It’s really cool because whilst we’ve been speaking to more and more Australian artists over the last couple of years, it's usually with someone that's never been to the UK before or is just about to come to the UK for the first time but you've obviously been here quite a bit in the past.
“Yeah, I was last there earlier this year actually, we had a show in Camden and I love visiting. It's always such a great time and I hope to get back there soon for some of my country stuff, because it did shock me at first when I did sort of enter the country music world here in Australia, I had no idea that there was a country music scene in the UK. I actually get that in a similar way when I go to the States and people are like, oh, there's a country music scene in Australia. I'm like, of course. it’s a rural landscape and farmers, so it makes sense.”
Well, I first saw you, George and Emma play in 2014 maybe, when you played at V Festival in Chelmsford, which is where I grew up. One of the things I remembered most about you guys on stage was that you had the best marketing thing that I've ever seen with those beach balls which work so well at festivals as even though you were on first, they were still flying around all the way through the rest of the day.
”I think we still have one of those. We always keep like a little piece of the festival, whether it's the lanyard or I think we kept a beach ball so that's somewhere in the archive, in a box in the garage, somewhere.”
I did see from your socials that you were back this year, looked like Electric Ballroom from the pictures but you've done a lot of really big shows when you've been to the UK in the past like as well as V Festival the first time, you did Hyde Park with the Biebs and did all of those Little Mix shows as well, meaning you already know about the audiences over here.
“Yeah, they're a great audience and it's been amazing to see the audience come back time and time again, so we've actually got to know a lot of our fans since 2014 when we first started coming to the UK. So, it's been great, it was really, exciting for us to go back this year and see some of our fans that have followed us through the whole journey. It's really, really lovely to see.”
Then this journey of yours has a new chapter starting or almost a spinoff maybe, so firstly, what was your like gateway drug to get you into country music that kind of made you think, actually, this is something that is right for me?
“Well, it's been on my mind for a really long time and when I first started writing music, it was country music. My dad is a huge country music fan and used to blast the country music channel waking us up to Dolly Parton and The Mavericks are one of his favourites too. When I finally found his old guitar and started taking guitar lessons, the first song I went to play on guitar was Country Roads by John Denver, and a bit of some Trisha Yearwood and all those 90s artists. Anyway, so when I started writing music about the age of 12, it just so happened to be sort of country style, because that's all I really knew. After school, I went and studied music and started to write, I was a big fan of Lily Allen, and I sort of started to dabble in that pop space, then my brother and I started writing music and it sort of took on another life. Like it was definitely pop, but I'm sure you'd hear like those acoustic elements and yeah, I mean, we wrote “Geronimo” and sort of the rest is history. That took us on a whole whirlwind but in the back of my mind I still loved country music and always thought that I would be in country music, but it just never really worked out that way.”
“In 2019, I went to a country music festival here in Brisbane called CMC Rocks. It's an incredible festival, like so many international artists come through so I went and I got to meet some really cool artists and got to see them play. I was just like Wow, I feel like this is how I write music, what's stopping me from writing some songs, whether it's for me or another artist, like, I should just get my arse into gear, write some music and see where it goes. So, I did exactly that, went back and wrote maybe five country songs, sent them to my manager, and he was like, "These are great, let me send them around to some people and I'll get feedback for you." I sent them to one of my country music friends as well and I was like "Would you sing one of these songs?” She' was like, "Honestly, like, they're probably a little bit too pop for me, but I think you should do it, there’s a huge market for country pop so why not?” This gave me like a bit of permission to go ahead and try something new, so I just followed the breadcrumbs that led me through this whole career.”
In terms of coming into a new scene, firstly at home in Aus, how have you found the country community in Australia, slowly becoming a part of that and integrating into there? Have you felt really welcomed as you are coming in?
“Yeah, I'm shocked, everyone's been so lovely. The country music scene in Australia is really small, like the music scene in Australia is small as it is, but the country music is particular small. So, I was a bit nervous coming into it because I just wasn't sure that I'd be accepted or I thought that people might be a bit, I don't know, just annoyed that I was cutting the grass or whatever it might be, but it was the opposite. Everyone was so keen to collaborate and I noticed that in the industry, everyone's always collaborating with another artist and it's just a great way to get even music out there. I feel so welcome and it's been a great learning curve, like George and I now have been writing for lots of other artists behind the scenes as well and it's been great. I think it's just made me a better artist overall.”
It is really cool to see how things are growing in Australia with country music and that more of you guys from down under are coming over here to us. So hopefully, you know, fingers crossed you can come and do your own stuff too here.
“I love any chance to get over the UK, but especially for my country stuff, I'm dying to see what the atmosphere is like over there, what the crowd is and the vibe is like in the country scene.”
Then looking on the Nashville side over in the States, a couple of weeks ago we had Sinead Burgess and Kaylee Bell here playing a festival, which coincidentally was at Highlands Park, where I first saw you back at V. V Festival has long gone but they just started a country festival there this year where four of the main stage performers were from Australia or New Zealand which is really cool as we are seeing more of you guys coming over now. Anyway, sidebar over but Sinead and Kaylee were both saying that there is quite a growing community of Australians and New Zealanders in Nashville like obviously Danielle who you wrote “Country, Country” with and there are a lot of other people there too. That must really help when you head to a new place and you've got other people from back at home that are in the same sort of boat.
“Oh, absolutely, it’s almost like another Australia in Nashville, there’s, like, so many people to work with. My first trip to Nashville, obviously, I worked mostly with Australians which was so funny, but then they help you with contacts and the people want to help you because they know what it's like, you know, they've gone through it before you. So, it was lovely to have some connections there when we moved and we made some great friends along the way whether they were Australian or internationals, it's a lovely community to be a part of.”
Then, what's come out of all of this is that we've got an album coming next month to kick off a very busy couple of months because you've got the tour after that. “Country, Country” is the lead single which you wrote with your brother and Danielle Blakey, so where did that song come from and why did you shoot for that one to launch the album off the back of?
In terms of coming into a new scene, firstly at home in Aus, how have you found the country community in Australia, slowly becoming a part of that and integrating into there? Have you felt really welcomed as you are coming in?
“Yeah, I'm shocked, everyone's been so lovely. The country music scene in Australia is really small, like the music scene in Australia is small as it is, but the country music is particular small. So, I was a bit nervous coming into it because I just wasn't sure that I'd be accepted or I thought that people might be a bit, I don't know, just annoyed that I was cutting the grass or whatever it might be, but it was the opposite. Everyone was so keen to collaborate and I noticed that in the industry, everyone's always collaborating with another artist and it's just a great way to get even music out there. I feel so welcome and it's been a great learning curve, like George and I now have been writing for lots of other artists behind the scenes as well and it's been great. I think it's just made me a better artist overall.”
It is really cool to see how things are growing in Australia with country music and that more of you guys from down under are coming over here to us. So hopefully, you know, fingers crossed you can come and do your own stuff too here.
“I love any chance to get over the UK, but especially for my country stuff, I'm dying to see what the atmosphere is like over there, what the crowd is and the vibe is like in the country scene.”
Then looking on the Nashville side over in the States, a couple of weeks ago we had Sinead Burgess and Kaylee Bell here playing a festival, which coincidentally was at Highlands Park, where I first saw you back at V. V Festival has long gone but they just started a country festival there this year where four of the main stage performers were from Australia or New Zealand which is really cool as we are seeing more of you guys coming over now. Anyway, sidebar over but Sinead and Kaylee were both saying that there is quite a growing community of Australians and New Zealanders in Nashville like obviously Danielle who you wrote “Country, Country” with and there are a lot of other people there too. That must really help when you head to a new place and you've got other people from back at home that are in the same sort of boat.
“Oh, absolutely, it’s almost like another Australia in Nashville, there’s, like, so many people to work with. My first trip to Nashville, obviously, I worked mostly with Australians which was so funny, but then they help you with contacts and the people want to help you because they know what it's like, you know, they've gone through it before you. So, it was lovely to have some connections there when we moved and we made some great friends along the way whether they were Australian or internationals, it's a lovely community to be a part of.”
Then, what's come out of all of this is that we've got an album coming next month to kick off a very busy couple of months because you've got the tour after that. “Country, Country” is the lead single which you wrote with your brother and Danielle Blakey, so where did that song come from and why did you shoot for that one to launch the album off the back of?
”It was just a really powerful single. We wrote it in Nashville and I've been sitting on it for probably nearly a year, but it was very strategic. I knew that it was probably one of the strongest off the record so I kept it for the album release. I do have another big single coming with the album, but it just felt like the right time to release a banger with the announcement. The song is called “Country, Country” and it’s just about, it's my fantasy about leaving the city and moving to a town, you know, you just feel like you're in heaven where you've escaped to where everybody knows your name and it's a great community. It's not about a particular town, but it's just like that dream of escaping the city.”
I’m guessing that your brother has a few more writing credits on your new album because you have written together for ever. I know George is doing some stuff of his own too so when you're working on music, have you found there were times when you are working on something you thought was going to go towards your new country sound but as it grew, you think hang on, we should probably give Emma a call as this has more of a feel for something that would work with the band. Equally when you have been working towards a Sheppard project, have you had it the other way round where you get something that you like and you are like hey, hands off, I like this one, I want to keep it!
“Definitely, definitely ha-ha. It's really funny, but it's also great because it's like another avenue to get our music out there. There’s been too many times we’ve written songs and it's been like, oh, well, it's just not quite right for Sheppard so, there's like, another avenue that we can release music. Yeah, I have found that I've stolen a couple of tracks here and there or a couple of ideas and as well, we've started ideas where you are like, actually, this is probably in more of the Sheppard and we just roll with that. It's fun, you know, there's no rules and of course, George is my favourite person to write songs with and it's easy because he's around all the time. In Brisbane in particular, there's not a lot of songwriters, it's kind of niche to be a songwriter here so we're each other's favourite collaborators and I mean, it just comes naturally, depending on what mood we're in on the day.”
As you are in the zone of working towards your new album dropping right now but with the band, you guys put out a deluxe version of “Zora” not too long ago, does it feel quite strange to have been working and pushing two projects at the same time that are very different and very separate?
“Yeah, it can. I've been pretty fortunate, I haven't had too big of a clash yet, but know that with Sheppard we're looking at releasing a single here and there where I've had to avoid dates. So, it's starting to get a bit tricky now, now that I've got a full album but we'll work it out. It can be weird to like shift gears, because if I've been on tour with Sheppard and I go to do my thing, it can be hard to be like, oh yeah, I've got to do all the talking, there’s no one to banter with up here. It’s like, oh, yeah, I'm the leader of the band, I've got to organise everything and tell people where to be, whereas in Sheppard, I can kind of take a back seat as Emma, my sister is really good at like tour managing and leading. Yeah, so I do have to sort of switch hats quite quickly, It's part of the learning curve and like I said earlier, it's making me a better artist so I think only good things can come from that experience.”
Looking ahead to when you tour later this year, obviously there are people that will know you through the band and some of the audience may expect an extension of that so are you trying to keep the setup on stage very separate or are you having quite a bit of crossover?
“I'm not opposed to it. I think while I'm still establishing myself as an artist, I have tried to keep it separate, just in terms of like, I probably won’t have Emma play bass at the moment just because I think it could be maybe a bit jarring or confusing for audiences. I do want to separate the two, like this is a different project, but, I mean, behind the scenes it is very much an expansion of Sheppard. It's all under the umbrella of our independent record label, which is called Empire of Song”
Lastly as we’ve flirted around things with the band, I have to bring up “Geronimo” as it has had such huge, huge, huge success around the world. When you wrote that with Jason and George, did you know straight away that this was the one that was so special. You have probably written songs since that you personally relate to you more and feel more special to you but was there a point where you knew before “Geronimo” took off and went wild that this was going to be the one?
I’m guessing that your brother has a few more writing credits on your new album because you have written together for ever. I know George is doing some stuff of his own too so when you're working on music, have you found there were times when you are working on something you thought was going to go towards your new country sound but as it grew, you think hang on, we should probably give Emma a call as this has more of a feel for something that would work with the band. Equally when you have been working towards a Sheppard project, have you had it the other way round where you get something that you like and you are like hey, hands off, I like this one, I want to keep it!
“Definitely, definitely ha-ha. It's really funny, but it's also great because it's like another avenue to get our music out there. There’s been too many times we’ve written songs and it's been like, oh, well, it's just not quite right for Sheppard so, there's like, another avenue that we can release music. Yeah, I have found that I've stolen a couple of tracks here and there or a couple of ideas and as well, we've started ideas where you are like, actually, this is probably in more of the Sheppard and we just roll with that. It's fun, you know, there's no rules and of course, George is my favourite person to write songs with and it's easy because he's around all the time. In Brisbane in particular, there's not a lot of songwriters, it's kind of niche to be a songwriter here so we're each other's favourite collaborators and I mean, it just comes naturally, depending on what mood we're in on the day.”
As you are in the zone of working towards your new album dropping right now but with the band, you guys put out a deluxe version of “Zora” not too long ago, does it feel quite strange to have been working and pushing two projects at the same time that are very different and very separate?
“Yeah, it can. I've been pretty fortunate, I haven't had too big of a clash yet, but know that with Sheppard we're looking at releasing a single here and there where I've had to avoid dates. So, it's starting to get a bit tricky now, now that I've got a full album but we'll work it out. It can be weird to like shift gears, because if I've been on tour with Sheppard and I go to do my thing, it can be hard to be like, oh yeah, I've got to do all the talking, there’s no one to banter with up here. It’s like, oh, yeah, I'm the leader of the band, I've got to organise everything and tell people where to be, whereas in Sheppard, I can kind of take a back seat as Emma, my sister is really good at like tour managing and leading. Yeah, so I do have to sort of switch hats quite quickly, It's part of the learning curve and like I said earlier, it's making me a better artist so I think only good things can come from that experience.”
Looking ahead to when you tour later this year, obviously there are people that will know you through the band and some of the audience may expect an extension of that so are you trying to keep the setup on stage very separate or are you having quite a bit of crossover?
“I'm not opposed to it. I think while I'm still establishing myself as an artist, I have tried to keep it separate, just in terms of like, I probably won’t have Emma play bass at the moment just because I think it could be maybe a bit jarring or confusing for audiences. I do want to separate the two, like this is a different project, but, I mean, behind the scenes it is very much an expansion of Sheppard. It's all under the umbrella of our independent record label, which is called Empire of Song”
Lastly as we’ve flirted around things with the band, I have to bring up “Geronimo” as it has had such huge, huge, huge success around the world. When you wrote that with Jason and George, did you know straight away that this was the one that was so special. You have probably written songs since that you personally relate to you more and feel more special to you but was there a point where you knew before “Geronimo” took off and went wild that this was going to be the one?
“We knew that it sounded cool when we were writing it, we were like, this is awesome, we love it. Then we found Stuart Stuart, the producer and he just bought it to life exactly how we heard it, where we were like, "This is amazing if only the world could hear it.” We had had a single called "Let Me Down Easy” which had done well, I think it got to about twelve on the ARIA charts here and we were just hoping to match that success and keep the momentum going. It went to radio, it went to number one in three weeks here in Australia, and then it started to get international traction and we were just like, oh, okay, this is like, big. We weren't expecting it to go international, but I'm so glad that it did and it just seems to be one of those classics that never dies. So, we’re very grateful for that but what came out that day was something special.”
Thanks for your time this afternoon and once again, many congratulations. Best of luck with the record and the tour, then seriously, I know obviously it's not going to be something you can do in the first part of next year especially but going forward we would love to have you come back and play for the country crowds here, I think you would love it.
“Thank you so much. I hope to get there, it’s definitely a goal of mine and I'm sure I will, it’s probably not going to be the first half of the year ha-ha but definitely down the track, I can see myself getting there.”
The debut album “Born To Be Country” from Amy Sheppard will be released on October 10th and is available to pre-save HERE. Amy has a number of upcoming tour dates in Australia which you can find details and ticket information on her WEBSITE and you can keep up to date with all that she is up to socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X or FACEBOOK.
Thanks for your time this afternoon and once again, many congratulations. Best of luck with the record and the tour, then seriously, I know obviously it's not going to be something you can do in the first part of next year especially but going forward we would love to have you come back and play for the country crowds here, I think you would love it.
“Thank you so much. I hope to get there, it’s definitely a goal of mine and I'm sure I will, it’s probably not going to be the first half of the year ha-ha but definitely down the track, I can see myself getting there.”
The debut album “Born To Be Country” from Amy Sheppard will be released on October 10th and is available to pre-save HERE. Amy has a number of upcoming tour dates in Australia which you can find details and ticket information on her WEBSITE and you can keep up to date with all that she is up to socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X or FACEBOOK.
