The Brisbane, Australia pop-rock group Sheppard will be getting a very early start the day they’re scheduled to come to Philly.
Set to appear Nov. 24 on NBC’s “Today,” they will then head south from New York to play The Foundry, the upstairs venue at the Fillmore Philadelphia. Co-lead singer Amy Sheppard said in a phone interview that lack of sleep is normal, especially when coping with the jet lag that comes with traveling to the USA.
Their recently released track “Coming Home” has uplifting lyrical imagery you can easily associate with holiday homecomings. “‘Coming Home”s the feeling for us when we land back home in Australia,” she said.
Playing in the U.S. for the first time in two years, this is the first time the six-piece band – which features Sheppard’s siblings, George and Emma – has experienced the American holiday of Thanksgiving. She said they’d be having a turkey dinner, with all the trimmings.
Their effervescent 2015 single “Geronimo” got some American radio airplay, and was featured in Disney Channel’s “Girl Meets World,” but was a runaway hit elsewhere in the world, going platinum in 21 different countries and reaching a combined 400 million streams.
The success led to an opening act slot for Meghan Trainor, who is “super nice,” according to Sheppard.
This spring, the band Sheppard found themselves opening for Justin Bieber on the Australian leg of his tour, then doing it again in July at the British Summer Time festival in London’s Hyde Park. “Justin Bieber was a much bigger production. He just comes in, does his show and leaves. He did compliment me on my sparkly outfit,” she laughed.
You can find “Coming Home,” plus the new songs “Edge of the Night” and “Keep Me Crazy,” online. They’ll be on Sheppard’s sophomore album, coming out in 2018, titled “Watching the Sky.”
“When we’re writing, we don’t have a specific process,” said Sheppard, who started the band with her co-lead singer and brother, George, after procrastinating writing a song for a school assignment.
“I knew he could sing. I said: ‘George, you’ve got to help me’,” she said.
When he did, her reaction was: “Holy … he’s amazing.”
“Here we are five or so years later …,” Sheppard continued.
For more, check out www.wearesheppard.com.
