Brisbane band Sheppard’s fourth album Zora is personal - from the title down.
Zora isn’t only the name of the Sheppard siblings’ family matriarch and Croatian grandma – who superfans will recognise as one of their own, a regular at live shows.
"Baba, as we call her, has always been a beacon for light in our lives, always been positive,” Amy Sheppard explains.
“She’s had a really, really hard life. She came over to Australia on a ship to escape war in Yugoslavia and built a life for herself here. She worked multiple jobs. She met the love of her life who passed away from cancer when he was only fifty, leaving her to raise seven children. She’s been through the toughest of times and yet she is always smiling, always looking at the bright side.”
That positive attitude and unrelenting resilience is imprinted in not only the Sheppard siblings’ DNA, but it resonates all through their glass-half-full pop music.
They were finishing their fourth album while navigating Covid, lockdowns, music industry upheavals and personal struggles.
“A lot of the songs were about finding that light at the end of the tunnel,” Amy continues.
“We were trying to find a name for the album and came up with words like ‘sunrise’ that weren’t quite right. While we were brainstorming Emma’s husband said ‘What’s ‘dawn’ in Croatian?’ So we looked and it was ‘Zora’. It was so fortuitous, we got goosebumps and just believed it was meant to be.”
Zora has already been previewed with a run of acclaimed singles: Good Time, Daylight, Dance on the Sun and Edge of the Earth.
It arrives as Sheppard have followed through on their goal of relocating to Nashville to capitalise on their immense international appeal.
It’s now 10 years since they charmed the globe with their debut album Bombs Away and the wildly-catchy Geronimo – a song which has now had over two billion streams. Sheppard's journey continues with "Zora," a testament to resilience, growth, and the enduring power of dreams.