The Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols is Brisbane’s premier annual Christmas event. It brings the community together in celebration of the magic and joy of the holiday season.
This year, Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols 2021 comes to you, revamped. Hosted by Queensland’s first lady of song, Naomi Price, the show, featuring a cast of local legends, includes our favourite Australian family band, Sheppard!
Sheppard’s anthemic, colourful, energetic pop has made them a household name in Australia. The group, consisting of George, Amy and Emma Sheppard, guitarist Jason Bovino and drummer Dean Gordon, boast over 850 million streams across all platforms.
The powerhouse performers have already achieved more than most artists can dream of in a lifetime – but by all accounts, they’re only still just getting started.
Excited to be performing the new single at their hometown Brisbane Lord Mayor Christmas Carols on December 11, George gives fans a taste of what to expect from the event.
FIB sits down to chat withSheppard about the event and more. Check it out below.
You must be looking forward to the Brisbane Lord Mayor Christmas Carols, coming up on December 11…
We are super excited to be playing the Brisbane Lord Mayor Christmas Carols. It will be the first time playing at the Brisbane Carols and also the first time playing at Riverstage, so you can imagine our excitement.
What can fans look forward to on the night?
The Carols are going to be a night to remember! It’s going to feel so surreal performing to a full capacity crowd at Riverstage. The fans can look forward to some brilliant performances from some of Brisbane’s most talented artists and of course lots of Christmas cheer!
Your new Christmas ballad “Christmas Without You” is a great holiday number. What inspired you to write the track?
It’s been on our bucket list to write a Christmas carol but it just never felt right until this year. We haven’t seen our dad for 2 years now because of the pandemic and we thought we would write a song from our own experience with missing him again for Christmas. We thought a lot of people would be in the same situation so we wanted to write a song that was meaningful but also brings hope to a lot of people.
How did the video clip come together?
This song meant so much to us that we didn’t want a video clip to take away from the important message it brings. We worked with a Polish design studio called Arsthanea, who have come up with a visual masterpiece for us. We’ve worked with them for a while now and they did all the artwork for every single release last year as well as both album covers.
What is one of your favourite collaborations, projects or career highlights so far?
We are lucky to say we have had many, so it’s hard to choose. Being on Jimmy Fallon was one of the biggest highlights for us. The atmosphere in the studio was amazing and everyone made us feel so welcome. Also opening for Elton John and Robbie Williams were two amazing tours for us.
What’s it like to be in a family band?
Well, we don’t really know what it’s like to be in a band without family members, haha, but it works for us. We trust each other and have each other’s backs which is great to have in the music industry and we can always be honest with one another.
What is the last song you listened to?
Biutyful by Coldplay.
Who is on your music playlist at the moment?
Gregory Alan Isakov is always on my playlists!
Who, or what, is your biggest inspiration?
As a band, our biggest inspiration is probably Coldplay. They have amazing anthemic, catchy tunes. The positivity and colour they bring into the world is something we want to be able to do for people.
How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
The Sheppard sound is actually quite electric. We tend to jump around quite a bit with our sound, but at our core, we are a pop band specializing in big, catchy, atmospheric, stadium-ready anthems. We definitely try and put as much colour and energy into our music as we can.
What are five things you can’t live without?
- Music
- Hotpot
- Champagne
- Family
- Netflix
What’s coming up for Sheppard in 2022?
We have an exciting 2022 coming up! We’ve just been announced as Delta Goodrem’s support act for her upcoming tour ‘Bridge Over Troubled Dreams’. Hopefully, we can also get to our fans over in Europe!
The Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols will be broadcast in full on Sunday 19 December at 7pm and a highlights package will be shown on Saturday 25 December at 6am on Channel Nine and Nine Now.
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