Sheppard Announce New Album Dedicated To Grandmother 'Zora'

Brisbane family trio Sheppard have announced that their highly anticipated fourth album, Zora, will finally be released this year.

The follow-up to 2021’s ARIA #2 album Kaleidoscope Eyes, Zora has been a long time coming. Sheppard released the first single, Good Time, last February.

In addition to Good Time, Sheppard took fans on a new album campaign with the tracks Daylight, Dance On The Sun, and Edge Of The Earth—all before today’s announcement.

Sheppard’s new album was inspired by their grandmother, Zora, in a “moment of serendipity that couldn't be ignored,” Amy Sheppard states. The album was written in Brisbane, LA and Stockholm. George and Amy Sheppard joined forces with the band’s founding member, Jason Bovino while writing.

Zora will be released on Friday, 21 June. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here. It will be released digitally, on CD, and in limited-edition cassette and yellow double vinyl.

Here’s what George and Amy Sheppard had to say about the album in statements:

George Sheppard:

The album revolves around the rejuvenating nature of light and that no matter how dark life at times can feel, a new sunrise is just around the corner. Throughout any family ordeal or crisis (which no doubt every family goes through), we constantly look up to our Croatian Baba (grandma), whose name is Zora.

Life has thrown her some monumental curveballs, but the way she's always kept a smile on her face, shown nothing but love, positivity, and hope for the future in the face of tragedy is something we've always admired about her.

This led to us consciously focus on gratitude and finding the positive in our own moments of crisis or loss. Instead of writing sad songs of self-pity and despair, we decided to set out to craft an album that was authentic to our emotion and real-life experiences, but could still be fun, uplifting, anthemic, and most importantly - hopeful.

Amy Sheppard:

In a way of honouring our Baba and paying some homage to our Croatian heritage, we decided to look up what "Dawn" was in Croatian. Incredibly, the word for "Dawn" in Croatian is "Zora"; our grandma's name. It was a moment of serendipity that couldn't be ignored. The album name had found us.

Our hope is that Baba's legacy of gratitude and love in defiance of anguish will live on in our music. That Zora will stand as a beacon of light for anybody who might feel like all is lost. A timely reminder that darkness is only temporary, and soon a new sunrise will arrive to paint the sky with colour once again.