SHEPPARD ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU + BRISBANE LORD MAYOR CHRISTMAS CAROLS
Aussie pop superstars Sheppard have just released their glistening, heartfelt new single Christmas Without You, a poignant seasonal track that will hit home for those who are missing a loved one this Christmas, out today. The thoughtful song and spectacular video are landing just towards the end of an absolutely massive year for this powerhouse family group, with their 2021 album Kaleidoscope Eyes peaking at number 2 on the ARIA charts and their beloved hit Coming Home racking up over sixty million Spotify streams. Sheppard will be celebrating the release of Christmas Without You with a performance at Brisbane Lord Mayor Christmas Carols on December 11.
Christmas Without You is a truly appropriate Christmas song for a year like 2021; reflective, gentle, and emotive, festive piano and subtle bells lead the song as vocalist George Sheppard’s sweet voice floats above it all. The track reaches an expressive, cathartic climax, perfectly suited to the melancholy of a festive season that’s missing some loved ones. Evocative of Coldplay’s seasonal classic Christmas Lights, Christmas Without You is a sparkling triumph, as George reflects, “My sisters and I realised that there must be so many people who, for whatever reason, haven’t been able to see their families and loved ones for a very long time, and Christmas time can be particularly hard for people in those circumstances. We wanted to write a song for all of those people who might not be having such a great Christmas without their families, and to leave them with a little bit of warmth and hope.” The video for Christmas Without You, created by the band’s longtime visual collaborators, Polish graphic design firm Ars Thanea, is a stunning offering, consisting of gorgeous, pain-stakingly created CGI imagery that feels perfectly in line with the ebbs and flows of the song itself.
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, saying, “We’ve been lucky enough to be invited to perform at a few of the big carol events this year, which is a huge honour. We’ll be playing this new Christmas song of course! It will sound huge with a full live band and possibly an orchestra, so we’re really hoping it will be a beautiful spectacle for families all across Australia.”
Sheppard’s anthemic, colourful, energetic pop has made them a household name in Australia. Boasting over 850 million streams across all platforms, a handful of number ones across the world, and just last year, a coveted half-time performance slot at the AFL Grand Final, during which they announced their 2021 album Kaleidoscope Eyes. The group, consisting of George, Amy and Emma Sheppard, guitarist Jason Bovino and drummer Dean Gordon, have already achieved more than most artists can dream of in a lifetime – but by all accounts, they’re only still just getting started.
Christmas Without You is out today.
Sheppard is Amy Sheppard – Singer/Keys, George Sheppard – Lead Singer/Guitar/Keys, Emma Sheppard – Back-up vocals/Bass Guitar, Jason Bovino – Guitar, Dean Gordan – Drums.
RÜFÜS DU SOL ANNOUNCE FOURTH STUDIO ALBUM ‘SURRENDER’ SET FOR OCTOBER 22 RELEASE + SHARE NEW SINGLE ‘ON MY KNEES’ OUT NOW ON ROSE AVENUE AND REPRISE/WARNER RECORDS
Grammy-nominated live-electronic trio RÜFÜS DU SOL have today announced their fourth full length album, Surrender set to land on October 22, and shared a third taste of the album with new single On My Knees, out today on Rose Avenue and Reprise / Warner Records.
Surrender sees RÜFÜS DU SOL stridently building their own world; an album written on their own terms. The band’s electronic roots offer a proud point of separation from other stadium-selling live artists, even as they write songs and play to crowds that break the traditional glass ceiling for dance acts.
On My Knees is a brooding insight into RÜFÜS DU SOL’s darker tendencies, toying with honest emotions and aching lyricism, demonstrating what makes them so unique in the electronic space. While previous single Alive gave a glimmer of hope, and Next To Me a yearning for love and romance, On My Knees has an anguished sense about it, playing into the powerful title of Surrender. The band reference the industrial sounds and sonics of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, coupled with the lyrical intensity on which their career has been built.
Tyrone Linqvist hauntingly sings “If you could see me now, I’d probably let you down… Looks like I’m on my knees again, feels like the walls are closing in.”
“For this song we had a lot of fun writing something that was darker, driving and a little more edgy,” explains James Hunt. “It’s definitely one of the most banging tracks on the record – we referenced some of our favourite club music for the drum programming and had fun envisioning the time when we could finally play this live. It had an amazing reaction at our Red Rocks shows last month which was really special for us.”
RÜFÜS DU SOL is a band synonymous with tension, they came together through the push and pull of the dancefloor, have a live act whose passion lies on the dancefloor, and lyricists who spill their personal pain for thousands to dance to. From the opening keys of Next To Me, through the propulsive chug of On My Knees, the record inhabits a world that is deep, lush, organic, yet electronic.
This world building has been RÜFÜS DU SOL’s focus since its inception, its name meant to evoke an otherworldly destination, a future point the band dreamed of arriving at from their bedrooms in Sydney, and, later, recording studios in Berlin and LA. This vision was vital to Surrender, as the band wrote songs to transcend the intimacy of the world they built together, exiled from their families, in a DIY ground floor Hollywood apartment studio. The result is a record that is bolder, braver and more far-reaching than anything they have done before.
The accompanying music video was filmed in August during a unique Red Rocks Amphitheatre show rehearsal. The band’s creative director, Alex ‘Katzki’ George, collaborated with Ruff Mercy, an animation director and artist based out in the UK to create visuals/animations on top of the video, giving the project a darker 90’s rave vibe. Ruff Mercy has worked with artists such as Thom Yorke, Disclosure, Run The Jewels and big brands such as Nike, Apple, Adidas and more.
As the band returns to the stage for their North American tour and array of festival performances, they experience once again the immense demand for their live return. Two sold out nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre; 70,000 fans waiting to see them play across three nights at the Los Angeles Banc of California Stadium; festival appearances slated at Governors Ball, Austin City Limits, III Points; and a host of shows dotted around the south west United States act as a stark reminder to their influence on the global music scene.
On My Knees is out today on Rose Avene and Reprise/Warner Records
Surrender is set for release on October 22
RÜFÜS DU SOL SHARE NEW SINGLE NEXT TO ME ALONGSIDE ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTED BY OSK
Today, Grammy-nominated live-electronic trio RÜFÜS DU SOL have released their latest single on Rose Avenue and Reprise / Warner Records, Next To Me. The track adds a new chapter to the band’s career-long straddling of the dualities of light and dark, loss and love.
Next To Me portrays a sense of maturity and adoration on a level not felt before from the band. At its core it is a song of devotion, of caring compassion, an affair of the heart not undercut by the pressures of stardom or toils of young love. It’s a point of departure from the haunting emotive rollercoaster of recent single Alive, and a more positive lyrical take on the foundation set by the similarly anthemic Treat You Better off the 2018 Grammy-nominated SOLACE LP.
Tyrone sings in the chorus, “…and when time runs out, I want to feel you standing next to me”.
In Jon George’s words, “There were a lot more yearning lyrics being put down when we were writing the track, but we felt it didn’t need any of the darkness that you hear on a lot of our other records. We wanted to create something more positive and happy, a kind of homage to the feel-good soul of classic house music. I am sure there is part of this that reflects a feeling in our lives and relationships. We wanted to share that with this track.”
Tyrone echos, “We decided we wanted this to be a simple love song, which is rare of us to do, to create something purely sweet without juxtaposing that with the raw, dark emotions on the other side”
Next To Me was spawned from a pandemic recording trip in Joshua Tree and refined six months later in RÜFÜS DU SOL’s Los Angeles studio. A true tale of the songwriting process and the value of simplicity, the vocal melody and piano lead originally captured in the desert remain the beating heart of the record. The track offers a clear hook fused with progressive electronic sonics, a furthering of the band’s ability to produce with one foot in mass appeal and the other in the dance music underground.
James Hunt adds, “We tried adding things to make it ‘better’ and kept returning to the feeling we experienced when we first wrote the song that day in the desert. It’s a good example of the thing that came out on the day we wrote it being the most pure and authentic version of what we were trying to create.”
The band has tapped futuristic directors Osk to create a self-initiated, artificially intelligent visual work to accompany Next To Me. Known for collaborations with Kanye West, NASA, John Coltrane (estate), and Google, Osk has combined the power of A.I. with RÜFÜS DU SOL’s obsession with audio-visual world-building to immerse viewers into new complex landscapes. The official video sees A.I.-generated topographies unfurl and unfold into morphing images that defy reality, seamlessly flowing from mountain tops and valleys to city scapes and highways. This technological connection between the natural and manmade worlds reflects the sonic palette this band has spent the last decade refining.
Osk comments, “We don’t see A.I. as a tool but as a collaborator – one we are in a constant conversation with as we develop new possibilities for its expression and our own. New perspectives are always valuable, and although much of the way A.I. operates is modeled on or inspired by us, it has a fundamentally different way of understanding that can reveal new approaches or perspectives we may not have seen. Merging artificial intelligence with the existing languages of film, art, music and human expression expands our notions of them all.”
RÜFÜS DU SOL have already experienced an immense demand for their live return, selling 70,000 tickets in three days for their largest headlining shows to date at Los Angeles Banc of California Stadium. The onsale was a true barometer for just how deeply fans crave the sonic escapism RÜFÜS DU SOL work to deliver at every show. This banner moment joins two sold out nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in August, and a bevy of headlining festival appearances already announced including Governors Ball, Austin City Limits, III Points and more.
Next To Me is released today.