Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Shepherd.
Hi Aaron, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Bad Island Easter has just released their latest EP Tomorrow Will Be Like Yesterday on 12″ Vinyl and it is for sale on their page bandcamp.com.
My name is Aaron and this my band Bad Island Easter. We formed in 2007 in my parents’ basement by myself, Sebastian Mogan, Michael and Daniel Shepherd. The band was created to perform a song I had written on the autoharp called “Size of New York” which you can stream on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple music. My parents David and Cherie let us practice and perform shows their basement. We were barely 21 at the time and we considered Bad Island Easter to be edgiest possible incarnation of our musical expression.
The band name was the idea of founding member and my older brother Daniel. He gifted me the name before the band formed. When Sebastian, Michael and I wanted to form rock band we naturally used this name and asked Daniel to play with us. Daniel wrote the iconic lead guitar and keyboard line on my little sisters Casio keyboard. He did it right in front of us. We knew in that moment that Bad Island Easter needed to rock.
Shortly after forming we played house shows and at at least two now defunct Nashville venues. Bad Island Easter in its first mode blossomed when we recorded our first EP at Cedar Creek Studios in Franklin Tennessee. The studio was used to record children’s music and gold records hanging on the wall. Two friends recorded us. Daniel had the idea of playing the core instruments together and in one weekend we recorded four songs. All of these songs can be streamed online and you can hear them as bonus tracks on the Tomorrow Will Be Like Yesterday EP 12″ vinyl.
Shortly after these recording sessions the band Bad Island Easter broke up. A few of the tracks from those recordings we put on MySpace and Soundcloud. But they mainly existed on burned CDs and were distributed as gifts.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
After we recorded the self-titled ep the band broke up. Sebastian and I continued to write and play together in different bands. And it was around this time that Daniel started playing drums for Matt Lowell. Daniel and I also played for our friend Mike in his band We Were Pirates. I formed other bands so I could keep playing “Size of New York.” My little brother Jack also played drums for me, Matt, and Sebastian in different projects. These were fertile times and we didn’t know it back then but we were laying the ground work for something special.
Sebastian, during the 10-year Bad Island Easter break, organized a benifit concert in downtown Franklin where he got to perform with Michael McDonald. Sebastian also formed the Rhythm Bullies band. You can still hear some of these songs on YouTube like the phenomonall instruemtal track “Escape from Dysnomia.” It was during this project where Sebastian aquired the skilles to record and produce his own music. He also formed some great professional relationships that would allow Bad Island Easter to return.
I returned to school shortly after the recording sessions and formed a succesful party rock band in Chattanooga Tennessee called Wet Cadillac/HolySmokes! My little brother Jack helped me form this band with Christian Swafford (of Heavy Sleeper) and our friends Kyle, Sean, and Billy. It was refreshing playing music in Chattanooga because people would actually come out to the shows. They wanted to have a good time and our band formed a cult following playing shows at JJ’s Bohemia with out of town bands and even with our friends Mike with We We Were Pirates. Daniel even drove down for the show. It was with this band that I learned to use my rock voice. And I also learned how to channel my nerves and emotions into my physical live performance. Wet Cadillac/HolySmokes also recorded an EP including an alternate version of “Size of New York.” We still have the masters and maybe one day will release them. In these sessions we recorded two other Bad Island Easter era songs called “Same Name” and “Jackson.” And just like Bad Island Easter this band broke up shortly after recording. I took a hard break from music after this project and returned to Nashville.
In 2016 Bad Island Easter was getting ready to return when Matt and I saw Sebastian play a show with the Rythmn Bullies at the Cobra in Nashville. It was this night that Matt decided he wanted to play live music. The show was great and sparskey attended. The staff at the Cobra was great and they made the band sound awesome. Although I had taken a break from music, Matt had not and had been writing songs for years. Eventually Sebastian and I started trying to work on music again. Simultaneously, I consulted with my wife my on whether or not I should invite myself to write music again with Matt. We decided I should and I did. I asked Matt in the parking lot of Dose in Old Hickory if I could write songs with him. It was also at that time that conversation that I first mentioned my desire to reform Bad Island Easter.
We wrote some songs together at Matt’s house and started recording demos on bandlab. We showed the demos to Sebastian and I mentioned to him that maybe we could make music again as Bad Island Easter. Sebastian was excited about playing in a band again and not having to play guitar or be the primary songwriter/singer. He wanted to focus more on keyboard and production. Matt moved into the guitar slot. I picked up my blue Jazz bass again. And we checked with Jack to see if he still had is drum set. We immediately began practicing and recording again. As we were writing new songs I decided to release the 2007 EP and since then three of those songs have been played on the radio in England and Tennessee.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Tomorrow Will Be Like Yesterday EP has just been released on 12″ vinyl record and it is for sale on bandcamp. It was pressed by Vinyl Ceremony out of Pasadena California. You can purchase the record directly from us. We will also be playing a stripped down show Second Look Saturday 507 Hagan Street, Nashville TN on June 20th, 2026. We will have copies of the record for sale there. The EP includes “Who We Are on TV” and “Alchemy” plus a Kinks cover song and three live tracks. As a bonus we included our 2007 EP on side b which includes “Size of New York.”
We also just recently launched our online merch shop.
https://direct.distrokid.com/badislandeaster/home
Pricing:
- Tomorrow Will Be Like Yesterday EP $25 plus shipping
- Shirts $25 plus shipping
Contact Info:
- Website: https://badislandeaster.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrow-will-be-like-yesterday-ep
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badislandeaster/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Bad-Island-Easter-61578464732583/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMUDukuwX93ud95X26huKXQ/videos
- Other: https://direct.distrokid.com/badislandeaster/home
