How Amy Shark’s new album will take her connection with fans to a new level
Amy Shark’s new album is her most personal yet. And if fans thought they knew the inner workings of her mind before, Sunday Sadness takes that connection to a whole new level.
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Amy Shark’s new album is her most personal yet. And if fans thought they knew the inner workings of her mind before, Sunday Sadness takes that connection to a whole new level.
There’s still doubt and anxiety – mainly because it’s so her, there’s nowhere to hide. And after the year she’s had, she’s okay with that.
“I’ve been sitting with this album for so long, so obviously when it was all coming together I was so excited and I’m like, this is perfect now and everything I’ve learned up until album three I’ve put into play’ and I was just super proud – and then for some reason the anxiety kicks in,” Shark explains.
“Just recently I’ve had some playbacks and I’m so glad it holds up, and people are liking it. Because it’s really hard to keep the excitement up there, because everyone’s made their mind up by now.
“A lot of the country, especially by album three – they either don’t mind you, they love you or they hate you – there’s no need to be Shazaming it – people know now, ‘that’s an Amy song’, so I feel like we need to flex even harder in songwriting, and in production and the confidence of the songs. You don’t have the new kid momentum anymore.”
So why Sunday Sadness? Well, it’s no one’s favourite day, but Shark has always hated them more than most.
“Ever since I was a kid, as soon as it hit about four or 5pm, and streetlights come on a Sunday, I just hated it because I had to go home,” she says.
“I hated my stepmum and I was like, I don’t want to go home – so even from a young age, I really just hated Sundays. Even in adult life, it’s like there’s work tomorrow, and I feel like I’m always lying there and can’t sleep at night because I’m thinking about so many things … like ‘Oh, man, I haven’t spoken to her in a while’ or ‘hope Nan’s okay’ … I need to find my birth certificate … or launch that thing – just everything that comes into your head.
“And since I’ve become a musician I love what I do – so I just want to keep working. I love making music and getting sh-t done … so I made it my job to finish the album. We wanted it to be a body of work that showcases real conversation, real things – that’s what I’ve always tried to do.”
Real it is. About friendship. Perception. The industry that can make and break you, all at the same time. Marriage. The ups and downs and subsequent survival of relationships, of balance – the push and pull of work versus life when travel makes moments of calm amid chaos few and far between.
And through it all is Shark’s husband Shane Billings – the man she credits to keeping her going since they met 17 years ago – and a man who is not only her partner in life and business but her best friend.
“Everyone thinks I work – but Shane doesn’t stop working – he knows the Amy Shark world better than I do,” she says.
“He was there the whole way, and we always do it like that. We always rearrange songs, and we’ll pick songs apart, and there’ll be songs where he’s like, ‘it falls flat here’ or ‘I’m losing interest in this part of the song’ and we’ll have an argument about it, and I’ll tell him I hate him – and the next morning I’ll be like, ‘I think you’re right’ and we’ll work on it. So it really is real.
“We just have a way of working together, and some people think it’s really weird because we’re not really lovey dovey. He’s just got feedback that I always listen to, because he’s always watching for the best possible reasons, because he loves me. He’s not a dick manager who just wants to have a say.”
Sunday Sadness is an 11-track masterpiece by Shark, featuring the creative contributions of a dream line of up producers including Kid Harpoon, Dann Hume and Matt Corby. The release comes off the back of a huge few years for Shark, who returned to our screens earlier this year as a judge for Australian Idol and took home a Logie. The album, of course, includes recent singles Beautiful Eyes, Two Friends and Loving Me Lover – as well as new tracks Slide Down The Wall, It’s Nice To Feel This Way Again, Babe and I’m Sorry. And they’re all real. Just ask Shane.
“You need to be able to have the real, the hard conversations, even though they suck – but I think that’s what makes you stronger as a couple,” she continues.
“When you get through stuff, and you can talk everything and anything, it’s only going to make it better … I wish every couple did that because then you’re not harbouring any resentment.”
Whether it’s too much travel or too much work – their life, like everyone else’s, is a constant strive for balance.
“We’re working in music, which can nearly kill you – but it’s the coolest job ever, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” she says.
“We just really know when we need to reset; we know we need to go and hang out with our nieces and nephews and just talk about funny sh-t with kids and just detach from everything. It’s an every day balance … because he’s my best friend. And I’m his best friend. For the past however long we’ve been together, there’s still no one else I’d rather call and tell something funny.”
Notoriously a homebody, Shark has learnt to prioritise what’s important, which also helps with the balance.
“(New song) My Only Friend is basically, there have been a number of people in my life that have come to things with me … and sometimes they’re not treated nicely,” the eight-time ARIA winner says.
“And that’s where the line, ‘just tell them that you’re with me’ comes from – even that sounds obnoxious and a bit egotistical – but that’s what I’ve had to do. Because there’s people out there that are real star chasers. And if you don’t have any celebrity, they’re so rude to you. I’ve seen it happen to family members and I’ve had to be like ‘they’re with me, and I don’t really appreciate you not letting them in or not offering them a drink’ – it’s frustrating.
“It’s so weird, the things you have to do. I get thrown into the weirdest rooms all the time … like I’m going from a hospital where parents are bawling their eyes out and their child is suffering and you have to know what to say – and then be at a cocktail bar at 2am talking to some producer from a network and not disgrace myself and know when I’ve had enough wine – it’s a never ending f--king balance … it’s really exhausting,” she says.
She’s also found her stride with Idol, which starts shooting around the same time as her upcoming October tour. Again, it’s about balance.
She says it was fellow judge Kyle Sandilands who helped her find her groove on the hit Seven show.
“Every day on Idol I’m like, please have the right words to say, please don’t screw up … because it’s so crazy – and you don’t get any scripts,” she says.
“Kyle was really good with me at the start because he was just like ‘just be yourself – whatever Amy would normally say, I bet that’s the right way to go’.
“Because I felt like an impostor at the start, I really did. I’m sitting next to Meghan Trainor and Harry Connick – and it’s like, I don’t know why I’m here, and it was very strange.
“But then I guess I forgot that my journey getting to where I was … was a real struggle, and it was a lot of heartache. I mean, I uploaded my f--king songs to Triple J. I had to pray that people liked it, and the rest was all very organic. So I just lent into my story, and once I did that, that’s where I could help these kids and just let them know that even if you get a no today, get after it again tomorrow, because that’s what I did.”
Now, it’s onto The Sadness Tour. And she can’t wait: “I just feel very lucky. Everyone has their little moments where it’s like, ‘oh, cool, this is one of my moments’ and that’s sick.
“And sometimes you think all your moments are going to run out. Like, in 2018 with Love Monster – I said to my whole team … don’t expect anything else – I’ve used up every bit of good luck I had stored this year – and every time something cool happens, I’m just so thankful.”
THIRD ALBUM SCORES BIG BLINK-182 TRIFECTA
Amy Shark is the first artist to record with all three members of famed punk rock band Blink-182, thanks to a new song on her anticipated album she bought to life with Tom DeLonge.
She’s already worked with Mark Hoppus on Psycho and Travis Barker on CMON – so her new collab with DeLonge for moving new song My Only Friend completes her Blink trifecta – not bad for someone she met as a fan back in 2010.
“Ah, the final piece of the puzzle,” Shark sighs.
“I can’t play favourites, but he was the one that stood out to me as a teenager because he was so nasal and his voice was so different, and his guitar playing was so sick and his songwriting was incredible.
“It was of an era where everyone was listening to a lot of pop, and I did this massive swerve into pop punk because I was like ... people don’t get it, but it’s better melodies than then half the sh-t being played on mainstream. And eventually they did All the Small Things and got massive – and he just taught me a lot.
“He taught me a lot about not caring about what other people think, and just doing cool sh-t, and early on Tom said, ‘just do something really cool, and something you’re really proud of, and put it into the world’ – and that was when I was just a fan.”
Shark was a budding musician when she lined up to meet DeLonge in San Diego 14 years ago. The then 24-year-old Gold Coast girl was releasing music as Amy Cushway – and it may have taken her the most part of 15 years persisting with music, but here she is.
Getting ready to tour. Intensely proud of her third album Sunday Sadness. And making magic with not one of her musical idols, but all three.
“It’s just been such a weird thing for me to achieve – it’s not like I put a door out and thought to myself, ‘I’m going to sign an album deal and I’m going to have a Blink member on every album’ – it’s not something that was planned,” she tells Insider.
“It just so naturally happened, which is so cool.
“I don’t think any other artist in the world has done that – it’s so weird and iconic – well to me, anyway,” she laughs.
After meeting DeLonge as a fan all those years ago, Shark says the universe intervened just when she needed it to.
“I was pretty persistent – but there is something in the universe because Tom was the only one that I had met before because of his other band, Angels & Airwaves, and the rest came to me,” she explains.
“It just so happened – when Blink wasn’t together – Mark hit me up and we did Psycho and then Travis heard that and said ‘hey I love what you’re doing with Mark, if you ever want some drums hit me up’ – and so we did that. And then I started talking to Tom, and he told me – before it even came out in the press – he was like, ‘hey, I just want to let you know, because I know you’re an absolute fan that’s been there from the beginning – we’re getting back together’ – he was like don’t tell anyone, so it was crazy. And then I started on album three, and we were talking online and I said ‘hey, man, this is album three for me, and I really can’t do this album without you on it – like, I just can’t’. So I sent him the song, and he loved it and that was that.”
Shark spent most of February on the road with the band, now her fierce friends, attending each of their shows – and it’s still surreal
“The universe was like ‘hey, you’ve been so patient – now it’s your time and we’re gonna deliver you your favourite band’,” Shark says.
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