Speaker 1: I'm like not a woo woo kind of person, but
Speaker 1: I really truly believe that the universe has got a plan,
Speaker 1: because there's no way I should be here.
Speaker 2: There's no way I should have made it.
Speaker 3: Amy Shark has spent almost twenty years making music. Long
Speaker 3: before the ARIA awards, the number one albums and sold
Speaker 3: out tours, there were years of day jobs, cover gigs,
Speaker 3: unanswered demos, and wondering whether it was finally time to
Speaker 3: give up. When a door changed everything, it looked like
Speaker 3: the fairytale ending, but success brought its own challenges. After
Speaker 3: years of relentless touring, writing, promoting, and always being on,
Speaker 3: Amy found herself completely burnt out. Now with her fourth album,
Speaker 3: Soft Pop, she says she's fallen in love with making
Speaker 3: music again. In this conversation, Amy talks about growing up
Speaker 3: on the Gold Coast, losing her precious grandmother, fame versus reality,
Speaker 3: being married to her manager, and what it took to
Speaker 3: find her way back to the thing she'd loved since
Speaker 3: she was a little girl.
Speaker 2: This is Amy Shark. Where have you been today? Amy?
Speaker 1: Where?
Speaker 2: Oh, where haven't I been?
Speaker 1: I've been?
Speaker 2: What you're doing? What do you do on a day
Speaker 2: like today?
Speaker 1: Well, today was just I mean, this last month has
Speaker 1: just been pumped full of talking about this.
Speaker 2: Record, your new album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think like now it's so people have
Speaker 1: so much happening that it's not it's hard to get
Speaker 1: eyes on your project no matter who you are or
Speaker 1: what you're doing, Like, it doesn't matter even if you're
Speaker 1: a big dog like in the States or whatever. It's
Speaker 1: like you have to just like if it's something you
Speaker 1: want eyes on and you're proud of, I feel like
Speaker 1: you have to go so much more extra now, right,
Speaker 1: is exhausting, But it's also that's why you have to
Speaker 1: make sure you love what you've created and what you're
Speaker 1: talking about well, because also I think you're so much
Speaker 1: a part of the landscape in Australia. Amy Shark, by
Speaker 1: the way, welcome to No Filter.
Speaker 2: Thank you. We just ripped into it. That's right.
Speaker 3: We were talking before about trying to make a splash. Yes,
Speaker 3: you want your projects to be brought to the attention
Speaker 3: of people, but there also is I think a tendency
Speaker 3: in Australia. Maybe it's around the world, but it seems
Speaker 3: to be an Australian thing that if you're a part
Speaker 3: of the landscape which you have been, and it feels
Speaker 3: that you have been longer than I think you actually
Speaker 3: have been.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Adoor is Adoor was ten years ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, ten years ago this month, and I would say
Speaker 3: it feels longer because it feels so familiar and like
Speaker 3: it's just been a part of like so many people's soundtracks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's crazy. I feel two things.
Speaker 1: I feel like it was yesterday because obviously it was
Speaker 1: such a pivotal time in my life, and I, for
Speaker 1: some reason, can remember my old life so well. But
Speaker 1: then but then when I look at it, it feels
Speaker 1: like an eternity. It feels like I've just done this
Speaker 1: my whole life. So it's a real split feeling.
Speaker 3: When you say you remember your old life here, what
Speaker 3: part of your old life do you remember, like childhood
Speaker 3: or working more mean, yeah, we like ba before a
Speaker 3: door is what we call it.
Speaker 1: Just pedestrian life in nine to five job, get home,
Speaker 1: have dinner, do the same thing the next day, talk
Speaker 1: to the girls at work, have things booked in the calendar,
Speaker 1: like a holiday.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know what I mean, Like where there was
Speaker 3: a normalitine Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember it very well, and I think it's
Speaker 1: the one thing I miss a lot, Like.
Speaker 3: But you were striving then to get somewhere with your music,
Speaker 3: which I imagine is you want people to hear it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, I mean.
Speaker 1: I everything could stop tomorrow, and for me to have
Speaker 1: an audience was all I wanted, Like.
Speaker 3: To think I was.
Speaker 1: So addicted to it back then, for nobody like eleven
Speaker 1: people on MySpace, and then to think that, oh no,
Speaker 1: no matter what I do now, for the rest of
Speaker 1: my career, I will have I will have a pocket
Speaker 1: of people interested in what I do. And that's incredible feeling.
Speaker 1: But sometimes that feeling it's not enough to carry you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get I have been through that.
Speaker 1: I went through that at the beginning of my career
Speaker 1: where I was like, Okay, I've done that, so now
Speaker 1: I want to do this. I've played this, so now
Speaker 1: I want bigger and I've done this, so now I
Speaker 1: want bigger And then and then you fall apart, and
Speaker 1: then you I just randomly, just one day so freaking
Speaker 1: grateful for the life you have. And it's I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. It's just like you have to really go
Speaker 1: through it and you never can predict what's going to
Speaker 1: happen to you, and you never can predict how you're
Speaker 1: going to be mentally through the whole, you know, adventure
Speaker 1: of being an artist.
Speaker 3: Correct, and especially because I was thinking about you, You
Speaker 3: don't have the insulation of being in a band.
Speaker 2: There's not like other pillars that you can lean on.
Speaker 3: All of the grind comes and all of the artistry
Speaker 3: comes from you. Yes, like that takes a big engine. Yeah,
Speaker 3: did you always have the big engine? Like when you
Speaker 3: were little? When you were when you were little, where
Speaker 3: did you first recognize that you had that?
Speaker 2: Uh? I think it was a lot of my grandparents.
Speaker 1: Like I had three NaN's, you know, I had my
Speaker 1: mom's mom, my dad's mom, and then my stepdad's mom,
Speaker 1: and they were all so encouraging and like I was
Speaker 1: a bit of a character, hey, because like I loved
Speaker 1: acting and I loved movies and I could remember scripts
Speaker 1: like that, you know, and I could do voices and
Speaker 1: I would I don't know, And also spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time on my own growing up because mom dad
Speaker 1: had to work, and.
Speaker 2: Your parents were really young when they had you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were like nineteen, right, and they didn't want
Speaker 1: me just living with my nan because I think my
Speaker 1: mom thought she would never give me back if I
Speaker 1: just stayed with her. So I was in kindy like
Speaker 1: as a baby. So I've been forced to like be
Speaker 1: a people person since I was like born, you know,
Speaker 1: like be around people and read rooms and reading.
Speaker 2: Situations and yeah, like just yeah, so yeah, do.
Speaker 3: You think that was innate in you or do you
Speaker 3: think it's something that you developed through circumstance.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I don't know. I think I
Speaker 2: know my mom definitely isn't.
Speaker 1: She's just like not a confident person, Like she can't
Speaker 1: even handle what I do for a job. Like my dad,
Speaker 1: from what I know, can and from what I remember,
Speaker 1: is quite confident person. So probably from him, but yeah,
Speaker 1: probably also just just.
Speaker 3: Being a lone ranger and just like working it out
Speaker 3: on my own.
Speaker 1: I think that if this has got to happen, I'm
Speaker 1: going to have to make it happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was talking to someone the other day about playing
Speaker 1: guitar and they're like, oh, like, you know, getting lessons
Speaker 1: or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's like I did get lessons, but not many.
Speaker 1: But if it really was up to me to get
Speaker 1: good at guitar because I didn't have parents being like
Speaker 1: go and practice your guitar. It was more like I
Speaker 1: don't know why you're wasting your time on guitar, like
Speaker 1: go and read or go and like you know, learn something.
Speaker 1: And but you had that drive. Yeah, yeah, I was
Speaker 1: just addicted to playing guitar. Who was musical in your family?
Speaker 1: No one, none of the nana's no my my name
Speaker 1: used to like sing like badly, I think, just to
Speaker 1: make us laugh. But like Oper was this winny that
Speaker 1: was your mom's yes, mom. Yeah, and she kind of
Speaker 1: showed me all the classics, like all the like Rogers
Speaker 1: and Hammerstein and like Singing in the Rain and h Yeah,
Speaker 1: I learned a lot just from the movies she would
Speaker 1: show me as a kid.
Speaker 3: And then along the way that has informed a lot
Speaker 3: of your music, which is really interesting. The duet that
Speaker 3: you did with Keith Urban, the Love Songs one so
Speaker 3: beautiful and so almost otherworldly of another time. Yeah, that's intrigued.
Speaker 1: I can think mister Sharon for some of those chords. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he knows that classics. Yeah right, he's really into
Speaker 1: that as well. Yeah, he just knows how to make
Speaker 1: that sound.
Speaker 3: But so when you were little and so you're growing
Speaker 3: up you're on the gold host. What was your family
Speaker 3: structure like because your dad wasn't around or he left
Speaker 3: when you were pretty little. Yeah, it's so I did
Speaker 3: not know this about you, by the way.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it was like it actually was
Speaker 1: me and my dad at the start, and the timing
Speaker 1: like the it's it's such a hard thing to work out.
Speaker 1: But basically I was with my dad and my name
Speaker 1: his mom. She was so young when they had me,
Speaker 1: so and mom wasn't in the best way and like
Speaker 1: so yeah, so I was living with my dad and
Speaker 1: then he got remarried blah blah blah, a lot.
Speaker 2: Of stuff that family get into.
Speaker 1: But and then my mom we went up having to
Speaker 1: go to court side like a lawyer at the age
Speaker 1: of like nine really, and then I went and lived
Speaker 1: with my mom and my stepdad and but but through
Speaker 1: all that time I was spending a lot of time
Speaker 1: with my nan as well with Winnie.
Speaker 2: So she was like your norse.
Speaker 1: She's yeah, just the pillar through the whole, through my
Speaker 1: whole life. Thank God for that, I know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, so I I see it as lucky now.
Speaker 1: I used to think, oh, man, like I really bombed
Speaker 1: out with my situation sometimes, you know, when you're looking
Speaker 1: your wounds.
Speaker 2: But I'm so lucky that I had her. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then when you so, at what point did music
Speaker 3: become like your other constant? It was it was high school.
Speaker 2: I wasn't. Yeah, I was pretty late to it.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean I was in an era where if
Speaker 1: you didn't sound like Mariah Carey or you know, like
Speaker 1: I went to primary school with Ricky Lee, yeah, and
Speaker 1: high school. But she was a year above me. So
Speaker 1: when I heard her voice, I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: sound like that. I cannot sound like that. Did she
Speaker 1: sing at school?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So you heard her yeah, and it was like it
Speaker 3: was like whoa man? Like it was.
Speaker 1: It was crazy, so like at a school concert or yeah,
Speaker 1: like you just do the musicals and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And for me, I was just like, man, imagine having
Speaker 1: a voice like that. And then and in my young
Speaker 1: little head, I was like, oh, I wasn't born with that,
Speaker 1: like you know, even people when I watch them play guitar.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I'm not.
Speaker 1: It's funny because in my head I still to this
Speaker 1: day believe you're born with a voice. I don't think
Speaker 1: you can. Actually, I don't know if you could actually
Speaker 1: learn that.
Speaker 3: I am so happy to hear you say that, because
Speaker 3: a lot of singers say anyone can.
Speaker 1: Say anyone can play guitar, you can practice your ass
Speaker 1: off and you can become a shredder, right, But I
Speaker 1: don't believe that with singing.
Speaker 3: I think you are born with something. But your voice
Speaker 3: has not been a shortcoming of yours.
Speaker 1: I just have learned to work with what I have, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's just more of a medium for me. My
Speaker 1: voice is like I don't get me wrong, Like I
Speaker 1: know how to convey an emotion now and I know
Speaker 1: how to use it, but I'm not like a you know,
Speaker 1: I can't do it kinds of runs and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I just work with what I have. But
Speaker 3: even so, I remember once again the Keith Urban song.
Speaker 3: How different your voice sounded in that? Yeah, it sounded
Speaker 3: like to me as a punter. I was working commercial radio,
Speaker 3: so I've heard a lot of your voice sounded really different. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that was ed. Ed made me go right up and
Speaker 3: I really didn't want to. And how do you do that? Like,
Speaker 3: what's that process?
Speaker 1: Well, I go to my comfort zone, which was card
Speaker 1: in the moment, and it's like what about like card
Speaker 1: in the mall.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh.
Speaker 1: Man, and then just I can do it totally fine
Speaker 1: now because I've done it like a million times on tour.
Speaker 1: But at the start I was like I can't do that,
Speaker 1: and he's like, can you just did it?
Speaker 4: So just do it?
Speaker 2: Do it again.
Speaker 1: And then it's so funny now that it's just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can actually get there perfectly fine now.
Speaker 3: So it's crazy and Amy Shark, what did that teach you? Yeah,
Speaker 3: but it's still within my talents, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 3: it's still I can get there, but I don't you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. It's not gonna I'm never just
Speaker 3: gonna sound like Guy Sebastian or Rikili or just now
Speaker 3: boy you know what I mean, or Delta. It's like
Speaker 3: that though that style isn't isn't me, which is why
Speaker 3: I was so lucky that I got into alternative music,
Speaker 3: because if I didn't listen to Silverchair and put that
Speaker 3: together like in a minute, yeah, it doesn't tell it
Speaker 3: and you realize then yeah, there was a moment where
Speaker 3: you went, oh, I can do what exists in me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I just was hearing things on the radio
Speaker 1: and song I liked. I was like, this is cool,
Speaker 1: Like I love the sound of this, and even alanas
Speaker 1: I was like, well that's a different voice. And I
Speaker 1: think that subconsciously was like a bit of a yeah.
Speaker 1: The penny kind of dropped like oh okay, maybe yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's different voices out there.
Speaker 3: It's interesting, though, because a lot of people grow up
Speaker 3: and have a dream or want to do something. But
Speaker 3: I think there's something in the person that goes, I'm
Speaker 3: going to do this. What was the moment for you
Speaker 3: where you went this is the thing for me?
Speaker 2: Can you remember? Like is that a critical defining moment?
Speaker 1: Do you know what It's weird is I never felt
Speaker 1: that I just loved writing songs. I don't think I
Speaker 1: ever because I always had jobs, because I never I
Speaker 1: didn't grow up with parents going you can do whatever
Speaker 1: you want. Believe in yourself, you can do it, go
Speaker 1: reach for the stars. It was like, hey, I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're thinking, but you need to get either
Speaker 1: get a job or go to you. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: in my blood to think that big.
Speaker 2: It just wasn't, you know.
Speaker 1: So I was always I was always focused on where
Speaker 1: my money is going to come from to pay bill
Speaker 1: to survive. You know, I was just being I've always
Speaker 1: been a realist, Like I've always been, like, you know,
Speaker 1: not not much of a dreamer. Obviously the dreams were there,
Speaker 1: but it was like pretty suppressed. All I knew was
Speaker 1: I love this. I love what I'm doing right now
Speaker 1: in my bedroom making this sound and challenging myself and
Speaker 1: like and coming out with weird and wacky words that
Speaker 1: go with this guitar, right, and then carry a feeling, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that carry a feeling. And then I had I was
Speaker 1: in this girl band, and I love the feeling of
Speaker 1: this band.
Speaker 2: Like it was just like loud and we punky.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was super punky.
Speaker 1: And and it was just like the most purest fun
Speaker 1: I don't believe that. Like we joked around like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're the big spand in the world, but I don't
Speaker 1: think anyone cared to be. I don't think any of
Speaker 1: us really were like, oh, it's like we'll get this
Speaker 1: done and then we've got to get a manager. Like
Speaker 1: we just honestly really loved the sound of our own ship,
Speaker 1: just like this is so sick. It wasn't until I
Speaker 1: met Shane that he was like you, You're like really good,
Speaker 1: Like you should I don't know, you should book some
Speaker 1: gigs or something like, And like.
Speaker 3: Where did you meet him?
Speaker 1: He was in our friend group, ah with the girl
Speaker 1: band group or like we kind of yeah, he was
Speaker 1: Gold Coast boy as well.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah he was.
Speaker 1: He was dating my friend's older sister, which we really
Speaker 1: don't have to hang on.
Speaker 2: Is it going to be an Amy Sharks game.
Speaker 1: I've already I've already three albums four albums out of
Speaker 1: this story, so it's okay.
Speaker 3: And then you, but there was obvious see connection and
Speaker 3: he saw something that's interesting because aside from an attraction
Speaker 3: to you, he saw the music in you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh that's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah it really was. Yeah, before you really even recognized
Speaker 3: it as a vital force in yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it took someone like him, you know, I was
Speaker 1: three years older. It was like this, you know, cool dude,
Speaker 1: had great taste in music and had a car and
Speaker 1: like and everyone loves Shane. Yeah yeah, and to have
Speaker 1: someone like him at the time listen to this CD
Speaker 1: I must have given to him or he got somehow
Speaker 1: and be like, oh no, I like it. I think
Speaker 1: this is a good song. You know, I can't believe
Speaker 1: you wrote this, like you know, what do you mean
Speaker 1: you wrote wrote this? Like he even he was like what,
Speaker 1: So that's all I really needed to be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll keep going like because that that obviously, that's
Speaker 1: a nice feeling. Anyone would love that feeling, Yeah, of
Speaker 1: someone saying something is good.
Speaker 3: You're listening to no filter more with Amy Shark in
Speaker 3: just a moment. It's very hard to when you've done
Speaker 3: something artistically to present it to someone else, like it's
Speaker 3: a very exposing Yeah, it's it's a form of nudity.
Speaker 2: It's soul nudity.
Speaker 3: Uh huh. And to have someone go, oh my god,
Speaker 3: you're naked and beautiful is incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So and that was necessary like that for me to
Speaker 1: keep going because like I like.
Speaker 2: I remember putting our band on at home.
Speaker 1: I just and I don't blame her because it was
Speaker 1: just a different time and you know, my mom was
Speaker 1: like obviously trying to work, and you know, but I
Speaker 1: just remember her coming home like, oh, turn that off.
Speaker 2: You know, god, what is that?
Speaker 1: And I and if she only knew just how.
Speaker 3: Much I remember that, And.
Speaker 1: But you know, God, I look back now, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: people are just going through it and to have kids
Speaker 1: and to do you know, so you know, God knows
Speaker 1: what she was probably going through that day and not
Speaker 1: much more than a child herself. Really, yeah exactly, but
Speaker 1: that's full on. Yeah yeah, going through chat with my
Speaker 1: dad and just like whatever. So but but yeah, so
Speaker 1: you really remember the people that are like interested, Well,
Speaker 1: Shane was more than interested.
Speaker 3: Yes, very I mean and you married him.
Speaker 2: How long after you meet him?
Speaker 3: Ah? It was it was probably like seven years or
Speaker 3: something after I can.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're friends for a while. And then were you
Speaker 2: working together then? Were you doing the n Real video?
Speaker 2: Making the video?
Speaker 1: Okay about I had so many lives because you also
Speaker 1: know Jack Lawrence, my mate from that Yes drama.
Speaker 3: Yeah you know he was working on a footy ground
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah JK, yeah JK.
Speaker 3: He used to do something yeah and yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah I remember him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, God, and he was always like all these when
Speaker 3: you when we first started playing your song ador, he
Speaker 3: was always like I always knew it.
Speaker 2: There was always something about that.
Speaker 1: He helped me a lot at different radio, like just
Speaker 1: trying to plug it. And yeah, so many people did,
Speaker 1: like I have some people in my life that I've
Speaker 1: worked with that. You know, I've had so many different
Speaker 1: jobs and they've all come to like my gigs over
Speaker 1: the years, you know, and there might be like ten
Speaker 1: there or whatever like's it was never anything amazing.
Speaker 2: It was just like a little EP launch or.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to gig it at the NVY
Speaker 1: Hotel or so, I don't know whatever.
Speaker 2: Always around the Gold Coast, a few in Brisbane.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and it's just it's so funny to me
Speaker 1: because there would be so many people around Australia that
Speaker 1: are like, oh, yeah, I remember that girl, she was
Speaker 1: under a different name, or yeah, I remember that girl
Speaker 1: I worked with her like HMB or I remember that girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I reckon. There's just so many people like that.
Speaker 2: It makes me laugh. At what point did it change
Speaker 2: for you?
Speaker 3: So you're doing these you're playing for the love of it,
Speaker 3: little gigs, yeah, whatever you can get people that are
Speaker 3: happy to you know, interrupt their countermeal or not while
Speaker 3: you're strumming away whatever.
Speaker 2: At what point did did.
Speaker 3: Did you ignite?
Speaker 1: I think it was when I won a Queensland Music Award.
Speaker 1: That was the first time I feel like I'd ever
Speaker 1: been seen like I was like, what, Yeah, I wrote
Speaker 1: a song called Golden Fleece and which is funny because
Speaker 1: it didn't even have a chorus. It was like a
Speaker 1: pretty strange song, but it won pop. It won Best
Speaker 1: Pop and I just was so shocked because I was like,
Speaker 1: I hadn't had a leg in anywhere, like no one had,
Speaker 1: and to win that, I was like, oh wow. And
Speaker 1: then and then I remember Triple J played like gave
Speaker 1: a song of mine called Spitzong Girls one spin, and I.
Speaker 2: Was like, wow, I've fully made it. Now did you.
Speaker 3: Know before they played it that they were going to
Speaker 3: play it? How did it happen or did it as
Speaker 3: I was driving?
Speaker 1: And then I don't know how it happened back then
Speaker 1: because it was just on unearthed, but I did someone
Speaker 1: Oh no, that's right, that's right. I was playing a gig,
Speaker 1: like a crappy one and I was driving home from
Speaker 1: Brisbane and Shane called me, he goes quick put on
Speaker 1: Triple J. They're playing swits on Girls and I caught
Speaker 1: like the end of it.
Speaker 2: So I had an old car. I was screwing around
Speaker 2: with a shit bomb of a thing. Yeah. I loved it,
Speaker 2: but it was what is it again? Like ninety seven point.
Speaker 2: It was awesome. It was a really cool time. And
Speaker 2: then you had.
Speaker 3: Was it you found yourself in kind of a trough?
Speaker 3: Was it a trough of self doubt just before a door?
Speaker 3: Was it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that you were in a Yeah, I think like
Speaker 2: I had a glimmer of.
Speaker 1: Hope and so so then I just kept writing.
Speaker 2: You know, I just kept writing songs.
Speaker 1: And I'd met this guy at UNI who was like
Speaker 1: producing me, like for free. So I was always trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, work it and find someone who could do
Speaker 1: some free recordings for me. And then I started working
Speaker 1: with Brad who's now my MD, and I used to
Speaker 1: pay him in beer, which is great for me because
Speaker 1: I ended up drinking half it with him.
Speaker 3: What I was doing a Bachelor of Digital Video Media.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I dropped out, so don't ask me anything about it.
Speaker 2: I know nothing.
Speaker 1: Even then I spent more time at the UNI bar,
Speaker 1: so yeah, and then yeah, I guess I just I
Speaker 1: still just kept doing it. And it wasn't until it
Speaker 1: wasn't until I hit thirty or thirty was approaching, and
Speaker 1: then I had written I had written a door, and
Speaker 1: well I had to get a government grant.
Speaker 2: There was all this.
Speaker 1: I don't know, God, there was so many things. If
Speaker 1: he really sat down and went through it all, it's
Speaker 1: just like pages of bullshit. But I once I did it,
Speaker 1: I remember I had I had one contact over in
Speaker 1: the States who was like a publisher or something, and
Speaker 1: he liked the demo of it. And then when I
Speaker 1: got it back from m Phases, I sent it to
Speaker 1: him and he said, ah, no, it's not It's not
Speaker 1: what I thought it would be. So I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Oh there that there that goes. And
Speaker 1: I really remember going to bed that night thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: I need to I need to like look at where
Speaker 1: I'm going maybe with the Titans, and try and work
Speaker 1: on what my job position is there. And like you know,
Speaker 1: when you just start thinking about like I need to yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe yeah, we should buy it. Maybe we should
Speaker 1: buy a sandwich shop, Shane, or maybe we should buy
Speaker 1: a bakery, or I don't know, like what are we
Speaker 1: going to do because music isn't happening And I'd had
Speaker 1: so many things leading up to that point that were
Speaker 1: also signs to me to give up. So yeah, and
Speaker 1: then like and I'm really I'm like not a woo
Speaker 1: woo kind of person. But I really truly believe that
Speaker 1: the universe has like got a plan, because there's no
Speaker 1: way I should be here.
Speaker 3: There's no way I should have made it. Okay, So
Speaker 3: what happened? What happened when you were you're like contemplating
Speaker 3: different pathways.
Speaker 2: I just did it by itself. That's that's the beauty
Speaker 2: of art.
Speaker 1: You make something pure and good for the right reasons,
Speaker 1: it finds a way.
Speaker 2: Ware did it land first on Triple jown earth?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: It was Triple J.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I saw you put up a post on
Speaker 3: a door's tenth birthday saying, you know how appreciative you
Speaker 3: were to Triple J. But then you took a job
Speaker 3: on Telly and basically that way done.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't even know. I was just being cheeky,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean I guess, so I guess, like
Speaker 1: I don't really know how they work, but but they
Speaker 1: definitely were the reason that.
Speaker 2: I got anywhere for sure, Like you.
Speaker 3: Know, and then it exploded And it was one of
Speaker 3: those songs that a bit like gotcha really that different
Speaker 3: than anything else. And like I said, I was working
Speaker 3: in commercial radio, so you heard a lot. There was
Speaker 3: a lot of churn, and there was just wherever we were,
Speaker 3: whatever we were doing in the course of the show,
Speaker 3: when that song came on, you just kind of stop,
Speaker 3: or you'd be singing along. It was a very powerful
Speaker 3: little song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't see it either, like like you didn't
Speaker 1: know it was going to be that song. I mean,
Speaker 1: I hadn't had anything here, and I thought all my
Speaker 1: songs were great, so I was like, why would this
Speaker 1: song do any different? And I do a lot to
Speaker 1: m phases because I think he spent a lot more
Speaker 1: time on it than he was going to. Like obviously
Speaker 1: I had the song written and the guitar and everything
Speaker 1: was there, but that beat he put.
Speaker 2: On it, it.
Speaker 1: Just it gave it just another level of cool. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I just remember hearing it being so excited. But I
Speaker 1: was just excited to show my friends, like I just was.
Speaker 1: I still wasn't like, oh, this is gonna change my life,
Speaker 1: because you just don't know that.
Speaker 3: No, of course, but in retrospect, you know that, like
Speaker 3: you can say that that was that was the point
Speaker 3: of lift off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, That's why I'm such a believer in doing stuff that,
Speaker 1: like not really trying to do anything for anyone else
Speaker 1: or trying to like almost like cheat in the game
Speaker 1: of life, like you just can't.
Speaker 3: You just got to like do something for you.
Speaker 1: And I think it honestly has this beautiful way of
Speaker 1: doing what it will.
Speaker 2: You know, you've got to just the faith. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: having that faith.
Speaker 3: But we also know there's a lot of artists that
Speaker 3: have had that faith. Yeah, and it hasn't happened. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So for it to happen, like you said, it takes
Speaker 3: an extraordinary confluence of events.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like the universe knows when you've done your time, right,
Speaker 1: because I had done fifteen years. It's not like I,
Speaker 1: yeah lucky, So it's like I don't know, it was
Speaker 1: like a payment in some way. But then it's funny
Speaker 1: because like then you'll have I have these moments in
Speaker 1: this life where I'm like, careful what you wish for?
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, which is what what do you have to
Speaker 3: be careful that you wish for more success?
Speaker 1: Or no? Just everything changes, right, everything, Like when you're
Speaker 1: on TV and when you are on radio and people
Speaker 1: think you're this superstar and think you're like a multi millionaire,
Speaker 1: and yes, everything changes and you see the ugliest sides
Speaker 1: of people rush. So there's that part that you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: if I could go back behind.
Speaker 3: The curtain again, that was nice, But you can't do
Speaker 3: that now, even in that ten years, which is a
Speaker 3: short amount of time, but things have changed so swiftly
Speaker 3: and irrevocably in music, yeah, in the arts generally, in
Speaker 3: lots of people's professions and jobs, so you can't be anonymous, no,
Speaker 3: and you have to be front facing, and particularly as
Speaker 3: well as a woman. There's a lot of emphasis on
Speaker 3: how you look, which is lucky that you look beautiful,
Speaker 3: you know, that's like ninety percent of the job done.
Speaker 3: But you seem so youthful at the time with your
Speaker 3: little top not that I think it's easy to forget
Speaker 3: that you were actually a grown up then, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think even though I wrote, you know,
Speaker 1: quite a passive, aggressive song about the music industry, and
Speaker 1: I said, Hi, I look at it now, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: thank god I was a full grown adult, because I
Speaker 1: just don't think I would have made the right decisions,
Speaker 1: and I think I would have been a bit more
Speaker 1: of a mess if I hadn't. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: everything happens for a reason. I really do, like and
Speaker 1: as angry as I was, as to how much time
Speaker 1: it took.
Speaker 2: I really wasn't ready until I was ready.
Speaker 1: And I guess the reason I've managed to squeeze so
Speaker 1: much in and capitalize so much in ten years is
Speaker 1: because I had all that training. You know, I played
Speaker 1: and you were ready, and yeah, I was ready. Like
Speaker 1: I've had guys yell stuff out. I can handle myself.
Speaker 1: I know what to do. Nothing really scares me. My
Speaker 1: hands are really strong from playing four hours a night
Speaker 1: every week, like, and singing all the time and so
Speaker 1: and having weird requests and just shit like that. You
Speaker 1: don't you think it's annoying at the time, and you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: that was just like a massive it's your training.
Speaker 3: It's your apprenticeship. Yeah what how was it, by the way,
Speaker 3: for your nan when you're when you had that massive
Speaker 3: breakthrough commercially?
Speaker 2: Ah shit, you know you loved it. The best thing
Speaker 2: about that woman was.
Speaker 1: She Fuck, I've been so good this whole month not
Speaker 1: getting upset about her.
Speaker 2: You just lost her, like, oh, you're a.
Speaker 1: No. But she I could talk to her about like
Speaker 1: she wouldn't care. She would she would love it, like
Speaker 1: she would love everything I did. But then she would
Speaker 1: know to ask about my plants and are you now?
Speaker 1: And there's a salon over at the fair Pacific Fair
Speaker 1: actually lived and I was thinking to you, and I
Speaker 1: think this jacket that I found And it was so
Speaker 1: nice to have someone who wasn't constantly talking about music
Speaker 1: or or oh can you take a photo for.
Speaker 2: My friend Bill down at the Blood.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like Nan just would talk to me
Speaker 1: about and she'd still call me and be like, there's
Speaker 1: a program on TV about the big prison that you
Speaker 1: said that you saw in the Alcatraz and I think
Speaker 1: you'd like and it was just like, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: just so nice, you know, and I get the only
Speaker 1: other people of you yeah, just yeah, exactly like and
Speaker 1: it just she just kept it real like. And she
Speaker 1: was kind of the only one for a while apart
Speaker 1: from my nieces and nephews who don't give a shit
Speaker 1: about charts or radio or whatever.
Speaker 3: But that's what I miss.
Speaker 1: I miss a lot of like just that leveler of
Speaker 1: not like as as proud as she was of me.
Speaker 1: And she really was so proud and like was just
Speaker 1: so blown away, especially when Idle happened to She loves
Speaker 1: she loved the Telly.
Speaker 2: You know, she's a brit So she'll sit there and
Speaker 2: watched her Telly and she loved me on that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, she got to see like the you know,
Speaker 1: some really cool parts. Yeah yeah, which she would have
Speaker 1: always known about you, Yeah, because you were you, but
Speaker 1: also because of the way she loved you. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So the person that sees all of you and loves
Speaker 3: all of you is a remarkable person to have in
Speaker 3: your life. Yeah, and that is I understand. And that's
Speaker 3: a huge loss. Yeah, that's hard, and then you just
Speaker 3: have to be appreciative that you had them totally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: But you you were so close to her that when
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two Arias you were nominated for an aria,
Speaker 3: but you didn't go to the Arias No, because.
Speaker 1: You were were Yes, my auntie had been her Cara
Speaker 1: and she needed to go. She just needed a break,
Speaker 1: to be honest. She went back to the UK because
Speaker 1: that's where she was living. So, yeah, I was looking
Speaker 1: after Nan for like ten weeks or.
Speaker 3: Something and doing all her meds and it was how
Speaker 3: old was she then?
Speaker 2: Nineties? She would have been ninety.
Speaker 1: Five or six, ninety six maybe right, Yeah, So.
Speaker 2: It was tough.
Speaker 1: She was still with it, like you know, she would
Speaker 1: have moments but you could still have a cup of
Speaker 1: tea and watch you know, stuff and still talk to
Speaker 1: her and she would still you know, still such a
Speaker 1: fun hang.
Speaker 2: But it was. But it was hard because you know,
Speaker 2: body then is really what you know, well you both.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a whole new respect for cares after that,
Speaker 1: because like you think, you think you could just sit
Speaker 1: her in a chair and then like go and do something,
Speaker 1: but then she gets up and you're like, or you
Speaker 1: should be up on a ladder like trying to water
Speaker 1: a plant. You're just like, oh god, woman, that was
Speaker 1: a really trying time, But I'm glad I did it,
Speaker 1: because yeah it was. It was awesome, like you know,
Speaker 1: experience and time we got to spend together.
Speaker 2: And some things you only get once.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, And you always want to think that
Speaker 3: you honored that, which became such a foundational part of you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also like no one would have taken care of
Speaker 1: her as good as I did, you know, I know that,
Speaker 1: Like I'm like it was the best and for the job,
Speaker 1: and I knew that.
Speaker 3: Well, love is the most effective way to make someone
Speaker 3: a beautiful servant, isn't it humbling?
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, all the times she would have she has
Speaker 1: done it for me, been that person that you know,
Speaker 1: crack the shits that mom and dad and go live
Speaker 1: with men for a while, you know.
Speaker 3: And then so speaking of servant and also master, your husband,
Speaker 3: who's your manager and my servant? Yes, and your servant
Speaker 3: and master. Like, that's a bizarre isn't it? Like your lover,
Speaker 3: your servant, your boss everything. Yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 2: It is a lot. How does that work.
Speaker 3: Like? And what's the hierarchy in a For a little while,
Speaker 3: my husband was sort of working as my manager and
Speaker 3: it was terrible. It was just terrible. I couldn't I
Speaker 3: couldn't change in between the roles. And every time I
Speaker 3: had to talk to me about work, it would make
Speaker 3: me angry because I like to talk about work. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so how do you navigate that in a romantic relationship
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: We've we've definitely been through it, you know, and we've
Speaker 1: had practice before because we've worked together twice before I
Speaker 1: kind of was this, you know, I just was in
Speaker 1: and out of jobs and he's he's like got me
Speaker 1: two jobs in my life and one was the Titans,
Speaker 1: and before that was like an accounting job. Which I
Speaker 1: still don't know what I was doing, but he's just
Speaker 1: always looked out for me, and we're also just like
Speaker 1: like at the end of the day, is like my
Speaker 1: favorite person, and he makes me laugh more than anyone,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 2: Think I make him laugh too.
Speaker 1: But like, as we've just learned a balance and it's
Speaker 1: definitely been no better roses. It's not in any marriage.
Speaker 1: So it's like, and I think we know that well.
Speaker 1: We don't get down if we're in a shitty spot
Speaker 1: or if we're you know, and we kind of like
Speaker 1: music definitely is tested tests every marriage, so does fame.
Speaker 1: Like it's like, but I think we've done really well
Speaker 1: considering how much we've actually gone through and the pressures
Speaker 1: and the you know, we are everywhere we go, like
Speaker 1: we kind of have to. I don't know, we're always
Speaker 1: kind of been watched, I guess like if we.
Speaker 2: Or you think you're not and you are, or vice versa,
Speaker 2: so find out afterwards.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah, it's and then his life has changed
Speaker 1: as well, you know, all his friends, like he was
Speaker 1: known as Amy Shark's husband for a while.
Speaker 4: Yah knows, like he doesn't have as identity, that's right, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So he's been on his own journey. I've been on mine.
Speaker 1: You know. Every now and then we go out of sync,
Speaker 1: but we always managed to check in. I think that's
Speaker 1: the key, is checking in with each other and like
Speaker 1: always growing together. I think we could have easily just
Speaker 1: grown apart during this even though you're working towards a
Speaker 1: common goal. Yeah, yeah, you could, yeah, yeah, but we've
Speaker 1: just always I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, if I don't talk to Shane, it's
Speaker 1: like not the same day. It's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's no real secret. It's just he's my guy, so
Speaker 1: and I trust him, you know. I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing is a lot of people just tell you
Speaker 1: what you want to hear in your life. And I've
Speaker 1: met some amazing people, but I think he will always like,
Speaker 1: you know, tell me how it is, and if you know,
Speaker 1: if he's if I've done something, I know, said something
Speaker 1: weird or gone off track on stage or whatever, he's
Speaker 1: just not scared to be like that.
Speaker 2: Just don't do that. Yeah, Like that wasn't the best.
Speaker 2: Lie what do you what? What? What? What what are
Speaker 2: you doing on stage?
Speaker 1: Just like I might have I might have drunk too
Speaker 1: much before, or I've like we had a slick show
Speaker 1: and I've switched it up on the line and he's like,
Speaker 1: you know, You're like, I don't know. I'm a widow,
Speaker 1: but like he just he's just got a good gauge on.
Speaker 3: Things, and I'm the same.
Speaker 1: I like if I if he does something, I'll pull
Speaker 1: him up. Like it's we don't we don't really wait
Speaker 1: for things to combust anymore.
Speaker 2: Stay with us.
Speaker 3: More from Amy Shark after the break within your relationship?
Speaker 3: Is Amy Shark almost like a third entity?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah right, I can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I I will say, maybe we do that
Speaker 1: for Amy Shark.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is weird. I get that.
Speaker 3: No, I get it because otherwise otherwise it would be
Speaker 3: very unbalanced. Yeah, but this way, it's almost like a
Speaker 3: three legged pillar. Yeah, a three legged stool, which is
Speaker 3: a more solid foundation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3: It's like it's a business, you know, Yeah, but it is.
Speaker 3: It is a business, but it's.
Speaker 1: You know, takes a lot to I'm also an artist,
Speaker 1: and an artist are sensitive and weird and wacky.
Speaker 2: And yes, I don't do anything to do with business.
Speaker 1: I don't business Like I write an email once a
Speaker 1: year maybe, and that's just to say thank you to
Speaker 1: people or or write mixed notes to my producer or
Speaker 1: something like. I just don't do any of that. He
Speaker 1: just does so much. He's admin, He's everything. Yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 1: just write a song. What do you contribute?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm like the clown at the front. Do you
Speaker 2: are you domestic? Yeah? I am actually okay, I actually
Speaker 2: really am. Like I love I Like it's so funny
Speaker 2: because I think I'd just be a good housewife. Sad
Speaker 2: sounds so bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, well, like I love cooking. I love having
Speaker 1: a nice home.
Speaker 3: You know that.
Speaker 1: I think maybe when we first started like dating, seriously,
Speaker 1: like I lost my job and I made it my
Speaker 1: goal to like have the best in our ready for
Speaker 1: you know, I have candles and like, you know, just
Speaker 1: try and make it a really nice home life because
Speaker 1: that's all I could have a Martine. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I'm not bringing in any money. So yeah.
Speaker 5: And then now Amy Shark's an actor. Yeah, how's that crazy?
Speaker 3: So that was a part of Russell Crowe connection in
Speaker 3: your life, which Russell Crowe also led you to Ed Sheeran,
Speaker 3: or lead Sheeran to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's been like a seminal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's been a really such a good friend, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's we both just check in with each other
Speaker 1: all the time. You'd be shooting something and send me
Speaker 1: these cool photos of these samurai swords and it's awesome,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's unbelievable that I can just have this
Speaker 1: friendship with Russell Crowe. But the coolest thing he did
Speaker 1: was though, will send me that script because I was
Speaker 1: happy to know did he know that you were that
Speaker 1: you wanted to? I had joked with him before about
Speaker 1: acting and I had he had said, you know, music
Speaker 1: was my first love before acting. I go, oh, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: acting was my first love before music. Yeah, right, So
Speaker 1: he had thirty odd foot of grunt. What did you
Speaker 1: have acting wise? Any?
Speaker 2: Not much?
Speaker 1: But I had a little agent on the Gold Coast
Speaker 1: and I did a couple of like little commercial things,
Speaker 1: and like I was like obsessed with drama at school
Speaker 1: and the theater and I loved it.
Speaker 2: I really loved it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that was and just movies in general,
Speaker 1: you know, like I just watched so many movies. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just so random that that has come back
Speaker 1: into my life because you just it's two of the
Speaker 1: hardest jobs ever. And I remember saying that to my
Speaker 1: parents once about about being an actress or taking acting
Speaker 1: lessons or and then you know, getting into music. They're
Speaker 1: like Jesus the same, You've picked two of the hardest things.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, yes?
Speaker 3: And how was it so you play Russell Crowe's daughter daughter?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And is he an MMA like a a a fighter?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, potentially, but yeah he was mainly a trainer
Speaker 1: and then I was an ex MMA fighter turned trainer.
Speaker 2: Really, so did you have to do a lot of
Speaker 2: physical Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had to do it like a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: to look like I mean'd be good at that, actually good.
Speaker 2: I did taekwondo as a kid.
Speaker 1: I was actually one step away from my black belt,
Speaker 1: but I was Yeah, I know, if my friends were
Speaker 1: too important then so I didn't want to commit to
Speaker 1: what I had to do to get it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I have that skill set somewhere, you know, when you
Speaker 1: learn something young, Yeah, just it stays. Yeah, like even tennis.
Speaker 1: I used to play tennis as a kid. I can
Speaker 1: still play, but yeah, it was I still had to,
Speaker 1: you know, learn the ways of MMA, and there's so
Speaker 1: many things I had to yell out and say it
Speaker 1: with confidence and get up in Dan's face and tell
Speaker 1: them to sprawl and like and.
Speaker 3: Do it twenty times. Yeah, exactly. And how was it?
Speaker 3: How was the how is the process of being an actor?
Speaker 2: I loved it?
Speaker 1: I really loved it, like I loved everything about it.
Speaker 1: Oh really, yeah, yeah it was. So do you think
Speaker 1: that's there'll be more?
Speaker 2: I hope. So it's not really something I've I can say.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like, I just think it's going to
Speaker 1: be one of those things where I might get an
Speaker 1: agent and see what comes of it. Again every Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a lot to be with a lot more experience
Speaker 1: than me as well if it comes my way.
Speaker 2: Definitely. Did you sing with Russell? You've sung with Russell? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I have? Yeah, what did you see?
Speaker 1: He loves my song Psycho, right, and so he's he
Speaker 1: was touring doing a cover of it, and then oh.
Speaker 3: I actually saw the tour. I thought that was his last.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1: So but then I was playing a festival called Groove
Speaker 1: in the Mood and I got him to come to
Speaker 1: the festival and see that song with me, which was
Speaker 1: awesome because like the whole crowd was just like, what
Speaker 1: the hell?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that lad J is here? Oh yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: It was cool.
Speaker 3: I imagine one of the challenges of being an artist
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six, a musical artist, is it it's
Speaker 3: probably quite removed from what you thought it was going
Speaker 3: to be when you wanted to be a singer songwriter
Speaker 3: because now there's socials and like you said, it's very
Speaker 3: front facing. You're on television, there's streamers. So how does
Speaker 3: your how does your day look? How much time does
Speaker 3: it leave for creativity? And what are you in the
Speaker 3: service of to be an artist?
Speaker 1: Exhausto just listening to that, Yeah, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 2: It's funny, Kate, because.
Speaker 1: This particular album can pain. I'm in a different mindset,
Speaker 1: Like I'm loving it and I'm having so much fun
Speaker 1: with it, Like I'm not really caring about about any
Speaker 1: outcomes or anything. I'm just like posting because I'm so
Speaker 1: hyped about the record. But in saying that, there is
Speaker 1: there's just so much to do like that, like we
Speaker 1: were saying before about getting eyes on your project, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of projects out there, and it's not just music.
Speaker 1: There's like podcasts and there's a Netflix, and there's all
Speaker 1: these other things for people to.
Speaker 3: Do rather than listen to your album.
Speaker 1: So why we're here, I guess there's why we're I'm constantly,
Speaker 1: you know, doing anything I can because I believe in it,
Speaker 1: you know, I want people to know about it.
Speaker 2: And it's just kind of how it is.
Speaker 1: But but what I will say is musicians are working
Speaker 1: harder than they ever have in their life, and a
Speaker 1: lot is on our shoulders, you know, like like we
Speaker 1: are the first to play the charity event, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, like we are they We're supposed to have
Speaker 1: all the answers and we're supposed to show up online,
Speaker 1: but oh, don't do that because you're goofy.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Oh but then but then you've got to be seen online,
Speaker 1: but not too much online.
Speaker 3: And then and then there's AI, which is our whole
Speaker 3: conversation that is not on behalf of writers and any
Speaker 3: people who have any kind of artistic output doesn't seem
Speaker 3: to be part of a conversation at governmental level. So
Speaker 3: it comes from artists to try and fight this.
Speaker 1: That's it, the bots exactly like and I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not a political artist.
Speaker 2: I never have been, Like I just like, you know,
Speaker 2: I like.
Speaker 1: Got my heart broken and decided to write a song
Speaker 1: about it, and now I'm an artist. It's like, I'm
Speaker 1: not a genius. I don't claim to be. I don't
Speaker 1: have answers. I'm just like, you know, so a lot
Speaker 1: there's a lot expected of artists in this world today.
Speaker 1: We're not supposed to do anything wrong ever, and it's
Speaker 1: like supposed to be these magical beings that have yeah,
Speaker 1: like I said, all the right answers, and it's.
Speaker 2: Just tough, like it's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of work comes from you know,
Speaker 1: you can't just go to the studio and do a
Speaker 1: really rad album and put it out there and then
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, cool, I'll see you guys in a
Speaker 1: few months.
Speaker 3: When we go on tour, it's like it's freaking so
Speaker 3: much work. And you're also not getting money from the streamers.
Speaker 3: So then to make money that you might have once
Speaker 3: got with album sales or yeah CDs, you've got to
Speaker 3: do live shows. So that's a whole other Yeah you're
Speaker 3: a busy girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah, We're all busy.
Speaker 1: I think like everyone in the arts is just doing
Speaker 1: what they can and that's why anytimes I was like,
Speaker 1: what advice do you have apart from like run, go
Speaker 1: be a banker.
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, do you really love it? Would you
Speaker 3: do it for nothing?
Speaker 2: Okay? Cool? Will you'll be okay then?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Because you may well be Yeah, because that's that's it.
Speaker 3: It's like you've got to be okay with that.
Speaker 1: You can't get up thinking I'm going to be famous,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get followers, I'm going to be rich
Speaker 1: because it's not the climate, it's not the time. It's
Speaker 1: the time for art always is. Art will always be
Speaker 1: neat endures as well, of course. I remember, Yeah, Tom's
Speaker 1: a Launch said this in an interview years ago. I
Speaker 1: was like sixteen, and I watched him, you know, talking
Speaker 1: about his band Blink, and he's like, art will always
Speaker 1: find a way.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, that's so cool. Like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's so true as well when you think
Speaker 3: about I mean, it's hard to think about.
Speaker 2: The future because if you look at.
Speaker 3: The past, you could never have predicted what would have
Speaker 3: led you to here. But if you have a vague
Speaker 3: shape about your future, what does it.
Speaker 2: Look like.
Speaker 3: Right now?
Speaker 1: I'd love to just be in Hawaii with a beautiful
Speaker 1: man rubbing my feet with a Pina Kolada, Right, that
Speaker 1: looks like.
Speaker 2: The immediate future, you mean, like particular.
Speaker 3: Beautiful man just Hawaiian ukulele.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: No, I can see, you know what, I can see
Speaker 1: a pretty cool simple life.
Speaker 2: I'd love to live in New Zealand.
Speaker 1: I'd love to have like a batch and I'd love
Speaker 1: to just fish all day every day.
Speaker 3: And that's it. How close are you to that though?
Speaker 1: I mean potentially if I wanted it to happen sooner,
Speaker 1: it could happen obviously anytime I want it. But I'm
Speaker 1: still pretty hungry, you know. I still love what we're doing,
Speaker 1: and I love the hustle. And maybe I'm institutionalized because
Speaker 1: I've been hustling for twenty years and I still even
Speaker 1: when I got my record deal, I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: like so what's next. You know, it's only sort of
Speaker 1: now that I feel a little more relaxed, Like it's
Speaker 1: like I have not been relaxed for ten years.
Speaker 3: That's just been. But also because didn't you.
Speaker 2: Have the.
Speaker 3: Creative drought before this album where you yeah, ill atrophied
Speaker 3: or yeah something where you were.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely I wouldn't call it. I've read some
Speaker 1: things about writer's block. It wasn't really a writer's block.
Speaker 1: I just didn't write. I just couldn't be bothered writing.
Speaker 1: I just was just I think it just was what
Speaker 1: happens when you are fully exhausted from head to toe, mind, body, spirit,
Speaker 1: You just you know, you know what it's like. You
Speaker 1: never turn off. It's like and ever since idle people
Speaker 1: know my face now a lot. Yeah, so it's you know,
Speaker 1: a few things, a few things go wrong in your
Speaker 1: personal life. You're trying to you know, I was trying
Speaker 1: to be on tour. I did the movie, which was
Speaker 1: you know, a bit stressful and challenging but amazing, and
Speaker 1: then idle and going through things, and you're trying to
Speaker 1: always be on and thinking, and then you can't really
Speaker 1: go down the cafe or I'm never I'm never really
Speaker 1: fully relaxed because someone's like.
Speaker 3: Oh you're amy, or yeah, you know, when I get
Speaker 3: home and there's like, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Jill and Ben who live in apartment whatever, and
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah.
Speaker 3: And then is that a work talk or is it
Speaker 3: something about someone's pushed a flower potter.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's always like whether I heard you on
Speaker 1: a podcast, right, I heard I saw you on TV
Speaker 1: talking about it.
Speaker 2: So what actually when did you start writing songs?
Speaker 1: And it's like you're constantly like if I'm ever in neutral,
Speaker 1: I'm forever just chucking it in fifth gear and just
Speaker 1: being like hey, you know, and I think because I
Speaker 1: never want someone's first interaction with me to be crap
Speaker 1: or or even you know, people just make up their
Speaker 1: mind so quick. So yeah, I always feel like I'm
Speaker 1: on guard and I think I just I just hit
Speaker 1: I just hit the wall. I just was like, I'm
Speaker 1: just no energy and I just don't even want to
Speaker 1: play guitar. I just don't want to do anything. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it took me a minute to just get back to
Speaker 1: loving it again.
Speaker 3: But was it Shane that kind of recognized what was
Speaker 3: going on with you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Shane, you I was off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like like yeah, most people you know, who you
Speaker 1: live with knew. I was like, you know, going through something.
Speaker 1: And yes, So then he booked booked me to go
Speaker 1: and write recorded yeah Wales. Yeah that's where my producer lives. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you had a month. I had a month to
Speaker 1: write that, to make songs, make as many songs as
Speaker 1: I can and yeah, and then get over there and
Speaker 1: record it, and it's the best thing I've ever done.
Speaker 3: Like I've never had no collaborator, collabse on the songwriting.
Speaker 3: It's you yeah, yeah, wow, how is that? It's kind
Speaker 3: of what I've always done.
Speaker 1: But I mixed it up with like I'll go to
Speaker 1: LA and I'll work with a producer and he'll play
Speaker 1: a beat and I'll be like, oh, yeah, cool, I'm
Speaker 1: thinking blah blahlah blah. Whereas this time I did have
Speaker 1: a clue, Like once I accepted the challenge and I
Speaker 1: started to get really disciplined, like not going on my
Speaker 1: phone and like just really knowing, Okay, I want to
Speaker 1: I want to go and do this, and I want
Speaker 1: to be excited on the plane, and I want my
Speaker 1: phone to be chockers full of amazing demos. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just got I just got really really focused, and
Speaker 1: I knew that if I could get if I could
Speaker 1: just get good songs, I knew Dan would just take
Speaker 1: them to the next level, you know. So it was
Speaker 1: it was really exciting once they started coming together, and
Speaker 1: I think Shane knew that it was a vicious cycle
Speaker 1: because I was writing, but writing would have made me happy.
Speaker 3: Yes, and it is the monkey on your back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And the first day sucked like it did.
Speaker 2: It was like only one day.
Speaker 1: Oh no, yeah, quite yeah, I can't Yeah, Ebbs and clothes, Well,
Speaker 1: we're just actually a bit weird because the very first day,
Speaker 1: when I think about it, I didn't have the whole song.
Speaker 2: But the biggest dick was the first single.
Speaker 1: And I literally say first morning and months didn't think
Speaker 1: about you once got coffee on the way and that
Speaker 1: was me just literally going through what my day was
Speaker 1: like to try and get in the swing of songwriting again.
Speaker 2: And I ended up giving it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was something, Yeah, it was something, and it
Speaker 1: sounded cool. So yeah, it's funny. Just yeah, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: you can do anything you set your mind too, because
Speaker 1: I just can't believe that that happened.
Speaker 3: But that's kind of liberated you now, hasn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and now you've got the momentum of the album. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: A girlfriend and I just had an argument outside actually
Speaker 3: when I was listening before I came in to meet you,
Speaker 3: because she said it's a really sad album and I said,
Speaker 3: it's not a sad album.
Speaker 2: She said yeah, and she was so we're playing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she thought it was really sad in about She goes,
Speaker 3: who are the breakups?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I can't know. It's the thing is I
Speaker 1: less my favorite thing to write about. And even though
Speaker 1: I am in a happy marriage, I borrow things all
Speaker 1: the time from my past my present. Might be a
Speaker 1: fight that we had recently. You could think it's about
Speaker 1: some something, but it's actually about a friend or like
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like I I borrow so
Speaker 1: many feelings and I borrow so many people, and I
Speaker 1: borrow like I just it's it will forever be a puzzle.
Speaker 3: To you guys.
Speaker 1: Only I know exactly word for word who everything is
Speaker 1: for which you.
Speaker 3: Don't want to say, but it takes the sexiness out.
Speaker 1: And also like that's my That's that's what keeps me alight,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: That's like I love having that secret. I love it.
Speaker 1: I just I will never be an artist that will
Speaker 1: sit here and go, well, see that line there is
Speaker 1: because what happened was that person? Yeah, because that's just
Speaker 1: like not hot. So I just that's what I remember.
Speaker 3: You can tell Tyler Swift that poor.
Speaker 1: Thing, she can't I don't have someone with that much
Speaker 1: of a magnifying glass.
Speaker 3: It's massive as well. She loves that's good thing. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: Well she's smart about it as well. Yeah, she doesn't
Speaker 3: tell all. It's like poetry. Yeah, you know, speaking of
Speaker 3: Tayler Swift Bree, our producer was we were having a
Speaker 3: discussion yesterday about the silhouettes. Very interesting that a lot
Speaker 3: of the iconic female artists have had a silhouette that's
Speaker 3: very recognizable. Ariana Grande and the ponytail or you know,
Speaker 3: Beyonce like very and you were our Australian that had
Speaker 3: that with the top notch. Now at some point you
Speaker 3: can't have a top knot forever. I see that it's
Speaker 3: gone for now. But that was I'm going to say,
Speaker 3: the greatest top not Like your hair was always stunning.
Speaker 2: Oh thank you.
Speaker 3: At what point is it a discussion where people say,
Speaker 3: hey Amy, is it a discussion?
Speaker 2: Hey Amy, you want to do something different with your hair?
Speaker 2: Do you?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 3: Was it? It?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: I have I'm so lucky I don't have people really
Speaker 1: like my label would never say that to me.
Speaker 3: I sort of felt like it was time myself.
Speaker 1: I loved it for years before I yes, I for
Speaker 1: now people were like you did with your hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like, you know, but people don't know
Speaker 2: what they want.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Now people are writing where's the butt?
Speaker 1: You know, and and I it's kind of sad because
Speaker 1: like so many kids come to, you know, see me,
Speaker 1: and they got their hair done like me, and and
Speaker 1: it really was part of who.
Speaker 2: I was and who I am, you know, like and
Speaker 2: it was the silhouette.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you didn't set out to do that, but
Speaker 3: that became just your signature. Yeah, that you were so
Speaker 3: immediately recognizable. Yeah, it was really clever. Yeah, it was
Speaker 3: a brand accidentally clever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really was accidental though, because I like I
Speaker 1: remember the day we were in New York and we
Speaker 1: had a big our first big meeting with a label
Speaker 1: over there and Republic and this guy Avery. People in
Speaker 1: the industry will know, this guy is like the big dog.
Speaker 1: He only came in for like ten seconds. I was
Speaker 1: just with his henchman and he was like, Amy, I
Speaker 1: love the record, like he'd heard a door. I love
Speaker 1: the record, Keep the Adidas, and I love the hair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: keep the hair, And that was it. Keep the hair,
Speaker 1: keep the adiittas he loves the record.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So and what have you got today, You've got
Speaker 3: a didas, you've got a record, but you didn't keep
Speaker 3: the hair.
Speaker 2: It'll be back. You got to you gotta get rid
Speaker 2: of things for people to miss it.
Speaker 3: Actually, this is interesting because I do think there's a
Speaker 3: point at which familiarity breeds contempt. I think because you
Speaker 3: always bring and you always have since I first met you,
Speaker 3: and since the Australian public first met you, you bring.
Speaker 1: A real.
Speaker 3: Egalitarian sense of Australians with you. You got so many
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like you just you like
Speaker 3: an Aussie. Yeah, and you even what you said earlier
Speaker 3: about wanting people to have a nice first impression of you.
Speaker 3: But sometimes I think in showbies that can be taken
Speaker 3: for granted.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm yeah, oh yeah, yeah definitely.
Speaker 3: So I'm not saying I want you to disappear. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but in some ways it would serve us right if
Speaker 3: you disappeared, you know what I.
Speaker 2: Mean, I get, I get it. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: I say it all the time.
Speaker 1: I said, I said to someone the other day, they'll
Speaker 1: talk about my cover or got that fluffy album cover.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, but no one will appreciated it till
Speaker 2: I'm dead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, Well, Amy Shark, I'm saying we appreciate you.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you in life. I appreciate you.
Speaker 3: This has been a really nice chat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's brilliant.
Speaker 3: It's fantastic too for you to share yourself with us.
Speaker 3: So thank you, Amy Shark. We love you, we adore you.
Speaker 2: Ah, look there she is. Poet. Didn't know it, never
Speaker 2: heard that never first time.
Speaker 3: One of the things that struck me about this encounter
Speaker 3: with Amy was how honest she is about success. We
Speaker 3: spend so much of our lives chasing the thing we
Speaker 3: think will make us happy. But as Amy discovered, getting
Speaker 3: everything you'd dreamed of doesn't necessarily make life simpler. Sometimes
Speaker 3: it makes it more complicated.
Speaker 2: What stayed with me wasn't just the story of her breakthrough.
Speaker 3: It was the story of finding her way back to
Speaker 3: music after almost walking away from it altogether. Amy's new album,
Speaker 3: Soft Pop, is out now. If you enjoy this episode,
Speaker 3: make sure you follow No Filter wherever you're listening and
Speaker 3: Mamma MEA subscribers get to hear it first. Every episode
Speaker 3: of No Filter drops two full days before regular listening
Speaker 3: exclusive for subscribers. Plus, you get access to subscriber exclusive
Speaker 3: episodes across the Mumma Mea Network. Tap the link in
Speaker 3: the show notes and become a Mumma Mea subscriber. Today,
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Kate Langbrook. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 3: No Filter.