By Abbey Cannan
One of Australia’s most impressive and beloved pop exports and a frequent Noosa visitor, Amy Shark, will be coming to the Sunshine Coast to perform on Friday 18 October, as part of her intimate Australian regional tour.
An overnight success years in the making, Amy Shark has come a long way since her breakthrough single Adore. Over the last few years, Amy Shark has brought her emotive brand of pop to the world, and the world is lapping it up. Love Monster, her debut album, shot straight to number one on the ARIA charts upon release, and in 2018 she won four ARIA awards. On top of sold-out shows across the globe, Amy has performed on The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to audiences of millions, and made music with pop royalty Jack Antonoff, Joel Little and Blink-182.
Noosa Today had the chance to speak with Amy, who told us of her love for Noosa, her run in with Kim Kardashian and who her favourite Australian artists are right now.
Amy’s single I Said Hi is a statement for those who told Amy she’d never make it and the song gained high rotation across both commercial and alternative stations. Anyone who didn’t believe she could do it surely doesn’t have much to say now – and I Said Hi has now become an anthem for the next generation, ready to have their songs heard by the masses.
How long did it take you to write ‘I Said Hi’ and what was the inspiration?
It’s a real treat of a day when you stumble into chords that you like straight away, it’s the same sort of thing I had with Adore. Usually I can spend hours playing guitar trying to find something that I think sounds nice and then I’ll start working on a melody… but that day was meant to happen. It was like a lightning bolt moment as I just fell into these chords. Everything is very visual for me and I like to sort of set the scene. Obviously, I still had like a little bit of bitterness and some issues about how tough it was at the start that I needed to get out. Because a lot of the time I don’t even know what the song is going to be about, it’s in my subconscious until I start doing it and then I’m like, oh okay that’s what the song is going to be about. I came up with “I stand in the corner like a tired boxer” and I was on a roll after that. I thought that’s one hell of an opening line and when it starts strong there’s no stopping it. It’s like, this is going to be a really great song.
Are you excited to start your Australian regional tour in October?
Yeah, I was just saying to someone at breakfast, I think I know more of America than I do of my own country and I’m really excited to just give back. The second I released Adore I had so much regional support from so many places like radio and media and fans would trek it to whatever city I was playing at and I was really aware of that. So, I was talking to my team and I said as soon as we can spot a gap in my schedule we have to put a regional tour in. I think its really important that we do that because I just need to know that I service my whole country. I do a lot of touring around Europe and America and so I just thought this would be a really good thing to do.
So, you’ll be performing on the Sunshine Coast on Friday 18 October, have you been here before?
I am like a Sunshine Coast/ Noosa rat. I’m there all the time and I love it. My family and I, we’ve going to Noosa for years. That Surf Club knows my face really well, probably for all the wrong reasons haha. It’s a real special spot for me, so yeah I’m really excited to be going back.
What is your favourite song to perform right now?
At the moment, its hard because it takes all of my oxygen away, but I really love singing Mess Her Up. I think it’s really fire live. My drummer has really amped up the beat behind it. It’s super fun. I still struggle keeping up with the song because it’s so fast paced and I love that I can let loose.
What has been your favourite collaboration on a song to date?
Well, I guess it would have to be Mark Hoppus from Blink 182. I’ve been a Blink fan for so many years and the fact that I got to go and meet him was hard to handle that day. For him to be so interested in my album… he wanted me to send him anything to collaborate on and I sent him ‘Psycho’ and he was like I love this song and then the next day he hired out the Foo Fighters private studio and we went in and recorded it and I got to hang out with Mark Hoppus and talk about Blink. I made him play ‘Carousel’ which is one of my favourite Blink songs and he did everything I wanted him to do haha. It was like the best day of my life. It’s a really special song, I love playing that one live.
What other Australian artists are you into right now?
I love Mallrat, I think she has been building some serious monster songs. I also love Cub Sport, I think they’re a great band pushing all sorts of boundaries.
There are many up and coming artists here on the Sunshine Coast… as a successful artist what advice would you give to them?
I think the best advice I could give is to not worry about anything else but the song. Like, don’t worry about what merch looks like or whether people are coming to shows. Don’t even book a show just write a good song. Make the production accompany it perfectly and just don’t worry about anything else but the song.
How was it performing on The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to audiences of millions?
Stressful. James Corden, that was so early on in my career so I didn’t really even have time to digest that it was happening. He was so sweet and so funny, so he just made me really relax. Kim Kardashian was on the same night as me and as I was heading out onto the stage she said “You’re going to do great babe” and I was like oh my god this is not my life. Fallon was a little different because I was on a pretty heavy tour schedule and I had to drive that night into New York City and I had to get up early and play and I was so tired but it was still so much fun. Those Late Night shows, they’re the real deal and there’s people everywhere and they run a tight ship. I was so happy with my performance and that’s all that really mattered.
Amy Shark will perform at Venue 114 at Lake Kawana on Friday 18 October. For tickets visit www.amyshark.com.
