Interview with Amy Shark.
Interviewed by: Gracie Lowes
Gracie: Hi how are you!
Amy: Hi I’m good thanks!
G: Thank you so much for doing this interview, I’m so excited to get to talk to you today.
A: Yeah! No problem!
G: Getting into the questions, what made you want to get into music?
A: I think it sort of snuck up on me, music. I didn't really know how much I loved it until I started playing guitar, and guitar at the very start seemed like a really difficult instrument to learn. So I think I was about probably 15 or 16 when I really started listening to alternative music and really connecting with it, and using it to get through so much. So I think it was just a pure love of listening to real music that I was connecting with and then, once I started learning guitar and I was able to play like Alanis Morissette and songs that I loved I could sort of hear it sounding good and I guess the obsession started then, and then also just listening to people that didn’t sound like Beyoncé or Mariah Carey, you know they had different voices because I knew that my voice wasn’t going to sound like Mariah Carey or Beyoncé so that kinda gave me hope.
G: Do you have a favourite musical memory?
A: I think one that really sort of stood out was Silverchair, my parents were listening to Silverchair and I really loved their first album “Frogstomp” and then I got to go for my first concert to go see them play at a pretty young age and I think that really sort of set me on fire I think. Cause it just was so cool to go to a rock show like that and know that they were Australian and know that they came through the ranks and didn’t just get picked up just kinda gigging around, I don’t know it was just really inspiring.
G: How has it been for you starting out in the music industry, cause I know it can be competitive sometimes.
A: Yeah I feel that too, I mean especially now I’m so glad that when I guess everything kicked off for me it still felt like it was sort of doable to keep going and to keep braking different parts of the world, but now there’s just so much music and that’s before the whole pandemic kinda thing but I guess for me it did feel like it took a lifetime but when I look back I think it was all the right timing because my songs weren’t as strong as what they probably are now, and I don’t know I’m just making better decisions now but once I kinda hit a sound and worked out what my sound is and who I wanted to be as an artist and just focused on writing good music it was kinda really easy from then. Like I wasn’t writing to try and get a record deal, I was just writing to please myself, and then it really does take one song and your whole life can kinda change.
G: By the time this is posted your new album “Cry Forever” will be out, how are you feeling about the release?
A: I feel really good! It’s an album I’m really proud of, I mean I don’t think I’d ever put out anything I’m not proud of, but I’ve seen it happen before with artists like put a record out just to have a record out and then they have to tour it and they hate it. But this one, I don’t know I got to spend a lot of time on it, I really threw everything I had at it with the people I worked with and because of COVID at the start I really got to sit with it and get the mixes right and get the mastering right and I love playing it! I love that it’s a lot more guitar heavy, there’s a lot more acoustics stuff going on in this one, and I’m just more excited, I’m not as anxious as I was the first one.
G: How do you find inspiration for your songs?
A: Um, it varies. I think just life experiences, everything is very autobiographical for me, and I kinda just whenever I can get a chance to write I don’t really plan what I’m gonna write about. I just let my mind kinda drift away and there’s always some random shit in my subconscious that I’m obviously worried about or still thinking about so I just kinda let that run the session but all my stuff is always sort of about me recently.
G: Like a lot of other artists you’ve had a lot of time to write with COVID, how did you decide what songs made it onto this album?
A: Well it was quite difficult actually. There were quite a few songs because I thought I had the album, and then I did a couple of trips to the states and worked with some people and didn’t expect to write anything that would make the album and then all of a sudden I came back and I had all these new songs. So to narrow things down was really difficult, but I feel like I selected the best of the best for this album hopefully.
G: I mean from your first song to now releasing this album have you seen your music change or evolve through the years?
A: Yeah definitely! I think that just like anything, if you do it enough you just get better at it and through the first EP and album I was kinda winging it. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I was just doing an album and just trying to keep up with the pace that everything was going at, and for this one I feel like I’m a bit more knowledgeable. I know what my fans like, and I know how honest I can be, and I’m not relying heavily on production, I’m just trying to write really strong songs that I don’t need to put a lot of production on.
G: Do you have any future projects that you could tell us about or hint at?
A: Um.. I guess I’m just gonna keep writing songs till I die, but not really. I’m not really sort of a business person, I guess I’ve been writing a bit with some artists and sort of semi producing and executive producing some songs but yeah I don’t know, we’ll see where that goes.
G: If you could describe yourself and your music in two to three words what do you think they would be?
A: For myself and my music? It’s hard to think of words that you probably haven’t heard before, I’m just gonna go with raw, romantic, intimidating.
G: That’s pretty good for me putting you on the spot haha!
A: Yeah, I’ll probably think about that and be like what the hell was I thinking! But they’ll do for now.
G: Do you have an ideal collaboration for your future?
A: I just wanna work with Post Malone. That’s all I wanna do in my whole life, I’m just throwing that out there. Everytime someone asks me I’m just like ‘Post Malone, where are you, come at me!’
G: One day it might happen!
A: Haha let’s manifest that!
G: Talking about other artists, do you have a favourite song at the moment?
A: I listen to so much, I think one of my favourite songs right now is Lana Del Rey’s ‘White Dress’ I still can’t really get my head around how her vocals sound in that song and I listen to it everyday! So I’ll go with Lana Del Rey ‘White Dress’.
G: My last question for you, our blog is mostly about up and coming artists. Do you have any artists that you have your eyes on that you would recommend to others?
A: Yes! There is a young girl called Mia Wray, and she’s just got this most powerful and insane voice. She’s super young too, but her voice sounds like she’s like 50, but it’s so wild and she’s got a song called ‘Work For Me’ and I just remember hearing it and thinking it was like an old school classic, but I shazamed it and it was a new artist in Australia!
G: Perfect! We will definitely check her out! Thank you so much for doing this interview, it was so nice to talk to you.
A: Thank you! I really appreciate it!