Amy Shark's fourth album, Soft Pop, out Friday, marks a dramatic departure from her previous work. The Gold Coast singer has stripped away drums and big-pop production, leaving little more than her vocals and an acoustic guitar. The result is the best work of her career.
From Underdog to Established Artist
Ten years after her breakout hit Adore sparked a major-label bidding war, Shark is no longer the hot new artist. 'No one's the hot new artist for forever,' she says. 'I'm on my fourth album, you don't always stay up here.'
Shark spent 15 years trying to make it in music before Adore went five times platinum. Now, she faces different challenges: the pressures of fame, creative burnout, and the struggle to stay relevant.
Reclaiming Her Creative Spark
After three albums that mined her romantic history and featured collaborations with Ed Sheeran, Travis Barker, and Jack Antonoff, Shark felt she had nothing left to say. She stopped writing altogether after 2024's Sunday Sadness.
Her husband and manager, Shane Billings, booked her a month of studio time with producer Dann Hume in the UK. 'That just made me angry, because you never want to be told to do something you're not in the mood to do,' Shark says. 'But he was right – I needed to sink my teeth into something.'
The deadline forced her to stop overthinking. She wrote about old flames, friendship fallouts, and her marriage. 'It's not all smooth sailing,' she says.
Stripped-Back Sound
In the UK, Shark ditched the drums and big-pop production of past albums. Tracks like The Biggest Dick and Not Old Enough to Drive weave playground rhymes and half-heartbroken memories into pared-back earworms.
On the album closer, Singapore Noodles, you can hear Shark make a false start on her guitar before Hume counts her in. 'I just needed it to sound different,' Shark says. 'I didn't want it to be another Amy Shark album … I wanted people to second guess who they were listening to.'
Fame's Ugly Side
'Everyone wants to be famous, and everyone thinks being famous is amazing, and it's not,' Shark says. 'Everyone changes, everyone expects things of you, everyone feels entitled and it's quite ugly. You see the ugliest parts of so many people. It's a daily battle of keeping your head above water and being happy.'
Shark also speaks about musicians being exploited by tech companies. 'We're forever the ones doing the charity gig, and having to comment on things that we don't really want to comment on,' she says of the campaign to stop the Australian government selling out creative copyright to big tech. 'Anthony Albanese seems on board but musicians are still getting people stealing our shit.'
Reinvigorated and Indie at Heart
Shark took charge of the album's aesthetics, designing the fluffy cover herself with fabric, scissors, and glue from Spotlight. 'I felt like an indie artist again – probably driving my actual label crazy, because I was acting like an indie on a major!'
'I don't know where I lost my confidence … I'm not 18, I just turned 40, I've got so many stories; I've been through it all … what haven't I got to write about?'
Soft Pop is out on 24 July.
