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Amy Shark is a hugger. When I meet her, she embraces me so firmly my chest bone audibly cracks. \u201cYep,\u201d she says. \u201cI love hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
She immediately strikes me as down-to-earth, practical and no-nonsense. For our interview, she\u2019s wearing a black-and-white-striped, long-sleeve tee, baggy selvedge jeans, black socks and chunky black sandals. Her long brown hair is in its signature topknot. When she answers a question, she looks me dead in the eye.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re catching up to chat about her new music, including the newly released first single The Biggest Dick, from her fourth album, soft pop \u2013 a stripped-back, intimate offering driven by melody and story. It\u2019s a swerve from her last two albums, Cry Forever (2021) and Sunday Sadness (2024), both heavy on the beats and production values.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still so excited that people listen to my music,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m really aware that with fourth albums, it\u2019s hard to keep the interest there. I had to push a few boundaries. I switched up my microphones. It basically sounds like I\u2019m actually in your ear hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shark (whose civilian name is Amy Louise Billings; her stage name is in honour of her favourite movie, Jaws) was first encouraged to play a musical instrument by her nan while growing up in Southport, on the Gold Coast. She started taking guitar lessons, and it resonated. \u201cBecause it was something I could do by myself, I just got obsessed with it. I wanted to sound good,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Being a young artist in a place as sports-obsessed as the Gold Coast in the \u201990s meant finding like-minded people. \u201cI guess my friend group was pretty androgynous,\u201d she says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have bleached blonde hair. We were pale and listened to Deftones and our parents were all divorced. You just migrate to the people who are like you.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says she was the only member of her sports-focused family who liked performing. \u201cMy mum was creative but when it came to putting yourself out there, she was so nervous for me that she couldn\u2019t relate,\u201d says Shark. \u201cShe was just like, \u2018I don\u2019t know why you do that to yourself.\u2019\u201d (She says it took travelling around the world to help her understand how sheltered her upbringing had actually been.)<\/p>\n
Her singing voice was an accidental discovery while she was playing with her high school band, Dorothy\u2019s Rainbow and Hansel Kissed Gretel. She was trying to explain a melody idea. She sang it out, it sounded good. \u201cSo I kind of started then,\u201d she says. \u201cThe band broke up, the drummer got pregnant, and the bassist was always way too smart for us. She went off to uni to do some double degree or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Zimmermann](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/274cbeb5249e6a34ee9a78a4555f5ac6d8796230.jpeg\")
Zimmermann dress, Shark\u2019s own shoes and socks.Jedd Cooney![\"Zimmermann](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/af8df99143a1d09c425b93fd4a91a01b69bf73a6.jpeg\")
Zimmermann dress and pants.Jedd Cooney<\/p>\n
At the time, she was just getting to know her now-husband and business manager, Shane Billings, who encouraged her to start sending out her demos and performing as a solo artist. To this day, their lives remain intertwined, which she describes as an ongoing balance, like anyone\u2019s relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the good outweighs the bad because we talk the same language \u2013 we love music,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s still got his hands in sport \u2013 he used to work in football \u2013 and he\u2019s really good with numbers. So he\u2019s got his other life as well as managing me, and I\u2019ve got my other life as well as music. It doesn\u2019t feel like we\u2019re on top of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a decade since Shark first hit the Australian airwaves. Her breakout song, Adore, came second in the 2016 Triple J Hottest 100<\/a> and has since gone platinum seven times. In 2018, she released her debut album, Love Monster. On her subsequent albums, she co-wrote and worked with artists as disparate as Keith Urban, Ed Sheeran and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.<\/p>\n On the other hand, she wrote soft pop by herself over the course of a month. \u201cI think you can forget why you like writing songs,\u201d she says, \u201cso it felt really cool to put that belief back, like when I wrote Love Monster. I was like, \u2018I wonder why I don\u2019t trust myself any more?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For some, fame is the main course of a music career. For Shark, it\u2019s a side dish \u2013 all she ever really wanted to do was write and record songs. Perhaps that\u2019s the reason the limelight has been kind to the 39-year-old. \u201cI don\u2019t get too badly harassed,\u201d she says of fame. \u201cI feel like I can slither through the world OK. I mean, when people do recognise me, they\u2019re always nice.\u201d<\/p>\n While the negative comments of online trolls slide off her back, she remains confused by their motivation. \u201cIt makes no sense to me, especially to people who are just making art. They\u2019re out there just creating art or music or performance \u2013 it\u2019s not like they\u2019re Hitler. Maybe their personality doesn\u2019t rub you the right way, but at least they\u2019re doing something. I don\u2019t know, it blows my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Shark has also recently broken into the world of film, acting alongside Academy Award winner Russell Crowe in Beast, in which she plays Rose, a former mixed martial arts fighter turned trainer. Crowe plays a grizzled trainer and ex-con who works with Rose to prepare champion Patton James (Daniel MacPherson<\/a>) for the fight of his life. \u201cI love fight movies,\u201d says the singer. \u201cI auditioned twice, got it, and it was the coolest thing I\u2019ve ever done. Hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done, but coolest.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a big role and Shark, with no MMA fighting experience, had limited time to prepare. \u201cI had to look tough, really push Dan [MacPherson] around and look like I\u2019m not intimidated or like it didn\u2019t hurt when he was really hitting the pads. I was so sore.\u201d<\/p>\n Naturally wiry, Shark was in good running shape, but to be believable as a fighter she needed to start lifting weights. \u201cMy trainer was so great, he worked me really hard.\u201d But mainly, she says, it was a mental thing. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Don\u2019t flinch, give it to me again.\u2019 I just had to feel it and really get in the zone. Learn that I am training this guy and I will be embarrassed if he doesn\u2019t step up.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the first day I was in the ring with all these cameras and lights, never having done this before in my life,\u201d she says. \u201cI could just see [Russell] standing watching \u2013 it\u2019s one of those moments where embarrassment isn\u2019t a thing. You\u2019re better off going for it than half-arsing it.\u201d<\/p>\n The singer says the motto she lives by is \u201cYou know, what\u2019s the worst that can happen?\u201d adding, \u201cWhenever an artist asks me for advice I\u2019m like, \u2018Prepare to be embarrassed and don\u2019t care.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Shark says acting alongside Russell Crowe was \u201cthe best thing ever, but terrifying. Not many people could say they had a mentor like him in their very first movie.\u201d She recalls one scene in which the actor pulled her aside. \u201cHe was like, \u2018You\u2019re still too animated. Kill it all.\u2019 He gets himself in that space very quickly. That\u2019s why he\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n I wonder if any of the work she\u2019s done as a judge on reality talent show Australian Idol<\/a> has helped her make that transition into filmmaking, whether those 15-hour days of bringing singer after hopeful singer back down to earth involve a lot of acting.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI\u2019ve learnt ways to be like, \u2018It\u2019s good that you like singing if it makes you happy,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI think that\u2019s the most exhausting part about it \u2013 meeting someone, watching them perform and then thinking about how to let them down without shattering them. You are just constantly trying to think of the right things to say.\u201d<\/p>\n When she hears people singing her own songs to her, Shark says she wants one of two things. \u201cI either want someone to be super terrible or super great. Just set me on fire rather than tell me I\u2019m vanilla and forgettable.\u201d<\/p>\n Beast is in cinemas April 23. soft pop<\/a> will be released July 31.<\/p>\n Fashion editor: Penny McCarthy; Hair: David Keough using John Frieda; Make-up: Heidi Scarlett King using Merit; Fashion assistant: Abbey Stockwell. <\/p>\n Stockists: Acne Studios<\/a>; Alma Ines<\/a>; Edited Agency<\/a>; Wynn Hamlyn<\/a>; Zimmermann<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Acne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/866d918ffdc9c94fe2748e48895d8168fe20ecf4.jpeg\")
Acne Studios jacket and pants. Alma Ines singlet.Jedd Cooney![\"Mii](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/b2e1b22c512601088f80d9992e253a9798cda975.jpeg\")
Mii Collection jacket and skirt from Edited Agency.Jedd Cooney<\/p>\n![\"Trailblazers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/e46074003f09086d5b6cb62d313251834cfb29b793def89ec7c649bad3d903e6.gif\")
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