STACK #198 Apr 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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Amy Shark's sophomore album is set to emerge onto shore at the end of the month.We spoke to the humble and eloquent artist about the blessing-and-curse of pain, bombing in front of Ed Sheeran, the triumph of the songwriting game, and the rest of the hectic journey towards Cry Forever . Words Zoë Radas T here's a moment during the first seconds of the first episode of Amy Shark's (first ever) docu-series

experiences that I've had like it happened yesterday. All it takes is for me to go home back to the Gold Coast, and I'll run into someone I haven't seen for ages, and they bring up something that happened in the past – like how crazy we were and how lost we were – and I get this feeling in my stomach.” This phenomenon is precisely how one of Cry Forever 's stand-out tracks, Baby Steps , was born. “I was flying straight from [the Gold Coast] to NewYork, so it was a big journey, and I just couldn't stop thinking about running into this person and what we were talking about, and it got me on a roll. I jotted down a couple of things and when I got to the hotel, Baby Steps just came out.” The song highlights Shark's art of mixing a potion of perspectives: All in one rushed tumult of commentary, the lyrics go from emotional lamentation (“I feel about as low as I can go”) to describing the immediate scene and directly addressing characters within it (“I'm dressed and ready, let's go out”) to detached observation of events (“My friends are fixing up my hair, pulling down my skirt”) to observing bodily reactions (“It's so warm in this car”) and back to the internal preoccupation (“I know it's over now”). “It kind of sounds really panicked, that song,” Shark says, “and that's exactly what I wanted to do, because it's about when I hit rock-bottom – maybe even a bit lower. It's a time I look back on and kind of admire, because it's given me a couple of albums out of that mind-set! “I've never been that scared to feel the pain,” she adds. “You know how some people just avoid it, they just shut up. And I [have] this sick addiction like, 'No, I need to feel this, I need to experience it and just sit in this pain, and then get on with it. I can really soak it up – probably for too long sometimes. I also overthink everything .”

ones aren't afraid to holler it: “Hardly exaggerating when I say you saved my life these past few weeks” famously tweeted Girls writer and star Lena Dunham in May 2017; “She is the next HUGE thing” gushed Blink-182's Tom DeLonge just a few days later, after having met Amy and her husband Shane at the couple's home. (Shark has now collected the whole set of three Blink-182 bandmembers; DeLonge's friendship was followed by a duet with singer-bassist Mark Hoppus, Psycho , on debut album Love

Forever, Amy Shark – currently being drip- fed to YouTube in the lead-up to second album, Cry Forever – in which the singer- songwriter says: “It's pretty unbelievable what music can do for you, and where it can take you in life.” Of course it's true for Amy in the professional sense – music was the torpedo to which the Gold Coast singer-

songwriter was strapped in 2016 when her single Adore tore up charts both at home and overseas – but it's also true, she says, from her perspective as a listener. “I remember having those kind of 'A-ha!' moments with bands: ‘Oh my God! This is what I need right now, and I’m totally relating to this song!', and it helped me through so much,” she says. “I think 'cos

Monster ; and the new album includes giant single C'MON featuring drummer Travis Barker.) But the international Late Show slots,

It's very addictive really, 'cos you just don't know... some other words might be inspired to come out

besotted fans and truly extraordinary chart and

sales stats haven't produced the ironic

'relatability slump' that can occur when an artist gains popularity for their accessible lyrics, begins writing music about their success, and consequently loses popularity because listeners can't see themselves in the music any more – and that's because Shark has a special talent for accessing a kind of emotional trapdoor which leads to the past. “Sometimes it's a curse,” she says, “but I can really teleport myself to situations and conversations and

people say it so often it feels like it's diluted, but there’s no other way to say it: When you listen to a song that you can relate to and connect to, there’s no stopping it. It's a real love for that band or artist.” That's the kind of love that Shark devotees harbour, and even the famous

10 APRIL 2021

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