Amy Shark makes comeback after quiet struggle: ‘I was over it all’

Exclusive: Aussie musician Amy Shark is back with a brand new album, it’s deeply personal and comes after a private, quiet struggle.

The 40-year-old admits to nine.com.au there was a time, before the release of soft pop, where she couldn’t write songs or even pick up her guitar due to complete and utter “burnout”.

Shark, whose real name is Amy Louise Billings, says her work commitments; including being a judge on a singing talent show and touring, took such a toll on her, that she was left “exhausted” and she shunned music; one of her creative outlets.

The eight-time ARIA Award winner, who recently made her acting debut in the 2026 film Beast opposite Russell Crowe, recently made headlines for saying she “had a divorce with music”.

“I think it was just like a massive buildup of burnout and obviously, I’m doing so many things and I’ve got a very front-facing job and it doesn’t turn off either,” she admits to nine.com.au.

The hitmaker says that sometimes people stop and want to have a chat with her, which is part of being in the public eye, so she always feels like she’s switched on in work mode and will always happily indulge them.

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“Like when, when I go home, I live in an apartment building and there’s neighbours and when your face is something that people see, it doesn’t matter what kind of day you’re having,” she says.

“Like I could have a massive headache or someone could have really pissed me off in my family or my friend group. And if I see Caroline who lives in unit A, and she wants to talk about Australian Idol, I’ve got to switch gears and be like, ‘oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course [talking politely]’“.

“I just hit this massive exhaustion and it was a mixture between I hadn’t written in a while and I’d done heaps of touring and I just ran out of s--t to say,” she admits.

“I was just like, I don’t even want to look at my guitar. I’m like, it makes me angry. Songwriting just makes me angry. I’m just not interested. I just hit massive exhaustion and I was just over it all.”

“It just took a minute to get back.”

Shark recorded the album in a studio that is a converted church in Wales and credits her husband Shane Billings, who is her manager, for pulling her out of her funk by booking her the studio time.

“He knows that what makes me the happiest girl in the world is writing songs,” Shark explained.

“It was the best thing he did because, after I obviously nearly divorced him over it, I was like, ‘maybe this is great. Maybe I need this,’” she jokes.

“And I held on to this album for dear life... I started sinking my teeth into and it slowly brought me back to life.” 

Tracks on the new album include the likes of It’s Kinda Hot, Child of Divorce and Hotel Towels.

In the film clip of It’s Kinda Hot, it stars Devlin, ‘the Real Life Devil Girl’, (Shark in character and wearing red body paint and horns), but she keeps up Devlin’s facade her chat with nine.com.au.

“Devlin is just effortlessly cool,” Shark says.

“When I came across her and her character, I was like, ‘wow, this is exactly what I wanted’.”

“It’s spinning a few people out and I think people don’t really know what the hell is going on but I kind of also like that as well.”

Shark has had a lot of fun with this album. Her special vinyl releases have a faux-fur bright blue slip cover.

“Oh man, it’s like my pride and joy,” she tells nine.com.au. “It’s so cool.”

“I was so proud of this album, I’m like, ‘how am I going to make this one stand out so people care, you know?’”

“And obviously, it was called soft pop. So the whole idea of making it have this fluffy, soft sleeve was genius I thought!”

So what does Shark want her fans to take from soft pop?

“I’ve been calling this album my most reliable album, because I feel like you can put it on from start to finish, and it’s such a beautiful album to listen to...”

“Not that my previous albums haven’t been, it’s just, I’ve always doubled in a bit of punk or a bit of this or a bit of that and there might be some songs you have to race to the stereo and turn it down a bit or whatever.

“I wanted an album where it was just like, ‘oh no, soft pop‘s a good listen. We can just chuck that on and every song is just a vibe.’”

Amy Shark’s fourth studio album soft pop is out now.