Amy Shark, stripped back: ‘Everyone thinks being famous is amazing, and it’s not. It’s quite ugly’

‘No one’s the hot new artist for forever’ – Amy Shark. Photographs: Laura May Grogan/Sony Music Australia Ten years after Adore sparked a major-label bidding war, the Gold Coast singer’s fourth album ditches the pop production and the drums – and delivers the best work of her career

Prefer the Guardian on Google I n her other job as a judge on Australian Idol, the singer-songwriter Amy Shark spends a lot of time with budding musicians looking for their big break. It generates an uncomfortable sense of deja vu.

“I hear a lot in the hallways about how hard it is, like, ‘I’ve been at this for a whole year!’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, a whole year?’” she laughs, putting on the sort of jovial, mock show of sympathy you might offer a grown man who cries after stubbing his toe. “Babe, it’s not meant to be easy!”