AMY’S SONG TURNS EDS
GOLD Coast superstar Amy Shark says she’ll never forget the day Ed Sheeran’s name popped up in her inbox via an email inviting her to a writing session the next time she was in the UK.
And she has Russell Crowe to thank.
The Hollywood actor sent her breakthrough debut record Love Monster to Sheeran, which led to her latest single.
RUSSELL Crowe will get a big thank you in the credits of Amy Shark’s muchanticipated new album Cry Forever.
If it wasn’t for the Hollywood actor and Shark fanboy sending her breakthrough debut record Love Monster to his good mate Ed Sheeran, she wouldn’t have the album’s latest single Love Songs Ain’t For Us.
She will never forget the day Sheeran’s name popped up in her inbox via an email congratulating her on Love Monster and inviting the Australian songwriter for a writing session the next time she was in the UK.
The ARIA award-winning chart-topper and her manager/husband Shane Billings spent three hours crafting a “reply that didn’t sound so gushy, but also sounded very thankful and excited, all those things”.
“We both have a lot of pride in how we run this business and how we keep the people in our life who are special and kind,” she said.
A jet-lagged Shark was noodling on her guitar in Sheeran’s home studio on his Suffolk estate in England when she first met the pop phenomenon.
“He walked in and there is a moment where you stop and think ‘It’s Ed Sheeran’. After a little bit of small talk, he asked what I was playing. He said he liked it and then we were in, writing the song,” she said.
As they worked on the music, Sheeran asked Shark if
she ever wrote love songs about her husband.
You can imagine the Adore singer blushing brightly in that moment as she replied “love songs aren’t really for us”.
“He’d done his homework, he knew about the Triple J background to the success of my music and so he would check with me when we were doing the ‘lovey’ lyrics. He wanted to check it would be something I would say
because writing love songs is hard,” she said.
“He is possibly the best songwriter in the world and as much as I love the alternative side of what I do, I just wanted to write a strong pop song and his lyrics are just so beautiful.”
Within a few hours, they had the pure pop ballad Love Songs Ain’t For Us. Sheeran’s advice was “just don’t overcook this”.
“That was the best piece of advice; give the song what it wants not what you think it needs,” she said.
She enlisted her Adore producer M-Phazes to help finish it off in Australia and asked Keith Urban if he would sing and play guitar on it.
“I literally just texted it to him saying: ‘Hey, I’ve done a song with Ed and I’d love you to be on it if you’re feeling it.’ He did it that weekend and it sounded great. Bring on the country market!” she said.