Audrey Hobert’s rapid rise has been something to behold.
In 2023, the 26-year-old was a TV writer for Nickelodeon, working on The Really Loud House, when she began writing songs with childhood best friend Gracie Abrams which would eventually feature on her 2024 album, The Secret of Us.
In that very short span of time, Hobert began to work on her own debut album, Who’s the Clown?, which dropped this past August.
Now, the New York-born singer-songwriter is gearing up for a massive headline tour throughout the US, UK, and Europe before coming to Australia and New Zealand in May 2026.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ caught up with Hobert while she was in Australia promoting her new album and playing some intimate shows as a taste of what’s to come next year.
Check out our full conversation below.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: Welcome to Sydney! I’m told you got straight off the plane here and walked from Surry Hills to Bondi?
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Audrey Hobert: Yes! My manager and I are big walkers and we also get along well. So yeah, we just did a casual 10-mile walk. It made me feel better when I then went to sleep for four hours in the middle of the day because, I knew I had seen at least some of the city and therefore I could sleep.
Any highlights or was it more of a sleepwalk?
I mean, it was definitely in a daze, but it’s a gorgeous place. The water was very blue. I know it’s the same ocean that we see in LA, but it looked a bit cleaner.
Your first foray into songwriting came when you wrote some songs with Gracie Abrams for 2024’s The Secret of Us. Before that point, you were a TV writer for Nickelodeon. Tell me about that transition and how abrupt was it for your career?
I sort of was not even seeing it as a transition into anything. I just was writing with Gracie at our house and found it to just be a really fun thing to do with her, and [I] knew that it was very creative and felt like something brand new in my life. But I was not actively really having the thought of, ‘OK, now I’m doing this.’ It just felt like a really fun thing to do.
I’m not, like, confused necessarily about how I wound up here, but it does feel like it all seamlessly led into each other and I’m very happy about where I am now.
Given that album only came out in June last year, the fact that you’ve since released your debut album and now toured around the world is wild to think about. Has it felt organic to you or has it been a very fast process?
Probably both. Fast just in that, like, yeah, I started writing music technically for the first time in August of 2023, and so I guess it’s like two years later, [but] it feels organic. I have felt very sure of myself throughout the whole process. It’s just been fun!
You could have taken the route of drip-feeding singles and maybe started with an EP release or two. Instead, you dove right in with Who’s the Clown. Was there any particular reason you went down that road?
I met my label kind of halfway through making the album, and the second I felt like a legitimacy in terms of signing a record deal and properly putting out a project, I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s just let’s go for it, it should be an album!’ It was motivation for me as everything became more official to write however many more songs I needed to write so that it would be an album, and I’m happy that it’s something that people can hold in their hands with the vinyl. It’s an entire body of work.
Given that you were working in entertainment already before you started your music career, was it still a shock to the system making that switch and dealing with labels and publishing etc?
It’s entirely new. I will say, the difference between the film and TV world and the music world are — they’re very different. I mean, I was in a writer’s room. I was watching writers who were much more experienced than I was pitch and then learning about watching them do that for like two seasons’ worth of time, and on a TV show. I then knew when when I went into meetings myself like, ‘OK, I just watched people pitch [for two years] so I’ve learned how to pitch myself as a writer and an artist.’ It all led to each other.
Are you settled as music being your main focus moving forward or do you have aspirations to return to the screen, whether that’s writing or directing?
Yeah, definitely! Whatever I can do in this life, yeah, hell yeah, I’ll do anything. But right now, yeah, I feel pretty serious about making a name for myself in music just ’cause I’m having a lot of fun so far.
It’s admittedly an unfair question given you’re currently in Australia, jet-lagged, on a promo tour for your latest album and tour, but is the immediate focus these US and Australian headline dates? Have you even thought about new music?
I miss the period of time where I was writing the album. Just what it felt like, which was I felt like a shut-in for the most part. I didn’t really see many people. I just, sort of, wrote all day. So, if I wasn’t going off to perform this album and put on a show, then I’d probably be in that mode.
But I will figure it out, I guess, as I go. If I can manage to write while also doing the other part of this job, which is as full-time as writing something, we’ll see. I hope that happens, but if not, then I guess I’ll finish off the tour and then crawl back into my hole.
It is kind of a restful thing for me to be writing music because it involves nobody else really. I can just be by myself and I can take breaks if I want, but I am probably the happiest, most beautiful version of myself when I am writing.
You’re playing these intentionally small intimate shows in Sydney and Melbourne this week but you’ll be back mid-next year to play in rooms that are nearly ten times the size. It’s obvious that Australia and the world are quickly embracing you and your music. Does the rapid ascent rattle you at all?
No. I mean, I’ve never played to 5000 people — I’ve played to, like, 300 people for sure. I know what that feels like, but no. I think that it’s actually scarier to play to less people than it is to play to more people, because when you can look out in the audience and really make direct eye contact, you know?
I mean, I’m just kind of along for the ride. I feel everything and nothing all at once.
Click here for tickets and more details on Hobert’s 2026 tour.
