“I feel like I’ve gone nonstop, to be honest,” Courtney says of her workload in the past year or so. “I work at a pub, I work at home – it’s like I’m working 24/7. It’s not a bad thing, I’m not complaining – it’s fun. But running the record label (Milk! Records), doing all the artwork, working from home, plus doing all the boring stuff that goes along with being a musician. Sometimes there are days and weeks of not having much on in terms of shows or tours. Then there are times like today, when all of a sudden everything comes up and needs to be done by Monday. It’s a bit crazy.”
The ascendency of Courtney Barnett is the result of that workload, a sense of commitment and responsibility. Whereas the lyrical content of her work often explores, in a wry fashion, personal shortcomings and the struggles of adulthood. “I’m definitely not an adult. I definitely feel like a little kid still trying to figure out how to grow up. I don’t know what it is, I’m turning 26 this year. I don’t know what point you start feeling like an adult. It’s all in your mind, anyway. It’s about having an idea about what you’re doing. I still feel a bit lost in what I’m all about, you know?”
Courtney’s brilliant lyricisms flow like stream-of-consciousness, but the perceived effortlessness stems from a meticulous writing process. “I refine and refine, then refine again. Sometimes I write a lot, I overwrite, and a lot of it can be total rubbish. But a tiny percent of it can be ok, and it’s usually that tiny percent when I do something by accident, or something comes naturally.”
Much like even the most seasoned stand-up comics, Courtney is still sometimes struck by the humour of her own work. “I do find recurring funniness, I sometimes find little laughs out of my own songs. That’s the reason those lines are in the songs, because I think it’s really funny, like a little stupid joke I have with myself. But apparently other people think they’re okay.”
Prominently a blend of erudite Australiana folk and rock ‘n’ roll, Courtney’s EPs I’ve Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris and the upcoming How To Carve A Carrot Into A Rose showcase a culmination of a broad range of influences. “I don’t listen to that much music to be honest. I’ve just been listening to classical music lately,” Courtney states. “I like to listen to music properly when I do. Now I just feel like I don’t have that much time to give it the proper attention. I guess the point I’m getting at is that I try and bring all of the elements of all the different music I like, and then I bring a different element from each into my own music. It’s a bit of everything.”
The two EPs will be released as a combined package in overseas markets, forming a cohesive whole as an LP package. “Basically, I released an EP this year and I’m about to release a second one. But in the meantime, we joined up with this UK label and got some interest overseas. We decided it was easier to introduce it all as one, for people that haven’t heard the first EP. It’s kind of complicated, I know.”
The newfound exposure overseas belies Courtney’s use of distinct Australianisms within her songs. But rather than isolate, the references seem to pique intrigue from listeners abroad. “When I started writing stuff, I wasn’t thinking about that side of it then. But when I did Avant Gardener I remember my manager saying, ‘Oh, I don’t know if anyone outside of Melbourne or Australia will get that’. But I’m not going to change my songwriting to accommodate for that. I don’t mean that in a rude way, it’s just how it is. I write like that because that’s where I’m from. I’m not going to write about something I don’t know about. But it’s actually pretty amazing, I get messages from people in America saying ‘What’s Weet-Bix?’ I find that really funny.”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
