Courtney Barnett

In her tracks Courtney Barnett sings honestly of emotions and daily happenings in what can only be described as an unaffected voice, talking over the phone she takes a similar tone and it almost feels as if you’re listening to one of her tracks unfold through the speaker. Always modest and full of insight, it could be a combination of the two that has allowed her to become a well known face overseas.
Recently back from a trip in America, where she completed numerous interview – including one on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon – and performances to bursting crowds.
“It’s a weird thing really, it was never my dream or whatever to do it, to ‘break into the industry’, but it just kind of happened. With the internet and sharing it’s so easy for people to share things with their friends and all of a sudden it’s on the other side of the world,” Courtney says.
“It was a big step though because even touring around Australia for the last seven years is always risky, money wise, if you’re going to lose money or break even or maybe even make money, but to kind of travel to the other side of the world is such a big step.
“I think people just seem to connect with what I’m saying, even if some of them have Australianisms or mention Australian landscapes or whatever, I think it’s more about the emotions and the idea that people connect with.”
Courtney is set to head back to America later this year, but only after she tours around Australia in support of her debut album Sometimes I sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. The tour will also take her to Europe and the UK, which she couldn’t be more excited about.
“I’m fucking psyched for it I can’t wait! I love being at home but I love travelling around the world – it’ll be amazing. Such an incredible opportunity so see some of the world,” she says.
There has been talk that this new album is a further insight into the musician, the microscope focused solely on her, but Courtney claims that nothing has changed and she’s still just writing what she wants and how she wants.
“I’m kind of just writing the same songs I guess. Anyone that releases music or art is under that same microscope – but that’s the point. People interpret the signs or interpret the lyrics and relate to it in any way and, you know, it’s their own interpretation,” she says.
While we can try and analyse her music all we like, what’s interesting is seeing Courtney follow one of her other passions by drawing the cover for the new album.
“It’s kind of symbolic of the title but it’s also from when I was a kid my dad used to always buy weird old rubbish-y chairs and do them up and they’d become this fancy vintage chair. So we always had weird stuff around the house and I think that just kind of reminded me of it, because the chair is one that we had at home,” she says.
The album will be out March 20 through her own label Milk! Records and can truly only be appreciated in the flesh.
When&Where: The Forum, Melbourne – May 15
Written by Amanda Sherring