Courtney Barnett is set to perform in New Zealand this November.
Courtney Barnett is set to perform in New Zealand this November.
Singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett talks to Rachel Bache about taking her shy songs out into the world.
Hearing Courtney Barnett talk in her quirky Australian accent is like listening to one of her songs unfold - minus the rhythmic distorted guitars.
It has been a full-on year for the Aussie folk-rocker, who started 2015 on a high note touring with Laneway Festival and the release of her debut album Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit, which received glowing reviews.
Rolling Stone described her as "one of the sharpest, most original songwriters around - at any level, in any genre." The Guardian praised Barnett's "articulacy, her wit, her funny observations and occasional cringe-making puns - and the fact her music is clearly rooted in the 'grunge years'."
But Barnett tells TimeOut she thinks her songs could border on boring. "[My songs are] personal, but pretty matter-of-fact. Stuff that I'm going through and stories about my life - and it's not too edited, it's just kind of straight up so sometimes it can be ... maybe boring."
If you've heard Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party or Pedestrian At Best, which are heavy on grunge with a loose rock 'n' roll vibe, "boring" is not a word that comes to mind. With her cool, casual style, wavy brown locks and ability to let loose on the guitar Barnett is the definition of a rock chick. Her songwriting and musicianship have put her on the road to fame, but she says there is always room to grow and improve.
"I normally write songs that I want to listen to and that interest me and kind of test me a little bit as a musician, they are always evolving as well - a song takes on a different meaning as you grow as a person or as you experience different stuff."
Barnett's music comes across like slam poetry, each word of her narrative-heavy music sounding more like speaking with rhythm than traditional singing - it all of that adds to Barnett's cool style and mystique. She rocks out like a young Joan Jett when she performs live - but off-stage she says she is extremely shy and allowing herself to be exposed on-stage and through her music has been a work in progress.
"It's been kind of scary to release music - especially when it's kind of vulnerable and honest, personal stories. I'm quite a guarded person a lot of the time - even with friends.
"But music is the place for that stuff, to work through it and figure out what you're feeling. I think that's where people really connect with you - when you're really putting a part of yourself out there.
"Sometimes I'm scared to do that. I don't really think about it a lot of the time when I'm writing ... it's kind of good to not have that editing hat on, considering what other people think, because it doesn't matter that much."
Despite the fear, Barnett musters the courage to get on stage in front of thousands of people and let loose, night after night, travelling across the world to share her music with the masses. This year she has already performed at some of the biggest music festivals and venues, including Glastonbury and most recently opening for Blur at the Hollywood Bowl.
Australian musician Courtney Barnett.
"Every day you kind of wake up with a different feeling, if you're insecure or really happy - you know different moods - it just follows you on stage and if I'm having a bad day, whatever mood I'm in gets dragged on to stage with me.
"But you know, I think that's good. I don't really have like, a stage face or a stage persona or whatever; it's really quite pure energy from what I'm feeling. If I'm angry sometimes I think I've done the worst show ever, but people kind of say afterwards that they think it's the best show ever.
"Which is kind of confusing, but I guess that energy takes it to a different place.
"I really enjoy [performing] Small Poppies and Kim's Caravan, those epic, big heavy ones - they kind of sound like they're stuck in a thunderstorm or something. They're really fun to play live, they just have a lot of emotion in them, like they're really pretty deep, dark songs, which I like, I think it's nice to be vulnerable every now and then and let that out."
Now, roughly a year on from her first gig in New Zealand - a sweaty, sold-out show at Auckland's Kings Arms - Barnett is returning to perform shows across the country.
"We're just looking forward to coming back. It took us a long time to get there and we had a lot of fun [last time]."
For her it really is all about the music, and she promises fans will hear a couple of new songs on this tour, but most importantly get to enjoy "people on a stage playing good old-fashioned music".
Who: Courtney Barnett When and where: Thursday November 5, Bodega, Wellington; Friday, November 6, St James Theatre, Auckland; Saturday, November 7, Foundry, Christchurch Listen:Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit (2015), The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (2014).
