Courtney Barnett
Courtney Barnett
Courtney Melba Barnett is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Melbourne, Australia. Known for her witty, rambling lyrics and deadpan singing style, she attracted attention with the release of her debut EP, I've Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris. International interest from the UK and North American music press came with the release of The Double EP: A Sea Split Peas in October 2013. At her well-received performances at the CMJ Music Marathon, Barnett was mentioned by both Rolling Stone and...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth3 November 1987
CountryAustralia
Sometimes I have something stuck in my head and that directs the rhyme that I'm writing with.
The first song I wrote was called "You" and it was a love song about somebody who didn't even exist. I remember them all because I used to always write terrible poetry. I keep all my notebooks.
Every time I write a song it feels like it could be the last one I do, or it always feels like a fluke.
I try to write a lot and my process is kind of back and forth. I procrastinate a lot so when I do sit down to write, I'm pretty lazy at it. And it's such a frustrating thing sometimes - writing - when you don't do it all the time, you get that thing in your head that you have nothing to talk about and you can't write songs.
I started writing songs when I started learning guitar.
I like reading biographies because most of them are slightly similar, and it's voyeuristic, looking into someone's life.
I just want to be self-sustainable so that I can continue to just do what I like to do and not make a million dollars. Nobody needs a million dollars.
I keep a journal and just kind of take notes. I don't really so much sit down and write songs - I just take a lot of notes, and sometimes I sit down and put them all together.
I'm just not very comfortable talking about my emotions on a normal, day-to-day basis.
I'm self-deprecating - I spend a lot of time telling myself that things are OK, as opposed to having to tell myself to get over things.
If I write something down, it's normally just a sharp one-liner.
I never planned to be a professional artist - I just want to be a sustainable artist. I guess they're the same thing if you look at them from a different angle.
I'm very hands on with my music - I do all the artwork and everything myself - and the songs I write aren't necessarily the most commercial.
What's funny about the slacker thing, people project an image of what they think a musician is: young, slack, unemployed - like a really romantic idea of a poet, writer or musician - which isn't really true a lot of the time. I don't reckon you would know anything about me if I wasn't moderately hard-working.