It’s almost evening in the Netherlands, but Courtney Barnett has just gotten up. In Los Angeles she drinks coffee at her computer. Next to her is a guitar stand with one of her instruments. Her hair is as messy as it is on stage and on album covers – it’s her trademark.
Another trademark is Barnett’s self-mockery. Barnett (1987, Australia) speaks critically about himself, to the point of being unflattering. In biting sentences she sings about her own uselessness, her nonchalance.
It was precisely because of these characteristics that Barnett escaped what she described as a ‘provincial’ existence in Melbourne more than ten years ago. Already in her teens she played guitar in other people’s groups. Due to intense insecurity, she did not become a singer herself, but after many contributions to ‘open mic’ evenings she overcame her stage fear. And thanks to songs like ‘Avant Gardener’ (2013) and ‘Pedestrian at Best’ (2015, „Put me on a pedestal and I’ll only disappoint you.”) she quickly gained an international following. The nihilistic self-image appealed to a large audience, just as was once the case with groups such as Pavement and Kurt Vile.
Compassion for the neighbors
After a five-year break, Barnett’s fourth album is now released Creature or Habit (the fifth if you Lotta Sea Lice with Kurt Vile). It’s the first after Things Take Time, Take Time (2021), which was recorded during the covid lockdown at home in Melbourne. Then she played softly, out of compassion for the neighbors.
Things Take Time was the account of the corona years, just as her first two albums reflected on the periods before that. And Creature or Habit looks back on about the past three years, Barnett says.
“My music documents my mood at a certain moment in my life. In the past I often had a hard time, with a lot of melancholy. I had to learn to be cheerful or even happy.”
While stirring her coffee, she says: “What bothers me most is my internal voice that speaks to me critically. A critical eye is useful, but not if you criticize everything with it. I’m trying to get rid of that. And actually I have a slightly more positive outlook on life now. Although there are also plenty of gray periods.”
She glances at the window, where the California sun is shining. “Then I notice that I can write myself out of the gloom. Not always, but sometimes. That’s why some songs start sad and end a little more lively.”
Things ‘I’m looking forward to’
Her practice of cheerfulness was stimulated by a friend who recommended making a list of things ‘I’m looking forward to’. After that act she named a song on her previous album, ‘Write a List of Things To Look Forward To’, which included ‘a baby being born, a letter I get from you’.
Barnett has now moved from Melbourne to Los Angeles, where in recent years she has regularly retreated to the desert near Joshua Tree where she could play as loud as she wanted.
There were new great songs like ‘Same’, ‘Mantis’, ‘Stay in Your Lane’. We hear a different Barnett, her slightly despondent diction given a tingling undercurrent – with an almost cheerful ‘oohooh choir’ from herself in ‘Sugar Plum’.
The music sounds vital and elaborate, there are many guitar layers and pulsating rhythms by colleague Stella Mozgawa (also drummer of the group War Paint). The lyrics received a lot of attention, because “words are important,” she says. “A song is short, I don’t want to waste a word. That’s why I cram as much ‘meaning’ as possible into every word. I love that puzzle.”
And her trademark, self-criticism? It turns out to be milder. In the closing track ‘Another Beautiful Day’ she sings eloquently: “You gotta put yourself first sometimes.” And there is also a promise in the cheerfully whining ‘Mantis’:There’s no such thing as a perfect melody/ but I keep searching every morning in the trees.’
During performances you could see how her hand rubbed against the steel strings, without using a pick
If Barnett is still making lists of events to look forward to, they will now include her ceramics course, surfing, and looking at the paintings of Georgia O’Keefe – activities she discovered in Los Angeles. In the nearby desert she learned new possibilities on the guitar. As can be heard in the songs and in concerts, Barnett is an ambitious guitarist, but the instrument does not receive continuous attention, she says. “I love my guitar, although we have an erratic relationship. It has blossomed again recently. I have taught myself a different playing style. As a result, the guitar became, even more than before, the basis of the songs.”
What did she learn? “A song like ‘Mantis’ doesn’t sound that different from before, but the guitar part is. The song consists of two chords, and I play both the melody line and the rhythm part at the same time. We recorded it later in the studio, in one take, to make it sound as ‘live’ and energetic as possible.”
Just like her idol Kurt Cobain, Barnett plays the transverse guitar parts left-handed. During many performances you could see how her hand rubbed against the steel strings, without the use of a pick. She now plays with a pick, she says. “Not because it was painful, but because it sounds clearer.”
