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.
I grew up listening to Nirvana, and then went through some bad 90s pop stuff - a lot of Australian one-hit wonders.
I definitely grew up on a lot of American bands. I didn't really know that there were any decent Australian bands until I was around 20.
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 take notes of things that happen that I think are important or interesting or just little tidbits here and there that happen in life. And some of it's even just one line or like a saying and I just go off that.
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.
The music, I think, is just as important as the lyrics; it portrays the emotion of the song. I play the kind of music that I want to listen to.
I've never really had a certain style of music in mind that I make, or am really adamant on how something should sound, but I like the process of not knowing, of just seeing what happens and what comes out.
I reckon that growing up, listening to so much different music, I think over time I just kind of sucked it all in and it probably comes back out through my music.
People should be free to take whatever they want from music and I think that over time I realized that different people always find different things in my songs, which is really good.
I think that if people get my music, then they get what my message is.