Courtney Barnett | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Barnett performing in February 2019 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Courtney Melba Barnett (1987-11-03)3 November 1987 (age 38) Sydney, Australia |
| Origin | Melbourne, Australia |
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| Years active | 2009–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | courtneybarnett |
Courtney Melba Barnett (born 3 November 1987) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and musician. Known for herdeadpan singing style and witty, rambling lyrics,[2] she attracted attention with the release of her debut EPI've Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris in 2012. International interest came with the release of her EPThe Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas in 2013.[3]
Barnett's debut album—Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit—was released in 2015 to widespread acclaim. At the2015 ARIA Music Awards, she won four awards from eight nominations. She was nominated forBest New Artist at the58th Annual Grammy Awards andInternational Female Solo Artist at the2016 Brit Awards.[4][5] She releasedLotta Sea Lice, a collaborative album withKurt Vile, in 2017.[6][7] She released her second album,Tell Me How You Really Feel, to further acclaim in 2018.[8] Barnett's third studio album—Things Take Time, Take Time—was released in November 2021.[9]
Courtney Melba Barnett[10] was born inSydney on 3 November 1987.[11] She was given her middle name after opera singerNellie Melba. She grew up in Sydney'sNorthern Beaches area. Her mother was a ballerina.[12] She has an older brother.[13] When she was 16, her family moved toHobart. She attendedSt Michael's Collegiate School and theTasmanian School of Art.[14] Having grown up listening to American bands, she discovered Australian singer-songwritersDarren Hanlon andDan Kelly, who inspired her to start writing songs.[15] While pursuing a music career, she worked as a pizza delivery driver.[16]
From 2010 to 2011, Barnett played second guitar in Melbourne grunge band Rapid Transit. They released one self-titled album on cassette.[citation needed] She recorded many early versions of her songs with a band called Courtney Barnett and the Olivettes, which was later shortened to the Olivettes.[17] They released a live EP demo CD, with 100 copies being produced which were hand numbered.[18] Around this time Barnett featured on a track by Melbourne singer-songwriter Giles Field called "I Can't Hear You, We're Breaking Up" which was released in late 2011.[19] She also has a credit as co-writer on the song.[19]
Between 2011 and 2013, Barnett was a member of Australian psych-country bandImmigrant Union, a musical project founded byBrent DeBoer (ofThe Dandy Warhols) and Bob Harrow. Along with sharing vocal duties, Barnett predominantly played slide guitar and is on the band's second studio album,Anyway. DeBoer played drums on Barnett's firstEP,I've Got a Friend called Emily Ferris.[20] It appeared in 2012 on Barnett's own label,Milk! Records.
In 2013, Barnett played lead guitar onJen Cloher's third studio album,In Blood Memory, which was also released onMilk! Records. Following the release of her first EP, Barnett signed toMarathon Artists (via its imprint House Anxiety). In August 2013, Marathon Artists releasedThe Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, a combined package of Barnett's first EP and her second EP,How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose.[21]The Double EP brought Barnett international critical acclaim, with "Avant Gardener", the lead single, named Track of the Day byQ Magazine and Best New Track byPitchfork in 2013.[22][23] It was named the album of the week byStereogum[24] The track "History Eraser" was nominated for theAPRA Song of the Year.[25]How to Carve a Carrot into a Rose was released on a limited run byMilk! Records as a standalone EP in October 2013.Marathon Artists and House Anxiety partnered withMom + Pop Music for the U.S. release ofThe Double EP in 2014.[26]
Milk! Records released a compilation EP,A Pair of Pears (with Shadows), on 10" white vinyl in September 2014, following a crowd-sourcing campaign in July that year. The EP included a Barnett track, "Pickles from the Jar", the song was voted in at number 51 inTriple J's Hottest 100 for 2014.[27]
On 30 January 2015, Barnett released details on her upcoming full-length album, recorded in April 2014 withBurke Reid, along with two singles, "Pedestrian at Best" and "Depreston", and accompanying music videos. The music video for "Pedestrian at Best" features Cloher and Fraser A Gorman. Her debut album—Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit—was released worldwide via Milk! Records (Australia),[28] andMom + Pop Music (US) on 23 March 2015,[29] and was accompanied by tours in the UK and Europe, America, and Australasia.[30][31]
Sometimes I Sit and Think was met with critical acclaim,[32][33]The Times,[34]Pitchfork[35] and theChicago Tribune.[36] Up until the release ofSometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, Courtney Barnett, Bones Sloane, and Dave Mudie toured as Courtney Barnett and the Courtney Barnetts.[12][37][38]
In August 2015, Barnett's UK label, Marathon Artists, in partnership withMom + Pop Music andMilk! Records, launched a global guerilla campaign for the release of her single "Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party".[39] Billboards and posters bearing the song's title went up in London, New York, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Sydney.[40] The campaign garnered a lot of interest online and across social media and culminated in a surprise busking gig in Camden, London.[41]
In concert,Dan Luscombe (ofThe Drones) has often played lead guitar and keyboards, having featured on both,How to Carve a Carrot Into a Rose andSometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, the latter of which he co-produced. When Luscombe was not available, the band performed as atrio, with Barnett playing guitar. Luscombe did not play on Barnett's 2015 tours, however, and she now refers to the band as the "CB3" on her Facebook page. The CB3 moniker features prominently on drummer Dave Mudie's bass drum.
Barnett was nominated in eight categories at theARIA Music Awards of 2015 and won four trophies:Breakthrough Artist,Best Female Artist,Best Independent Release andBest Cover Art forSometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.[42] At the end of 2015, Barnett was nominated for aGrammy Award in theBest New Artist category.[43] She was later nominated for Best International Female in 2016 for theBrit Awards.[44] On 21 May 2016, she was the musical guest on the season finale ofSaturday Night Live's41st season, hosted byFred Armisen.[45] In January 2016, Barnett appeared on the cover of Australian music magazine,Happy Mag.[46] On 27 May 2016, she was the musical guest onThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
In 2017, Barnett andKurt Vile recorded the collaborative albumLotta Sea Lice, released viaMatador Records,Marathon Artists andMilk! Records on October 13.[47][7] Some of the album collaborators includeStella Mozgawa,Mick Harvey and theDirty Three'sMick Turner andJim White.[7] The lead single "Over Everything" was released on August 30, 2017, accompanied by the music video directed by Danny Cohen. "Over Everything" initially sparked the pair's collaboration, after Philadelphia-based Vile wrote the song with the Melbourne-based Barnett's voice in mind.[7] The second single "Continental Breakfast" was released on 26 September 2017. In June 2017 Vile and Barnett announced a North American tour. The duo was backed by the Sea Lice, a band featuringJanet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney,Wild Flag),Rob Laakso (The Violators,Swirlies,Mice Parade),Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), andKatie Harkin (Sky Larkin, touring member of Sleater-Kinney andWild Beasts).[48][49]
On 12 February 2018, Barnett teased a new album on her social media accounts, featuring her trying out various musical instruments with the clip ending with the tagline "Tell Me How You Really Feel".[50] Barnett released the singles "Nameless, Faceless", "Need A Little Time", "City Looks Pretty", and "Sunday Roast" from her sophomore solo album, which was launched at a private function at Sydney's Lansdowne Hotel in April 2018 and emceed by ex–The Go-BetweensLindy Morrison. The album was eventually released on 18 May 2018 and titledTell Me How You Really Feel. The album dealt, in part, with Barnett's thoughts about isolation in the social media age.[51] "City Looks Pretty" was featured on the soundtrack of the video gameFIFA 19.[52]
In 2019, Barnett was added to the bill ofWoodstock 50, but the festival was cancelled in May.[53]
On 7 July 2021, Barnett released "Rae Street", the lead single from her third studio album—Things Take Time, Take Time—which was released on 12 November 2021.[9]
On 3 July 2022, Barnett supportedthe Rolling Stones at their concert atHyde Park in London, UK.[54]
In July 2023, Barnett confirmedMilk! Records will be disestablished at the end of 2023, after 12 years.[55]
The final album released on the label is the instrumentalEnd of the Day, released on 8 September 2023. The album features 17 tracks written to score the 2021 documentary,Anonymous Club.[56]
In October of 2025, Barnett released her first new music video and vocal single in two years, "Stay in Your Lane" - which was later performed onThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[57]
In December 2020,NME reported that a documentary titledAnonymous Club exploring "the inner life of the notoriously shy [Barnett] amidst her significant rise to fame" was in the works, after receiving $2.5 million in funding fromScreen Australia.[58]Anonymous Club was directed by Danny Cohen,[59] who had collaborated with Barnett on several of hermusic videos previously,[60] and was executive produced bySue Maslin and her company Film Art Media. The film premiered at theMelbourne International Film Festival in August 2021, and screened at a number of film festivals before being released in cinemas.[61] It was also broadcast onABC Television,[62] and is available on DVD.[61]
Barnett plays left-handed, using mostly left-handed guitars with standard tuning and string order for left-handed players (low strings at the top, high strings at the bottom).[10] She occasionally plays right-handed guitars flipped upside down, but does not prefer it. She learned to play on acoustic guitars, and developed her own method offingerstyle guitar because she disliked the sound of apick; she later transferred this playing style to the electric guitar. While she preferred to play electric guitar without a pick for some years, as of 2025 she has started using one.[63] She prefers to play instandard tuning, but has usedopen G tuning forslide guitar.[64]
Among the guitars Barnett has used for performance and recording are aHarmony H59 and a number ofFenders, includingJaguars,Stratocasters, andTelecasters, which she strings withErnie Ball Power Slinky strings in the 0.011–0.048 gauge. She plays through Fender Hot Rod Deville and Fender Deluxe amplifiers, witheffects pedals including aFulltone OCD overdrive pedal, a "cheap delay pedal", and a chorus pedal.[64][65]
Barnett was in a relationship with fellow musicianJen Cloher from 2012 to 2018,[66][67] and the song "Numbers" was co-written by the pair about their relationship. Barnett's song "Pickles from the Jar" also details their relationship, and Cloher is mentioned in the first line of "Dead Fox". Barnett called Cloher a "huge constant influence" on her music.[68] She also played guitar in Cloher's band from 2012 to 2018.
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