Courtney Barnett talks about her 3rd album, “Things Take Time, Take Time”

Australian singer and songwriter Courtney Barnett returned for WECB on the unexpected joys of his third solo album, Things Take Time, Take Time.

At the start of 2020, Courtney Barnett was looking forward to a hyper-productive year of writing, with just one condition. “It’s important to remember to live and experience and have something real to write about”she told WECB in an interview in January of that year. “Not just sit in a room and write an album for the sake of making an album.”

Barnett laughs when reminded of that conversation now. ” It’s funny “says the Australian singer-songwriter, 33, during a call from her home in Melbourne. “Very ironic…Whether I like it or not, this is what the world has given us. This is probably the quietest year I’ve ever had. »

This is perhaps the most personal record ever recorded by an artist who has already revealed many of her emotions to the world.

Genesis of an unpublished chapter

The album she spent most of 2020 writing is called Things Take Time, Take Time, and it will arrive on November 12 on Mom + Pop Music and Marathon Artists. For fans of Barnett’s distinctive writing, it’s a rich reward, full of sly observations about the peaks and valleys of everyday life that have made her one of the most beloved independent artists in the world. last decade. The album also has some surprises in store: The album’s ten songs shine in a new light, mostly devoid of the crushing rock band sound that filled his first two solo albums, and instead presented in a more close to the radical honesty of chamber music. This is perhaps the most personal record ever recorded by an artist who has already revealed many of her emotions to the world.

Barnett describes Things Take Time, Take Time like an album about research “from a kind of joy and gratitude, from pain and sadness”.

She began writing new songs shortly after the spring 2018 release of her second solo album, the turbulent Tell Me How You Really Feel, but ended up dismissing most of them. “Write a List of Things to Look Forward To” was one of the first songs she kept. She arrived towards the end of 2019, at a time when she was feeling deeply distraught, particularly because of Australia’s devastating bushfire season.

When Barnett felt ready to record some demos, she turned to a vintage Roland CR-8000 drum machine.

Between four walls

She then performed at a bushfire fundraiser in early 2020, then flew to the United States for a short solo tour that ended with a benefit show at Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day. By the time she returned to Melbourne, a certain Covid forced her to quarantine. Having nowhere to stay, she moved into a friend’s empty apartment. “I ended up staying there for the whole year”she says. “It was an amazing little apartment, with big windows and lots of light. I was very lucky to have this place. »

As the reality of confinement sets in, Barnett learns to cook, subscribes to the Criterion channel, immerses himself in the films ofAgnes Varda and D’Andrei Tarkovskyreads books and paints watercolors. “I had a lot of big plans”, she said, laughing. But most of the time, she sat by the window, drinking coffee and playing the acoustic guitar.

One of the new album’s softest songs, “Turning Green,” directly reflects this experience in its lyrics, which speak of renewed hope after a down season (“The trees are turning green/And this springtime lethargy/Is kinda forcing you to see/Flowers in the weeds”). “I sat by this window, and there was a huge tree out front, so I watched the seasons change”Barnett said. “I guess it’s also metaphorical. There is something so happy about this song. We feel that the characters have undergone some sort of transformation, and that they have come out the other side. »

Technological meeting

When Barnett felt ready to record some demos, she turned to a vintage Roland CR-8000 drum machine that she had purchased a few years earlier after a visit to Wilco’s Chicago loft, which was stocked with instruments. “It’s a somewhat bulky analog device”says Barnett, who describes himself as “addicted to little drum machines”.

So she called her friend Stella Mozgawa – the thresher of Warpaint who had played drums on Lotta Sea Lice, Barnett’s 2017 duet album with Kurt Vile – and followed a tutorial. Soon, she and Mozgawa were trading playlists of artists who had made innovative use of programmed beats, from Arthur Russell to Yo La Tengo. “It was fun and exciting”Barnett said. “This regular drum machine does something to my brain that makes it calm and soothed”. Realizing that Mozgawa was “the perfect musical match”Barnett invited her to co-produce his next LP.

In December 2020, she and Mozgawa met at the Golden Retriever Studios from Sydney to begin recording. At this point in his process, Barnett would normally have called his live bandmates and put the drum machine back on its shelf. “I think I just figured this is for demos, and when you go into the studio you get a real drummer and keep it real.”she says. “I was adamant on this point. »

“Find beauty in a place where you least expect it. This is the lesson I constantly teach myself. »

The world after

This time, however, she wanted to preserve the meditative magic of her demos. Most of the songs feature lo-fi beats programmed by Mozgawa on various drum machines, as well as a few real drum lines. All accompanied by Barnett’s voice and guitar. “It’s practically just us”says the musician. “It feels so alive, like everything is happening at once.”

Other songs were developed. “Here’s the Thing,” the floating, beautiful ballad that is one of the album’s centerpieces, came to Barnett while she was playing guitar in front of television. She captured the vocal take later, during a country trip in northern New South Wales. “We were staying near this huge mountain”she remembers. “It was the most beautiful environment. There’s something so special about those vocals.”

Soon, Barnett will hit the road for his first shows since early 2020, starting with a few solo dates in New Zealand. In November, around the release of the album, she will pack her bags in North America for a tour with the whole group which will last until next February. She can’t wait to go back on tour and see how her new songs unfold. “As the shows go on, there will be other versions of these songs, as I play them live with the band”she says. “They’re going to start sounding different again. It’s always like that. »

In the meantime, she has a new album that she can’t wait to share with the world. “On the one hand, nothing happened to me last year”she says. “But at the same time, so much has happened! There’s this text in “Turning Green” about flowers in the weeds – finding beauty in a place where you least expect it. This is the lesson I constantly teach myself. »