I FEEL MORE LIKE A GUITARIST THAN A SINGER”
“I PREFER THE CLOSENESS AND CONTROL OF JUST USING THE FINGERS”
She’s shy and polite, but Courtney Barnett clearly knows her own mind. “It’s impossible to describe music,” she says. “We try to put everything into these neatly organised categories so we can understand them, but it's always a bit difficult. I try to not bother doing it any more – it’s restrictive.”
She’s got a point, and Barnett’s own catalogue is certainly resistant to easy labelling. Call her indie, call her alternative, call her whatever, but over the past decade the Australian’s arty, happy-sad tunes have won her a growing audience in hip circles.
She co-founded her label Milk! Records to release her first EP, 2012’s . Three years later her debut album earned her four ARIA Music awards and a Best New Artist nomination at the Grammys. The follow-up, 2017’s , and , her acclaimed collaboration
