She’s the Melbourne singer-songwriter who’s been compared to the likes of Bob Dylan and Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus for her superlative way with words. Such praise followed her introduction to the world last year via a double-EP bundle Split Peas; an instantly loveable collection of songs characterised by its pared-down chord progessions, wry wit and everyday observations, its lead track Avant Gardener deservedly winding up in many critics song-of-the-year lists. Now as her first full album Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit is shared with the world, we caught up with the 27-year old at the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch.
Despite the attractions both inside and outside the hotel (“I’ve been eyeing up the photobooth but don’t have any coins”), Barnett has little time on her hands, finding herself in the middle of a press whirlwind following a two-month tour of Europe and America. She’s come a long way in the past year and the hype surrounding her has sky-rocketed, yet she seems to be taking it very much in her stride. “The pressure is there but I try to ignore it,” she says. “There’s nothing I can do either way; I’ve recorded and written the best work I could at the time.”
Barnett, who first started playing guitar aged 10, grew up in a household where the likes of Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix and Guns N’ Roses were a daily soundtrack. “There was a lot of music around and I always wanted to fit in with my older brother; we shared a lot growing up.” And despite the ease with which her lyrics appear to tumble over the guitar backdrops throughout her work it wasn’t always that way.“ When I was 18 I started doing open-mic nights and that was the first time I’d sung in front of people,” she says. “Singing for the first time was absolutely terrifying but necessary.”
The turning point came in 2014 when a booking to play at New York’s CMJ music conference led Barnett to quit her job and hit the road full time with her band. “We bit the bullet and didn’t look back,” she says. “I’d never left Australia at this point and it was too awesome an opportunity to pass up.” In typically understated fashion she plays down the life she left behind, “Until then I’d only been an average employee anyway and all the money would go on the band account and beer at rehearsals.” Since then her stock has risen in line with her craft.
Barnett is straight down the line with her songwriting approach, “After recording the second EP I carried on writing and suddenly had an album’s worth; that’s the way I’ll probably keep doing that forever.” The premise is simple: “It’s just my daily observations; it’s a pretty loose concept!” Yet the lyrics are anything but basic, subtlety, wry wit and sledgehammer-obvious statements weaving immersive narratives. “I keep notes in my journal and they turn into songs at some point,” she says.“Sometimes what you think isn’t a good song suddenly becomes a great song. I write them as a bit of a joke and see how far I can push it.”
With her music often preceded by the word “slacker”, Barnett herself is anything but. She runs the label Milk! Records (“A platform for me and my friends do our own projects without the restrictions of trying to get in the charts and all that shit”), produces her own illustrations and is a self-confessed workaholic. “When I’m not making music I draw a lot but in the back of my head I’m always thinking that this drawing might look good on a T-shirt or an album cover.”
On her Melbourne hometown her passion is clear. “It’s such a supportive and inspiring environment,” she says. It’s very community-driven and everyone seems to play in a band; at least in my circle of friends.” Part of a burgeoning Australian music scene that’s heralded some of music’s biggest breakthroughs in the past couple of years (Flume, Chet Faker, Tame Impala) the spotlight on Australian music has sharpened and Barnett is at the centre of that.
“I wanted to play music but never had a goal of being a worldwide singer,” she says of such hype. “I’m not trying to impress people; the idea is to make a piece of art and move on.” On “Pedestrian at Best”, the first single from the new album, Barnett sings, “Put me on a pedestal and I’ll only disappoint you.” Yet on the strength of this debut, few will be inclined to agree.
by Ben Olsen
Photographs by Jasper Clarke
Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit is out on Monday, March 23.
See the video for Pedestrian at Best here: