COURTNEY BARNETT
EMBRACES THE DRUM MACHINE, DISCOVERS ARTHUR RUSSELL ON LP 3
“I’m constantly baffled by song-writing and recording…” COURTNEY BARNETT
COURTNEY BARNETT’s new album, says promotional materials, marks the debut of “Courtney 2.0”. The Sydney singer-songwriter gives a characteristically wry chuckle. “Um, that’s not how I’d put it,” she says. “I think that was someone else from ‘Team Courtney.’ Things Take Time, Take Time is just an extension of the same thing I’ve always been doing.” Yet Barnett’s third full-length solo LP rings some changes nevertheless. The musicians who backed her on her acclaimed first two albums are absent this time around. Standard guitar/bass/drums paradigm upended, Barnett divided instrumental duties between herself and the album’s producer, Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa, who first worked with Barnett on her collaborative album with
Kurt Vile, 2017’s “Since then, I’ve really wanted to work with Stella on something,” Barnett says. “When I started work on the new record, I was sending her new demos and getting her opinion on prospective producers and mixers. And then I realised that really I just wanted to work with her.”
Saluting Mozgawa as “an amazing musician”, Barnett recalls, “we spent the sessions swapping instruments, and sharing records that we liked. I discovered a lot of new influences working with her, like Kraftwerk, Sly & The Family Stone and Arthur Russell. I’d never even heard of Arthur Russell before.” These new influences can be heard in
loose approach and fondness for drum machines. “I write with drum machines at home – they’re great for knocking up quick demos in 20 minutes,” Barnett says. “This time, I wanted to keep them on the songs, rather than editing them out. A lot of these new songs are quite calm, and the drum machines helped create this repetitive, meditative energy.”
Australia’s strict response to the pandemic kicked in after Barnett began work on the new album in late 2019, and she found herself “locked down in a flat in Melbourne by myself, writing all the time because I didn’t know what else to do.” Lockdown also limited her choice of studio, though Sydney’s Golden Retriever quickly proved a godsend. “It had a really big live room, lots of beautiful analogue gear, and lots of instruments, which was great as I’d only brought my guitar with me.”
Over two five-day stints at Golden Retriever in early 2021, Barnett and Mozgawa juggled instruments, pulling Barnett’s new songs apart and reassembling them in new forms ’til late in the night, “experimenting until they felt right. I’m constantly baffled by the songwriting and recording process – and I think that’s good! To be constantly unsure, to be always learning and second-guessing… I’ve come to trust in that process of hitting a wall and experiencing feelings of failure, because I know now it’ll result in this gut feeling that I’ve found the right vision. It’s a beautiful satisfaction. Also, it’s a lot of fun.”