Indie Rocker Courtney Barnett on the intimate doco which reveals her writing and touring demons
Courtney Barnett has opened up about letting cameras follow her for three years as she toured one record and wrote her latest.
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Of all the weird and wondrous things to have happened over indie rocker Courtney Barnett’s illustrious global career, one of the most surprising has been the enduring fandom of Barack Obama.
The former US president has included Barnett’s songs on his popular and influential playlists for summer, end of year and workouts since 2016.
He most recently included Write a List of Things To Look Forward To – a single from her third record, Things Take Time, Take Time – on the Barack Obama’s Favourite Music of 2021 compilation.
Barnett jokes the former president has a permanent spot on her gig guest list in recognition of his fanboy status.
“I was very happy to see that,” she says of making his 2021 list, while on tour in the US.
But stranger still is the existence of Anonymous Club.
The intimate documentary of the artist at a personal and professional crossroads was filmed over three years by Melbourne director Danny Cohen, who has made several music videos with Barnett, as well as King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Barnett is the classic introvert artist, forced to grapple with the rigours of the touring lifestyle while also wrestling with her creative demons and mental health.
And yet, she not only agreed to Cohen filming her on the road and at home, she recorded a voice diary of her innermost thoughts on a dictaphone.
The singer laughs now about her extreme reaction to seeing the warts-and-all depiction of those three years, but her initial viewing, watching herself go through an extended period of mental anguish, clearly provoked anxiety.
“It’s a terrifying experience to (watch) it; it’s just confronting, I guess,” Barnett says.
“It was a pretty wild process for me to watch it and make peace with seeing myself going through things and … I was watching parts of it and was like, ‘I hate myself, everyone’s going to hate me … I hate this’.”
The woman who started making the film months after turning 30 now feels, at 34, like a “completely different person to the person that’s in the film”.
“And I think Danny did such a beautiful job,” she says.
“He’s just such a thoughtful man, an inspiring creative brain, so I’m really glad that we got to collaborate and document this time in my life.”
She has also had time to accept the documentary’s existence in the world, as it premiered at Australian film festivals last year ahead of its cinema run this month.
The next chapter of the Barnett story opened in November last year with the release of Things Take Time, Take Time.
Anonymous Club attempts to illuminate the often frustrating, eventually triumphant struggle of writing the songs for the record.
But after the long pandemic pause on live music, she has been loving getting back on the road – which hasn’t always been Barnett’s favourite thing to do – to introduce her new works, playing gigs in the US since late November, ahead of her homecoming tour this month.
“It’s that idea of balance,” she says.
“When you do too much touring, you hate it, and when you do too much time at home, you hate that.”
That could be the title of the fourth record.
“I think with all the down time everyone went through, not being able to tour, doing a little solo tour of New Zealand last year and then coming back to America, it feels like discovering music and discovering performing again.
“I got this whole new level of gratitude for what I do and the power of live music. We all tried to watch concerts online to support people but it’s just not the same.”
She discovered that in an emotionally charged moment during her Seattle gig in December, while playing Write a List of Things To Look Forward To.
The song about finding joy to take away pain is one of the most personal on Barnett’s latest record, referencing both the birth of her niece and the death of her uncle around the same time.
“I love playing that song,” she says.
“And especially that song because of how much I think it’s grown. It was written pre-pandemic but it sounds like a pandemic song, so now when I sing it, it has these two worlds.
“There’s a line where I reference my uncle’s passing, and when we played this big, beautiful theatre in Seattle – he was from Seattle – and I mentioned him before playing the song, and it became this beautiful moment of celebrating his life to a room of 3000 strangers.
“And when you write a song, you don’t expect that is going to happen; you don’t think about that moment. But it was really special.”
Head to courtneybarnett.com.au/tourfor tickets to Courtney Barnett’s Australian tour, with special guest Alice Skye; Anonymous Club opens in cinemas nationally from March 17.
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