Courtney Barnett: Ellen DeGeneres puts Preston on the Hollywood radar

MELBOURNE singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett has revealed the sad backstory to a ballad about northern suburb Preston which she performed on US TV The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week.

Melbourne indie music artist Courtney Barnett pictured in Southbank , Melbourne.Picture:Ian Currie

MELBOURNE singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett has revealed the sad backstory to a ballad about northern suburb Preston which she performed on US prime time television.

Barnett, whose songs detail the minutiae of everyday Melbourne life, played her song Depreston, about a house hunting expedition, on the top-rating The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Barnett, tipped by every music bible as the next big thing, was described by DeGeneres as her favourite new artist. Ellen added: “I love her so much.”

Barnett said the song is about a home inspection in a deceased estate.

The song says: “I see the handrail in the shower, the collection of those canisters for coffee, tea and flour, and a photo of a young man in a van in Vietnam.

“And I can’t think of floorboards anymore, whether the front room faces south or north, and I wonder what she bought it for?”

Barnett, 27, told Confidential: “The old lady who lived there had passed away and all of her stuff was still in the house — records on the shelf and the books on the table. It’s a mortality observation ... and thinking about the price of property over the price of sentiments.”

Her new album, Sometimes I Sit And Think … Sometimes I Just Sit, is released on Friday.

“I pick up on small parts of my everyday life and magnify them a bit,” the Northcote-based Barnett said.

“I spend a lot of time trying to say something mundane in a poetic way.”

She is grateful for support from tastemakers like DeGeneres, but added: “Descriptions like ‘indie darling’ are over the top.”