Pulse: There’s no place like home for Courtney Barnett

SHAUN McMANUS: She is one of the biggest names on the Australian music scene, but Courtney Barnett will never forget her Tassie connection.

Courtney Barnett thrills the audience at the Sydney Opera House. Picture: PRUDENCE UPTON/SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

AWARD-WINNING, critically acclaimed indie rock darling Courtney Barnett only spent a few years living in Hobart, but she still calls Tasmania home.

The singer-songwriter, who has since taken Australia — and the world — by storm, is returning to the state in the new year to perform at Mona Foma in Launceston.

Speaking to Pulse ahead of the gig, Barnett said she still has a strong connection with the state.

“I still say I’m from Tassie, even though I’m from Sydney, I guess, technically,” Barnett said.

“Mum and Dad are down there, so it feels to me like home is there, because that’s where they are.

“I’ve lived in a couple of different places, but I definitely have a real connection to Tassie for that reason.”

During her time in Hobart, Barnett studied at St Michael’s Collegiate.

“We moved from Sydney when I was about 15 or 16, and I finished school and did uni stuff down there,” she said.

“I probably moved to Melbourne when I was 20 or 21, so I guess I wasn’t there long, but [they were] very formative years, important years. It felt like a lot happened.”

Barnett’s career took off in 2015 with the release of her album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.

The album, which included hits such as Pedestrian At Best, Depreston and Elevator Operator, won her a swag of ARIA Awards, including Best Female Artist.

“I think just before that album, I’d done my first bits of international touring and released the first album before that — the double EP [A Sea of Split Peas in 2013] — and then when Sometimes I Sit came out I guess it just took me all around the world,” Barnett said.

“It was incredible to be playing on these stages on the other side of the world, and just seeing people relating to the stories — it was really incredible.”

Courtney Barnett hits the stage at the Queenscliff Music Festival. Picture: MARK WILSON

Her most recent album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, dropped in May.

“My songs are always just a collection of thoughts, I think — me trying to figure out what’s going on in my life and my head and around me,” Barnett said.

The album was recorded in Melbourne over about a week in winter last year, and last month earned her an ARIA Award for Best Rock Album.

“It’s a big honour, and it’s really cool to be an independent artist in Australia, to be a gay artist in Australia, that is in that world of what I always imagined growing up was quite commercial and inaccessible. I’m really proud,” Barnett said.

“What matters, I think, is that I’m writing songs that people are connecting with, and if more people connect with them and hear those stories and connect emotionally to them, then I think that that’s a really powerful thing.”

Barnett was last in Launceston in the late 2000s to see an Elton John show, and is looking forward to returning.

“I’ve always wanted to do the Mona Foma festival, and it will be nice to come to Tassie,” she said.

“I’ve never been to the festival, I’ve just always wanted to do it.

“I always kind of observe it from afar via social media. I just think it’s always so well curated and a really interesting mix of stuff going on.”

Courtney Barnett will perform at Mona Foma at the Northern Stage, Inveresk Precinct, Launceston, from 7pm on January 20.

Entry is included in the three-day festival ticket, or the relevant day pass.

A Tasmanian adult three-day festival ticket is $89 (plus booking fee), and a day pass for January 20 is $45, available from tickets.mofo.net.au