The song that made Courtney Barnett want to be a musician
In 2018, it was revealed, somewhat controversially, that the bulk of the music we listen to as teenagers informs our adult tastes. While some people resisted this notion, it’s the earliest experiences of discovering a particular genre or song that tend to stick for many of us. As a result, you’ll find a lot of creatives discovered their talents in some rudimentary form early on, as was the case with Courtney Barnett, whose songwriting skills were honed in high school English classes.
Barnett rose to prominence with her 2012 debut EP, I’ve Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris, which introduced her folk sound to Australian audiences. International acclaim followed with the Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit album, which put her poetic lyricism and monotone delivery at the forefront. As she revealed to Redbull, were it not for the legendary output of Queen, she might not have made that music at all.
Their 1975 mock opera ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ was a hugely pivotal song for Barnett, and as she explained, was the “first track that made me want to make music” when she was 15.
“I got really obsessed with Queen,” she admitted. “I don’t know what it was – I just love the songs, they’re incredibly well-written. Total pop songs, but so deep and technical.”
Around that time, Barnett recalled reading an article on Brian May refusing to do a world tour until he’d finished his degree in mathematics and physics, just in case their career fell through. “He wanted something to fall back on if the music thing didn’t work,” said Barnett. “I thought that was so cool.”
Just as her current blend of folk and alt-rock influences are now, her teenage music tastes were varied, and Australian punks Frenzal Rhomb were a big favourite: “I remember the first time I saw them – they had a friend dress up as Ronald McDonald come out on stage, and then they pretended to kick the shit out of him.” Rage Against The Machine also got a mention as the band she took to shocking her parents with when the chorus to ‘Killing In The Name’ hit.
Nirvana were also a name-checked early influence. “I started listening to Nirvana when I was a kid, mostly because my older brother listened to them,” Barnett said. “We loved that band. We had all their albums and listened to them every day.”
In a testament to how our early tastes stick with us, she commandeered a ‘Smells Like Teen Spirt’ seven-inch from a friend a few years ago. “She used to work for their label, and I was looking through her record collection,” Barnett explained, “And came across it and lost my mind”.
