The Courtney Barnett song about a real-life health scare
Gardening isn’t typically seen as a dangerous activity. In fact, by most accounts, it’s the perfect thing for those struggling with mobility in order to stay active. Favoured by the elderly and elderly at heart, tending a garden can be calming and even therapeutic. But just try telling that to Courtney Barnett.
The Australian indie rocker found herself in an ambulance during one particularly treacherous horticultural experience. After getting short of breath, Barnett found some irony in the fact that her one attempt at being proactive caused her to experience a health scare. The incident would later be turned into the song ‘Avant Gardener’, and Barnett related that the line “The paramedic thinks I’m clever ’cause I play guitar / I think she’s clever ’cause she stops people dying” came from a true place.
“I have that conversation all the time,” Barnett told NME. “The ‘what’s the point of making music’ question. I remember talking to this lady a couple of years ago and I was like, ‘I should be a doctor or doing something worthwhile’, and she said, ‘Writing songs can kind of do the same thing, it can help people’.”
“I dunno, I forget how important music can be,” Barnett added, “that connection and feeling, like you apply songs to yourself and it makes you feel like shit, less alone, or that someone else is going through the same thing.”
The ordinary origins of the song wound up being a perfect example of Barnett’s approach to music. “You can’t assume anything so don’t bother. You shouldn’t know how to write a song!” she claimed. “I think if you know then you shouldn’t know! It’s weird.”
“It’s like when people talk about writing songs for ads, that will get things for syncs, and they talk about freedom and summer and being yourself, it’s like, fuck tha-at!” Barnett said. “Only idiots connect with that kinda stuff. People wanna hear about real – well, people that I want to listen to my music, they should wanna listen to real stuff.”
In the end, Barnett wound up liking the song even if her instincts led the other way. “As a song, I was really proud of it. But I thought everyone would hate it!” Barnett believed. “Just because, aw, it’s a really stupid song. It’s so long and has no chorus and it’s not catchy, you know?”
Check out the video for ‘Avant Gardener’ down below.
