Courtney Barnett

Courtney Melba Barnett was born on November 3, 1987, in Sydney, Australia.^[1] She came of age in Melbourne’s indie music scene and developed a songwriting voice marked by deadpan observational wit, conversational stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and guitar work that draws on the legacies of Neil Young, J Mascis, and the Pixies. Her debut EP I’ve Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris (2012) and the double EP A Sea of Split Peas (2013) established her reputation as one of the most distinctive voices in Australian independent music.

In 2012, Barnett co-founded Milk! Records in Melbourne with musician Jen Cloher. The label became a cornerstone of the city’s indie music community, releasing work by Cloher and others on the principle that independent art could sustain itself on its own terms. Milk! Records operated for over a decade before closing in 2023, citing persistent financial difficulties compounded by the effects of Australia’s COVID-19 restrictions.^[2]

Her first full-length album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015), brought widespread international acclaim, earning Grammy nominations and ARIA Award wins. Her second album, Tell Me How You Really Feel (2018), was followed by a period of deep personal uncertainty. Barnett has spoken candidly about experiencing depression and doubt during those years, unsure whether she still wanted to continue making music.^[3]

Her third album, Things Take Time, Take Time (2021), marked a quieter return. In the years that followed, she watched Anonymous Club, a 2022 documentary made about her, and found herself uncomfortable with what she observed. ‘I didn’t really like what I saw in myself,’ she has said.^[3] The experience became a prompt for genuine self-examination and change.

The years that followed included the closure of Milk! Records, a largely accidental relocation to Los Angeles, and a renewed commitment to personal habits: therapy, reduced drinking, meditation, regular exercise, surfing, and pottery.^[3] In 2023, she released End of the Day, an instrumental album that captured the contemplative, transitional mood of that period.^[1] These practices, alongside a daily morning writing routine, produced material for her fourth vocal album. Part of that routine involved journaling her dreams each morning before beginning to write, a practice she describes as a way of accessing the unfiltered part of the brain that plays with symbols and metaphors before conscious editing begins.^[4]

Much of the recording took place at Animal Rites studio in Los Angeles and at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, California, a desert studio with deep rock history. A chance encounter with a praying mantis during the Joshua Tree sessions proved unexpectedly significant: Barnett researched its symbolic associations with patience and guidance, and the insect became a touchstone for the album’s themes, lending its name to a central track and inspiring the record’s cover art.^[5] The resulting album, Creature of Habit (2026), was produced alongside John Congleton, Stella Mozgawa, and Marta Salogni.^[3]

Barnett has collaborated with Kurt Vile (the album Lotta Sea Lice, 2017), Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee (on “Site Unseen,” the lead single from Creature of Habit, which Barnett attempted to record three separate times over two years before Crutchfield’s harmonies completed the fourth and final version),^[6] Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, Marta Salogni, John Congleton, and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. She has been cited as an influence by a generation of indie rock artists for her ability to transform mundane observation into emotionally resonant narrative.