For almost 4 a long time, Taste of Chicago has offered attendees a first-rate alternative to indulge on the broad spectrum of regionally produced meals decisions. At the identical time, it has additionally offered an opportunity to get a style of what lies exterior town’s borders — method exterior — relating to the competition’s music.
Enter Australian-born singer, songwriter and guitarist Courtney Barnett, one among that nation’s fastest-rising musical exports.
After making a reputation for herself in her dwelling nation, Barnett rapidly earned a global viewers along with her debut album, 2015’s “Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.”
The following yr she appeared because the musical visitor on “Saturday Night Live” and later earned Grammy and BRIT Award nominations. Not one to decelerate, she and Kurt Vile, one other in style indie artist, teamed as much as launch an album of duets in 2017 referred to as “Lotta Sea Lice.”
Barnett launched her sophomore album “Tell Me How You Really Feel” final yr and adopted it up earlier this yr with high-energy single “Everybody Here Hates You.” Fans have related to her observational lyrics and rough-around-the-edges rock sound.
“The stream-of-consciousness approach is exciting because it unleashes a part of your brain that sometimes you don’t know exists,” says Barnett in a current interview. “It opens up something that you might not be aware of. I find that exciting and scary at the same time. I think it’s a good part of the process.”
She’s loved attending to play world wide, together with U.S. cities resembling Chicago. It’s given her an opportunity to see her songs evolve and morph on the highway. She’s grateful her songs haven’t stagnated and are nonetheless lively.
“They change over time and grow and transform into something else the more I play them,” says Barnett. “And the more that people listen to them, they project their ideas onto them. That means they’re constantly evolving. So that’s kind of fun. Everything’s morphing into something else.”
That contains “Nameless, Faceless,” a track from “Tell Me How You Really Feel” that takes a stand towards home violence.
Courtney Barnett performs on Day 1 of the Firefly Music Festival at The Woodlands on Friday, June 21, 2019, in Dover, Delaware.Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
“Every day it seems there’s some story about domestic violence or women being murdered around the world,” she says. “That story comes back to me with a new kind of storyline every day, basically.”
Sonically, Barnett is at all times on the lookout for an ideal steadiness between her recordings and reside performances. That’s evident on “Everybody Hates You,” which originated throughout a break within the Tell Me How You Really Feel tour.
“It’s hard to find that balance between the live roar, live sound, with the polished studio sound,” says Barnett. “I’m forever trying to find the balance between the two. I find it’s difficult because engineers have different ideas and mixing people have different ideas. You want it to sound real but also not to hurt your ears with this sound.”
She wrote the track after going to see a buddy’s band play sooner or later the place she was feeling paranoid and remoted.
“I think that song was born out of that night of just being in a room in a social situation where you have this idea that everybody hates you and doesn’t want to talk to you,” she says. “Just your own insecurities and spending your time thinking about you.”
The track has change into a little bit of an anthem of empowerment throughout her current units. As for what’s subsequent, she means that the songs for her subsequent challenge is likely to be a bit quieter.
“I feel like making something that’s softer,” she says. “My throat hurts too much when I sing.”
Regardless of method, she plans to spend loads of time getting her lyrics perfected.
“I feel it’s so vital to get the lyrics…