Courtney Barnett: “I kind of came up with ‘Pedestrian At Best’ at the last minute”

Lead track ‘Pedestrian At Best’ leads the record, and it premiered as a Hottest Record on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show tonight (29th Jan). Capturing all the humour and hard-hitting attack of her earlier efforts, it’s quite the entrance. You can read our initial verdict here on Have You Heard.

“I just keep a book and write down absolutely everything.” Courtney Barnett tells DIY, speaking about her writing process “I draw a lot, and a lot of the songs and ideas come from those drawings. I elaborate on them more and they turn into something else.”

Much of the time her wry observations and lyrical quips form the back-bone of her songs, but on ‘Pedestrian At Best’ Courtney mixed up her approach, letting the rhythms of the words nestle in around that killer riff - a bad-ass statement piece to say the least.

‘Pedestrian at Best’ I kind of came up with at the last minute,” explains Courtney. “I showed the riff to the band and we kind of jammed on it; but I couldn’t think of a melody, or a chorus, or any lyrics at all,” she laughs. “When we recorded it I just set down a structure, and wrote the lyrics later that night, to the music. It’s how I did [EP single] ‘Avant Gardener’ too, and a few other times. it feels like you’re working on a song that’s already been written. You have the luxury to sing over the top of it. It’s kind of fun to do it that way.”

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