Courtney Barnett talks roadkill, jetlag and being a self-starter

In the new issue of DIY (out 27th February), Courtney Barnett digs into the flicking stop-motion book that is her new album, ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit’.

Barnett deals in words and killer guitar lines rather than standard-issue paints. Her music regales bizarre, witty little stories in brief snapshots. Her album opener tells the story of a man who’s sick of his 9-5 job and dreams of being an elevator operator (with clear skin) instead. When he stands on the roof of Melbourne’s Nicholas Building watching the ants below, he’s mistaken for somebody contemplating suicide. Really, he’s just skiving off work, and he’s never been happier.

Elsewhere, on ‘Dead Fox’, her thought-tracks wildly career from nicotine-injected apples to taxidermy kangaroos lying at the side of Hume Highway - the ten hour long freeway that links her hometown of Melbourne with Sydney - in the space of a couple of sentences. She’s an artist, alright. She might not have a natural flair for tennis, or in fact ping-pong, but when it comes to serving up wry observations she outplays everyone else on the clay.

“It’s like turning my brain inside out and showing it to everyone,” laughs Courtney Barnett, speaking with the same meandering drawl that characterises her music. “I try to keep my eyes open and take it all in when I see things. Even if I do see something I love, I forget I walked by it straight away, but I always remember the feeling that things give me. I keep a little book and write down absolutely everything,” she says. “A lot of the songs and ideas come from those ideas, and my drawings. I work on them, and…” she hesitates, tracing a shape on the table. “What’s the word? Elaborate. Yeah, I elaborate on them more, and they turn into something else. That ‘Dead Fox’ song grew from taxidermy kangaroos, that one line. It took me another year to figure out the rest.”