Smoke Ring for My Halo was the first album I bought of Kurt's Vile, and when I first listened to "Peeping Tomboy" I was really depressed and unemployed. But the lyrics are, "I don't want to work. I don't want to sit around all day frowning." I was like, "Ah! Yes!"

Courtney Barnett

Categorized in : Rings

I think everyone's so scared of other people judging them.

Courtney Barnett

judging people thinking

There's lots of interesting stuff happening in the world. Lots of good and bad things, and there's interest in music still, which there always will be, which is always a good thing.

Courtney Barnett

stuff world interesting

I've never liked songs that are about writing, or struggling to write. Maybe it's because it's too relatable to me.

Courtney Barnett

struggle writing song

Once you write and record a song, it becomes everyone else's song.

Courtney Barnett

writing song

I liked the idea of being a photographer, just that you take this one picture of this one thing that'll never happen again - it's a bit weird when you think about it.

Courtney Barnett

photographer ideas thinking

Artists thrive off each other, and when you see other people doing cool stuff, it inspires you to do cool stuff.

Courtney Barnett

artist inspire people

It was cool at the rock camp - girls could just be themselves and they could be silly, they could roll around on the floor playing guitar.

Courtney Barnett

rocks girl silly

I think even though things are changing a bit, we still kind of tend to grow up with girls being like, 'Don't be too loud, don't be too rude, don't be too naughty,' or whatever, to act a certain way.

Courtney Barnett

naughty growing-up girl

I don't know anything except being female, so I don't know the opposite of it.

Courtney Barnett

female knows opposites

I try to take notes of things that happen that I think are important or interesting or just little tidbits here and there that happen in life. And some of it's even just one line or like a saying and I just go off that.

Courtney Barnett

important interesting thinking

The first song I wrote was called "You" and it was a love song about somebody who didn't even exist. I remember them all because I used to always write terrible poetry. I keep all my notebooks.

Courtney Barnett

notebook writing song

I don't like to overcook songs.

Courtney Barnett

song

"On Script" is one of my favorite songs I've ever written. I'd just been jamming on it one day, and again I was struggling with lyrics. I'm still figuring out what it's about. I've seen a couple of reviews that are like, "It's about the monotony of playing the same songs every night," because I say, "On script every night/Like a well-rehearsed stage show." It's not about that at all, but I find that funny, how people project what they think about me, or songwriters in general.

Courtney Barnett

couple struggle song

Festivals are always fun. I went to a lot when I was younger and had money to go to them. I like playing at festivals. They're always kind of like a big, crazy circus.

Courtney Barnett

festivals crazy fun

When I was a teen, or like 18 to early 20s, I used to go to festivals all the time. I'd save all my money.

Courtney Barnett

early-20s festivals used

I don't really feel like a rock artist, but I guess in the small category of the world of music genres, that's where I fall in because I've got a guitar.

Courtney Barnett

rocks artist fall

People should be free to take whatever they want from music and I think that over time I realized that different people always find different things in my songs, which is really good.

Courtney Barnett

song people thinking

Sometimes I have something stuck in my head and that directs the rhyme that I'm writing with.

Courtney Barnett

rhyme writing sometimes

An album is a thing you take time out and go work on.

Courtney Barnett

take-time albums

I started writing songs when I started learning guitar.

Courtney Barnett

guitar writing song