Before her first overseas show last October, the only time Courtney Barnett had been outside of her native Australia was “to New Zealand for one holiday, and then for a funeral,” admits the bashful, Melbourne-based musician, who gained instant attention from the indie cognoscenti with the gloriously witty and deadpan slacker rock of her self-released 2012 debut. “I kind of didn’t believe I was going on tour until the day I left. I was waiting for someone to go, ‘Ah, the show’s been cancelled, you can just stay at home.’” Barnett’s recent The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas only cemented the singer’s rising status, leading to her US television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Filmed singing “Ode to Odetta” in the north-eastern districts of Los Angeles, the latest episode of our series with filmmaking collective Yours Truly, Sunrise, Sunset, makes Barnett’s wonder at her new globetrotting lifestyle apparent. “Highland Park and Eagle Rock are some of the oldest neighborhoods in the city,” says co-director Will Abramson of the idyllic locations; “a little more scenic, more serene, more her speed, with kids playing in the street and setting up lemonade and pupusa stands.”
The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas is available now on Marathon Artists