Things I Learned Along The Way — She oozes confidence when she's killing it on stage. But even Courtney Barnett had to beat some demons to get up on stage.

This time last year, Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett’s music had already blown through the Internet on a cloud of smoke. On the back of debut singles ‘Avant Gardner’ and ‘History Eraser’ and the critical acclaim that they’d drawn, Barnett was touring the world with her band and had a full length LP in the works. It was then that we took her out to look at cool shirts in a Brighton thrift store, shortly after her show at The Great Escape 2014.

Since then, Barnett has released Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, a rambling, stream-of-conscious record on which she refines almost to perfection her knack for the beautiful mundane. It’s also a record with a defiant edge that touring had already brought out last summer:

“I used to be so self-conscious about what people thought,” she shares in this short video, “and then you start realising that it doesn’t matter. I don’t really care what people think that much.”

Things I Learned Along The Way is a film series that accompanies Huck’s Fiftieth Special – a compendium of personal stories about the lessons life throws us when we’re busy doing what we love. 

 

 

 

Latest on Huck

An epic portrait of 20th Century America
Photography

An epic portrait of 20th Century America

‘Al Satterwhite: A Retrospective’ brings together scenes from this storied chapter of American life, when long form reportage was the hallmark of legacy media.

Written by: Miss Rosen

Bobby Gillespie: “This country is poisoned by class”
Culture

Bobby Gillespie: “This country is poisoned by class”

Primal Scream’s legendary lead singer writes about the band’s latest album ‘Come Ahead’ and the themes of class, conflict and compassion that run throughout it.

Written by: Bobby Gillespie

Vibrant photos of New York’s Downtown performance scene
Photography

Vibrant photos of New York’s Downtown performance scene

‘Balloons and Feathers’ is an eclectic collection of images documenting the scene for over two decades.

Written by: Miss Rosen

Picking through the rubble: Glimpses of hope in the US election results
Activism

Picking through the rubble: Glimpses of hope in the US election results

Clambering through the wreckage of the Harris campaign, delving deeper into the election results and building on the networks that already exist, all hope is not gone writes Ben Smoke.

Written by: Ben Smoke

US Election night 2024 in Texas
Photography

US Election night 2024 in Texas

Photographer Tom “TBow” Bowden travelled to Republican and Democratic watch parties around Houston, capturing their contrasting energies as results began to flow in.

Written by: Isaac Muk

In photos: “Real life is not black and white” – Polaroid x Magnum Open Call winners
Photography

In photos: “Real life is not black and white” – Polaroid x Magnum Open Call winners

See pictures from the competition organised by two titans of contemporary photography, which called upon artists to reject the digitalisation and over-perfectionism of our modern world, technology and image-making.

Written by: Huck

Sign up to our newsletter

Issue 81: The more than a game issue

Buy it now