Great Escape: Australia's Courtney Barnett on why she's pretty clueless in the studio

“I guess I’m always learning stuff,” she says. “When I did the second EP it was a bit in the studio and a bit of stuff in the bedroom too. I was pretty much as clueless as the first time. It’s a pretty good way to operate you know.”

The forthcoming album, which Barnett recorded before she went overseas to play California’s Coachella Festival, was completed in just ten days.

“It was a bit more focused than the other two EPs but I still don’t know completely what’s going on,” says Barnett from Los Angeles following her show at the festival.

“I like working that way – I think it’s when true ideas strike out of pure desperation for needing something to happen.”

She admits she was still finishing songs when she went into the recording sessions.

“The reason it took me so long to make the first two EPs was just because it was so scary creating things that would be this record forever,” she says. “I would like to keep perfecting the songs forever, it would probably take me years and years as I kept fine-tuning them. You can’t really function like that.”

Last year saw Barnett release A Sea Of Split Peas – which compiled her first two EPs back to back, opening with How To Carve A Carrot Into A Rose, the six-song collection which first sparked international notice earlier last year.

Combining acoustic and overdriven psychedelic guitars, chiming piano chords and an indie pop sensibility with Barnett’s own slightly lackadaisical but completely honest vocal style, the songs on the two EPs covered a frustration with modern life, concerned parental phone calls and snatches from real-life scenarios with neat turns of phrase and careful attention to detail.

Perhaps the biggest standout, aside from the much-hammered BBC 6Music favourite History Eraser, is Avant Gardener – the true story of an anaphylactic shock suffered when Barnett tried to clear her front yard on a hot morning.

“I guess the story had a silver lining,” admits Barnett. “Everyone forgets they have their own quite interesting stories themselves, even though they might think they’re not. It’s down to the details, the things people relate to.

“People fixate on the exciting, hot now things. I never follow magazines and movies and all that stuff. I like being at home – I’m that kind of person.”

Sadly for an artist in Australia making it on the world stage means a lot of travel – something Barnett is experiencing firsthand having quit her job in a pub to focus on her music career.

“It’s hard for bands in Australia, it’s so expensive and far away,” she says. “I know a million people who would love to come over and tour – there’s so many great bands in Australia that everyone would love but there is so much music in the world.”

Barnett has started her own label, Milk Records, which she uses to release both her own material and that of her friends.

“I never was under any illusion that I had the power as head of Milk Records to get people heard,” she says. “It was more like-minded people sharing stuff between us. I wouldn’t know how to break someone anyway. It’s like this little art project – it’s nice to share the love around. I find myself in a lucky position to be able to do that.”

As is obvious from the cover of A Sea Of Split Peas – which features a pen and ink rendition of Hokusai’s wave – Barnett has a parallel interest to be an artist.

“I just so happened to fall into being a musician,” she says, adding she went to art school.

“It’s kind of important for me to be able to do the two things and tie them together. The artwork is like an extension of the songs and music itself.”

Courtney Barnett:

• Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton, Thursday, May 8, 3.15pm
• The Haunt, Pool Valley, Brighton, Thursday, May 8, 9.15pm
• Dome Studio Theatre, New Road, Friday, May 9, 12.15am

The Great Escape weekend passes SOLD OUT. Limited day tickets and bundle deals for Example, Thursday, May 8, and Wild Beasts, Friday, May 9, available from www.greatescapefestival.com