INTERVIEW: The Olivettes

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Being a solo artist certainly has its perks. Practice is whenever you roll out of bed. The set list is completely up to you. You don't have to frantically call up your band mates to check they're available when you get offered a last minute gig. And if you don't like a song, you can scrap it without having to diplomatically tell your band mate that what they've written is terrible.

But nothing beats the fun of having a travelling troupe of musicians to keep you company, and that's exactly why Melbourne muso Courtney Barnett has recently jumped on board the "band" wagon. While Courtney is no newbie when it comes to the live music scene in Melbourne, the singer songwriter recently curated a gang of musicians to give her own tunes an orchestrated sound and the gang was originally known as "Courtney Barnett and The Olivettes". The gang of six soon dropped the first part of the name as it was clear that these musicians have too much talent and ideas to add to simply be a backing band, so Melbourne should start to keep their eyes peeled for a collective simply known as The Olivettes.

Paper-Deer got together with Courtney to talk about the evolution of The Olivettes and how they came up with their moniker.

Describe your sound in one word.

Underwater.

Haha, I’m pretty sure that’s two words! Where does the name “The Olivettes” come from?

A drunken guy said to me once, “I’ve never heard your music but based on the band name I envision five housewife-type females dressed in 1950s flowery dresses singing folk songs.” The Olivettes are three guys and two girls. On the front porch, of a house in Thornbury, next to the door bell, at about shoulder level, is a nice plaque that has the house name, Olivette, on it. I saw it at the first band practice and thought it was pretty. Pete suggested it as the band name, and that was that.

 You’ve been on the music scene in Melbourne for a bit. What inspires you to start projects with others rather than just performing and writing solo?

I get stuck in a rut writing by myself. It gets boring and I catch myself using the same cheap phrases over and over again. Plus I’m neurotic and overly self-critical. When you’re writing with someone else they can say, “Hey, that’s shit. Let’s say ‘steady decline of hair’ instead of ‘bald’, and how about we go to this chord and then the leading note brings it up to the major and blah blah blah I know music theory.” It’s a clichéd thing to say, but I learn so much by writing and performing with other people. I’m pretty shy so it forces me to step outside my comfort zone and sometimes the best ideas happen when you’re just mucking around with band members.

I collaborated with a wonderful songwriter and friend Oliver Mestitz last year and we wrote a song called Things to Consider Before RSVPing to a Party. That was the first time I had sat down with someone else and said, “okay, let’s write a song.” And we literally sat around for a long, long time not doing much at all. Folding bits of paper and flicking them across the room. When we finally got on a roll I found it fascinating, it’s like peeking into someone else’s heart and brain seeing the process of how they carefully word lyrics, how they phrase melodies to suit the songs mood, what they share, what they omit.

On your website, you describe The Olivettes as “a group of musicians sourced by Courtney to mellifluously orchestrate and aesthetically beautify her songs.”  Are The Olivettes your “backing band” or does the rest of the band contribute to the songwriting and decision-making process?

It started off like that. Courtney Barnett & The Olivettes. I showed them my songs and we played them how I’d been playing them for the last three years. But it kind of felt like we were a high school band sight-reading out of a Best Of catalogue. Plus some of my slower girly songs don’t really fit with the summery upbeat pop-bop feel thing we’ve got going on.

We have fun together and they inspire me to write, so without them I don’t know where I’d be heading. We’ve only been playing together for a month or so and we’ve just started writing songs together and sharing ideas. I was walking home from the Tote a few weeks ago, and I came up with these profound lyrics quickly typing them into my phone. I took a disjointed story and one riff to rehearsal the next day, showed the band and they made it awesome. We had a new song. Easy as that. So I think it’s okay to say we are just The Olivettes now.

How do you pick fellow musicians to work with?

I would never “audition” people to play with. I didn’t really know any of the boys from the olivettes that well before we started playing together. We drank at the same places, I saw them play in their other bands, and we made lewd jokes together. Once I’d sussed them out to be really cool people that I enjoyed hanging out with I said, “Do you wanna be in a band with me?” As for Charlie Plumb, she dressed up as David Bowie at a party one night and I knew we were supposed to be together. I like the old-fashioned punk-rock notion of friends getting together to make a band. Come up with the name, make the t-shirts, organise the gigs, write the songs…and then learn the instruments. In that order.

The Olivettes have a residency at Edinburgh Castle this December. Why should Paper-Deer readers traipse along and watch you?

1. Our friends The Merri Creek Pickers and Rob from Immigrant Union are coming along to play support spots. 2. We’re playing prime-time afternoon in the sunny beer garden, so you can smoke, drink, eat, bring your kids, bring your dog, get a sun tan and watch music all at the same time.

Is there any magic mix for you when it comes to songwriting?
I find that the best songs are the ones I write in five minutes without thinking about them too much. I get really inspired by local bands a lot of the time. Yesterday I woke up and felt like something good was going to happen so I went and bought two Lucksmiths CDs for inspiration. There’s no magic mix for me. I normally struggle desperately with song writing and the only thing that works is patience and spontaneity.

UPCOMING SHOWS:

• Friday December 17: The Cornish Arms [Popboomerang Xmas Party, as solo aritst]
• Sunday December 19: Edinburgh Castle residency, from 4pm to 6pm 

 LINKS:

• Courtney Barnett official website 
• Courtney Barnett on Myspace
• The Olivettes on Myspace

By Paige X.Cho