Imperfect Couple

Jen Cloher and Courtney Barnett – currently on tour together, celebrating the release of a split 7” – hold some refreshingly bold and interesting ideas about the Australian music scene. Cloher, self-managed and independent, is renowned for her support and advocacy of the local music industry. She is perpetually seeking out collaborations, runs regular workshops and is a familiar figure on The Push's mentor panel and at the organisation's annual Face The Music conference. While it was through the mentor program three years ago that Cloher and Barnett first met, it was in writing a series of duets with local songwriters that the pair became best acquainted.

“I wrote one with Kieran Ryan of Kid Sam, and Emily Lubitz of Tinpan Orange… then Courtney and I did a duet,” Cloher says. “I think there's something about writing songs with someone; you share this intimacy that you might not normally. You see each other in a very vulnerable state where you're first coming up with ideas so you can't look cool. I remember when Courtney was first writing all these cool lyrics and it came to my bit – and you can hear this on the recording – and I just totally chicken out…”

“Yeah, that first part of writing songs is so fucking embarrassing,” Barnett chimes in.

“People get to see that you're actually shit,” Cloher continues.

“So that's when I found out Jen Cloher was not amazing,” Barnett chuckles.

Barnett, however, only moved to Melbourne four years ago, yet her sound rings of Brunswick bars and Northcote's High Street. If a city really can have a quintessential sound, then Barnett songs such as Lance Jr and Scotty Says have nailed that of Melbourne. Furthermore, her debut EP, I've Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris, was released on Milk Records, the singer's very own label.

“I've only just started it this year, it's very minimal and I'm learning as I go,” she explains. “It was basically just a front, because it sounds better if someone else is talking about the EP. It's harder for me to say, 'Hey, my album's awesome – listen to it', than if it's coming from Milk Records.”

Both passionate about the many freedoms and potentials of being independent, Cloher unleashes her “trip at the moment”: frustrations over lost national support for some of Australia's strongest musicians.

“I feel like there's a really big hole in the Australian music landscape,” she says, “where once a band moves on from that triple j focus, like Augie March or The Drones, Dan Kelly or Mia Dyson… they're not supported in a way that they can continue to have a national audience. Then you've just got all your heritage music on FM radio; your Crowded House or Hunters & Collectors. I would love to see in my lifetime an alternative national broadcaster like triple j for those artists to continue. There needs to be something that harnesses the incredible songwriting talent of this country so that so they don't fall into this black hole. My fear is we are going to lose our Australian music culture.”

Their current tour sees Cloher playing with a full band, including the likely permanent addition of Barnett on guitar, and fellow Immigrant Union member Bones Sloane on bass. Together they will unveil new tracks such as Cloher's Mount Beauty (from forthcoming album In Blood Memory) and Barnett's History Eraser and further solidify the significance of local independent acts.

Jen Cloher and Courtney Barnett will be playing the following dates:

Friday 16 November – Flying Saucer Club, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 17 November – Northcote Social Club, Melbourne VIC
Thursday 22 November – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 1 December – Republic Bar, Hobart TAS