Maybe the biggest triumph of Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile new album, Lotta See Lice, is that the duo made it happen at all.
Collaboration as a touring musicians doesn't come easy for most, especially when the parties involved reside literally halfway across the world from each other.
But as Barnett and Vile tell Q104.3 New York's "Out of the Box" with Jonathan Clarke, the two worked around their distance and the inevitable procrastination by giving themselves deadlines and genuinely wanting to work together.
"Once we had done a few songs, maybe we'd send a couple demos," Vile says. "But moreso we'd be like, 'Oh, I got this song' and [we'd] just book the studio time. You just gotta go for it, ultimately. That's like what happens."
"It was good that we booked the time, so I knew I had to have a song finished by then," Barnett says. "Kurt would send me a couple of guitar parts and we'd just chat back and forth and turn it into songs."
The project began after Barnett got a gig opening for Vile (originally from Philadelphia, PA) in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Over the next couple years, the pair started bumping into one another on festivals. Vile became a fan of Barnett's writing and asked her to write a song with him.
"It really naturally grew into something, which is nice," Barnett says. "It did just start with one song and to turn it into this whole thing and to include all these amazing musicians we're playing with on tour and it's a really great thing."
"Courtney's like the next level of songwriter/instrumentalist and all those things," Vile adds.
Watch the whole interview above.
Get all the Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile tour dates here.
Keep up with Kurt Vile on Facebook and Instagram. Keep up with Courtney Barnett on Facebook and Instagram.
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Check out the music video for Courtney and Kurt's song "Over Everything":