Q&A: Diving Into the Dystopian World of Barns Courtney's ‘Supernatural’
BARNS COURTNEY RETURNS WITH A CAPTIVATING CONCEPT ALBUM — At the center of his latest album, Supernatural, lies a cult leader seeking glory in a post-apocalyptic world. Born out of a tumultuous journey across three different record labels that nearly pushed Courtney away from music, the surging energy of his long-awaited third album rises above his struggles. He’s now signed with independent label Avenue A, and his electrifying blues-rock anthems are stronger than ever.
More than anything, Courtney is having fun with his music. While developing the album’s dystopian allegory, he fills the world with nods to his favorite books, movies, and music. Even as he steps away from creating music about himself, both his loves and fears make their way into Supernatural. While he doesn’t want his music to be preachy, Courtney notes that the album is allegorical of his fears about climate change, hoarding of resources, hedonism, and corrupt leaders.
Courtney’s infectious glam-rock energy is coming to a city near you. Starting July 23, he’ll be opening for The Struts on their North American tour before embarking on a co-headline tour with them in Europe this coming September.
Luna sat down with Courtney to discuss world-building, writer’s block, and his creative process. Read below to learn all about the world of Supernatural.
LUNA: What was the experience like creating the world of Supernatural and developing this character?
COURTNEY: It was fun! I was very bored of talking about myself and my experiences. I felt like I'd run out of things to say, especially seeing as I'd exorcised all my demons on the first album and talked about my experiences on the road on the second. It was just really good fun putting together all of my favorite things into one giant super project. You know, ’70s glam, David Bowie, character creation, ’90s anime, elements of Rocky Horror Picture Show, elements of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Joris-Karl Huysmans’s Against Nature. Putting all my favorite quotes and stylistic elements in one big thing was a really unique, exciting adventure to go on creatively.
LUNA: What do you like the most about making music?
COURTNEY: I like the freedom that it affords me, and I like the fact that it encourages me to be open and in touch with my emotions, to be in a state of play. I think the older that people get, in general, the less they mess around and enjoy the world with a childlike sense of wonder. Making music and performing on stage kind of demands that of you. Now, it depends on what kind of music you're making, I suppose, but at least for me, it enables me to feel that sense of excitement that perhaps some people lose as they age, that sense of awe, and every day feeling unique.
LUNA: How do you keep your creativity and that awe alive while dealing with writer’s block?
COURTNEY: I like what John Mayer says, that writer's block doesn't exist. It's just allowing the critical brain to become louder than the creative. I also like Steven Pressfield's angle where he says you don't get to decide when the Muse comes to visit you. All you can do is sit down and prepare yourself for her arrival. He sits for six hours a day and doesn't feel depressed or sad if he only writes a paragraph, a sentence, or nothing, because he puts the work in as a human, mortal man, and the Greek … goddess decides to visit him when she will.
It was a lot easier to be creative when I was very, very depressed on the first album because I needed the catharsis. I desperately needed the escapism and the transmutation of my dark emotions, so it forced me to the pen and my guitar a lot. But I think you can be just as creative without that. It just requires more discipline. So when I'm in good discipline, I try and finish a song in under 10 minutes every day. Most of those songs are not ones that I end up using, but I'm building the muscle of intuition. I'm training myself to let ideas flow without judgment, and that is how you get honest, truthful, for want of a better word, good songs.
LUNA: So you’re writing a song in 10 minutes every day?
COURTNEY: Yeah, just to practice, because when you feel inspired, oftentimes you can trick yourself out of writing something good by overthinking it. You can trick yourself out of writing altogether by overthinking. The critical brain shouldn't enter into the writing process at all. The critical mind is for afterward. You finish your state of childlike play and you finish what you've done then you go back and look. You think, “How do I feel about this from the other side with fresh ears?” The 10 minutes is just a useful tool.
When I wrote “Golden Dandelions,” I'd been doing that trick a lot. It’s a song on my first album, and I really didn't like it at all when I wrote it. I thought it was a weird song about a scientist. When I came back and looked at my work, I realized it was a song inspired by a John Dunne poem I read called “Death, be not proud” about how if sleep is full of pleasures, then death, being the ultimate sleep, must be the ultimate pleasure. I reimagined the Grim Reaper as a beautiful woman who sails into your window and takes you out over the shining Phantasmagoria of lights and sounds, and she lays you down to rest in a field of golden dandelions. And I thought, “Oh my god, this is completely different from what I thought.” If I'd not been practicing my 10 minutes a day, I probably would have shut that down before I even started. That song, in and of itself, took longer than 10 minutes to write, but it was because of practicing the art of being intuitive that I was able to get it out unscathed.
LUNA: I love how you keep dropping in some literary references such as Oscar Wilde and John Dunne. Are there other writers that you pull from in your work?
COURTNEY: Yeah, I love Dylan Thomas. There are a few Dylan Thomas references on the first album. I love [Arthur] Rimbaud. I was inspired by some of his work on the song “Golden.” I think the lyric “I can speak into your lips” is similar to something that he said. I also love [Charles] Bukowski's work, even though I don't rate him as a person enormously, but some of his poems are really beautiful.
LUNA: You talked about catharsis with your first album. Did you have a similar experience making Supernatural? You talk about issues of climate change and hedonism on the album, so were you able to process these feelings about the chaos that you see in the world?
COURTNEY: Yeah, especially in tracks like “Machine Gun Sun.” The album, and my work in general, wasn't written to preach, it was written to be enjoyed as a piece of music that you can listen to at face value. I think all these subtexts are more for me. I don't even know if anyone other than myself would listen to this record and make these connections, because I craft the song more to decorate time and make something pretty, as opposed to get deeply into that.
I often find, as well, if I'm writing with too much of an agenda, it's not good. I try and just let my subconscious speak for me, and it doesn't always speak clearly and concisely. Sometimes it's kind of gobbledygook, and I can look at a song and say, “Well, I know what I was getting at was climate change,” but that's what I love about music. You know, people can interpret their own ideas from the songs that I write.
The album is allegorical of climate change and the politicians who seek to distract us from it, who are only out to serve themselves. The cult leader, you know, he sells snake oil, purports to have magical powers, and has created a cult based around his ideals of hedonism to serve his CDNs.
LUNA: What was the process of creating the cult leader character? Are you planning to bring that to the stage?
COURTNEY: I did! I've had quite a struggle getting the album out across three different record labels. There were company mergers and things that made it very difficult to get it out. But I did bring the cult leader to the stage. I dyed my hair white and made myself into the character, and made a lot of clothes specifically pertaining to him. I've got some more hints to his world coming in. In the merch, there are a lot of hints to his world. It's quite cryptic, but I like that in a way.
I think if I can, I'll probably make some comic book strips that explain more deeply where the references come from. You know, the snakes you see in the merch, the recurrence of the number seven, and all the references to luck. One day, when I sell enough tickets, I'll probably have a whole massive theatrical production that really draws you into that world.
LUNA: You’re opening for The Struts this summer, and then setting off on a co-headline European tour. Are you excited to get on the road?
COURTNEY: Yeah, I'm really excited. It's been a long time since I've toured like that, and even longer since I toured Europe. So yeah, I'm excited, and I'm playing a couple of new songs from the album, so it feels like a fresh start.
LUNA: How’s the independent label experience so far?
COURTNEY: It's been the best experience that I've ever had, in terms of the corporate aspect of making music. My experience with major labels was that it was very difficult to have an open dialogue with anyone that I worked with there. You're such a small fish of so many in such a massive pond. I never felt as though people were really paying attention to the music and my vision, or even cared. It seemed like it was a lot about the bottom line.
Now on this indie label, I speak to my label head all the time, and I talk to him about my ideas and where I want the project to go. We'll sit and have breakfast on occasion, and I can run through all these insane visions that I have for the project. We can actually brainstorm and have a dialogue. It’s been a beautiful thing.
LUNA: You hosted an album release party on July 17 with a Rock and Roll Circus theme. How did you come up with that? Is that theme something you’re planning to bring to the tour?
COURTNEY: Well, as I said, I like to mix all of my favorite things together and bring them into my world as often as possible. I want my life to be a beautiful adventure that I can create and get paid for it as well, if possible. The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a … video performance that I Iove. But also I've been teaming up with this amazing art duo called the JoJo Bros. They're two painters from Orange County who sold everything they owned and started renting a warehouse in LA and painting. So they've been painting my jackets for the tour, and they painted my guitar. They call their outfit the JoJo Bros Circus. I just thought it was a nice marriage of our two themes, to call it the Rock and Roll Circus, and to channel some of that live.
