搬運自：網(wǎng)易云音樂專欄【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基礎(chǔ)上添加了英語原文與排版調(diào)整）

翻譯：Beans_Beans?

The Australian singer-songwriter talks about the unexpected joys of her third solo LP, Things Take Time, Take Time, which is described as being about finding "some sort of joy and gratitude, out of some sort of pain and sadness"

這位來自澳大利亞的創(chuàng)作型藝術(shù)家將談到她在創(chuàng)作第三張個人專輯《Things Take Time, Take Time》中所收獲的意外驚喜，她將自己的這份杰作描述為“從某種未知的痛苦和悲傷中尋得愉悅和感恩”

At the start of 2020, Courtney Barnett was looking forward to a year of open-ended songwriting, with just one proviso. “It’s important to remember to live and to experience and to have something real to write about,” she told Rolling Stone in an interview that January. “Not just to sit in a room and write an album for the sake of making an album.”

2020年年初，Courtney Barnett 便期待著在新一年不著邊際的音樂創(chuàng)作，同時也為之附加有一新目標——“最重要的是要能夠時時刻刻記得去生活、去體驗、同時將那些真真切切的東西寫下來，”她在同年一月份的一次采訪中談道。“而不僅僅為了制作專輯而‘困’在房間中制作它?！?/p>

Barnett laughs when she’s reminded of that conversation now. “That’s funny,” the Australian singer-songwriter, 33, says on a call from her home in Melbourne. “Very ironic … Whether I liked it or not, that’s what the world gave us. It’s probably the most quiet year I’ve ever had.”

當她再度想起那次談話時，Barnett 笑了?！斑@很有趣，”這位33歲澳大利亞歌手兼詞曲作者身處墨爾本的家中接到電話時說道。“真是諷刺……無論我喜歡與否，造化弄人呀！這可能是我度過的最平靜的一年?！?/p>

The album that she spent most of 2020 sitting in a room and writing is called Things Take Time, Take Time, and it will arrive this November 12th on Mom + Pop Music and Marathon Artists. For fans of Barnett’s distinctive songwriting, it’s a rich reward, full of the sly observations on the peaks and valleys of everyday life that have made her one of the past?decade’s most beloved indie artists. There are surprises in store, too: The 10 songs on the album shine in a newly revealing light, mostly stripped of the crunching rock-band sound that filled her first two solo LPs, and presented instead in a form that feels closer to the radical honesty of a solo bedroom tape. It just might be the most personal record yet from an artist who’s already given the world plenty of emotional truth.

2020年的絕大部分時間里，她都坐在房間中創(chuàng)作著名為《Things Take Time, Take Time》的專輯，它將于今年11月12日于 Mom + Pop Music 和 Marathon Artists 問世。對那些鐘于 Barnett 別具一格的音樂風格的粉絲來說，能夠體悟她對跌宕起伏的日常生活極具獨到的視角，不可不謂是一份豐厚的獎品，也正因此使她成為上個十年來最受歡迎的獨立藝術(shù)家之一。這其中也隱藏著驚喜：專輯中的十首歌曲在她全新的視角中煥發(fā)光芒，其中絕大部分剝離了曾充斥在她前兩張個人唱片中濃重的后期痕跡，進而營造了一種更接近于個人臥室形式的感覺，使之以更激進、更真摯的形式呈現(xiàn)出來。這可能是這位早已為世人帶來無數(shù)真情實感的藝術(shù)家迄今為止最私人化的唱片。

Barnett describes Things Take Time, Take Time as an album about finding “some sort of joy and gratitude, out of some sort of pain and sadness” — a new morning after a dark night. “Write a List of Things to Look Forward To,” a bright, jangly highlight of the new LP, is a good example of what she means.

Barnett 將《Things Take Time, Take Time》描述為一張“從某種未知的痛苦和悲傷中尋得愉悅和感恩”的專輯——在漆黑的夜晚中引來又一個清晨?！癢rite a List of Things to Look Forward To”這一新唱片中明亮、靈動的高光時刻想必便是那合她心意的絕佳事例。

She’d begun writing new songs shortly after the spring 2018 release of her second solo album, the turbulent Tell Me How You Really Feel, but ended up discarding most of them after a while. “Write a List of Things to Look Forward To” was one of the first songs she kept. It arrived toward the end of 2019, at a time when she was feeling deeply distraught for reasons that included a devastating bushfire season in Australia.

她在2018年春天發(fā)行第二張個人專輯《Tell Me How You Really Feel》后不久就已經(jīng)開始著手創(chuàng)作新作品，但最終在一段時間后丟棄其中絕大部分歌曲，而"Write a List of Things to Look Forward To "便是她留存下的歌曲之一。這首歌在2019年年底即將到來時，澳大利亞遭遇毀滅性的叢林火災(zāi)，除此之外的種種使她深感不安。

“I was just really sad,” she recalls. “I was in a really dark place, and a friend told me … They didn’t know how to help me. They said, ‘Why don’t you try to write a list of positive things in your life that you’re looking forward to?’ At the time, I was like, ‘Nothing. There’s nothing I’m looking forward to.’”

“我當時真的很傷痛，”她回憶道?！澳鞘俏业闹涟禃r刻，我的一個朋友告訴我……他們甚至無從知道如何幫助我。他們說‘你何不試著寫一寫你的“愿望清單”呢？’當時我想：‘空白，我哪有什么可期待的’。”

Her friend kept pushing, and eventually Barnett came up with enough items to fill “l(fā)ike, 25 verses,” which she later pared down to the two-minute-plus mini-anthem that appears on Things Take Time, Take Time. “Sit beside me, watch the world burn,” she sings over upbeat chords. “I love that the song feels so fun,” Barnett says. “It sounds like you’re driving across a highway and it’s sunny. I love the juxtaposition of those things.”

在她的朋友屢次勸導下，最終 Barnett 想出了足夠的內(nèi)容來使“大約……25節(jié)”的小詩更加充實，后來她將其縮減為兩分多鐘的迷你頌歌，并決定作為《Things Take Time, Take Time》的曲目之一。“Sit beside me, watch the world burn”她運用歡快的和弦如是唱到?！拔液芟矚g這首歌，趣味橫生，”Barnett 說道。“它聽起來仿佛是在明媚的日光下，你開車駛過高速公路……等等我所喜愛的這些東西一齊出現(xiàn)?！?/p>

She went on to play a pair of bushfire relief fundraisers in the early weeks of 2020, then flew to the U.S. for a short solo tour that ended with a benefit show in Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day. By the time she got back to Melbourne, the new threat of Covid meant that she had to self-quarantine. Without anywhere of her own to stay, she crashed at a friend’s empty apartment. “I ended up staying there for the whole year,” she says. “It was this amazing little flat, and it had these beautiful big windows and big light. I was really lucky to get that place.”

在2020年的最初幾周，她陸續(xù)參加了一些叢林火災(zāi)救援籌款活動，隨即便飛往美國進行了短暫的個人巡演，最終以情人節(jié)當天在洛杉磯舉行的一場義演作結(jié)。當她重返墨爾本時，新冠襲來而這意味著她必須居家隔離。由于暫時沒有自己的住處，她在一個朋友的空公寓里住了下來。"我最后在那里住了整整一年，"她說。"那是一個了不起的小公寓，敞亮的落地窗、充足的光線，很是慶幸自己能住在如此一個地方。"

As the reality of lockdown sank in, Barnett learned to cook, subscribed to the Criterion Channel, got deeper into the films of Agnes Varda and Andrei Tarkovsky, read books she’d been meaning to tackle, and painted watercolor scenes. “I had a lot of grand plans,” she says with a laugh. Mostly, though, she sat by the window, drinking coffee and playing acoustic guitar.

不得不面對居家隔離的現(xiàn)實，Barnett陸續(xù)學會了做飯、訂閱了Criterion頻道、深入研究了 Agnes Varda 和 Andrei Tarkovsky 的電影、讀完了她一直想?yún)s從未翻開的書籍，甚至還迷上了水彩。"她笑道："我有很多宏偉的計劃——不過，大多數(shù)時候，只是坐在窗邊，喝著咖啡彈木吉他?！?/p>

One of the sweetest songs on the new album, “Turning Green,” reflects that experience directly in its lyrics, which hint at renewed hopes after a low season (“The trees are turning green/And this springtime lethargy/Is kinda forcing you to see/Flowers in the weeds”). “I sat by that window, and there was a huge tree at the front, so I watched the seasons change,” Barnett says. “I guess it’s also metaphorical. There’s something so joyous about that song. You feel that the characters have been through some sort of transformation, and they’ve come out on the other side.”

“Turning Green”作為專輯中最甜美的歌曲之一，所向我們描繪的就是這種體驗——低谷過后、迎來新生（“The trees are turning green/And this springtime lethargy/Is kinda forcing you to see/Flowers in the weeds”）“我一坐在窗邊，映入眼簾的便是一棵巨樹，由此中便能體悟季節(jié)變幻，” Barnett 說道?！拔蚁脒@也是一種隱喻。那首歌蘊含著令人愉悅的東西。你能體會到如今人們已發(fā)生了某種轉(zhuǎn)變——已經(jīng)從黑暗一邊脫離出來?！?/p>

The album’s first single, “Rae Street,” began with a writing exercise rooted in old memories. “One day I made a list of all the phrases that I could remember my parents saying,” she says. The enigmatic adage in the chorus — “Time is money, and money is no man’s friend” — comes from something her father used to say, repurposed for a period of extended reflection.

專輯的第一首單曲 "Rae Street "始于一次深植于記憶深處的寫作練習。她說道：“那天，我把我所記得的我父母說過的所有話列了出來?！备备柚猩衩氐母裱浴?“Time is money, and money is no man’s friend” ——便是她的父親曾經(jīng)說過的話，在經(jīng)過漫長歲月洗禮后被重新道來。

When Barnett was ready to record some demos, she turned to a vintage Roland CR-8000 drum machine that she’d picked up a few years earlier after a visit to Wilco’s instrument-filled Chicago loft. “It’s analog and a little bit clunky,” says Barnett, who describes herself as “addicted to cute little drum machines.”

當 Barnett 準備錄制一些 Demo 時，她的目光停留在了一臺復古樣式的 Roland CR-8000 鼓，這是她幾年前在參觀了 Wilco 位于芝加哥閣樓的器樂展覽會后買的。Barnett 說道：“它更像是個模型、有點笨重?！彼€形容自己 “對可愛的小鼓機上癮了”。、

She’d never taken the time to learn how to use this one properly (“I would just pick a beat and be done with it”), but now she had nothing but time. So she called her friend Stella Mozgawa — the Warpaint drummer who had played drums on Lotta Sea Lice, Barnett’s 2017 duets album with Kurt Vile — and got a tutorial. Soon she and Mozgawa were trading playlists of artists who’d made innovative use of programmed rhythms, from Arthur Russell to Yo La Tengo. “It felt fun and it felt exciting,” Barnett says. “That steady drum machine does something to my brain that makes it feel calm and safe.” Realizing that Mozgawa was “the perfect musical match,” Barnett invited her to co-produce her next LP.?

她從來沒有花費時間去學習如何正確使用這個（“我就選一個節(jié)拍，完事了”），如今她反而除了時間之外一無所有。她打電話給她的朋友 Stella Mozgawa ——樂隊 Warpaint 的鼓手，他曾在 Barnett 2017年與 Kurt Vile 的合作專輯 Lotta Sea Lice 中擔任鼓手——討到了一個教程。不久，她和 Mozgawa 交換了那些在使用編程節(jié)奏的藝術(shù)家上極具創(chuàng)新的歌單，從 Arthur Russell 到 Yo La Tengo?！斑@感覺很奇妙、很是令人興奮不已，”巴尼特說?！澳桥_穩(wěn)固的鼓對我的內(nèi)心起了些作用——讓我感到平靜和安穩(wěn)?！币庾R到 Mozgawa 會是一位“完美的音樂伴侶”，Barnett 于是邀請她共同制作她的下一張唱片。

In December 2020, she and Mozgawa met up at Golden Retriever Studios in Sydney to begin recording. At this point in her process, Barnett would have normally called in her live bandmates and put the drum machine back on its shelf. “I think I just told myself that was for demos, and when you went to the studio you got a real drummer and kept it real,” she says. “I was adamant about that.”

2020年12月，她和 Mozgawa 終于在悉尼的 Golden Retriever Studios 見面，隨即著手開始錄制。在這個過程中，Barnett 通常會叫上她曾經(jīng)的現(xiàn)場樂隊成員，并把鼓放回架子上。她說：“我想我只是告訴自己，學會它僅僅是為做演示，當你去錄音室的時候，我堅信你需要的是一個真正的鼓手來達到最真實的效果。"

This time, though, she wanted to preserve the meditative magic of her home demos. Many of the songs wound up featuring lo-fi beats programmed by Mozgawa on various drum machines, along with live drums from Mozgawa, vocals and guitar from Barnett, bass parts from both, and more. “It’s pretty much just us,” Barnett says. “It feels so alive to me, like it’s all happening at once.”

不過這一次，她還想保留她家庭小樣中蘊含的冥想魔力。許多歌曲最終采用了 Mozgawa 在各種鼓上制作出的低保真節(jié)拍，除此之外及 Mozgawa 的現(xiàn)場鼓聲、Barnett 的人聲和吉他聲、二人的貝斯部分……Barnett 說道：“幾乎這一切都僅有我們兩個人。對我來說，這感覺極富活力，就像它們在同一時刻一齊出現(xiàn)一般。”

“Turning Green” went through a long journey before taking its final form as a spare motorik groove, just a bass and a drum machine, that blossoms after two minutes into a spiky guitar solo. “I loved that melody so much when I found it, but when I took it to the studio and showed it to Stella, it didn’t sound right,” Barnett says. “It sounded like one of my other songs or something. Stella said, ‘Why don’t we pull the song apart and turn it upside down?’ … I love the song that it became. It allows the lyrics to exist in this very bare environment. Not sugarcoated.”

"Turning Green"的誕生經(jīng)歷了一個漫長的旅程，最終形成了一個休閑模式下的 Motorik 慣例（Motorik 是一個由音樂記者創(chuàng)造的音樂術(shù)語，用于描述 Krautrock 樂隊常使用的4/4拍節(jié)奏，例如 Neu! 以及 Kraftwerk）——只有一個貝斯和一臺鼓，并在兩分鐘后綻放出一個尖銳的吉他獨奏?！爱斘野l(fā)現(xiàn)這個旋律時，非常喜歡，但又當我把它帶到錄音室并給 Stella 看時，它聽起來不太對勁，”Barnett 說。"它聽起來像我以前的作品還是什么。斯特拉說：‘我們?yōu)槭裁床话堰@首歌肢解或是把它顛倒過來呢？……我喜歡它如今變化后的模樣。它能使歌詞更加直白的顯露出來，而沒有糖衣的遮掩。"

Other songs came into focus elsewhere. “Here’s the Thing,” the gorgeously floating ballad that’s one of the album’s centerpieces (“I’m not afraid of heights/Maybe I’m just scared of falling”), began with Barnett idly playing guitar while she watched TV at home. She captured the vocal take later, on a trip to the country in northern New South Wales. “We were staying near this huge mountain,” she recalls. “It was the most beautiful environment. There’s something so special about those vocals.”

其他歌曲則從其他角度攻入人們的視線。"Here's the Thing"，這首華麗的飄蕩民謠是專輯的核心曲目之一（“I’m not afraid of heights/Maybe I’m just scared of falling”），始于 Barnett 居家看電視時百無聊賴彈吉他。后來，她在新南威爾士州北部的一次鄉(xiāng)村旅行中捕捉到了這段靈感?！拔覀冏≡谝蛔笊礁浇?，”她回憶說?！澳怯兄顑?yōu)美的環(huán)境。這些人聲中蘊藏著一些與眾不同的東西?！?/p>

Soon, Barnett will hit the road for her first shows since early 2020, beginning with some solo dates this month in New Zealand; in November, around the album’s release, she’ll arrive in North America for a full-band tour that stretches through next February. She’s looking forward to touring again and seeing how her songs change shape. “Over the years, there’s going to be other versions of these songs, as I play them live with the band,” she says. “They’ll start sounding different again. They always do.”

不久，Barnett 將踏上她自2020年初以來首次演出的旅程，從本月在新西蘭的一些個人演唱會開始，歷經(jīng)11月——在專輯發(fā)行前后，她將抵達北美進行樂隊巡演——直至明年2月。她期待著再次進行巡演，看看在這途中她的歌曲會如何變幻。她說：“多年來，每當我和樂隊一起現(xiàn)場演奏時，這些歌曲便會叢生各式版本——它們會再次開始聽起來如此不同，它們總這樣?！?/p>

In the meantime, she has a new album she’s excited to share with the world soon. “On the one hand, nothing was happening to me last year,” she says. “But at the same time, so much was happening! There’s that lyric in ‘Turning Green’ about flowers in the weeds — as in, finding beauty in a place where you least expect it. That’s my ongoing lesson for myself.”

如今，她制作了一張新專輯，她很高興很快能與世界一同分享它?！耙环矫?，去年我度過了平平無奇的一年，”她說?！暗瑫r它又趣味無窮！在‘Turning Green’中，有一句歌詞是關(guān)于雜草叢中的花朵——在你總會在最無期望的地方尋得美好——這是我反復對自己的教誨。"