Singer Barns Courtney bringing Supernatural World Tour to Pittsburgh

Singer/songwriter Barns Courtney was born in the UK and grew up in Seattle before heading back to England as a teenager, so his American geography knowledge might be a little hazy.

“Is Pittsburgh, is that the one with the crazy tunnel where you emerge from the middle of a mountain and then you can see the whole town? Yeah, it’s like something from a video game. I never imagined that that would exist,” he said in a phone call earlier this week from Philadelphia. “It’s phenomenal. It seems like a modern version of something from ‘Lord of the Rings.’ That really knocks me off my guard. Can we just talk about beautiful tunnels for the rest of this interview, please?”

Courtney was joking, as he’s enthusiastically bringing his Supernatural World Tour to Pittsburgh this weekend, playing Saturday at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale with Yonaka and James Bruner opening. (He’ll be coming from New Jersey, so he’ll miss out on the Fort Pitt Tunnel view unless there’s a really wrong turn made somewhere on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.)

Despite only being 32, Courtney has been through a lot in his music career: “I’ve had nothing but troubles in this industry. It’s just been an endless string of troubles that I’ve sort of learned to surf upon and come to expect.”

He had his first record deal at 19, when his band Dive Bella Dive signed with RedOne (who produced some of Lady Gaga’s biggest hits) and Island in a joint deal.

“And the dude got into an argument with the label, I presume. I still don’t know what the (expletive) happened, but nobody who recorded with him on that deal got their albums back,” Courtney said. “And I worked my (butt) off for three years touring, trying to perfect that record, and then we never got it back.”

With an inability to deliver the album, the band was dropped. Courtney wound up back in England — “woefully unprepared for the real world,” in his own words — selling cigarettes in night clubs and handing out free samples of Lipton’s iced tea.

He said he got by living in his girlfriend’s apartment, which was being paid for by an oil baron from Dubai.

“I was used to running down the fire escape with all my suitcases at 3 in the morning, that kind of (stuff),” he said. “It was (expletive) crazy.”

His next record deal came with Virgin, but his A&R representative left a month later. A massive roster purge dropped 20 of 22 bands, with only Courtney and the Libertines left. The placement of his songs, notably “Fire,” in movies and video games helped ensure his spot temporarily.

“‘We don’t have to even pay attention to the project, it’s just a cash cow.’ So it was this awful situation where just nothing was happening, no one was paying attention,” he said. “And I played the Conan O’Brien show, I didn’t even have artwork for my single. They just held up like a little slide with my name on it in Times New Roman, because there was nothing.”

After getting out of that deal, he signed with 300 Entertainment, which was promptly bought by Warner Brothers, creating more executive turnover among the promotional team — “so you’re like that awkward stepchild that nobody really wants,” he said.

Now Courtney is back with Virgin/Avenue A Records, with a new album slated to release next year. (“Oh, totally, it’s been done for ages, my man. It’s been done for forever,” he said.) It’s been recorded piecemeal over the past few years, which has created some logistical nightmares because of a variety of engineers and different studios.

“It’s incredibly uncohesive,” he said with a laugh, later adding “but I’m happy at least in terms of stylistically in genre, at least it represents the ADHD nature of my being. I feel authentic in that area.”

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He remains proud of the yet-to-be released album, which was the first one he had a large role in producing.

“I’m very close to it,” he said. “I’ve been like, you know, smashing my head against a brick wall trying to get (crap) done with a label that doesn’t give a (expletive) for like, you know, a couple of years. So we will see how it is.”

A scroll through his phone led to him finding the blurb he wrote for the album sleeve two years ago: “What can I say of this record? It was quite possibly the most Sisyphean adventure of my entire life. Never before were so many files lost, tracks redone, parts flung haplessly into the void by nothing more than chance or bad luck or bad acid. I slaved over it for two years across multiple engineers, producers and musicians. So now, whatever you hear before you, know it contains my lifeblood for better or for worst. On to the next one.”

Courtney wasn’t sure what type of reception the album would receive. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’ve written the greatest album since ‘(The) Dark Side of the Moon,’” he deadpanned.

Among the songs slated for the new album are “Supernatural,” which came out in 2022, plus “Golden” and “Young in America,” which just released last month.

“It’s quite a personal song for me, that one,” he said. “… So it’s kind of like a reckoning, an historic reckoning at the time I’ve spent on the road. And it’s a reconciliation of the understanding that, you know what, maybe I didn’t achieve all my goals and maybe, you know, I’m still struggling to make ends meet, but at least I had a (expletive) good time doing it. And it’s a promise to my younger self, you know, to keep going, not to give up.”

It also pays tribute to his boyhood friend, who goes on the road as his “professional best friend” and serves as roadie for the rest of the band.

“It’s a very weird job that we do, you know, and there’s always the potential to kind of start to get a little high on your own supply,” he said. “I mean these meet-and-greets are bizarre because you end up talking about yourself for like an hour. You’re with a very small subsection of the population that thinks you know everything or at least acts like it. It’s nice to have Mikey on the road because he knows exactly who I am, where I came from. I feel a little bit more relaxed about drinking the Kool-Aid. At least I know he wouldn’t let me go too far adrift.”

It touches lyrically on a venue he would play in Ipswich, as well as the retirement home his friend worked at as a waiter near Seattle.

“And it’s about me looking back now as an older man in my 30s. ‘Oh, washed up,’” he said. “Well, (expletive) Jim Morrison was dead by my age, wasn’t he? Famous and dead. And (Jimi) Hendrix and (Kurt) Cobain and (Amy) Winehouse. Twenty-seven club, baby. I may as well carry on to old age.”

Despite all the struggles, Courtney has no plans to stop doing what he loves, offering this advice to young musicians.

“I would say that you don’t fail until you give up, you know?” he said. “Like, I’ve (expletive) been chewed up and spit out a million times, and I hear a lot of stories of like, ‘Ah, you know, I almost made it big, but then they didn’t put out the right single.’ I’m like, ‘Well, why did you stop though, bro? Yeah. Like, why are you here talking about it? Keep the train rolling, baby.’”

In the meantime, while waiting for the album’s release, Courtney has been on the road for the Supernatural World Tour. His social media posts of his electric performances have shown appearances in the crowd, with ripped shirts and his boots and pants on stage.

“The concerts are good, but are they Mick Jagger good? I don’t know. We carry on,” he said. “I ain’t saying I’m not rocking in the free world. I’m just saying it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll. I got work to do. I was watching my videos last night from like previous tours and I’m like, ah (expletive) man, I’m all out of breath on all my songs and (expletive). Compared it with like Freddie Mercury. He always sounds like if you stood completely still, like in a studio booth, regardless of how much he’s moving.”

He hasn’t made it to the level where he’s got an entire support staff on tour with him, like Foo Fighters or Metallica.

“Well, but why do these guys have nutritionists and personal trainers? It’s cause they were (expletive) smashing it. They smashed it so hard, that now they have the (expletive) money to take it into the upper echelons,” he said. “You know, I’ll have those things too … if I write a record that is so undeniably great, that people cannot help but part with their money for it.

“And I can funnel all that into, you know, personal trainers,” he said with another laugh.