Courtney Barnett has acknowledged similarities between her most recent music video and a video by Melbourne band Quivers.
The renowned singer-songwriter released a video for her single ‘Before You Gotta Go’ last week, the clip racking up over 100,000 views since then. Earlier today though, Barnett took to social media to commendably point out the striking similarities between her video and the video for Quivers’ ‘You’re Not Always On My Mind’.
Both videos see the respective musicians – Barnett and Sam Nicholson – out in nature, recording audio samples of the world around them. Intriguingly, Barnett’s song also contained the line ‘You’re always on my mind’, one word removed from Quivers’ song title.
The Quivers video came out a year-and-a-half ago and both were shot on Woiwurrung and Boon Wurrung country (Melbourne); additionally, Quivers’ clip was also filmed on the island of Toarra-Marra-Monah off the east coast of Tasmania, while some of Barnett’s was filmed on unneeded Indigenous land in New Zealand. The clips had different directors, Nina Renee helming Quivers’ video and Claudia Sangiorgi handling Barnett’s video.
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Check out ‘Before You Gotta Go’ by Courtney Barnett:
It’s unclear what initially prompted Barnett to disclose the similarities via social media but her decision is a positive one. “I thought I had come up with a beautiful, original idea for a video, but it seems like I was wrong!” she wrote in an Instagram post before introducing Quivers.
“I’d like to introduce you to Melbourne band @quiversss and director @nina__renee__ who had the same idea way before me. Any similarities are completely coincidental and if I had seen this clip when I was making mine I would have completely changed my concept or the way we explored it.”
Barnett is currently in the run-up to her latest album, Things Take Time, Take Time, set for release on November 12th. Quivers’ last album, Golden Doubt, came out in June to strong reviews.
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Check out ‘You’re Not Always On My Mind’ by Quivers:
