Sharon Van Etten
I would love to work with PJ Harvey some day.
People relate to songs so differently. No matter what it's about in reality, people create their own meaning behind it and connect with it on their own terms.
I don't know how to get a crowd singing along. That's not what my music does.
In my teenage years, there was a lot of angst going on.
Sometimes music should just be about you sitting on your bedroom floor, or in the back of the car, singing along stupidly. Evan Dando's music was all about that for me.
Noveller make soundscapes that are creepy, ethereal, really beautiful and all over the place. They can be intense, dark, and groovy but also dreamlike and happy.
I hit 'record' whenever I'm going through a really hard time. I don't listen to it for a couple of days, so I have some perspective. If it's too personal to share, and I feel like would alienate the listeners, then I usually don't share that stuff.
Hopefully, the stuff that is way too personal that I record and keep - people won't hear it because it's way too personal.
I'm still friends with most of my exes. There are only one or two people that I'll never talk to again.
I moved to New York to pursue music.
I don't want to bury anything in poetry.
Everything will be okay. I have a sticker on my laptop that says that.
I overthink everything. I'm just like, 'Wait, why do they want to hear me?' I start doubting myself. Other times, I'll just get so emotional during a song. Sometimes I'll cry while I'm singing. It's so weird. I'm such a baby.
I guess I usually write when I'm in a really intense headspace, because it's my form of self-therapy.
I love being domestic: making coffee, just putting on a record, and just sitting, not doing anything. It's so great.
I'm still learning how to be comfortable touring. I haven't found that balance yet.
Writing songs helped me figure out how to communicate with other people. I finally figured out that if I could express something in a song, I could probably express it in my real life, too.
I've always been really shy. I was always afraid of any kind of confrontation.
My mom used to ask me when I was gonna write a happy song. I still tell her that it's when I start to write really happy-sounding songs that everyone needs to start worrying.
Moving to New York City and doing what I do, social anxiety is a really ridiculous kind of curse to have. But I met people along the way who deal with it - performers as well - and they are learning to deal with it daily and deal with it in different ways.
I try to focus on the melodies and try to make everything else minimal. The melody and the lyrics are most important to me.
One day when I have a band I will have a band name, but since it's just me I feel it should just be my name. For me it doesn't make much sense since the music is from me and about me. I haven't ever been in a band.
I have a day job Monday to Friday. I work at a record label in Brooklyn called Ba Da Bing. It's a great indie label and I listen to music all day. I meet people online and find out about the cool new music blogs.
I'm getting bored performing the same songs over and over. Songwriting comes and goes.
The only thing that's helped me get through some really hard times was just being able to write and express - it's very cathartic for me. I'm hoping that, by writing and performing for other people, it affects them the same way.
I hate putting negative energy out into the world. But it's either inside or out. I mean, it's either get an ulcer or have a fight.
I'm really out of touch with myself emotionally. I've always had a hard time talking about how I feel.
I think there are times in a lot of people's pasts where they've unintentionally fallen in love with really damaged people. You go out with someone who's a mess so you can feel less of a mess.
Honestly, live is my favorite way of performing. Every show is a completely different energy.
I'm trying to learn how to cook.
I have this red cardigan that my friend Coco gave me that has holes for thumbs. It's my cozy sweater. I wear it a lot.
I'm a late bloomer in music.
I wasn't a very good salesman.
Just getting older, you stop caring what other people think, but also, you know who you are, and you know what you want.
I didn't have my first band until I was, like, 30.
My goal is to become a therapist by the time I'm 50.
I don't think I'll ever feel perfectly balanced, but I feel like I'm figuring it out, and I'm surrounded by really wonderful people that want to see me succeed and be happy. Life is wild.
In 2015, I told my band that I was taking a break so I could focus on my home life, go back to school, and try to remember what it was like to feel like a human being again.
I started playing, and people responded to it and connected with it and now, I don't even know what I'm really connecting with anymore or if I'm helping people. Now it's more of a business.
My friends actually used to call me the 'Female Conor Oberst.' I got to open up with him once, and I told him about that, and he thought it was hilarious.
I hate the term 'emo.' It turned into this genre of music, when all music, if you connect with it, is emotional.
I was pretty troubled for a long time. And I didn't know that. As a kid, I never talked about my emotions. My mom gave me a journal, but I didn't know what it meant. I just wrote all the time, not even thinking about it. But it also made me feel better.
My career is based off of me talking about my emotions.
I'm not a down-in-the-dumps person. I think some people assume that I am because of the music I write.
I'm a really strong person. I've no regrets in my life.
I'm a sucker for a love song!
Every time I re-perform a song, I gain some perspective.
I work a lot with sounds based on stream of consciousness. I like the way it sounds, then I turn it into something that makes more sense.
On first listen, it's nice to just soak up the sound without thinking about what it means. It's like a relationship. Records I've had for years mean more to me now than they did years ago.