Time is very weird.
— Sharon Van Etten
I was in musicals. and I was in the choir when I was younger. Before I started writing my own songs, I thought I wanted to be on Broadway, but it was nothing I ever really pursued.
You write these vulnerable songs as a sort of therapy, but if you don't confront people on a daily basis, it's not reality. There's still a bit of separation there.
I wanna grow and develop as an artist, and I feel like different kinds of collaborations can only help me in that way.
I don't like to hold back. Especially with who I am and what I do, it's all me. Everything's my name; it's what I do. It's how I feel. It's what I think.
I'm nervous performing because it's such a weird thing to do, standing on stage demanding people's attention.
When I write, it's to heal. It's my own self-therapy so that I don't actually feel sad all of the time.
The studio is a time when you can do anything that you want to. You have that freedom.
I realized that there's this fine line between being personal and being general and being alienating.
I love how small the world is.
The dilemma I have is that everything I do at work is all about me, and at what point is that selfish? I'm just talking and singing about myself, or I'm standing on a stage and hoping that everybody likes me. Obviously, it's also about the music and feeling and connecting; I know it's deeper than that.
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.
I'm a really strong person. I've no regrets in my life.
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.
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 goal is to become a therapist by the time I'm 50.
I wasn't a very good salesman.
I will entertain things that are entertaining and sound interesting and challenge me. But acting just doesn't come second-nature to me.
Everyone has their down days. Unfortunately, that's when I am the most prolific.
It's really hard to watch yourself.
Music is still my main thing, but I will explore anything that's interesting and challenging.
I have a hard time not wearing my heart on my sleeve and answering people honestly. You know, my friends warn me that I should be more guarded 'cause sometimes I am too honest and open, but it's also just who I am.
You'd better have something good to say if you've got a roomful of people who've paid to see you.
Sadness isn't an emotion that most cool bands want to talk about.
I started writing for myself when I didn't know how to understand how I was feeling, and I didn't know how to talk to people about it, so I would break into the subconscious to try and understand what I was going through.
'The Boatman's Call' is amazing; it's an album of love songs, really beautiful.
I love traveling. I love meeting people. I love performing, but it's hard to be gone and to not have a real life and to just get the emotional love that you need from the people you're traveling with.
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.
Every time I re-perform a song, I gain some perspective.
I'm not a down-in-the-dumps person. I think some people assume that I am because of the music I write.
I hate the term 'emo.' It turned into this genre of music, when all music, if you connect with it, is emotional.
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 didn't have my first band until I was, like, 30.
I'm a late bloomer in music.
When I first started making music, it was where I went when I couldn't express myself, when I wasn't able to connect with other people, when I couldn't talk about what I was going through.
I believe my songs are strong enough to stand on their own - even way back then when they were recorded badly and minimally.
I only work with people that are mysteries.
Both my brothers are drummers.
Singing a song like 'Your Love Is Killing Me,' people are worried about me. My mother called me, like, 'What's going on with you? Are you alright? I thought you were doing fine.' And I'm like, 'I am doing fine. It's just, this is what I do.'
I'm a lot more secure than I used to be.
When I can write a song in a way where I feel like other people can relate to it, and I can take it past being cathartic just for me, that's when I know I can share it. Otherwise, I'd just feel like it's selfish.
I always write from a personal place - whether it be about my friends or myself or a story that I heard.
'Imperfiction' will forever be one of my favorite records and moments in time.
Half of my anxiety is about whether people are going to like me.
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.
I'm a sucker for a love song!
My career is based off of me talking about my emotions.
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 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.
Just getting older, you stop caring what other people think, but also, you know who you are, and you know what you want.
