Everything will be okay. I have a sticker on my laptop that says that.
Sharon Van Etten
Just getting older, you stop caring what other people think, but also, you know who you are, and you know what you want.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Everyone has their down days. Unfortunately, that's when I am the most prolific.
I have a lot of alter-egos: I would love to be a back-up singer for someone someday. I have an electronic side-project. I have a '90s grunge side project; I have a piano project... I have this industrial, goth-electronic song, super creepy sounding, just really dark and dreary.
I am my therapist, and I analyze what's happening and if I'm being hurt in the process. The result is songs that are very emotional, very deep, although I try to write them generally so they won't alienate the listener.
I didn't think I was helping other people. But I think that comes hand in hand with trying to be able to connect with people, and if you make things too personal, then it's harder for people to relate to you. Otherwise, it's just them listening to you read your diary.
I go back to things all the time. It's really nice, too, like when I'm going through some kind of a writer's block, and I'm feeling uninspired, I go to some of my oldest songs from over the years and sift through them, and one thing that's very nice is to see how I've grown up a little bit. A little bit.
I'm a really strong person. I've no regrets in my life.
I would love to work with PJ Harvey some day.
I'm getting bored performing the same songs over and over. Songwriting comes and goes.
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 will entertain things that are entertaining and sound interesting and challenge me. But acting just doesn't come second-nature to me.
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 nervous performing because it's such a weird thing to do, standing on stage demanding people's attention.
In my teenage years, there was a lot of angst going on.
I'm pursuing a degree in mental health counseling. It'll be a long journey, and I still want to do music and other creative projects.
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.
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 don't want to bury anything in poetry.
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'm a late bloomer in music.
I wasn't a very good salesman.
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.
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 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.
