Sharon Van Etten interview

I got to talk to the rather wonderful Sharon Van Etten about her fantastic new album, Tramp (which is destined for many end of year lists, I'm sure) for Hive Mag. She was very sweet and friendly and we bonded over having the same name (I even thanked her for helping to make the name Sharon cooler "I don't know about that!" she laughed). You can read it on that link or below.

Earning rave reviews when it was released at the beginning of the year, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten’s third album, Tramp, is undoubtedly her best yet. It sees her move from the more solitary feel of her previous two records to a bigger sound with a little help from some of her musician friends, including Aaron Dessner from The National, Beirut’s Zach Condon, Wye Oak’s Jen Wasner, Walkmen’s Matt Barrick and Juliana Barwick.  With her first UK tour about to start next month, we caught up with Van Etten to talk about the new album and more.

It must be thrilling to see the positive reaction your new album, Tramp, has received so far.

It’s kind of crazy. I don’t know. I try not to think about it because it’s a little overwhelming sometimes. People are building upon something that started quite simple and it’s changed just through people wanting to listen to it. 

So the title of the record, Tramp, refers to you being without a home while you were making this album, right?

Yeah, for the last two years I was touring a lot, travelling a lot and you know, the typical artist story, you can’t really afford rent very well if you are travelling so much. And if you want to keep your band and be able to pay them something then it wasn’t worth having a place to rent if I’m only home one week every two weeks. So I went to stay with friends and family and as I felt myself wearing out my welcome I would sub-let a place as a last resort.  I was travelling around a lot.

Did that affect your state of mind, not having a home base?

Oh yeah, I was totally manic. I mean, it was great because I have really amazing friends and they took very good care of me and things like that but it’s harder to write, it’s harder if you feel like you’re always putting people out, it makes you more sensitive. You don’t really hang out at the home; you want to stay out of their way.  With my writing it was very stop and go. It makes it more of a struggle for sure but I had a lot of material and it was just figuring out how to do it. That was the best thing working with Aaron (Dessner) because it helped really be one of my home bases.  So most of the time when I was in New York that time was spent in the studio with him. That was the most steady part of my travels.

How did you end up working with The National’s Aaron Dessner in his studio?

It was just a random series of events. On one level, years and years ago, his sister Jessica was working at a venue and had helped set up a show for me.  It was called Sycamore and it’s in Brooklyn: really, really cool venue. But I didn’t really know her family very well and I had never met Aaron before. I met her in that way and in a roundabout way she turned Aaron on to my music unbeknownst to me. Another thing was that I toured a lot with Megafaun and Megafaun and Bon Iver were in a band together back in the day before they both started their own projects and they turned Justin (Vernon of Bon Iver) on to my music. So fast forward to about two years ago and at a music festival in Cincinnati called Music Now, Aaron and Justin covered my song Love More. I was on tour with Megafaun and they woke me up to show me a video on YouTube of them covering my song and it was about a month before I was about to go in to the studio.  My friends reached out to them to see if they wanted to be involved if they were around but they were all working on their records that are currently out.  But we all kept in touch and when I returned to New York Aaron and I hung out a few times and he said any time you want to spend time working on those songs I have a studio in my back garden and he would help me flesh them out if I wanted to.  So every time I would come back to New York we would talk and I would show him songs that I had been working on. And then one day he just started laughing because the songs I had sent him had accumulated to around 20 songs.  He said you have to just demo these for the new record. That’s how it started.

There are some pretty cool guests on this album, how did that come about?

It was just another one of those things. I brought the songs into the studio and they were really skeletons. Most of the songs were written but just guitar and vocals. There was a lot of recording the bare minimum and then talking about what the possibilities were.  Most of the parts at first were just the two of us to see where we could take the songs before anyone else came in: we really wanted to do a lot of the work.  But then when we started talking about the people that we wanted to play on our record it was basically a culmination of my friends and his friends and we are lucky that we have very, very talented, beautiful friends. One unfortunate thing of being friends with musicians that tour all the time is that you don’t get to see them very much so things like recording is fun because we had such an unlimited time period to work on the record. I think we were in the studio for a little over a year.  It was easier to plan things with friends who tour a lot.

You’ve talked about John Cale being a big influence on this album…

I’ve been really obsessed with him for the past two years.  I don’t think I really sound like him or write like him but I really respect him. I think that every record that he writes is different. He’s not afraid to sing about love but he still has this punk rock ethic.  He always takes chances. I was listening to him a lot and I’m sure it affected me but I won’t ever claim to sound like him.  The album Fear is the big one and one of the reasons I did the artwork the way I did was in homage to that record.

Each album has a fuller sound that the one before and there are a couple of full out rock songs on Tramp. Do you think there is a rocker inside you trying to get out?

[Laughs] I do and I’ve been trying to unleash it a little more. When nobody is around, I love rocking out, I love getting loud, you know. But if you’re listening to me and where I was emotionally on my first record, to hear me rock now it sounds schizophrenic, a split personality.  But there’s a little kid inside of me who likes to dress up and be totally loud. It was definitely something I wasn’t comfortable doing for a while but now I am learning how to get comfortable writing with the band, playing it with the band and playing it on the electric guitar.

Do you think you’ll ever return to the minimalist style of your first album, Because I Was In Love?

Right now I really like playing with a band just because this is how these songs are meant to be heard. But I write for myself most of the time so I could take it in any direction that I want to before I go into the studio and start tracking. I could see myself going solo or going back to that, but I’m definitely happy not to [laughs]. I really love my band and I’m really comfortable with them and we’re really on a roll right now.

You sound like you are in a more positive place in your life right now. Do you think because of it your next record might sound different? Your songs are so beautifully sad but do you think you might start writing happier songs?

My mom asks me the same thing! [Laughs] There are so many factors. I’m a lot more settled in my life;  I’m a lot more confident in my album;  I’m a lot more secure in what I’m doing musically. I have really amazing people around me who have been supportive and encouraging. So yeah, that makes me feel a lot more positive about things when things are going well. And yeah, I am writing more love songs in a more positive way and yeah, there’s going to be happier songs [laughs].

I’ve heard that you were very shy to start with, has performing become easier for you?

Definitely travelling and playing a lot and also just having a band helps you feel a little bit less self-conscious. I’ve definitely lost a lot of the freaking-out kind of nervous. I’m always going to get nervous before I play though; I don’t think I’ll ever not.  But I think that’s good. You know, it’s a weird thing to do. When I first started it was really hard for me to look up, I’d close my eyes a lot and look down. And also when you’re playing solo and you’re playing in bars it’s so hard to get people’s attention.  So it’s a lot more nerve-racking. It is helpful to have audiences now who want to listen to me but I’m still figuring out what that means.

Are you looking forward to the upcoming shows in the UK?

Yes!  I haven’t done a UK tour before. Well, I supported the Great Lake Swimmers about five years ago but we didn’t tour the UK as much.  So this will be my first headlining tour. It will be fun.

You’re starting off at the Scala in London, that’s a fantastic venue…

Cool, that’s good [laughs]. I’ve heard really, really great things about it. It’s always nerve-racking to play London because that’s like the big one. The pressure is on! But I’m looking forward to it.