Sharon Van Etten on adding the band name to the marquee
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That sense of communal togetherness was key to 'Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory,' a seventh album and a debut all at the same time. The band (which plays
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'I think the most surprising thing to me was that it was really natural,' Van Etten says. 'On my previous records, I've written by myself. I've built it up by myself. There was nobody telling me when I had to finish writing songs, because I would have a collection of songs.
At band camp, however, Van Etten was less precious about having to know what she wanted before the band entered the equation. With the musicians using their chosen instruments to explore rather than fill in an existing framework, they came up with chord progressions that the singer would find melodies for and develop. 'There were moments where I helped define what was happening next, but they were naturally playing things that I was very inspired by,' says Van Etten. 'It felt very intuitive.'
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Intuitive though it may have been, the new songs mark a substantial break from Van Etten's previous work. If the sharp and propulsive 'Mistakes' felt like an oasis of danceability on the otherwise expansive and atmospheric 'We've Been Going About This All Wrong,' then 'Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory' is all oasis, sort of. Krautrock and post-punk influences abound, from Neu! and Can to the Cure and Joy Division, and Van Etten likens 'Live Forever' to
Even nominally familiar ground comes with new elements. 'Fading Beauty' has some of the same slow momentum and spacious build as Van Etten's earlier work, but it's filled with textures that are new to her, and 'Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)' finds her using her voice in ways that she hasn't tried before. She credits the spontaneity of the band process for the latter.
'It was more rhythmic [ideas] that I was trying to mess around with, and they had this kind of proggy jam happening,' Van Etten says. 'I was just trying to play around with patterns and syncopations, and I felt like it was getting repetitive for me, melodically, so I was like,
Where can I go from here, where it kind of sounds like a different instrument?
And that's when I go high. And I think also I don't normally do a lot of talking-style singing, so I was just trying to experiment with that. Again, not knowing it was for anything.
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'When you have that freedom, or that sense [that] it's not being recorded for a record and no one has to hear this beyond this circle of trust here, I think you just throw as much paint as you can. I didn't know what would stick.'
Perhaps it's that level of trust that leads Van Etten to refer to the Attachment Theory not just in terms of camp but in terms of family, referencing their 'sibling dynamics' and seeing each other as a traveling support system. But if that's not enough, there's plenty to be found on the road regardless.
'You'll probably see my sister at the [Roadrunner] show. If I'm [on the] East Coast, some Van Etten will be there. I think my dad's bringing, like, ten people to Philly,' says the New Jersey native with a chuckle. 'So I'm always prepared to have a relative at a show. And I feel so fortunate to have such a supportive family, even when it gets hard to see them all.
'I did have a cousin at a Bowery Ballroom show [in New York] get a little drunk and yell 'You [expletive] slut!' at the front row, and I had to explain to everyone around her that it was my cousin just messing with me. But it was very funny, and she hasn't lived that down yet, my cousin Jackie.'
SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY
At Roadrunner on Thursday, May 1. 8 p.m.
Marc Hirsh can be reached at officialmarc@gmail.com or on Bluesky @spacecitymarc.bsky.social
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