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NZ Herald
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Sharon Van Etten On Being In A Band, Motherhood & Therapy – ‘I Didn't Know I Had PTSD'
Ahead of her band's tour of New Zealand in November, Sharon Van Etten talks to Varsha Anjali from her garage home studio in Los Angeles. 'I know how hard it is to just feel like a hired gun,' says US musician Sharon van Etten. She's talking to Viva via Zoom from her garage home studio in Los Angeles, ahead of her November New Zealand tour. She's surrounded by some of her favourite instruments and inspirations as she talks – her synthesisers, like the Jupiter 4 and Korg Delta; pictures of Billie Holiday drinking whiskey, her friend screaming out of a car, an original of the Are We There album cover Van Etten took herself, a cheeky-faced Muhammad Ali, Agnes Varda, Frida Kahlo and a mood board. Having released six studio albums as a successful solo artist, Van Etten's lyricised, open-chested honesty has touched millions, including John Campbell (whom Van Etten says she is 'tied to forever 'cause I feel like he understands me'). So it was a surprise when, in February, she decided to become one of a quartet, releasing her seventh studio album with the musicians who had previously served as her backing band. Referencing the psychological concept as well as the closeness of the group, the new album and the band are both called Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory. 'We had all gotten so close as friends just as much as collaborators,' Van Etten says. She and keyboardist Teeny Lieberson, drummer Jorge Balbi and bassist Devra Hoff had holed up in a detached studio of a rented house for what Van Etten calls 'a literal band camp' in 2022. Gathering together for the first time since the world locked down due to Covid, they ate, they swapped life updates, they rehearsed Van Etten's sixth album, We've Been Going About This All Wrong., which was produced in her home studio. And it was then that she knew she wanted to commit further. 'I wanted to show them ... after going through something like Covid and recording a record from afar on the previous record, that I wanted to invest in them.' As soon as Van Etten got a break, she booked the same place and the band jammed again. They wrote 14 songs in a week. While Van Etten admits the move to become a band was nerve-racking at first, it was also easy for her. 'It was pretty effortless once I let go,' says the 44-year-old, adding that she believes their live shows are 'better than ever' because everyone is much more invested. This relational confidence is reflected in the record's soundscape and the spaces it dares to explore. The emotions are in battle. But there's plenty of light in its bones. Van Etten's transcendental chords and Lieberson's witchy synths form a powerful reckoning in Live Forever. The album's magnetic opener, inspired by a conversation she had with a friend about an article on an age-reversing science experiment, expresses a sense of 'spiralling', Van Etten says. Trouble has a nostalgic feel that tastes deliciously of The Smiths, Cowboy Junkies and Siouxsie And The Banshees. Jorge Balbi's drums pound deeply over and over in I Want You Here, with Devra Hoff's delicate bass leaning to a kind of ethereal slowcore that's both dreamy and heartbreaking. New Zealand audiences will experience these songs performed live when the band tours Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland in November. Although she's been here three times before, Van Etten says she would like to stay longer on this visit. 'I'm trying to figure out a way to ... have my family meet me out there and maybe just spend a little bit of a holiday there. But we just have to check our school calendar 'cause my kid is now in real school, so it's harder to schedule around it.' On previous visits, she recalls visiting Karekare on Auckland's west coast on a stormy, foggy day. 'I still have a video of us walking on the beach and hardly being able to even get a video because it was so windy, but it was really beautiful, like very dramatic.' Like many parents, Van Etten is concerned about the state of the world and its impact on her only child, an 8-year-old son whose real name she has never publicly revealed. The intense melodies of the song Southern Living on the new album echo this, if not scream it. ' My hands are shaking as a mother / Trying to raise her son righ t' sings Van Etten, one note after another, like the ringing of a bell to warn of danger. 'There's a lot of frustration and anger [on the album], but there's also a lot of hope,' says Van Etten. 'We're creating these safe spaces for people to feel all these feelings about how frustrating the world is right now, but we're also creating a safe space to have a community.' She shares her son with former manager and now-husband Zeke Hutchins. The couple don't let their child own a device, but sometimes he is allowed to watch PG-13 films, as his parents would rather be present and discuss it, 'than going down a YouTube or a TikTok rabbit hole of just short form', she explains. Her son isn't separated from her music duties – he comes along for the ride. He's even credited on the song Idiot Box for the additional drums under his chosen pseudonym 'Croissant Man'. Before she had Croissant Man, Van Etten was worried motherhood 'wouldn't click' for her. Those fears melted quickly. 'I felt like I had an understanding as soon as he was born, how connected we were in this other way,' she says. She says she realised: 'My only job is to allow him to be', then quickly confesses she has 'no idea' how many parents feel even when things are going right. Beyond her creative pursuits, Van Etten is gnawing at her psychology degree after a two-year hiatus. She says she is two general classes away from potentially pursuing a master's degree, and while she's still educating herself on therapy styles, she knows she wants to work with college-age students. 'I feel like at that age, 18 to 21, it was a very formative time for me and a period that I probably was the most lost ... I hadn't known I could speak to somebody.' Van Etten was in her early 20s when she saw a therapist for the first time. She had just moved back home with her parents for a year before heading to New York. She says the therapist was able to put a name to things she was going through. 'I didn't know I had PTSD from prior events that happened, and she was able to help me manage my anxiety without needing medication,' says Van Etten, who has previously spoken about being in an abusive relationship with a musician when she left home at 17. Not only did this therapy have a significant impact on her day-to-day life, but it also cemented her interest in the field. 'There were certain exercises that she taught me that helped me learn how to be able to walk in a room.' It wasn't until later, when she was already pursuing music and meeting fans, that Van Etten thought she wanted to take it further. With so many fans connecting to her cathartic artistry, they sometimes share their own vulnerable experiences with her. It's common when this happens that people get triggered with their own traumas – 'Trauma can trigger trauma,' she told Viva in 2022. Has it become easier to manage those boundaries? 'I'm very careful,' she says. 'I wondered if there's actually a class on boundaries because I just think there's so much grey area, especially with how people can reach out and communicate now in different forms'. The goal in the end is simple: 'I want to learn how to understand what [the problem] is, and I also want to learn how I can utilise my skillset to help people.' From new music and being a mum of a young child to studying at university, Van Etten has a lot going on. But she has a firm grip on her peace. 'Family life is pretty grounding,' she says. 'Another extension of my family is my band ... we just go to the beach, go to the park, go skating and try to have a regular routine with exercising and eating as healthy as I can ... I think those things like normalcy and connection keep me grounded.' Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory are on tour in New Zealand this November. Wellington – The Opera House, November 25 Christchurch – Isaac Theatre Royal, November 27 Auckland – The Others Way festival, November 29 More on music From red carpets to intimate profiles. The Coolest Red Carpet Looks From The Taite Music Prize 2025. Attendees and award-winners at the Taite Music Prize 2025 dressed to showcase their values and vibrancy on the carpet. Aotearoa Music Awards 2025: On The Red Carpet Stars Shone A Spotlight On New Zealand Fashion. Local artists showcased their love and appreciation for fashion at the 60th celebration of the Aotearoa Music Awards at Auckland's Viaduct Events Centre. What Do New Zealand Musicians Wear To Feel Their Best On Stage? From secure, sturdy footwear to breathable mesh tops and tailored suits, three music acts from Aotearoa explain to Madeleine Crutchley the function of their fashion. NZ Musician Reb Fountain On Touring, Politics, Privilege & Responsibility. Setting out to tour her sixth album, How Love Bends, Reb Fountain tells Tyson Beckett about the freedom, and weight, that comes with being an artist in and of the moment. Teeks On His New Music & Unpacking Toxic Masculinity. 'Being in touch with your emotions is not considered a masculine thing but because I was in the process of making this album I was like, 'Nah man, fuck that.''
Hamilton Spectator
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
For Sharon Van Etten, making her latest album was both spiritual and psychological
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As she was putting together her seventh and most recent record, Sharon Van Etten came up with a tongue-in-cheek idea for its title. 'Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory,' she wanted to call it — a reference to both her interest in psychology and a play on the familial dynamics that often exist within a band. Although most of Van Etten's bandmates have been with her for several years, this was her first time writing songs with them, so playing with that relationship felt apt. But when the indie musician approached her collaborators with the idea for the title and band name, there was one stipulation: 'They said, 'I don't mind you calling it 'The Attachment Theory,' as long as we don't have to talk about our attachment styles,'' Van Etten laughed. As they gear up for a fall tour, announced Monday, Van Etten spoke with The Associated Press about her stream-of-consciousness style of writing and how being a mom has made her more cognizant of how much time she spends on her phone. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: What prompted the change in how this record was made? VAN ETTEN: Writing as a band was a complete accident. We were rehearsing in 2022 for the 'We've Been Going About This All Wrong' tour and figuring out how to take this album, which we recorded piecemeal during the pandemic because we couldn't all be in the same room together. I thought the best way to reconnect after recording the album from afar was to rent a house and a studio in the desert and have it be more like a literal band camp, instead of doing one of those sterile rehearsal environments, just to have a way for us to reconnect as people as well as musicians. As we got to the end of the week, we realized we had gone through the whole set that we were planning for that tour, and I asked the band if they would want to jam. I was so tired of hearing myself. I was very inspired by the sonic palette that we had created together, and I wanted to see what would happen. And in an hour or two, we wrote two songs without really trying. And we laughed it off, we packed our bags and we left the next day. But my engineer recorded those jam sessions, and I remember playing them for my partner at home, saying, 'I think creatively this is the next thing I want to do.' And so, after we did that first tour for the previous record, I booked a writing session right away and we returned to that same studio and worked for a week with the intention of writing. And it was a very prolific week. AP: Did you have the lyrics written beforehand? VAN ETTEN: All of the writing in the desert was from the ground up. I didn't have anything going into it, which I've never done before either. My process from being solo is something that I brought into the session with the band, where I find the melodies first and I sing stream of consciousness. AP: Singing stream of consciousness sounds very spiritual, almost like speaking in tongues. VAN ETTEN: It very much is. There's something about it that, if I'm going through something emotionally that I don't have the words to express yet and I can sit at an instrument and just sing, I get something out of me and release something in a way that I still don't really know how to describe to people. Even if it's something I end up writing about later, it's more of like, I get the emotion out, but then I turn the song into something else that hopefully is more healing than the moment that I'm trying to get over. AP: How did you come up with the album name? VAN ETTEN: The name The Attachment Theory at first was a bit tongue-in-cheek because I am interested in psychology and I am from a big family. I think being in a family and being in a band are very similar because you become a family, you become each other's chosen family, and you go through a lot together. So from rehearsing to touring to making a record together, you create these dynamics with each other, and you also become each other's support systems. And I know attachment theory is mostly about your connection with your parents but it's also a little bit about how you connect as a unit. AP: I'm sure your attachment styles came up in the desert. VAN ETTEN: Yes, and they will remain unnamed. AP: I love your song, 'Idiot Box.' I wondered, as an artist, how you think about our addiction to entertainment. VAN ETTEN: Oh my gosh, well that's a can of worms right there. I mean, we're all addicted to our phones. We all have screens. I'm also a mom, and I tell my kid not to do the things that I do. And I think now more than ever, I have to be way more mindful about when I choose to interact. But I don't really have an answer. It's more of an acknowledgment that we need to check in with each other when we feel like we're getting lost in that scrolling zone and I just feel like it's a constant battle.
San Francisco Chronicle
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
For Sharon Van Etten, making her latest album was both spiritual and psychological
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As she was putting together her seventh and most recent record, Sharon Van Etten came up with a tongue-in-cheek idea for its title. 'Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory,' she wanted to call it — a reference to both her interest in psychology and a play on the familial dynamics that often exist within a band. Although most of Van Etten's bandmates have been with her for several years, this was her first time writing songs with them, so playing with that relationship felt apt. But when the indie musician approached her collaborators with the idea for the title and band name, there was one stipulation: 'They said, 'I don't mind you calling it 'The Attachment Theory,' as long as we don't have to talk about our attachment styles,'' Van Etten laughed. As they gear up for a fall tour, announced Monday, Van Etten spoke with The Associated Press about her stream-of-consciousness style of writing and how being a mom has made her more cognizant of how much time she spends on her phone. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: What prompted the change in how this record was made? VAN ETTEN: Writing as a band was a complete accident. We were rehearsing in 2022 for the 'We've Been Going About This All Wrong' tour and figuring out how to take this album, which we recorded piecemeal during the pandemic because we couldn't all be in the same room together. I thought the best way to reconnect after recording the album from afar was to rent a house and a studio in the desert and have it be more like a literal band camp, instead of doing one of those sterile rehearsal environments, just to have a way for us to reconnect as people as well as musicians. As we got to the end of the week, we realized we had gone through the whole set that we were planning for that tour, and I asked the band if they would want to jam. I was so tired of hearing myself. I was very inspired by the sonic palette that we had created together, and I wanted to see what would happen. And in an hour or two, we wrote two songs without really trying. And we laughed it off, we packed our bags and we left the next day. But my engineer recorded those jam sessions, and I remember playing them for my partner at home, saying, 'I think creatively this is the next thing I want to do.' And so, after we did that first tour for the previous record, I booked a writing session right away and we returned to that same studio and worked for a week with the intention of writing. And it was a very prolific week. VAN ETTEN: All of the writing in the desert was from the ground up. I didn't have anything going into it, which I've never done before either. My process from being solo is something that I brought into the session with the band, where I find the melodies first and I sing stream of consciousness. AP: Singing stream of consciousness sounds very spiritual, almost like speaking in tongues. VAN ETTEN: It very much is. There's something about it that, if I'm going through something emotionally that I don't have the words to express yet and I can sit at an instrument and just sing, I get something out of me and release something in a way that I still don't really know how to describe to people. Even if it's something I end up writing about later, it's more of like, I get the emotion out, but then I turn the song into something else that hopefully is more healing than the moment that I'm trying to get over. AP: How did you come up with the album name? VAN ETTEN: The name The Attachment Theory at first was a bit tongue-in-cheek because I am interested in psychology and I am from a big family. I think being in a family and being in a band are very similar because you become a family, you become each other's chosen family, and you go through a lot together. So from rehearsing to touring to making a record together, you create these dynamics with each other, and you also become each other's support systems. And I know attachment theory is mostly about your connection with your parents but it's also a little bit about how you connect as a unit. AP: I'm sure your attachment styles came up in the desert. VAN ETTEN: Yes, and they will remain unnamed. AP: I love your song, 'Idiot Box.' I wondered, as an artist, how you think about our addiction to entertainment. VAN ETTEN: Oh my gosh, well that's a can of worms right there. I mean, we're all addicted to our phones. We all have screens. I'm also a mom, and I tell my kid not to do the things that I do. And I think now more than ever, I have to be way more mindful about when I choose to interact. But I don't really have an answer. It's more of an acknowledgment that we need to check in with each other when we feel like we're getting lost in that scrolling zone and I just feel like it's a constant battle.
Winnipeg Free Press
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
For Sharon Van Etten, making her latest album was both spiritual and psychological
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As she was putting together her seventh and most recent record, Sharon Van Etten came up with a tongue-in-cheek idea for its title. 'Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory,' she wanted to call it — a reference to both her interest in psychology and a play on the familial dynamics that often exist within a band. Although most of Van Etten's bandmates have been with her for several years, this was her first time writing songs with them, so playing with that relationship felt apt. But when the indie musician approached her collaborators with the idea for the title and band name, there was one stipulation: 'They said, 'I don't mind you calling it 'The Attachment Theory,' as long as we don't have to talk about our attachment styles,'' Van Etten laughed. As they gear up for a fall tour, announced Monday, Van Etten spoke with The Associated Press about her stream-of-consciousness style of writing and how being a mom has made her more cognizant of how much time she spends on her phone. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: What prompted the change in how this record was made? VAN ETTEN: Writing as a band was a complete accident. We were rehearsing in 2022 for the 'We've Been Going About This All Wrong' tour and figuring out how to take this album, which we recorded piecemeal during the pandemic because we couldn't all be in the same room together. I thought the best way to reconnect after recording the album from afar was to rent a house and a studio in the desert and have it be more like a literal band camp, instead of doing one of those sterile rehearsal environments, just to have a way for us to reconnect as people as well as musicians. As we got to the end of the week, we realized we had gone through the whole set that we were planning for that tour, and I asked the band if they would want to jam. I was so tired of hearing myself. I was very inspired by the sonic palette that we had created together, and I wanted to see what would happen. And in an hour or two, we wrote two songs without really trying. And we laughed it off, we packed our bags and we left the next day. But my engineer recorded those jam sessions, and I remember playing them for my partner at home, saying, 'I think creatively this is the next thing I want to do.' And so, after we did that first tour for the previous record, I booked a writing session right away and we returned to that same studio and worked for a week with the intention of writing. And it was a very prolific week. AP: Did you have the lyrics written beforehand? VAN ETTEN: All of the writing in the desert was from the ground up. I didn't have anything going into it, which I've never done before either. My process from being solo is something that I brought into the session with the band, where I find the melodies first and I sing stream of consciousness. AP: Singing stream of consciousness sounds very spiritual, almost like speaking in tongues. VAN ETTEN: It very much is. There's something about it that, if I'm going through something emotionally that I don't have the words to express yet and I can sit at an instrument and just sing, I get something out of me and release something in a way that I still don't really know how to describe to people. Even if it's something I end up writing about later, it's more of like, I get the emotion out, but then I turn the song into something else that hopefully is more healing than the moment that I'm trying to get over. AP: How did you come up with the album name? VAN ETTEN: The name The Attachment Theory at first was a bit tongue-in-cheek because I am interested in psychology and I am from a big family. I think being in a family and being in a band are very similar because you become a family, you become each other's chosen family, and you go through a lot together. So from rehearsing to touring to making a record together, you create these dynamics with each other, and you also become each other's support systems. And I know attachment theory is mostly about your connection with your parents but it's also a little bit about how you connect as a unit. AP: I'm sure your attachment styles came up in the desert. VAN ETTEN: Yes, and they will remain unnamed. AP: I love your song, 'Idiot Box.' I wondered, as an artist, how you think about our addiction to entertainment. VAN ETTEN: Oh my gosh, well that's a can of worms right there. I mean, we're all addicted to our phones. We all have screens. I'm also a mom, and I tell my kid not to do the things that I do. And I think now more than ever, I have to be way more mindful about when I choose to interact. But I don't really have an answer. It's more of an acknowledgment that we need to check in with each other when we feel like we're getting lost in that scrolling zone and I just feel like it's a constant battle.
Boston Globe
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Sharon Van Etten on adding the band name to the marquee
It wasn't just about reconnection after an extended period of uncertain isolation, either. The singer viewed that degree of closeness and engagement with the process as a way of offering her musicians ownership over the material: 'As a band, they give up so much to leave their friends and family behind to support your ideas. This is another extension of me wanting to write songs from the ground up and share in that creative process and show the love and hopefully help everybody feel that much more invested and cared for and looked after.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 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 Advertisement '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.' Advertisement 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. Advertisement '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@ or on Bluesky @ Advertisement
