Sharon Van Etten

Sharon Van Etten, recognized for her measured yet emotionally charged vocal approach, has cultivated a devoted following through understated yet potent recordings that move between intimate indie folk and brooding synthesizer textures. After issuing several independent releases throughout the 2000s, she aligned with the respected Jagjaguwar roster; nevertheless, it was her 2012 label debut Tramp, steeped in indie folk-rock, that earned her wider attention. She expanded her sonic range on the 2014 album Are We There, a direction that fully blossomed with Remind Me Tomorrow, the 2019 release that connected her with her largest audience to date. After a warmly received 2021 duet alongside Angel Olsen, she resumed solo activity with We've Been Going About This All Wrong, a 2022 album that retained the retro new wave luster of Remind Me Tomorrow while probing raw emotional terrain. She pushed this aesthetic into colder, more detached spaces on 2025's Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory, an LP shaped collaboratively as a quartet.

During childhood in New Jersey she participated actively in choir training, studying clarinet, violin, and piano before taking up guitar. Songwriting began in high school, where she also sang with the Madrigals; she has often cited these choral experiences as essential to her command of notation and harmonic singing. After graduation she relocated to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, enrolling at Middle Tennessee State University to pursue recording studies, though she departed after one year. She stayed in the area for more than four years, employed at Red Rose, a venue that combined a coffee house, record shop, and live music space, yet she refrained from performing despite continued songwriting.

A personal upheaval prompted a short return to New Jersey, where she worked as a sommelier at a wine-focused establishment. Once she settled in Brooklyn, she started performing in intimate venues and issuing her material on hand-painted CD-Rs sold at shows and via her website. At one such performance she passed a copy to Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, whom she had known through his brother in high school; after listening he urged her to commit fully to music.

She kept playing live while also seeking practical knowledge of the industry, securing an internship at Ba Da Bing Records through a college acquaintance and later serving as a full-time publicist there. Amid these responsibilities she persisted in writing, performing, and recording privately. Her first nationally distributed album, the sparsely arranged Because I Was in Love, appeared in 2009 on Language of Stone, a Drag City-affiliated imprint; the record drew near-universal praise and opened doors for supporting slots and initial headline dates beyond the East Coast. The more expansive, band-driven Epic followed in 2010 and attracted further acclaim.

Late in 2010 she signed with Jagjaguwar and began touring as an opener for the National while collaborating in the studio with the band's Aaron Dessner, yielding her third album, Tramp, released in early 2012. To promote it she headlined across the United States and appeared at clubs and festivals in Europe. In 2013 she contributed vocals to the National's Trouble Will Find Me.

Returning to the studio, she co-produced her fourth album with Stewart Lerman; Are We There arrived in May 2014 to widespread critical enthusiasm. The five-track EP I Don't Want to Let You Down followed in 2015. In 2016 she portrayed Rachel in Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij's Netflix series The OA, and the next year she recorded a cover of Skeeter Davis' "The End of the World" for the soundtrack to Amazon's The Man in the High Castle.

She resurfaced in January 2019 with Remind Me Tomorrow, an album that ventured into bold new sonic territory. Several covers emerged in 2020, among them a rendition of Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" cut with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Early in 2021 she marked the tenth anniversary of Epic by issuing Epic Ten, a reissue augmented with interpretations of its seven tracks by Courtney Barnett, Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams, and IDLES. Later that year she released the collaborative single "Like I Used To" with Angel Olsen. "Porta," a song addressing anxiety and disconnection written two years prior, surfaced in 2022, as did "Used to It"; neither track appeared on We've Been Going About This All Wrong, the atmospheric album issued in May 2022 that performed strongly on international charts and reached the Top Ten on multiple U.S. listings.

Her original composition "Quiet Eyes" featured on the 2023 soundtrack for the film Past Lives, while she co-wrote "Close to You" for the first season of Apple TV+'s The Buccaneers that same year alongside Courtney Barnett. In 2024 she appeared on two tracks from Big Swimmer, the debut album by Liverpool duo King Hannah. Although those selections favored warm guitar-based indie palettes, she steered her recent new wave leanings toward chillier, more isolated territory on a project developed with drummer Jorge Balbi, bassist Devra Hoff, and multi-instrumentalist Teeny Lieberson, previously of TEEN. The resulting album, Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory, was released by Jagjaguwar in January 2025.