Sharon Van Etten Artistfacts

February 26, 1981
Sharon Van Etten was born in Belleville, New Jersey, to a history teacher mother and a computer scientist father. She grew up as the middle child of five siblings in a music-loving family. "My dad had a crazy record collection," Van Etten recalled to Uncut magazine. "When we'd all go to bed, he'd play records all night and he'd have them in stacks everywhere. But I was super OCD, and he'd come down and I would have alphabetized his whole collection."
As a child, she lived in a Victorian house in Nutley, New Jersey where she first discovered her love for music by playing on an old piano left by previous owners.
Van Etten pursued music studies at Middle Tennessee State University but dropped out after a year. She then worked at a local coffee shop and music venue, the Red Rose, for five years. During this time, she endured an abusive relationship that stifled her creativity. After five years, Van Etten escaped in the middle of the night with whatever she could carry and returned to her parents' home, where she found the support to pursue music again.
A crucial turning point came when she gave her demo to Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio, who encouraged her to pursue her musical aspirations. In 2009, she released her debut album, Because I Was in Love.
After the release of her fourth album, Are We There, Van Etten embarked on a period of self-discovery. She returned to school to study psychology and mental health counseling, wrote her first film score (for Katherine Dieckmann's Strange Weather), launched an acting career (with a role in The OA and an appearance in David Lynch's revived Twin Peaks) and gave birth to her first child.
In 2019, Van Etten moved to Los Angeles with her partner, Zeke Hutchins (formerly her drummer and manager), and their son. This period saw her write "Jupiter 4," her first true love song, dedicated to Hutchins.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Van Etten welcomed a new member to her family: a dog. Reflecting on her childhood, she shared with Bomb magazine, "I was one of five kids, and when we were growing up my parents always said, 'We have too many kids to have any more pets.' So this is my first dog."
Van Etten is a pretty good tap dancer. "I haven't taken classes, but I did theater and stuff, so I can do a Liza Minnelli impression, she told The Guardian. "I don't have tap shoes anymore, but if I'm feeling spicy and I've got shoes that can clickety-clack, I will rip out my time steps. It's not like a whole performance, it is just a little taste. It depends on how spicy I am, but it makes people giggle. I'm not the most graceful person by any means – in tap dancing, there's a fine line between an elephant in a china closet and Fred Astaire."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

ThrillerMichael Jackson

Vincent Price did the spooky narration on "Thriller." He was paid a flat fee of $20,000, turning down a percentage of the royalties that would have paid him far more.

Rock LobsterThe B-52s

Sea creatures mentioned in "Rock Lobster" by The B-52's include a jellyfish, piranha, bikini whale and narwhal.

Thanks to the line "shake it like a Polaroid picture," Outkast's "Hey Ya!" made Polaroid cameras cool again. Many other artists have since mentioned Polaroid in their lyrics, including Eminem, Imagine Dragons, Keith Urban, Gorillaz and Tim McGraw.

DarlinAvril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne's 2011 song "Darlin" was written much earlier; she says it's the second song she ever wrote, composed when she was an unsigned 15-year-old living in Napanee, Ontario. The song reflects those years when she was "trying to figure it all out."

Don't Cry For Me ArgentinaJulie Covington

Featured in the 1978 musical Evita, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" became the biggest selling UK hit by a female vocalist (Julie Covington).

HeroinThe Velvet Underground

When the Velvet Underground song "Heroin" got screechy, Maureen Tucker stopped drumming, figuring it would bust the take, but her bandmates kept going. You can hear it at the 5:20 mark.