Over the course of her 15-year recording career, Sharon Van Etten’s music has been called many things: folk, alt-rock, indie-pop, and even new wave, to name just a few. It’s no wonder she’s sometimes been described by music journalists as “chameleonic.”
“I feel like with every record, I try to do something different and approach it differently, so it's a challenge for me and also, I guess, for my fans,” Van Etten, 44, says. “I don't want to make the same record twice, so I experiment a little bit with how I make the record and how I write the songs. I feel like I have so many influences — new genres and bands and instruments — that it's really hard to focus on one style of music.”
That’s no less the case on Van Etten’s latest album. Released in February, Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory is both the name of the LP and the band that brought it into the world. Her six previous releases were all self-credited solo albums, making this her first proper collaborative effort.
It was while figuring out live arrangements for new songs that Van Etten found herself taking a step toward letting go of the reins.
“We had extra time at the end of the week, and for the first time ever, I said ‘Can we just jam? I'm so tired of hearing myself,’” she recalls. “I was very inspired by this sonic palette that we were creating together, and I wanted to see what would happen without forcing it to be anything. And in this spur of the moment, it only took us an hour or so to write two songs.”
‘Emotional support’
While the album contains elements of past Van Etten efforts, there are also echoes of synth-pop, goth and post-punk in the mix. Her haunting vocals sometimes suggest a more restrained Kate Bush, Patti Smith or Siouxie Sioux.
As for the band name, “attachment theory” is a term psychologists use to describe how a person’s childhood experience can influence relationships throughout their lives.
“I've been studying psychology here and there, taking classes during some free time, and chipping away towards a degree,” Van Etten says of the somewhat tongue-in-cheek name. “I think the more you work with groups of people, the more you can have compassion and understanding, even in the hardest of relationships.
“As bandmates — not just recording together, but also on tour together — we tend to leave our friends and family behind,” she continues. “We become each other's chosen family on the road, and we have these sibling dynamics. It’s a lot to live up to every single day, and we rely on each other for emotional support.”
‘It’s healthy to feel uncomfortable’
A New Jersey native, Van Etten moved across the Hudson River to Brooklyn at a time when late-aughts indie hitmakers like TV on the Radio, Grizzly Bear and Beirut were beginning to draw national attention.
“Williamsburg was just starting to explode, and those were very formative years where I said yes to everything,” she recalls. “I would have a day job, and then I would either go to a show or play a show every single night. Everyone played shows with each other, and there was a lot of experimentation. I loved it for how it kicked me in the ass and helped me be more motivated in ways I wouldn't have if I hadn't moved there.”
Van Etten also spent time in Nashville before returning to her Garden State roots. Prior to her current tour — stopping at Denver’s Ogden Theatre on May 9 — she played a show at the Stone Pony, the legendary venue that was home to seminal New Jersey artists like Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith.
“I knew about Bruce's work, of course, and I got to see him in concert early on,” Van Etten says. “But the first time I got to see Patti Smith wasn't until around 2010. So yeah, I was a late bloomer to really knowing her music and getting to see her live.”
Today, Van Etten is making up for lost time. Weeks before hitting the road with her band, she performed at a Carnegie Hall tribute to Smith. Onstage, she covered the formative punk artist’s 1976 single, “Pissing in a River.” Offstage she was surrounded by the likes of Courtney Barnett, Charlie Sexton and Scarlett Johannson.
She also got to hang out with Angel Olson, her old tour mate on the 2022 Wildhearts Tour along with Julien Baker. Van Etten is currently collaborating with Olson on some new songs she expects will soon see the light of day.
Aside from hobnobbing with legends between musical and educational pursuits, Van Etten has also dipped her toes into the acting world with roles in the Netflix series The OA and the 2019 sci-fi thriller In the Shadow of the Moon.
As for taking on future acting roles, she is still on the fence: “I still don't know if I’m good at it,” she says, “and I'm not sure if I like it."
Whether pushing herself into new mediums or making her artistic process more collaborative, part of what has kept Van Etten in the conversation over the last decade and a half is a willingness to embrace challenges with enthusiasm and see what shakes loose on the other side.
“It's healthy to feel uncomfortable in a creative position,” she says. “I think that can only inform you as a creative being."
ON THE BILL: Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory with Love Spells. 8 p.m. Monday, May 12, Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave. $50