{"id":722,"date":"2025-02-06T13:29:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T14:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/?p=722"},"modified":"2025-02-26T18:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T18:35:15","slug":"sharon-van-etten-the-attachment-theory-embrace-a-dark-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/06\/sharon-van-etten-the-attachment-theory-embrace-a-dark-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharon Van Etten &amp; The Attachment Theory Embrace a Dark World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/assets.rebelmouse.io\/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy81NjIxOTU2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc4MTg5NzgzOX0.lwN9xdeqPOztW5QrY-02f5P_2GejuECIw_EUDicSOxQ\/img.jpg?width=2000&amp;height=2963&amp;coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After a rather quiet album cycle, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sharonvanhalen\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Sharon Van Etten<\/u><\/a> united her band at a rented space in the Joshua Tree-adjacent Yucca Valley to rehearse for her <em><em>We\u2019ve Been Going About This All Wrong <\/em><\/em>tour. Van Etten wrote the 2022 album in pandemic-induced isolation, and as the group finally gathered to breathe life into it, a new project \u2014 perhaps an unconscious reaction to the constraints of working apart \u2014 was born under a fitting moniker: Sharon Van Etten &amp; The Attachment Theory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a real loner creatively,&#8221; Van Etten tells <em><\/em><em>PAPER.<\/em> &#8220;I tend to write by myself and build upon my demos by myself. Sometimes I\u2019ll share them if I need the bass line to be improved or if it\u2019s only my shitty drum-playing \u2014 Like, <em>can I get a real drummer in there and flesh it out<\/em>? But it\u2019s always after the fact. And I tend to dictate what I want and tell people what to do,\u201d she adds, noting her self-titled record. \u201cSo, this process has been very different in that I really wanted my bandmates to start the songs from the ground up with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Van Etten and bandmates Jorge Balbi, Devra Hoff and Teeny Lieberson, \u201cfrom the ground up\u201d entails something broodier and grander than her previous works. The songs on <em><em>Sharon Van Etten &amp; The Attachment Theory <\/em><\/em>are composed of mesmeric synths and chilling refrains \u2014 and while they deviate from Van Etten\u2019s singer-songwriter preoccupations, their scopes are just as sharp and observational. They&#8217;re also darker, as exemplified in the video of the album single \u201cAfterlife,\u201d where we find Van Etten essentially embracing the role of banshee, giving us her best Siouxsie to introduce us to this new vision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Below, <em><em>PAPER <\/em><\/em>sits down with Van Etten to discuss the new record, mortality and how movies have influenced her artistry.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"b569b52dd623150454a01d25877ca314\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%\"><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sharon Van Etten &amp; The Attachment Theory - Afterlife (Official Video)\" width=\"920\" height=\"518\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zc-R0bSt5FA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve mentioned the impetus of this project, this next chapter, was just \u201cjamming out.\u201d Can you expand on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We were getting ready to tour the last record <em>We\u2019ve Been Going at this All Wrong<\/em>, and we hadn\u2019t all been in the room together. We weren\u2019t even in the same room together as a whole band when we made the record very piecemeal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>COVID?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah. It\u2019s funny. I hesitate to say \u201cCOVID\u201d because I\u2019m sure everyone is tired of it. But I made it during COVID. I leaned into it because I wanted to go there. I\u2019m not going to pretend everything\u2019s roses. That\u2019s how I work. So, we didn\u2019t all get to be in a room to perform together. And so, I thought it would be really important, before we go on tour together as a family unit, to reconnect and find the space. It was more of a band camp. Like a literal band camp where in the morning we would wake up and have breakfast and coffee and chitchat, and then we\u2019d work until lunch and then we\u2019d work until dinner and make dinner together and then we would watch <em><em>Yellowjackets<\/em><\/em> every night.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wow.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was amazing. I want to do it again. I feel like it should just be a retreat for artists to go and connect and not have to have it be something. I feel like we found each other sonically in that environment. We made it to the last day of rehearsals and we went through all of the material and we had an hour or two left or something. And that was when I was just getting so tired of hearing myself that I asked if we could take a break and when we came back if we could just jam.<\/p>\n<p>I always laugh at that word because it has all these negative connotations, but in that moment there\u2019s no better word. I didn&#8217;t want it to be anything that exists. I was just really inspired by the song palette we were working with and I wanted to see what happened. We ended up writing two songs, which were \u201cSouthern Life\u201d and \u201cI Can\u2019t Imagine.\u201d We loaded out the next day. I got mixes from my engineer, Dan Knowles, who was doing the front of house for us. And I just had a little spark. And I listened to it many times after our rehearsals, and I knew that would be the next thing. Because I was able to let go. I was more immersed. I just had a microphone and they all played while I sang. It was very liberating, and I felt like that was the next step creatively for me, to try something new in that way<\/p>\n<p><strong>Have you ever gone into something unplanned? Or have you always been more structured?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I write, I write. I write. I write. I have a collection of songs and when I get to a certain point, a certain number of songs, and when I have to start thinking about a record, I think about the folders that keep piling up. Then I try to make sense of what I have and build upon that. I try to find the thread. I\u2019m a real loner creatively. I tend to write by myself and build upon my demos by myself. Sometimes I\u2019ll share them if I need the bass line to be improved. Or if it\u2019s only my shitty drum-playing. Like, <em>can I get a real drummer in there and flesh it out<\/em>? But it\u2019s always after the fact. And I tend to dictate what I want and tell people what to do. So, this process has been very different in that I really wanted my bandmates to start the songs from the ground up with me. But it\u2019s scary. I think we\u2019re all a bit vulnerable and learning this process together. Quite honestly, the band was more experienced than me doing it because they\u2019ve played with other people and they have way more band collaborations than I have in the past.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><img alt=\"\" class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"b8dbe7b124ba85b0c4648f22901184ca\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" id=\"e69cd\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img-149.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>And where did \u201cAttachment Theory\u201d come along?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s funny because not all band members were on board with that name, but I think the agreement was we weren\u2019t going to talk about our attachment styles. That was the name I had been kicking around for a while. We had a long list of other names that maybe I\u2019ll one day release as a joke, but I feel like when you\u2019re in a band you\u2019re showing people that this is your chosen family. You have your blood family, but what it takes to really be in a band and tour and create \u2026 these are your siblings. And you create this dynamic together. And it\u2019s not always perfect. You\u2019re still learning how to communicate and find each other\u2019s languages. But at the end of the day, I know that my chosen family, all they want to do is support me. And I want them to know that I support them. So even though it was a tongue-in-cheek name, I also wanted to convey that we are family. But we also come from very different backgrounds. Regionally, genre-wise, experience, age. Our ages range from 30s to our 50s. I just feel like it\u2019s a pretty incredible thing to come from all these different places and to be together in one room to make something like this. <\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><strong>Given that this came out of a rehearsal process, would you say this was birthed out of the last record? Or that they\u2019re in conversation in some way?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In defining the sonic palette from the last record live &#8230; because Teeny wasn\u2019t on that record, but she came on to tour it. So, I think it was the addition of her energy while figuring out the palette. It\u2019s a continuation of the narrative, but more the sonic narrative. For me, I feel like I was more inspired by all the sounds we\u2019d been getting. Like, <em>how do we make it gnarlier. I want to go darker. Can I go darker? Is that okay?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>I especially felt that in the opening song, \u201cLive Forever.\u201d The refrain, \u201cWho wants to live forever?\u201d: I was curious about that and why you decided to open with it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That song, remarkably, was one that we wrote from start to finish in one sitting. It was birthed after a conversation with my bandmate, Deva. She and I were talking about this article that I read about an experiment on mice. An anti-aging technology thing. Where they could inject something into the mice that regenerates the cells that make you age. It\u2019s funny because this was before <em><em>The Substance<\/em><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you know about that billionaire guy who injects himself with all sorts of things not to age?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s the dad? He makes all of his family do it too? It\u2019s all science-based \u2014 this is the time of day you need this and that, right? I think we\u2019re talking about the same person. He\u2019s very much this is the cardio you need.<\/p>\n<p><strong>He looks like a vampire.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think he eats food. So, the joke was, if you could live, forever would you? And there was this specific article that said that after 50 you could take it and it could reverse the aging process, but if you take it before then it has the opposite effect. I was thinking about the movie <em>Death Becomes Her<\/em>. Anyway, we just had this conversation, would you wanna live forever? And there\u2019s this part of me that\u2019s like I would want to see my son grow up, but I don\u2019t know if I want to see what happens to the world. How do you draw the line? I feel like I would just wanna die.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><img alt=\"\" class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"c47feb5676a6afcdd9da4057e8a4a642\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" id=\"bda62\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img-150.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Yeah, life stops getting fun.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah. But who knows what you\u2019re capable of. What is this fascination with avoiding death? We can\u2019t maintain the planet already. And you want more people to stick around? I don\u2019t understand. Anyway, we had a walk and talk about this article that I read and we walked right into the studio, and I think Teen or Charley, or another bandmate \u2014 Charley [Damski] was with us for the writing process, for half of it, and he got asked to go on a Lana Del Rey and he never came back. Fair enough. But he had started the pulsating base you hear at the top. Teeny came in with this incredible arpeggiation on her Matriarch, I think it was. And all of a sudden, I heard a melody within that. And the words just came out of my mouth \u2014 &#8220;Who wants to live forever?&#8221; It was just fresh in my mind. And it all came together after that. It was one of those miracle things that unfolded. We probably wrote it within the hour.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span><\/span>In the record, there\u2019s an existential and maybe more abstract quality to a lot of the songs. It didn\u2019t feel like there were traditional narratives. Is that part of the style of how you guys made things as a group? More stream of consciousness and less structured?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I feel like a lot of the songs are centered around what we were talking about. So that\u2019s still based on my life. But my insular writing process from past records is all about what I\u2019m going through. And I try to edit it in a way, from my initial process, to how can I make this general enough for people to relate to it in their own way. But now I feel, collectively, we\u2019re all feeling this sense of mortality in a very real way. And between us having aging parents and being a parent and just looking around the world \u2026 everything feels darker. And I feel like, over the last few years what has been more important than anything is a sense of community. When everything else seems hopeless, I look at my chosen family. I look at my immediate family. I look at my neighbors. And I have to remind myself to think this way instead of outward.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Even in a darker space, you still manage to have songs that feel anthemic. They build you up in certain ways.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s been fun \u2026 I don\u2019t know if fun is the right word. But it\u2019s been fun to build songs from the ground up because while I\u2019m writing the melody, the band is bubbling up and growing with me, as opposed to me imagining it in my head, just with a guitar. I can actually perform with the arc happening in real-time. I think that affected the performance and writing the main vocal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You mentioned <\/strong><em><strong><em>Death Becomes Her<\/em><\/strong><\/em><strong>, and I remember for the last album you mentioned a song that was inspired by <\/strong><em><strong><em>The Sandlot<\/em><\/strong><\/em><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh! That was the album title. That came from watching that movie over and over again with my family during the height of it all. It was our comfort blanket. It was what the kid said, you know the scene. They have all these different ways of trying to get the ball over the fence. And at what point they try to rig this vacuum cleaner to suck it up from the other side, and the vacuum explodes in his face. This is always a scene that we laugh at. And this one particular day I was having a really hard day. And it was this scene where he shakes the dust off and says, \u201cWe\u2019ve been going about this all wrong.\u201d And I remember tearing up. I just wrote that line down. Everything felt really hopeless during that time. And I just wanted to think \u2014 why does that bother me right now?<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><img alt=\"\" class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"e8d8b4c04a5d9bf30679b5212ffd5e1c\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" id=\"5b9c6\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img-151.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>When you\u2019re writing or are just creative in general, do you consume a lot of media? Do you watch a lot?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t tend to do a lot of research. Before we went into our second writing session, we went to see The Cure at the Hollywood Bowl. That set the scene. You know, we are huge fans, of course. But we knew going into it what we were listening to all already. Like, Joy Division, The Cure and Kate Bush. The list goes on and on. But I feel like we were already creating the palette based on music we love. And as a kid that was music I always wished I could play. I just never thought, being a folky girl, that trajectory was ever possible. So that\u2019s what\u2019s been really exciting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This is like your Bob Dylan goes electric moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the dream. But it feels really good. But as far as movies. Having a kid makes it hard. My Spotify is so fucked right now. I sent a screenshot of my Spotify end of year, and it was the song &#8220;Billie Eilish&#8221; by Armani White. My Spotify is a little confused right now. All this hip-hop in there. In some ways, I\u2019m internalizing all these beats.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spotify, in a way, is also a record of what you\u2019re listening to while you\u2019re working.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, even subconsciously. I let my son DJ most of the time. He\u2019s into Beastie Boys. He\u2019s into rap and hip-hop. He likes some oldies and jazz, but lately, it\u2019s all about beats. He\u2019s a drummer, and so I want to get him a drum machine. But he\u2019s really into beats. I feel like that\u2019s always been something I\u2019ve been into, but I\u2019ve been encouraging it in him because he just wants to replicate every hip-hop beat on his drum kit. And movie-wise. Every now and then when I get to watch an adult film [<em>pauses] &#8230; <\/em>I mean not an adult film. Actually, a lot of porn has been inspiring. No. When I can watch a rated R movie and there\u2019s actually a score, that\u2019s informative. Like, where you don\u2019t expect it. I take notes when music changes or enhances a scene. And how to strip things back to make more of an impact. That\u2019s where \u201cFading Beauty\u201d came from. I acknowledge sonically this record is very big, and we are going to need a breath somewhere. So, we find this feeling to give this record a break where I really think people need it.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><img alt=\"\" class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"298e86cddf8c75982408541b04cf991a\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" id=\"946d6\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/img-152.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Part of this record is produced by Marta Solangi who has produced music for Bj\u00f6rk and Depeche Mode?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I had worked with James Ford (producer) before on a couple of mixes for past material. She was his right-hand person. But other than that, I didn\u2019t know much about her. But in talking with her I loved just how passionate she was about music, synthesizers and tape loops. She just had this fire in her that I was really excited about. So, I just took note of it, not really knowing where the album was going yet. But I had it in my head. And then it came to thinking about producers, and I felt the sound of this record was very London. And I had never made a record in a location like that before. I felt like I wanted the band there, and I wanted us to recreate these songs together in a space, in a live setting. So I reached out to her. I knew she was an Italian living in London. I love the female energy too, which you barely get as a producer. I love all the producers I\u2019ve worked with, but I knew I needed that for this moment. I sent her the demos and she had to go back home to Italy to see family and she said that she was just driving through the countryside of Italy listening to the two or three songs I sent her and she wrote me immediately. Like, \u201cI really want to do this.\u201d And she recommended the Church Studios because, obviously it\u2019s history, but the room itself you can actually set up in a circle like we did in those writing sessions. Also, the board is in the room. So, she was an additional member of the circle in there with us, communicating with everybody without having a separate room. She was an extension of us. And she had a great ear. She helped with a couple of form things, but I really think that a huge strength in her role was hearing everybody\u2019s ideas out. When I first spoke to her, I was trying to drive the point home that this was a band record. I know that everyone is going to look to me, and I\u2019ll give you my opinion, but I want everyone to speak about their needs. And things they want to try. I want everyone to feel heard. Yes, at the end of the day, I\u2019m the leader but I wanted to make sure the core is still being heard and listened to and that we try everything. At the end of the day, we have to make a vote. But this is really important to me. And she honored that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you mean when you said this felt very London?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This felt like a UK record, especially from our early influences. The post-punk world. There are other influences that aren\u2019t British, but I also felt like it would be important as a group without a lot of external distractions, like having to go home or work or whatever. I made sure to be very decisive with the time. Because we had three weeks to make this. We had already set the release date. We already had a tour booked for next year when we were recording this in July. I remember telling everybody, &#8220;If I\u2019m telling you to do this it\u2019s only because if we don\u2019t finish it we\u2019ll have to cancel everything that we\u2019re working towards. We lose our place in line. If we don\u2019t get the master in hand by August 9th or whatever it was, we lose our place in line and it probably won\u2019t come out until 2026.&#8221; But I thrive with deadlines.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Because you brought it up earlier, what is your attachment style?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well, it\u2019s funny. That\u2019s something we all agreed not to talk about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That\u2019s very fair.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Well as a joke because one bandmate was like, I already talk enough about that in therapy. The joke is, I think I\u2019m a little bit of all of them. I\u2019m one of five kids. I feel like I latch on to every insecurity.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><em>Photography: Susu Laroche<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a rather quiet album cycle, Sharon Van Etten united her band at a rented space in the Joshua Tree-adjacent Yucca Valley to rehearse for her We\u2019ve Been Going About<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/06\/sharon-van-etten-the-attachment-theory-embrace-a-dark-world\/\" class=\"readmore\">Continue reading<svg class=\"icon icon-arrow-right\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\"> <use href=\"#icon-arrow-right\" xlink:href=\"#icon-arrow-right\"><\/use> <\/svg><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sharon Van Etten &amp; The Attachment Theory Embrace a Dark World<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilotshopworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}