Sharon Van Etten Quotes

If I was just a fan of music, I would think that I was the number one artist in the world.

I want to be known for my music, and that takes time.

Before I was working professionally, I would do YouTube covers. But as a creative person, it was really hard for me when I wasn't releasing my own music. That felt unnatural to me.

I feel confident that the work I've put in will make people see me as a music artist before anything else.

That's one of the problems with making music your business, it becomes a business. You're no longer just this kid who is a fan and going to see every show. I've been in a bar every night for the last 15 years. Going to see bands for me is work.

With the 'Silly Boy' track, I mean, people knew about it, but it wasn't really like, 'oh that's Eva Simons.' But when 'Take Over Control' came out, that's when people started to get interested in me personally, which is great because it was something I really believed in.

I'm in a very good place to make records. Needing to make money off music is very dangerous.

It is one thing to record an album but it's a huge difference when people play it and listen to it and embrace it the way that I do. It has always been my dream to get my music out to the world and have people hear it.

It is never easy for anyone to have success in music.

Yeah, I know, any time you hear an actor say, 'I do music', you cringe. But I want to be gradual with my music. I want to earn my stripes.

I can't imagine ever not making music, making albums, writing songs, doing shows. That's all I really know, and that's all I really do.

Shoot, there's a committee to tell you everything at a record label. You definitely have to know who you are if you want to look like you at the end of the process. We've all seen people get record contracts, and by the time they're spit out by the machine, we don't even recognize them.

As soon as I got into music, I tried to be a working, real artist who gets paid for what he does, who doesn't have a day job.

I just want to make music and make a living. I just have to find the means of doing that.

When you're young, the goal is to have a hit. You get a little older and the goal becomes to get to make another record.

If you're looking to make a basic living selling and playing your music, the Internet is all you really need.

I'm overjoyed and honored to become a member of the Hollywood Records family. I've admired the careers they've made and can't wait to see how my musical path is paved out.

As I started to consider a career in music, I hoped for success, truthfully. I didn't imagine anything that would amass the level of the first record, but I hoped that I would be able to sustain a career.

When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.

I was working so hard at music and trying to do this whole 'industry' thing and realised that it wasn't for me.

I was a rapper. The reason I stopped rapping was because I realized that people wanted guys like Puff Daddy. That's not what I do. I quit. That was it. I had to sacrifice for my choice. I said, 'Forget it. I'll be a producer.' Nobody was going to make me do anything.

I've been really trying to put people onto, like, my sound since I was, like, 17, 16.

When you first start out in the music business and hope that you have a couple hits, the ultimate payoff is to be standing in front of all those people who are singing it back to you at the top of their lungs. And you know by the way they're singing it back that it's affected their life in some way. That's the ultimate reward as an artist for me.

I listen to so much music every day, so that's such a big part of my life. To be able to pursue that and put out my own stuff is definitely a goal. I don't want to put something out that I'm not proud of because I think it's so easy to say, 'I'm an actress/musician.'

I really didn't think I was going to make records to where I make a living out of it.