Sharon Van Etten Quotes

My music has always been my solo project.

I'm really excited to put music out that is a clear projection of my lifestyle.

I realized that, all along, my theory was right: Make music that you want to hear, and instead of having fans that one day might criticize or abandon you, your fans aren't even fans. They're people with tastes similar to yours. They're friends you haven't met yet.

I have to be my own artist. I need the world to know who I am, especially for music. When it comes to acting, that is a whole other story. I have no complaints; that's a team effort. It's not just me, it's everyone. But when it comes to music, it is solo; that's all me.

I think I'll continue to work as a solo artist.

It's largely a misconception that Tame Impala is a band. We play as a band on stage, but it's really not how it is at all on the album. The album is just me.

Max Kozloff said to me one day, ‘You’re not really a photographer. You do photography, but you do it for your own purposes – your purposes are not the same as others’. I’m not quite sure what he meant, but I like that. I like the way he put it.

When you make a solo record, it's you. It's your name. It has to be the right songs for how you feel.

I just try to make the best music that I can. People are going to label it whatever they're going to label it.

The first time I shared my music and style with my mom, she said, 'Boy, you look like you came right out of the 1950s.'

My books are personal: I'm not saying they're the Bible of music.

I think this, I think basically I'm not interested in people following my work or making work like my work.

I've been a solo artist for a year now, and I think I should start thinking about the future now. Every spare time I get, I want to be in the studio and work on music for 2015. It's a lot of work.

The Smiths was an incredibly personal thing to me. It was like launching your own diary to music.

When I was younger, I was fascinated by David Bowie, for example. he had created an entire myth around himself. It was as important as his music.

I don't wanna get into that space where a lot of guys now, their solo album is like eight or 10 songs with other people, you don't get an idea of who this guy is. I just wasn't interested in that.

I always go in very emotionally when I'm doing music. Sad or happy, I'm always into it. I have a hard time writing for other people, writing with someone else in mind.

I love my own music.

Edible names are what drives me as a musician. My next band will be called the Hot Dogs.

Some people lose sense of what their music was when their life starts to get better.

Music has always been in me.

I have a very difficult time describing my music. Because I run into people in the hardware store and they go, 'Oh, you're a musician. So what kind of music do you play?' And I go, 'Uh, I've been doin' this for many years - I don't know what to call it.'

My idea was you can't dress for the stage, you have to dress all the time like you're onstage. And so I would just always wear suits or some form of it. I wanted people to know I played music. That was kind of how you would find other people: you would just walk around looking a certain way and end up meeting someone who liked the way you look.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

I didn't really even think of recording under my own name for a long time. I thought, 'I've got the rest of my life to do that.'