Sharon Van Etten Quotes

All my life I wanted to play music with love to every member of the audience.

Intimacy comes from being yourself on the stage and making the audience feel, without trying, that you're sittin' down there with 'em, playing, and that can happen in a big hall, if you have a good audience that want to listen.

If I don't feel the music, I can't perform it.

I love writing songs and being a musician, but you can't really buy the feeling of connecting with people.

My purpose in performing is to communicate the joy I experience in living.

My live performance, it just comes from feeling an energy and emotion from the crowd.

'm not saying I would never do acting again, because I love it, but there really is nothing compared to getting up in front of people and singing your music.

I get hugs all the time from strangers. I do believe that people can feel your persona when you perform live, but it is one of the nicest things if you can translate that on your records.

The whole idea of performing before an audience is fun and organic.

Performing live is a part of who I am.

Live performance is everything. First of all, I have terrible stage fright. But beyond that, once the music starts, it's OK.

I love doing concerts, and I think my songs get another expression and energy when they are being played live.

It used to be enough for me to get on stage and sing. I kind of crave the performance part now. I write knowing it's going to happen, which I didn't do before.

When I perform, I like to immerse myself in the music, and I just try to get off on the diversity of music.

I just want to play music with a band, live.

Out there in the spotlight you're a million miles away and every ounce of energy you try to give away as the sweat pours out your body like the music that you play.

I am blessed to perform in the studio and on the concert stage.

I want to play in a place people want to hear me.

That's one of the good things about music. You get to do it live, where you can touch the people and interact with them.

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

I'm very proud of my records, but my most natural creative tendencies have been in live performing. There's a beautiful element to recording and making records, but I've always felt a little shy with it.

Most of my career has been about standing on a stage performing music to an audience, and once the show is over, they go home and I go on to the next show.

I hadn't performed by myself in a while. It feels very natural to me, and I assume people come for the very same reasons as they do when I'm with the band: to be moved, for something to happen to them.

How does my music connect to an audience? That is just a complete mystery to me.

I like to say, 'I hit every type of music in a show, and I play the people, not the instruments.'