Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats. Hey, what's up everyone. Thank you for downloading this episode of the podcast. This is Midnight Chats from Loud and Quiet Magazine. My name is Stuart and my guest tonight is the incredible Sharon van Etten, who I hadn't met until now. A friend of mine actually asked me if we know all the people before they come on, which I took as a
very big compliment. Sometimes we have met some of these artists before through doing the magazine and other things, but a lot of the time we really haven't, and they're always very nice. You know, there's a couple. There's a couple who are not very nice. I won't name them. But Sharon Vanetten I hadn't met, and I watched some videos of her online just to try and get an idea of like the kind of person she's going to be.
And I thought, that's someone who I think is going to be extremely lovely and very easy to talk to, very quickly from the off, and that couldn't have been more correct. I did a pause then for dramatic effect, but it could have been more correct. Sharon was lovely and we spoke for an hour, and I mean it could have gone on. I'm not sure if she maybe felt that, but I could have spoken to her for ages.
She's done a lot this year. She's released her fifth album, which is called Remind Me Tomorrow, and there's been five years between that and her previous album, which is called Are We There, And in that time her plan was to kind of just calm down, not do so much, get off the road, and just live life a little bit. But she's filled that five years with having a baby and falling in love and becoming an actor as well. So a lot of this episode of the podcast is
not really music based. We get to the music about halfway through, but the first half is me talking to Sharon about her love for comedy. She loves comedy and wanted to be a stand up. She's even tried stand up. She talks about that. She talks a bit about becoming a mother, her son is currently two years old, and what else comedy, writing films, meeting David Lynch says a lot in this one. It's also the podcast out of all of the ones that I've recorded, that has the
most midnight feel to it. On What I mean by that is it's very kind of loose. Sharon's from New Jersey, but she lived in Tennessee for a while and it's got that kind of oven. Just calm to it, I think, or she does at least, and then you know, every now and then I start honking, laughing and ruining the mood. But it's very mellow this listen, so I hope you
enjoy it. If you do, please do subscribe. Listen back to our previous episodes, and yeah, I'm going to just leave it there, so please enjoy this episode of Midnight Chats with Sharon Vannatt. And thanks very much for Sharon for coming on. And we didn't speak that much about the new album, but you should go and check it out. It's called Remind Me Tomorrow. It came out earlier this year and it really is a great record. So thanks
to Sharon for coming on. And I should just say that we start the conversation halfway through Sharon and I talking about different places we've djayed, and me talking about djaying our wedding of a friend of mine. So with that in mind, here we go. Doing a wedding was just hard.
Because people have so many requests on top of and they get so angry and you are because they get drunk throughout the night and then they want to dance. Yeah, there's too many slow jams. The crowd gets anxious.
Yeah exactly, and the crowd is to split because there were some old there were some young people, and they just kept asking for drum and bass. But we were at a wedding and that probably wasn't very appropriate for the older.
People who want to get out there too, yeah exactly.
And then those people were quite angry when we play younger stuff and the young people were angry and we played like classic stuff and I was driving, so I had to be sober the whole time.
Yeah, a wedding sober.
Yeah, it was long, it was like and when we finished, they all kind of started booing us that we'd finished, and they wanted us to play more, and people were really drunk by them. So just don't do it, that's mine. Just just just don't do it. Just wedding ever, never, just stick to the tour of us.
Well, actually, there's a funny song. A friend of mine got married and a song came on but I I never really connected with before, but in the context of this day, I just heard it in a different way, and that that song by a Hot Chocolate.
Oh yeah, which one like you sexy thing?
Yeah, but like when he says the way he says miracles makes me laugh so hard because like I believe in move like the way he I just started cracking up and like now it's one of my favorite songs and my my partner and he actually just proposed to be so we're starting.
To congratulations that's.
Your first Yeah, exactly that that. You know, some people like you want to be something romantic like no, we want to like go out with a bang, like we want to we want to like mess mess it up.
Yeah, have you set a rough date? Do you know what? Just in terms of year you get.
Okay, so maybe we don't have time. It's going to be this insanity. I mean we're on top of me touring all summer and relocating from New York to North Carolina to Los Angeles. I mean it's going to be it's.
Too much, too much. At the moment, you're still in New York, right.
Yes, we're in New York until June and.
Then you're the plan is to go all the way west to La Yes, but you're going to North Carolina.
First, Yeah, because I'm touring all summer, like two weeks on, two weeks off, and we have family down there, so we figure let's see as much family as we can before we go on the opposite coast of where everybody lives. And then and then we'll take a breather and try to settle down for a minute. But it's you know, and with a little one, we want to make sure he sees his grandparents, yeah, uncles.
And how did the proposal go? Were you? Were you expecting it?
I didn't. I did not suspect it. I mean I knew that he was going to ask me one day. Yeah, he used to be married, so like that, we had the joke where I'm like, why don't you just be single for a while and enjoy that? And so I knew that he was gonna ask me. And we have a kid, so you know, I was like, that was the ring, you know, But I knew when he did it. He's a romantic like me, so I knew it was gonna be really special. And I come back from my US tour that lasted like three weeks, and we got
a babysitter just to go on a date. So that alone I was so excited, We're going on a date like we you know, as new parents, Like I think most people know that it's just really hard to get a moment. And so he surprised me with tickets to UCB, which is like improv comedy in New York, which I'm a huge fan of comedy. So we went there, and then we went to dinner at a place that's kind
of on our bucket list of places. It's called Minetta Tavern and it's in the village and it's just one of the oldest restaurants in the neighborhood and just very classic New York kind of cocktail, steak potatoes, like burg They're known for their burger and their cocktails. And we had a great dinner and he asked if I wanted dessert. I said, actually, let's go to my old hood and grab a cocktail. And this old bar that we used to go hang out at and listen to jazz. It's
like a speakeasy. You know, there's no sign, there's just a guy standing at the door that doesn't want you to come in. So he's like, oh, that's perfect because I wanted to stop by this place and it's on the way, so we got a cab and he pulled. He told the cab driver to pull over, and it was in front of my old apartment on West fourth Street, which is a sandwich between a sex shop and a bar and right next to the music ind kind of
and you know Dylan the Street. He's like, I wanted to get a photograph of you in front of your old apartment because this is, you know, represents our relationship and where we start dating. And then he took a picture and showed it to me, said some nice things, and then he pulled out a couple photographs from his pocket and it was him and my son picking out the wedding ring in North Carolina when we were there
in December for Christmas. And he's held onto this ring since then, and so my son helped him pick out the ring. He even had it on his finger. So I started crying, and he said some more nice things. Then he asked, if you know I wanted him to get down on his knee. I said, yes, I want you to get down on your knee.
I think he was thinking at this point, this is surely enough for me to not have to get down the name.
I was like, oh, no, get down on your knee, and so like we had a good laugh, and like I was kind of floored. And you know, West Fourth is very busy. It's like a major train station area, and so there were passerbys that caught it, and so like they like said, you know, they take some photos like well he was on his knee, and they're like say yes, and so it was really sweet and nice. You know. I just I said yes, and then I
think I said thank you. I appreciate it. So yeah, so now we're you know, we went and got a cocktail and there's a great jazz band playing and we we just.
That's brave of him to to hold onto it for so long for a few months. The ring, because when I proposed to my wife, I went and got the ring and I was so panicked to be in possession of this really expensive thing that I almost just threw it at her when she walked in. And it wasn't it wasn't very romantic at all. It wasn't I don't think it was what did you do? It wasn't that. It wasn't what you just described put me to shame. But I wanted you mentioned about about being a fan
of stand up comedy. Is it true that you wanted to be a stand up or if you tried stand up recently?
I tried to stand up once in LA because my babysitter convinced me and she was putting together a variety show and she's a comic and improv and writer.
And how long ago was it? So this is only like what year ago?
Yeah? This is last year when I was making the record.
Okay, and you'd never done stand up before?
No, no, no, no no no. I mean I'm a silly person.
How did it go?
Let's just say I printed out like a five page thing that I referred to when I got nerded, I had a glass of wine in one hand, and I apologized like every other joke. It was fun and it was like a warm crowd. It was like our friends, did it go?
Did it go well?
I wasn't booed, you know, And it was like a mix of like since it was a variety show, like there were people people, you know, there were stand up, there was a comedy troupe and you know there's a reading and from a book and it was a good. Yeah, it was like a very welcoming crowd.
How long was your bit, It's.
Like fifteen minutes.
That's long. Long, that's long for someone starting out. I thought, when you start out, you do like five.
That's probably what I should have done. It's probably what I should have done.
What was what was your material?
Then?
What were your what were the things you were talking about?
Hi? My name is Sharon Bennett and I'm a songwriter. I have a band, and I fell in love with my drummer who was married because I am an adult and I can make my own fucking decisions and now he's my manager and he can make my decisions before me.
And that was is this your delivery as well? I like the delivery is amazing, but it was a.
Pretty dead pit was like, and uh, it was kind of awkward, you know, and it's like, you know, it's like, you know, I like the awkward laughter in the audience, and then like I went, I'm just kind of telling our story and the awkwardness of you know, being in a bend and having feelings and you know, it's a lot more complicated than that, but you know, you have to make light of the seriousness.
That's a brave thing to do.
Though.
I go to see stand ups sometimes but I generally am instantly embarrassed for them, even even as soon as they come on. I'm so I'm too scared that they're going to be terrible. We had to stand up where I used to DJ in my bad student union. On a Saturday night before the DJing happened, they had a comedy night and I saw a guy there totally totally die in front of it. Was it was. It was terrible to watch.
It's got to be the hardest job in show business. I just it's so specific, you know. At least with music, I feel like people can connect with it on their own, in their own way, whereas with comedy, it's like you have to be on, you have to be funny. It's funny or not.
Would you do it again? Would you?
I don't know. I feel like delivery isn't my strong I'm interested in the writing process though, and my babysitter and I are actually toying around with the idea of working on a show together. I had this idea of kind of like a not quite a sitcom but high maintenance style, but it's more babysitters, So it's like a mother and her relationship with her babysitters because it's such an intense relationship, but you get put in the most
awkward circumstances where there's a hierarchy. Have babysitters and they become a part of your family. And as a mother, it's so liberating to trust someone enough to leave them alone with your child so you can go about your life and like figure out how to work again. But you get put in these like weird situations where you're like every now and then, it's like I don't know this person, but I'm just gonna have to trust that
they're a good person and like whatever. And there's one time I came home and the babysitter left, didn't say anything, she was totally fine, and like the apartment smells like shit, Like what is going on? And I look at the monitor and the whole entire crib is just covered and shit And she chose not to wake him up, to clean him up or change his diaper.
Is this the same baby saying that you did the comedy.
Show for no? This? Yeah, this is we call her last resorts.
Okay, so she's still there just in case, Well, we.
Probably will not call on her again. But I could not believe that. I was like, how do you let a baby sleep? And shit like that was terrible.
So when you discovered this, did you you called her and said what No?
I was like, that's not something you confront you like, you're not calling them back?
Okay, right right right?
Yeah? Yeah, well like things like that. And or there's one time where the babysity that is the comedian she she taught my kid how to pick up the remote and use it as a phone and she would say hello, and so my son would pick it up and go hello, like you know, the hello motion, like the cell phone kind of thing. And she walked in the door one day, uh to come to work, and she saw me doing her her little thing. She's like, that was like our thing,
you know, like I was stealing my babysitters moves. Because in all reality, babysitters have more experience than I do. You know, as a mom, I have two ears under my belt and they have way more than I do.
So do you have like different babysitters in different towns? The comedian is your la? Is that your la babysitter when you're when you're over.
That side, yes, And I'm getting a Rolodex, you know, as I you know, meet more moms around the world. But yeah, I definitely don't have babysitters everywhere. But you know, it's something that every time we choose to bring our son when we go somewhere, we ask our friends for advice. And it's funny too, because people get very territorial because if you end up moving somewhere and you use your babysitter and their babysitter likes you more, or you call on the more, or they go to get a date
night and they're taken by you, it gets weird. They're like, we can't go out because you got her.
You've got You've booked a babysit.
Sol her from us. So it's funny. Especially in New York. People get really like, I'm like, do you know anyone? They're like no, kind of like okay, I get it. I get I'll look up somebody.
You're Meanwhile, you're passing on the name of the person who lets your baby just sleep covered in shit.
Oh yes, yes, yes, she's fantastic. She's very relaxed.
That sounds like a good rich source for a comedy, and I've not heard of a comedy about babysitters and the relationship between babysitters.
And parents, and everybody has different needs, and I think I think there's like a whole new wave of shows coming out that are about new mothers and how vulnerable that is and the expectations that come with, you know, especially mothers that feel guilty for going back to work. Because I think that's just a society right now, is
that both partners have to work to make it. Especially if you live in a city, it's just kind of there's or if you're a creative person, it's like you have to work or you're not happy and you're not as fulfilled. And it's my partner and I are both like creative and work a lot, and we're in the arts, and we know it's going to be a struggle, but we also want our kid to grow up watching us struggle and figure it out and do what we love.
But it's a struggle, and there's a lot of people helping us make a work, and I think that that's definitely not something that's talked about enough.
Sure, so, how far have you got in planning this show? Have you written any of it? Have you actually written any of that? Written it?
I have. I have episodes sketched out, and like, basically, you know, it's it's loosely based on my life, where the joke is so like the sitter that I'm writing this with is hopefully going to be the main character, or at least it's based around her, depending I don't even know if I'm actually going to be in it or if it's just loosely based on me. It would be kind of be fun to direct somebody else. But my so, my friend who's who are collaborating is her
name is Bridgid Ryan. So my character is this write songwriter in New York who she's in such a happy place in her life that she's just not inspired to make a record. So her label comes and checks in on her to see how she's doing. She's like, actually, I'm doing really great. My kid is great, everything's great. But I I'm so happy. I just can't write. I
can't write right now. So you know, I actually got offered this acting job in LA and I think I'm gonna take it and just kind of take a break and try something new and hopefully that inspires me to write a record. And my label is so amazing and understanding. Then they let me go, and so I go and I and I have to find a sitter to help me land this new job while we relocate to Los Angeles.
And sounds this sounds quite familiar, right, Yeah?
And then but my sitter is such a mess that at the end of every episode she tells me about what's going on in her life and how terrible and chaotic and dramatic it is. And I am inspired by her life and I start writing songs based on her about her nice. Okay, so like, and that's that's part of the plot.
I started watching The o A last night. I did. I didn't know that we can necessarily get it over here because our Netflix isn't the greatest.
Yes, for some reason, it's not the same, which I don't Yeah.
We don't get all the same stuff, but we do. But I found it and I watched episode one. But you're not in episode one right, right? But it's creepy. Tell me a bit, like for anyone who's not watching this is this is a show that's on Netflix. You're in six episodes in series one, right.
Something like that?
And serious series two started or is it?
Yes, it just got released, and so you know one thing is an older person. That I'm learning is that they put it out and it's the whole season. You can binge watch the kids do today.
Yeah? Absolutely, so that How would you describe the as I say? It's very it's as I say, I've watched episode one so far.
Yeah, it's a sci fi. It's a dark sci fi about a scientist that kidnaps people that have near death experiences and does experiments on them.
And you and.
And I'm a captive hilt in his basement.
Right, so I've not got that far yet. I've got as far as the o A is the name of the lead character, right, yes, and she is, just she's escaped episode one. She's escaped from having been captive for seven years. Meanwhile, your character, I've not got to yet. What's your parents called?
Rachel?
Rachel? Rachel's still there. I presume I'm going to get to. Okay, I don't want to. Okay, I don't want to. That's fair. What kind of character's Rachel?
Is that?
What can you tell me that doesn't spoil it for anyone?
Well, this is the first acting role I ever got offered, and this was literally two weeks into me going back to school. After I took a break from the road intentionally, and so I was nervous to audition because I.
Felt like, did you have to go and do the read?
Like I did a reading in front of Aby Kaufman, who was the casting director, who is like a big.
Casting and you've never done anything like that before, You've never done any acting.
Never done any acting. I had one audition for like Girl the Dragon Tattoo.
Did you for what part? For the big the part?
Yeah? But I was terrible on and yet it I had no idea what I was doing and I did it with my phone and like a boy myself.
And was it the one that was Is it Rooney mahra They made this one?
I think it was around twenty ten, twenty eleven, because.
There's one with Daniel Craig and there's one with someone else. There's a David Fincher one. Anyway, anyway, I.
Think it was the Fincher one though, Okay, first one.
Right, yeah, yes, okay, see right, So that was the only thing.
I didn't get it, and which is fine. I don't think I was meant for that role. But I was intrigued with Rachel because she her biography was like very close to my life. So, like she grew up in choir, she ran away from home to pursue music. On the way, something terrible happens and her life changes forever, and she is scared and vulnerable but like empathic and and I just you know, I felt like I could draw from personal experience to be a believable Rachel.
I'm going to keep watching I'm In I'm hooked. It ends that first episode kind of are they all an hour a long?
No, they're all different, Like, okay, right, because.
That first one's quite a long while, but I was it was. It's weird, isn't it. It's not really that long, but in the modern world, Yeahvan TVLand. That's so when you went for the for your audition, like, had you had you always thought I'd quite like to give acting a go.
No, definitely not, it's just for were you.
Just so, how did this kind of come about?
Well, Like I grew up in choir and musicals. I was in musicals in high school. And when I was in high school, I thought I wanted to be on Broadway until I started writing my own songs and then I found this superpower. So then that was the path that I took from high school and I stayed on that path until I'm thirty eight now. So I'm finally making a living at thirty eight. So with you kids out there that think you want to do music, think about that for a second. But I mean, I I'm
interested in it. It came about because the assistant to the casting director was at a Nick Cave show. I was supporting Nick Cave in twenty thirteen, and he saw our performance and two years later, somehow in his mental rolodex emotionally what the character called for in the script. He's I was one of the people he thought of
to audition. Well, I think they wanted it to be a singer and not an actress first, And rumor has it that other like I think Angel Olsen got asked to audition, and I think my friend Jen Wessner from Yo got asked audition as well. So like they're looking for something specific.
So did they read for it? Do you know? I don't know, I'm Chinese. Do you know who you beat for this?
I mean I think it was more of like they just couldn't do it. So I don't think I like beat them. I think they were just like they had so much stuff going on. You know, most musicians are touring months out of the year, and when they're not touring, they're making a record like That's so I'm surprised that it worked out for me, and my school deferred my enrollment so I could take that and then go back the next semester, and then I got pregnant in between.
Yeah. So in that the five years since are we there and the new record, You've filled it up with a lot of stuff. There's just been a lot going on.
It's pretty insan.
It's almost as if you'll now have decided to like tour record to relax for a little bit, Like I need to relax.
It gets sleep.
Yeah, I need to sleep. I need to eat properly. So I'm going to go on the road.
I have one meal a day, wake up with no voice, and the hope that it comes back by the time the show starts.
You also, so you're also in the remake of It's not really remake is it? This next series of twin Peaks? Were you just performing a track in that or were you a part I've not seen the new series of that at all.
We performed, we performed, yeah, yeah, Okay, in the roadhouse.
Did you meet mister Lynch?
I did?
What was it like? We had him on the cour magazine about five years ago. I didn't meet him, but a photographer who was in LA who shot him at his house described him as he said that there was an area around him. He said that at one point David Lynch touched him on the shoulder and asked him what it like where he'd like him to stand, and he said it was an incredible feeling of being touched by an amazing person. Does that sound familiar?
He is the definition of intentional, you know. It was. The whole thing was surrounded by mystery and and and we didn't have a lot of information, but basically, very last minute, we booked a red eye light to be out there, you know, just me and my partner who plays who played drums on the last record, and we had two friends that were just living in LA so we could just have them on call and they would pick us up and like have the gear, and you know, we're just flying by the seat of our pants. So
we take the Red Eye. We get there in the morning and we're waiting for the call and they give us a call and they give us an address, and we show up and to this undisclosed location and there's a mysterious door that somebody opens once we call this number and they open the door and we walk in and we're in the roadhouse and like Eddie Venner had just finished performing, and all the other bands that are playing or are waiting in the wings, and the audience
is already there, and you're walking through and you just feel like you're in the film already, and behind the audience the director's chairs and David's sitting there with his megaphone, chain smoking and like analyzing every little thing from the light to the angles of the light, to the order of the height of the audience and you know, just making sure that and like the placement of an amp. He's like hands on with everything.
Did come Did he come and speak to you before?
He didn't speak to us before. Well, when we finally set up on stage and he basically just asked us to perform, and we ran at once, and he moved a couple things, very small moves, and then we did it again and he's like, are you guys happy? I'm like, if you're happy, I mean I have saw I need you know, if you stay, We're good. We're good. And so I walk off stage and you know, he shakes my hand and says thank you for being a part of it, and he's you know, just's squaring the eye
and said, thank you, shake my hand. And his son is a big fan and he was, you know, complimentary of my style, but also asked about my jag, my jag because he has a Jaguar as well, and so like I let him like mess around with it, and he was super psyched. And his name is Riley Lynch and he was I think in his twenties. Okay, right, yeah, so he's I think he he turns his down onto music as well, right, and he has he has a good ear. So it was it was nice to meet.
It sounds like it felt like being in a dream.
It was very dreamlike. I mean literally, it's like even Trent Reznor was waiting in the wings like when we were there.
Did you know any of the others that had you met any of the other bands before?
Yeah, I mean we've cross paths. I've been a fan of Pearl Jams since I was a teenager.
Did you get the feeling they were as kind.
Of everybody wasn't everyone's super humble being quiet spectators, like, you know, because there were booths in the back, so like all the artists were in the booths behind the director's chairs. There's one bathroom upstairs where it's like whatever
artist is on next, they're getting ready. So as I was packing my things up after I had finished, Trent Reznors coming in and he shook my hand as we like just for trading positions, you know, we're all just kind of like and I'm peeing my pents as well, okay, cool, just checking like so it's no, it was really really special.
That sounds great. Yeah, And once you move over there, you can just be doing this on a weekly basis. This can this is just going to be your world.
About that?
Are you going to are you going to pursue acting?
Though I'm interested in all angles. I think I want to learn more about the writing process, and I'm hopefully going to be working on a score and I'll have a home studio while I'm out there, so I can hopefully help other people make music too. Like I think producing is interesting for like not super full on production, but like helping young songwriters kind of find their voice and give them a space to let go and be
themselves and maybe take some acting classes. Because I have no idea what I'm doing up there.
I'm just like, well, you must be doing something. Maybe that's the key though, because in the OA, for example, they obviously wanted wanted you to be you to an extent, you know, but I suppose maybe not, not all roles would.
Be Yeah, but I did get to take like an improv class with my my friend that's my babysitter, and maybe we yeah, we did. We did an improv You can do like drop in classes that are just one off right at Groundlings.
Oh, the Groundings, Like that's a big famous like improv place, Like yeah, a lot of the Saturday night Live.
Guys come from absolutely Okay, So like UCB is one, Groundling is one, and so there's just there's so many outlets there.
But the real culture of that in the States that we don't have here. We don't have improv classes at all. Really, I don't think it's even a thing. Like you can go to a theater group or we call it am dram amateur dramatics, but it's not necessary. It's not like improv is a thing. Isn't it like that's more you join a theater club and they're going to put on a production of a Twelfth Night in a local theater, than you audition for a role and you get your role in.
Yeah, it's pretty classic.
Yeah, but the Groundlings is like comedy sketches, isn't it?
Yeah, like learning how to fly by the seat of your pants, you know, like an upright Citizens Brigade is similar. And Second City is another one right where like a lot a lot of comedians to come up through there, but they also have in New York and LA. There's also straight up acting schools that you can go to. But you can also just seek out an acting coach. You know. I saw an acting coach for my auditions that I've taken. I saw a lot to learn, pretend like I'm good. I have no idea what I do.
I think it's like a super brave thing to do. I thought when I was like in school, I thought I'm going to be an actor. I was in like school plays and things. What were you I was in? Any of my friends listeners will laugh at this because I remind them of it, especially my wife. I remind her all the time that I was Bugsy Malone in Bugsy Line, I was it's my big moan. It's all been downhill since I was fifteen, and I believe that I peaked. I peaked at fifteen. I just got out
of the game and I was in the crucible. We did some like and I was in What did I? Because I studied like some drama at like a level and I went to UNI and did a bit, but I did it at UNI. But actually so we went. I went to university to study drama, thinking I'm going to go and become an actor. And then I got there and it was all very It was more like avant garde performance, and everyone on the course thought they were going to be on TV and in the movies.
And we got there and we were just learning about things that are actually much more interesting, but not really what we were into because we were all eighteen and thought we were going to be famous, and it was like art performance and people kind of cutting their arms and bleeding on stage for twenty minutes, bleeding out on stage and being taken tolls of it and things like that. We were like, this isn't really what I was after, but we did what else was I did like some waiting for god.
Oh oh sure, that's a funny one.
That's a funny one, like a funny surreal one. Yeah, so a few bits. But the reason I think I wasn't cut out for it at all was because actually, when I really thought about the reality of having to go and stand in a queue of people and go an audition in front of people like you see in Hollywood, I just thought, there's no way I'm going to be able to do that because the stress of that and the rejection of it I couldn't handle. I'm not strong
enough for that. So I think anyone that does it, I think it's like a super brave thing to do to go and stand in front of those directors. And is it as frightening as I'm thinking in my mind?
Oh yeah. And I feel like I was on the Virgitiers when I was doing the reading, and I think the only thing that helped me was that I was supposed to be so like are the only characters I ever get? I'm always like, what am I doing? I'm actually just really nervous and trying to keep it together. And that's what landed me. The role is being scared shitless.
Yeah, so you found your kniche you have the only you can only audition for things where you're upset.
The most awkward comedian is the one that cries on stage.
So in terms of the comedy, what comedians did you did you grow up watching like stand up comedy or comed.
Paula pound Stoney, I mean we're like early.
Played Ellen's show, right, Yes.
I played Ellen. I got to play it on the last record as well, which is really fun. You know, I grew up watching SNL and you know, the British version of the Office definitely got me through some hard times in the early two thousands. I still think it's beautiful like and it has is so well rounded for being a comedy. I was also brought to Tears by a special and I think that one's really special. And then the comedian Nate Brigatzi, I don't know if you
know him, but he's really great. I think he's about either it either just came out or it's about to come out of his new special. And he's really really funny. He's from Tennessee, and since I lived there for a while, I feel like a kidship to that mentality.
I over here, we find out a lot about well. I find a lot out a lot about a lot of American comics, stand up comics, from listening to like Mark Maron's podcast, Oh sure, as he talks about them all the time, like people that we that over it, they don't necessarily make it over here. Have you done his podcast? No?
I have not.
Would you like to? Maybe he's quite because he's quite a big character, isn't he.
Yeah, I mean, I'm you know, I'm a fan of Mark Marren and I love Glow'd right good, that's you know. I don't get to binge watch many things, but that's something that me and my partner Binge watched that and Russian Dolls.
Which I'm three episodes in.
Oh my gosh, it gets so good and then it is it gets you at the beginning anyway, but it gets better and.
Better because so I'm three episodes in, but I'm I'm not sure that I'm loving it.
I need to says that says by episode four turns yes, and I but I loved it all the way through. And I think the music in there.
Is the music's great. That's also John Mouse tracks.
Yeah, and like Joe Wong is the music supervisor, and I there's one song on there because he does the he helped Fred Armison with the Drummer podcast. But there's a song by Anika called called try to Sleep. I think it's called is it off of herr solo Nica? I think so. I didn't know her music before I heard the song, and this song is just amazing.
I will stick with it.
And also it's so New York, like I recognize so spots and it's like in the East Village, like Alphabet City area, and like I just noticed a lot of the parks and stuff. It's it's kind of.
It's fun to watch things when that's set way for sure. Yeah, Okay, I'll stick with that. I've got that, and I now hang in there. I'm now invested in.
The double down double Down in the darkness.
Yeah, all the dark ones.
Yeah.
Shall we talk about the new record? Talking about the new record? We don't, I mean, we don't have to know.
I'm still learning to talk about Okay, how's it all going.
Seems to be getting very well.
Yeah, it's been really fun to play these songs.
Do you consider it your fifth record? Yes, because I like the fact that you released like seven CDRs that you were releasing CDRs yourself.
Oh yeah, I was handmaking them for so long, never thinking a label would want to put out my music. Yeah, you know, not even thinking that like that wasn't It never came into my head when I started playing music, was I'm going to get a record deal and I'm
going to go on tour. Like I was just driven to make music and I would play whenever anyone asked me, and I would mostly play open mics and for like nobody sure, and I just love playing, like I had a drive to perform, but with no goal on mine, and so I just had fun making these CDRs out of broken bags from the wine store I worked at.
Yeah, the record that is your official debut was in two thousand and and that was because I was in love. How much before that were you releasing stuff yourself?
I had garage bend my laptop and I recorded them on that from like two thousand and five till two thousand nine.
You had four years and what would how would you do it? You would just like, how many would you like press? If they see the seas could be worth something?
Now, I mean I've definitely seen some money, but I have friends of mine that send me photos of ready, because they're all very different. I used to hand paint them. I used to like put duct tape on them. I had like a wax seal at one point. I don't know me, did you like it was a craft lady. I would. I would get off work from the wine store.
I'd come home with a bottle of two of wine and I would track songs and if I had a show, I would maybe put six songs that I was the most excited about on it and just like give them away. People could pay whatever they wanted, and like that was it.
Yeah, like you was your shows?
Yeah, it was just at the shows that I was at. And you know, the cake Shop was a venue in New York?
Was that still that? No, it's not not there at all.
No, it's gone.
What is it now?
It's so it's unrecognizable. It's like a fancy place. Okay, Because I tried revisiting a bunch of places when I was shooting the video for seventeen, because I visited old apartments and old venues that some are still there, some not, you know, just as like a goodbye to New York kind of an acknowledgment of how things have changed, since I started playing. But that was the first place to actually sell my CD in the store because they had the record store upstairs some of the venue downstairs, and
so they had my handmade ones there. You know, every time I had a show, I would just put random songs on that I was psyched about at the time, and then that was it and I would do a different you know, I felt like maybe if people knew that every time I have a show, it's like, you never know what new songs I'm going to play, what songs are going to be on the disc, and I just they can they're kind of collecting them.
Know, just did you have like a following of people? Would would people come to the gigs repeatedly? You'd see the same faces.
I mean, I mean that's why I kept doing it, you know, eventually people started coming. Yeah, but it took me. Yeah, I mean it took me. Sorry, it took me about four years to have a you know, build a following. And I just worked my ass off and I play.
I said yes to everything, and I eventually got offered a residency at this venue called Zebulon where I was able to curate my own shows once a month and invite people that I connected with as musicians and got to know, put on a show every month with people that I cared about, and it was a real community there for a minute. I mean most of us have you know, moved away or so busy that, you know, we don't get to do that anymore. In that venue doesn't exist either anymore in New York. It's in La now.
Oh, it's moved to all the way over the other side.
They literally moved the bard So to Los Angeles, and it's open there now, so you.
Can play it. Once you're over there, you can stop playing there again.
Except my ex works there, so I probably won't.
Oh, okay right now, bad idea.
But no, it's doing really well though. They put on really cool shows. They and it's you know, there's a good scene there right now. But most of the venues that I grew up playing in New York are no longer there.
That's sad, isn't it.
Yeah, that's why it goes right, it is?
Yeah, Yeah, it is of course. Yeah. Are you gonna really miss Are you gonna find it hard to move out of New York?
Yeah? I've been there fifteen years. That's longer than I've lived anywhere, but I need a change and I can't afford to live there anymore. So it's so ridiculous. And then a one bedroom and my son is sleeping in my closet, right, something's got to give.
Yeah, London's like that. My bathroom is like behind you there, you see that. I should probably describe this on for the podcast listeners. That's like the steps that go up to that mezzanine and it's slanted. Imagine if you put a shower and a toilet in that gap there. That's got a slanted room and you can't even really stand up in it without that's our bathroom you have.
Do you have a seat in there?
There's like hardly enough room to turn around. It's frustrating.
I remember when I first was looking at apartments in New York and there's a bathtub in the bat in the kitchen and the toilet was right next to the oven. It's like ad door, right, you know. I was like, isn't there an expression like don't ship where you eat or something like I just like, I just don't know.
You're having a nice intimate dinner party, and like someone asked to use the restroom I'm just like, one of the things we checked off when we were moving into the apartment we're in now was a bathroom that's not connected to the kitchen.
Like you, it's a deal break, you know what I mean.
It's like there are things in your life as you as you progress as an adult, like maybe I want my bed not in the living room. Yeah, maybe I want it in its own room. Maybe I have a two room apartment, you know at least.
Yeah, it's good to have these small goals, yes, but to slowly.
Get there, like having a closet is huge.
It's a massive, a massive deal. But it's amazing that you during all that time when you were like putting out your own CDs and just playing everywhere and just kind of you really were just doing it for the love of doing it, right, did you have any notion whatsoever that you would ever get a deal?
No, not at all. I mean I remember a friend of mine, Kip Malone. He's in a band called Team on the Radio, and I grew up with his little brother. And I met him by going to see this band called Celebration play and he opened up and he looks super familiar, and I saw his last name, and I realized that he was the brother of this kid I went to high school, so I introduced him. I introduced myself to him, and I just said, I went to school with your brother. I just moved back from Tennessee.
I'm like pretty lost, was trying to figure it out, was playing music, just here's my CD. And he reached out to me and we stayed in touch, and he's he was definitely integral and showing me neighborhoods and then used to play or just go check out music and neighborhoods to move to. Once I decided to move from
New Jersey to New York. And there's one time we were hanging out in New Jersey because he has family there still, and he did a fake interview with me over a diner at a diner table in New Jersey, like Jersey diner, total Jersey diner, and he just said, I think I'm a feeling you're going to have to learn how to have an interview. And so he would like ask me questions, like you know, fake questions, and I would just giggle because I just I thought he was off his rocker, you know, and he's like, so,
why do you play music. What is this song about? Tell me about yourself? It was like.
Start messing with me orre you just thinking I'm never going to be in this situation. I don't need to learn this.
No. I thought it was like having a girl, you know, But no, I never. I had no idea that I could be where I am today. And you know it's.
So now that you're on what is officially your fifth record, remind me tomorrow how's it all going. Because the reason there's five years between your last two records is because you did kind of think I'm gonna just put this on hold for a little bit and go to school and learn psychology. But then suddenly all these things happened, like you had a baby and you became a Netflix star,
all of those things. Did it just feel like, Oh, I just kind of miss making music, so I'm going to make another record and get back into that again.
It was something that was unintentional. I left tour in twenty fifteen with no plan to make music again. I wanted to live. I just didn't have a plan. It wasn't like I was saying never. I just I was like, no, I'm good right now, and I want to live a life. I want to be home. I want to nurture my relationship. I want to actually live in New York. I've worked my ass off to be able to afford to live here, and now I don't want to be gone nine months out of the year, like I want to enjoy my
time here. I want to explore these other sides of me that I haven't gotten to explore. I want to live a life, so I have something more important to write about than the inside of a van and being miserable because I don't have any place to land and to grow in, like a relationship, all these things that I wrote about. It was really I was running away from all the things that I didn't know how to have. So I gave myself the time to live and to
reflect on my life and explore other things. And during that time, I didn't realize it, but I would just write to write, and I would write to reflect on my life, but not with the intention of sharing it with other people. But I was experimenting, you know, just trying new things and challenging myself and writing and collaborating and writing for other people, writing with other people, and singing for other people's music. And I just feel like it opened up this whole other door I didn't know
was there. And I turned around suddenly one day and I realized that I had forty demos, but not with the intention of making a record. It was more of a diary, you know, of what my life. I always kind of write in a way where it just represents where I'm at in my life. But I had never given myself that much space to live beyond music, and I think that affected my style majorly.
And the record that the studio you were like writing in you were sharing with Michael Sarah, right.
That was one part of it was that in La because I had I had an apartment where I had a piano and a drum kit set up in my studio apartment, and so I wrote a handful of songs there. And then when that got old, yeah, I moved into a practice space and I was looking for one other person to share it with, and I randomly met Michael Sarah, who wanted to play the drums and the piano, okay, and so we we shared a space and he had the synths.
Where did you meet him?
It was on a beautiful New York day where my partner and I just got to be slow, and so we had like a brunch and we had a coffee, and we walked through the park and I remember seeing Michael Sarah reading a book on the bench and we're just kind of having like a New York moment where
we elbow each other. We're like, that's Michael Sarah. But we keep going right and then you know, and during this time, also I had opened for my friend's film that he did a cameo in Rick Alverson film, and we didn't get to meet, but when I opened as a musician for this film and then saw he had a cameo in it, so then it was just funny to return from that to New York and see him in the park and just be like, oh, that's funny.
But we cared about our day and we took our bikes and we rode to this neighborhood called Red Hook, which is like right on the water, a fisherman kind of town, working class, like blue collar, and we go to dinner and then we get a cocktail and we're sitting at this bar and he literally walks and down next to me and we just start cracking up because like.
This is too following you.
I don't think so. I mean, but he's you know, he's you know, he's he's kind of peculiar. So maybe he did it, but not just kidding, but you know, he was just reading a book. He just sat down order to drink, was reading a book. And I finally
just I was like, I have to say something to him. Yeah, So I'm like, hi, my name is Sharon, and I think we live in the same neighborhood and told him about the Rick Alverson connection and seeing him around the neighborhood and he was so nice and he just started chit chatting did.
He know you? Because he knows music pretty well, doesn't it.
I don't think so. Let on ye, but I mean he definitely I don't think he did. And maybe that's what was comforting about it to him, you know, where I was just like, I that week I had found a space and he was saying that he plays piano in his apartment and that he's like, you know, my girlfriend, you know, I think she would appreciate it if I a separate space so that it's just our living space and not my writing space. Actually I have a piano if you want to come. He's like, oh, really, what
else do you have in there? I'm like, I have a drum kit and his eyes lit up. It's like cool. I was like, have guitars, bass, I mean it's it would just be you and meat. So you get like three days a week and then we can share one day every other week, you know, and ended up working together like yes and each other.
But he brought us like he had symps and things.
Yeah, he had this awesome organ called the c X three and a synthesized I called it Jupiter before and which is.
What you made. Kind of a lot of this record sound kind of comes from that, right, Yeah.
I definitely got inspired by that. So it was like a lot of the synth drones and and syncopated drum beats because it's like for someone that's not a drummer, I'd have to like have four tracks of drums to really make it sound like drums. Yeah. Yeah, but that was the core of the record. So dark drone, a weird beat, and my melodies. YEA all for it.
It's great works, it's great.
Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, it's different, but it's still me.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I don't really know how to end this.
Well, I I'm really proud of the record, and I know that I've done all different kinds of things, but it's been comforting after taking a break for five years to know that I still love music even when I even when it wasn't at the center.
Sharmon, thanks very much for coming on the podcast.
Thanks for having me, Thank you.
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