The Making of TRAMP by Sharon Van Etten - featuring Sharon Van Etten and Aaron Dessner

About this episode

Sharon Van Etten discusses the making of her album Tramp and her journey as an artist.

In celebration of Sharon Van Etten’s breakthrough third album, Tramp, we take a detailed look at how it was made. Growing up in New Jersey, Sharon Van Etten studied music by learning several instruments and singing in the choir. After graduating high school, she went to Middle Tennessee State University to study recording. Though she started writing songs around the year 2000, she didn’t perform or release music until 2005 when she moved back to New Jersey. Later she moved to New York and started working for Ba Da Bing Records. She signed to the Language of Stone label and released her debut album, Because I Was in Love in 2009. Her next record, Epic, was released in 2010 and included the song “Love More,” which was recorded for the Shaking Through documentary series. After a group of musicians, including Aaron Dessner of The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, covered the song “Love More,” Sharon reached out to them to see if they’d be interested in collaborating. She began recording songs with Aaron Dessner in his garage studio in Brooklyn. Her third album, Tramp, was eventually released in 2012. In this episode, Sharon Van Etten describes this pivotal moment in her career…

People in this episode

Guests: Sharon Van Etten, Aaron Dessner

Topics covered

• music production
• artist collaboration
• album creation
• personal journey
• music history

Keywords

• Sharon Van Etten
• Aaron Dessner
• Tramp
• music collaboration
• album production
• New Jersey
• Brooklyn

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ba Da Bing Records, Language of Stone, The National, Bon Iver

Books & works: Tramp, Because I Was in Love, Epic, Love More

Places: New Jersey, New York, Brooklyn, Middle Tennessee State University

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