Welcome everybody to Soda Jerker on songwriting.

Brian here, joined as always by Simon, and with us for episode 293 is an American singer-songwriter,

who first made a name for herself in the late 2000s with their deeply introspective brand of indie folk.

Having plied her trade as a solo artist for most of her career,

she's recently shaken things up and formed a band

with her touring musicians, bassist Debra Hove, drummer Jorge Balby, and keyboardist Tini Lieberson.

The first fruits of their collaboration, Sharon Van Etton and The Attachment Theory, recorded at

the church in London with producer Marta Salonyi dropped earlier this year to great acclaim.

There goes the big guest reveal, by the way.

Cats out of the bag now.

Anyway, their front woman sat down with us recently for a lovely chat about her exciting

new creative direction. We're very happy to welcome. You guessed it, the excellent

Sharon Van Etton to the podcast. Sharon was born in 1981 in New Jersey, one of five kids.

The first instrument she was drawn to was the grand piano in the family home in Nutley,

and she later joined her sister's school choir.

Our guest was exposed to quite the variety of music as a youngster.

Her dad was into the likes of Neil Young, Jethro Toll, The Kings and the Beatles,

while her mom favoured folk and country.

Via her elder brother, who also taught Sharon her first guitar chords, she discovered Hendrix,

fish and nine-inch nails. While at high school, she was hipped to the likes of Sonic Youth,

Porter's Head and Sunny Day real estate. It was also during her high school years that

Sharon began writing songs with a friend, initially just for fun.

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