Sharon Van Etten出生于新泽西州贝尔维尔，住在新泽西州的纳特利，十几岁时搬去克林顿。后来，她到田纳西州大学学习录音，但一年后辍学。 Van Etten最终在Murfreesboro的咖啡和唱片店和音乐场所Red Rose工作了大约五年。 2004年，她搬回新泽西州，在Perryville Wine and Spirits工作。Sharon Van Etten于2005年搬到纽约市开始音乐生涯。 　　Early life 　　Van Etten was born in Belleville, New Jersey, the middle child of five. She lived in Nutley, New Jersey, then moved to Clinton, New Jersey as a pre-teen. She attended North Hunterdon High School, at which she participated in the chorus and performed in stage musicals. 　　Later, she moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to attend Middle Tennessee State University and studied recording, but dropped out after a year. She ended up working at the Red Rose, a coffee and record shop and music venue in Murfreesboro for about five years. She fell into an abusive relationship with a rock musician who discouraged her from writing songs. After five years, she left in the middle of the night with whatever she could carry. She showed up to her parents' house on Thanksgiving Day and her mother answered the door, holding the dishes she’s about to put on the table, to find her black-sheep middle child, who hasn’t spoken to her in ages, standing on the doorstep. 　　In 2004, she moved back to New Jersey, where she worked at Perryville Wine and Spirits, then moved to New York City in 2005. She lived in Brooklyn for a number of years, in the suburban neighborhood of Ditmas Park. 　　Career 　　Van Etten self-released handmade CDs until 2009, when her debut studio recording was released. Before her studio debut, she worked at Astor Wines and as a publicist at Ba Da Bing Records. 　　Because I Was in Love 　　Van Etten's debut, Because I Was in Love, was released on May 26, 2009, on Language of Stone, and was manufactured and distributed by Drag City. Because I Was in Love was produced by Greg Weeks at Hexham Head studio in Philadelphia. 　　epic 　　On September 21, 2010, Van Etten released her second album, epic, on Ba Da Bing Records. With no set band at the time, Van Etten called on friends Jeffrey Kish, Dave Hartley, Jessica Larrabee, and Andy LaPlant of She Keeps Bees, Cat Martino, Meg Baird, Jim Callan, and Brian Christinzio. The first song recorded for the album was "Love More", recorded in December 2009 by producer Brian McTear for Weathervane Music's Shaking Through documentary video series. The remainder of the album was produced by Brian McTear with engineer Amy Morrissey in May 2010 at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia. NPR described it as possessing "a fuller sound compared to the super-spare arrangements on her first two self-produced albums, but epic still feels incredibly intimate, with lots of room to breathe and unfold." 　　Tramp 　　Van Etten's third studio album, Tramp, was released on February 7, 2012, on Jagjaguwar. Tramp was produced by The National's Aaron Dessner and recorded in his home studio in Brooklyn, New York. Additional recording took place at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia, where the album was also mixed with Engineers and Mixers Brian McTear and Jonathan Low. The album features musicians Doug Keith, Thomas Bartlett, Bryan Devendorf, Bryce Dessner, Matt Barrick, Rob Moose, Julianna Barwick, Peter Silberman, Logan Coale, Clarice Jensen, Ben Lanz, Zach Condon, and Jenn Wasner. 　　Are We There 　　May 2014 brought about the release of Van Etten's fourth studio album, titled Are We There, on Jagjaguwar. Van Etten produced the record with Stewart Lerman, with the guidance of bandmate and manager Zeke Hutchins. Most of the recording was done at Hobo Sound Studios in Weehawken, New Jersey, with piano tracks being recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The record features musicians Zeke Hutchins, Doug Keith, Heather Woods Broderick, Dave Hartley, Adam Granduciel, Marisa Anderson, Stuart D. Bogie, Mickey Free, Mary Lattimore, Little Isidor, Jacob Morris, Torres' Mackenzie Scott, Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg, Lower Dens' Jana Hunter, and Efterklang touring member Peter Broderick. The EP I Don't Want to Let You Down, a compilation of songs that were not included on Are We There, was released on Jagjaguwar in 2015. 　　Remind Me Tomorrow 　　On October 2, 2018, Van Etten released a new track entitled "Comeback Kid" and announced her next album Remind Me Tomorrow, released on January 18, 2019. On February 28, 2019, Van Etten appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to perform the single "Seventeen". 　　Covid-19 Relief 　　On April 22, 2020, Van Etten played bass and sang harmony as the three surviving members of Fountains of Wayne performed in a televised benefit with various New Jersey-affiliated musicians to raise funds for COVID-19 relief. She filled the role left vacant by the COVID 19-related death of Adam Schlesinger a few weeks earlier. She and the other three members of the band played simultaneously from remote locations. The band played the song "Hackensack" from the album Welcome Interstate Managers. 　　Musical style 　　Van Etten's music is characterized by a heavy use of harmonies. Pitchfork described her songs as having "echoes of folk tradition." NPR Music asserts: "Her songs are heartfelt without being overly earnest; her poetry is plainspoken but not overt, and her elegant voice is wrapped in enough rasp and sorrow to keep from sounding too pure or confident." With "Comeback Kid" and Remind Me Tomorrow, she introduced electronic sounds into her music. 　　As an actress 　　Since 2016, Van Etten has appeared in both seasons of the Netflix drama The OA as Rachel, a fellow abductee along with Prairie in Dr. Percy's basement lab/terrarium. Rachel and the other captives are subjected to after-life experiments while conspiring over a period of years to possibly escape, and at one point, Rachel sings a song of remembrance. Van Etten also appeared in episode six of the 2017 Twin Peaks series on Showtime. 　　Van Etten played a role in Never Rarely Sometimes Always directed by Eliza Hittman.