Sharon Van Etten with Nadia Reid

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of songwriters with plenty in common, but who came up on opposite sides of the world: Sharon Van Etten and Nadia Reid.

Sharon Van Etten will be very familiar to Talkhouse listeners; we’ve been huge fans of her music from the very beginning, and have followed her—as many of you have—through her early days of more spare guitar songs to the fully fleshed-out music she’s been making in the past few years. Her latest album was Van Etten’s first to be written and recorded with a band, and that band has a name that it shares with her latest album: Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory. Working out songs with her band has resulted in a looser, somewhat more experimental Sharon Van Etten, but it’s still unmistakably her voice and vision, which is to say it’s fantastic. Check out "Idiot Box" from Sharon and the Attachment Theory's new record.

Today’s other guest, as you’ll hear, is a friend of Sharon’s from New Zealand, Nadia Reid. Reid has been making music for about a decade, and her latest album, called Enter Now Brightness, came out about a month ago—on the same date as Van Etten’s new record, as a matter of fact. Though Reid is from New Zealand, you might hear bits of what could be described as Americana on her records, which are overarchingly gentle, subdued, and deep. Enter Now Brightness was recorded while Reid was pregnant with her second child, and these two talk a fair bit about motherhood in today’s episode. Check out Nadia Reid’s “Changed/Unchained” from Enter Now Brightness right here.

In this chat, Van Etten and Reid talk about parenthood, including bringing your kids on tour—and Van Etten’s son makes a brief appearance as well. They also get into how your band is truly like family and who’s given them great advice over the years. Enjoy.

Chapters:

0:00 – Intro

1:59 – Start of the chat

4:07 – "I feel like the cards are stacked against [musicians]"

5:40 – On bonding with your touring band

8:37 – The making of Nadia Reid's 'Enter Now Brightness'

11:00 – Sharon Van Etten on good and bad days in the studio

12:47 – On writing "Seventeen"

14:49 – On parenthood

19:05 – Balancing kids and careers

22:25 – Bringing your kids on tour

25:09 – A special guest

26:28 – Who did you look up to (bands who brought their kids on tour)?

29:10 – "You're one of my heroes"

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sharon Van Etten and Nadia Reid for chatting. If you liked what you heard, check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com and in the Talkhouse Podcast Network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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