“I hate putting negative energy out into the world. But it's either inside or out…” — Sharon Van Etten

I'm not a down-in-the-dumps person. I think some people assume that I am because of the music I write.

My career is based off of me talking about my emotions.

I was pretty troubled for a long time. And I didn't know that. As a kid, I never talked about my emotions. My mom gave me a journal, but I didn't know what it meant. I just wrote all the time, not even thinking about it. But it also made me feel better.

I hate the term 'emo.' It turned into this genre of music, when all music, if you connect with it, is emotional.