Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen

Over the past decade, Angel Olsen has built a career as a titan of indie rock, ascending from Chicago’s DIY scene to headliner status off the back of her spectral, increasingly rich folk songs. All throughout, her music has stayed true to a mantra she espoused in one of her earliest songs: “Know your own heart well / You could be surprised at what you find.” That mantra could just as easily be applied to the music of Sharon Van Etten, who, over the past decade, has risen from the Brooklyn DIY community to become one of her generation’s most respected songwriters and performers, as well as an actor in acclaimed projects like The OA and Never Rarely Sometimes Always. In 2019, both artists hit new creative and experimental peaks, Olsen with her cinematic All Mirrors and Van Etten with the post-punk influenced Remind Me Tomorrow, both produced by John Congleton and released on Jagjaguwar. This year, after leading seemingly twinned careers that never overlapped, they collaborated on “Like I Used To,” a Springsteen-style epic that, like their earliest music, espouses the value of knowing your own heart well. Earlier this week, The FADER’s Shaad D’Souza caught up with Olsen and Van Etten to discuss how they first connected, the fast-intersecting worlds of pop and indie, and the heartland rock power of “Like I Used To.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices