Sharon Van Etten sweats it all out in the new video for “Porta.”
The clip opens with the singer-songwriter preparing to exercise, inserting a cassette into a boombox before engaging in a rigorous workout — her vocals blanketed over layers and layers of velvety synths.
Van Etten said in a statement that “Porta” was written during one of her “lowest lows” in 2020. “For most of my adult life I have struggled with bouts of depression and anxiety and coping mechanisms, and I sometimes let those dark moments get the best of me,” she said. “During this time I felt very dissociated. Not connected to my body, and I felt out of control.”
She then reached out to her friend Stella Cook, who runs Base Pilates in North Carolina. The duo would meet once a week over Zoom, drinking coffee before exercising.
“I knew I was entering a no-judgment zone and I needed to be held…
