Sharon Van Etten's new video comes across like a blast from the past, and part of the grand tradition of New Jersey rock n roll.

It's a very cool video with an old-school sensibility, shot on Super 16mm, directed by Maureen Towey and featuring Van Etten with Rachel Trachtenburg as the putative subject of her song Seventeen. She is, of course, also Van Etten's younger self, or alter-ego. And you can feel the bond between them.

MAUREEN TOWEY:

"Sharon started by giving me a deck with a list of meaningful New York and New Jersey locations. Places that had nurtured her, even if they have since disappeared. We expanded her idea to include a younger version of Sharon. We were lucky to find Rachel Trachtenburg, a musician in her own right, who captured Sharon's spirit so well. They were both so game to climb through rat-filled parking lots and scream on ladders in the rain.

"When we scouted the water shot at the Round Valley Reservoir, it was a beautiful sunny day... but when we were actually shooting, it was pouring down rain, so we were only able to get one or two takes of each shot. It brought a wonderful, moody urgency to the images. I'm just so glad that Sharon and Rachel were so game!

"I was eight months pregnant when we were shooting and editing this piece so I am very grateful to have such a generous team of collaborators. They trusted me throughout and proved that a very pregnant lady can still lead!"

LIVIO SANCHEZ (EDITOR):

"I see the video as an iconic throwback to New York City at the end of the 20th century. Shot on film, processed, scanned and converted to digital video, the files we received from Kodak were scanned and transferred at full gate, which had to be resized to 16x9 in Adobe Premiere.

"No VFX were used in this video. However, the full gate frame had a very retro, graphic look that I loved. I experimented with using it to create a sort of 'picture book' feel during the first chorus, where portraits of Sharon are revealed in front of various locations from her time growing up as an artist in the city. I left them in the first rough cut for Maureen. She liked it, and the full scan frames stayed."