“Eclectic singers”: Ethel Cain on the two vocalists who inspire her music
Hailing from a little town in the deep South, with only the hum of cicadas and the twisting limbs of orange trees to keep her company, Ethel Cain, born Hayden Silas Anhedönia, had no idea that she would go on to become one of music’s most compelling contemporary forces. Weaving a musical web of religious trauma, rural poverty and dark Americana, Cain tapped into the more sinister side of her Floridian roots, where the air itself breathes an unspeakable history.
Anhedönia was raised predominantly in the clutches of a Southern Baptist church, a place where she knew she couldn’t always truly be herself. Her father was a deacon, and she was involved in the church choir from a young age, cementing her love of Christian music and Gregorian chant. Now, a transgender woman living freely in her life and her music, she has been able to let go of not only her past frustrations but also express her love for the South in a unique and uncanny way.
In 2022, she released her debut studio album, Preacher’s Daughter, to widespread acclaim. Anhedönia used her past experiences and feelings of unease to manufacture a dual identity, a kindred evil twinship with what we now know as Ethel Cain. As she grew older, she found herself being drawn more and more to this Jekyll and Hyde relationship, but also to other female artists, ones who championed their private lives, all while exhibiting this mysterious, quiet sensuality, a sentiment that she resonated with on a molecular level.
In an interview with Coupedemain, she named two female vocalists who stood out to her: “As far as people, I would say a lot of the eclectic singers, like Florence Welch. I love Enya. I love the artists who keep to themselves and then make this crazy music and it’s big, beautiful art, and then you just have a very quiet, private person behind it. I really like that, and I kind of want that for myself.”
The singer joined Welch on a new version of her track ‘Morning Elvis’ back in 2022. The pair released a live version of the song, performing it on the road together, among other renditions, such as Cain’s song ‘Thoroughfare’.
“I was giggling when we rehearsed the song just the two of us before the show because Florence told me that ‘Morning Elvis’ was her channelling her inner Southern rocker, and I told her I couldn’t stop myself from emulating her British accent on certain words,” she shared in a statement.
Reminiscing about the magic of the night, Anhedönia added: “It felt like a holy convergence happening in a basketball arena [Denver’s Ball Arena]. Florence’s dressing room smelled like powder and sage and we were both dressed in white, singing our lines back and forth to each other, and I felt like I was back in choir practice, but with an actual angel this time. She’s never not smiling, and if you would have told me we were the only two people in the entire venue while we sang it in the middle of her set, I would have believed you.”
With a voice soaked in reverb, it’s no surprise that Enya, the Celtic siren, is another of Anhedönia’s inspirations – one that can be directly heard in her haunting cover of Britney Spears’ ‘Everytime’. Her vocals make you feel as if you’re on the periphery of something ‘unholy’ – a supernatural suburbia emerging at the fringes, where mid-century houses sit in rows like polite but unsettling smiles. Speaking on her other creative influences outside of music, she explained how her hometown and Southern gothic imagery have inspired her songwriting.
“As far as creatively, I would say home,” she explained. “Being in the South and being here all the time, there’s something so beautiful and sickly sweet about everything around here, and that’s why I don’t think I could ever live anywhere else. It’s my favourite place on earth, and it’s just a never-ending stream of inspiration.”
For Anhedönia, Ethel Cain is a cautionary tale, a way for her to channel and explore themes of transformation and identity, reflecting her journey as a transgender woman but also her broader critique of the Southern suburbia that shaped her. Her sophomore album, Perverts, will be released on January 8th, 2025.
