Features & Interviews with The Anchoress
When an album 'drops' musicians get out of on the campaign trail and rather than shaking hands and kissing babies, they speak into tape recorders or write 'content' for websites.
Here are a few of the pieces The Anchoress has done in the run up to her album, which came out on Friday (Jan 15th 2016).
The Anchoress aka Catherine A.D. opened up to Clash magazine about the trials and tribulations that seemingly forever delayed the album, her literary influences and more:
Artists often switch fans onto good literature. You’ve gone so far as to include a reading list with the album, are you trying to start a trend?
"I feel like the Manics (Street Preachers) may have already beaten me to that... The idea of books and writing was so deeply entwined with the making of the album - right down to the fact that my research funding for my literature PhD paid for me to stay living in London and make the record - that it seemed obvious that the romance novelist would include her own bibliography. Not every title in there is entirely serious of course… I still haven't actually been able to make it through a Mills & Boon..."
Read the full feature: Doesn't Kill You: The Anchoress Interviewed - An evocative, literate songwriter...| CLASH
The romance novelist swigged some chianti and sipped a bit more, then reviewed this week's new releases, saying things like:
"The antipodean Miss Barnett presents an ode to the humble ramen noodle. What appears at first from the title to contemplate the moreishness of a triplicate packet of fags, reveals itself to be a paen to the joys of processed, MSG-ridden fast food. Although I have much experience of addiction of the pharmaceutical variety, this is a habit I cannot condone, being a fervently committed raw vegan ( - I like my food, like the chapped member of the exhausted hero in my latest erotic tome Tossed: A Macrobiotic Desire, raw and undressed). Miss Barnett’s furtive relationship with this boil-in-the pan foodstuff is humorously dealt with here. Sometimes it’s important to laugh, especially when one’s career has descended to the depths of making second rate minds sound more eloquent than God intended. Pass the salad."
Read the full feature: The Anchoress reviews the singles: A romance novelist is channelled to take on Last Shadow Puppets, Kanye and more...| Gigwise
With tales of punching school bullies and her favourite hot chocolate, The Anchoress shared her 'firsties and faves' with Vice's music-blog.
Favorite formative record: "The Holy Bible by the Manic Street Preachers. It turned me into a bookworm and literary reference hunter that changed the entire course that my life would take.’Faster’ was the first Manics songs I ever clapped my ears on. I can still remember how it just completely stopped me in my tracks with its litany of literary name-dropping. There was no hope for me after that, and I was straight down to the public library ordering books by the armful and seeking out every old interview I could find of theirs."
Read the full feature: The Anchoress' Firsties and Faves | Noisey
There isn't enough room to include the sort of in-depth liner notes that records once had, so Catherine penned this piece about making her album:
"I got to make the record my way and retain the control that I was repeatedly told I would not not be given by an industry that consistenly sidelines women..."
Read the full feature: The perils of producing your own record | The Line of Best Fit
In part two of her chat with Louder than War magazine, The Anchoress opens up about the concept behind the album, the process and pokes the patriarchy in the ribs, hard, with a burning spear...
"I don’t want every interview to be about ‘what’s it like to be a woman making music?’. It’s exactly like it is to be a man making music. Maybe a little more difficult but we have to talk about it in order to change things and when people bring it up and make assumptions that are incredibly crass, or apportion the credit to the wrong place. It’s difficult to do that and not come across as a raging Feminazi in doing so. But, you know what? I don’t give a fuck."
Read the full feature: Louder Than War editor Sarah Lay talks to The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies) about writing and producing her first album, working with Mansun’s Paul Draper, and challenging gender bias in music and beyond.
Confessions of a Romance Novelist is out now via Kscope.
Download it now from iTunes, pick up the deluxe CD from your favourite record shop or Amazon or if you prefer to try before you buy stream it on Spotify or your service of choice.
