Ethel Cain’s Upcoming EP Will Explore Her Alter-Ego’s High School Years

When it comes to exploring the world of Ethel Cain, the doomed fictional character created by Hayden Silas Anhedönia, the singer-songwriter is far from finished.

The 25-year-old’s 2022 debut album Preacher’s Daughter is steeped in atmospheric Southern Gothic storytelling, following Ethel as she leaves an oppressive religious upbringing behind, only to find herself grappling with violence and exploitation that culminate in her being murdered and cannibalized by her lover.

However, that wasn’t the end of Ethel’s story. In a new Rolling Stone profile, Anhedönia revealed that she’s currently working on an EP about the character’s high school years, which is set to release later this year.

“I feel like [this EP] is truly laying Ethel Cain to rest,” she said of the project.

Ethel Cain’s American Nightmare

On her debut album, titled Preacher’s Daughter, the artist chased more than a compelling collection of songs. She sought to make the next Great American Record.

Anhedönia intends for Preacher’s Daughter to be the first in an intergenerational trilogy of albums. According to Rolling Stone, she’s moving away from her current city of Pittsburgh and will be “chasing brutal winters” to match the tone of her next full-length album, which will focus on Ethel’s mother “grappling with her daughter’s death.” After that, she plans to write an album about Ethel’s grandmother.

In a 2022 interview with Alt Press, Anhedönia described her three-album project as “a classic American tale.”

“A common theme that I like to write about is intergenerational trauma. Things that have been passed down through generations and how your parents’ or your grandparents’ actions can affect you,” she said. “It’s very much about this lineage of women and how all their lives interconnect. Each album focuses on a different woman. I want to explore how your actions affect others and the relationship between a mother and her child and how things come full circle.”

Although Anhedönia is undoubtedly one of the most exciting rising trans musicians out there, she emphasized to Rolling Stone that her gender identity is just one element of her personal approach to music-making.

“When you are trans, you are living a very specific experience that not many other people in the world have,” she said. “I wanted to not be known as a trans artist, I think, not because I didn’t want people to know I was trans, or because I didn’t want to be proud of that fact… It has shaped the way that I am in certain ways, but it’s not everything.”

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