Welsh multi-instrumentalist The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies) talks to Jason Barnard about ‘The Art of Losing’ – the title track of her new album, collaborating with other artists and the creative process.
Your new single ‘The Art of Losing’ has a defiant quality to loss. Was it a cathartic experience expressing your emotions on this track and your forthcoming album?
I think songwriting always has a cathartic element to it – if you look at any kind of therapeutic framework it’s usually founded upon a similar concept of revisiting something in order to understand, process and reflect on it. Songwriting shares so much with therapy in this sense but I don’t ever confuse the two. I think it’s also important to highlight that, for me, writing is never just a simple purge of emotion or experience. I’m more interested in interrogating ideas around loss, filtering them through a more universal sense of what we learn and gain when we go through what is as unavoidable experience. It’s like the old adage: death and taxes. The two things none of us can avoid.
The accompanying video satires tabloid newspapers. How much are you involved in the creative process for them?
Because of lockdown I actually made the entire video myself! I taught myself how to use after effects over a few evenings and set to work piecing the entire thing together. I’m always hugely involved one visual aspects of the project regardless – I’ve art directed both album designs and every director will tell you how annoying I am to work with because I send back edit notes on each cut. Hah.
‘Show Your Face’ highlights toxic masculinity. Was it in response to or written around the time of the initial #MeToo movement?
The song was written around the time that the news of Harvey Weinstein was all over the media. I was also watching the Kavanagh Supreme Court hearings and texting back and forth with so many friends who were so full of rage and disbelief at what they were seeing. The #MeToo movement is an important cultural moment where women (and men) are finally getting a voice to speak about what is sadly all too common. But it’s been going on for hundreds of years. I guess the song was written as my anger was just at boiling point in terms of how little progress we’ve made as a society to dismantle the structures that allow these abuses of power to continue every day. 5am and With The Boys in the Album also both prove this from different angles and viewpoints.
‘Unravel’ has an epic sound. Was it clear once you wrote it that strings would lift the track?
Thank you! An earlier incarnation of this was something I performed just with the string arrangement. It was written, as a lot of my songs are, just at the piano, and the hardest thing was to make the arrangement work once I’d produced it more as a synth and beats arrangement. I then pulled the strings back into the track and it was all too much! There was barely space to breathe. Then it was more about paring the strings right back done to the bare minimum touches.
Who did you collaborate with to write and record the ‘The Art of Losing album?
This was very much a solo endeavour as something I wrote and produced alone but I did get to rope in a few special guests: James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers on vocals on The Exchange and guitar on Show Your Face. The marvellous Sterling Campbell who was David Bowie’s drummer for many years plays drums on the record too. That was a real treat to finally get to work with him as he’s such a sweet guy.
How do the themes of ‘The Art of Losing’ compare to your debut release as The Anchoress ‘Confessions of a Romance Novelistas’?
I think both albums are interested in the way in which literature can inspire, inform and make sense of the world. Thematically I don’t think the two have much in common as I’ve evolved so much since then and been through so many huge life experiences. I guess the song that perhaps bridges the two sonically speaking would be “Doesn’t Kill You” on Confessions and “All Farewells Should Be Sudden” on the new album.
Where and how do you record?
A lot of the new album was recorded in my own studio that I’d been slowly building and putting together over the past two years. I recorded all the synths and vocals here. Some of the drums were also recorded at Ray Davies’ Konk studios at the start of the sessions, although many of those ended up being discarded as the album evolved. Because I was touring with Simple Minds so much I was also often editing and arranging on the road on my mobile rig that I would pack in a small suitcase.
How did working with Bernard Butler for ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ compare to your solo projects?
It was a true collaboration and to be honest, a little bit of a “holiday” for me as Bernard took the helm producing and mixing with the collaborative album, as well as obviously being a genius guitar player. It was such a nice experience to also be able to pool the pressure around promoting and releasing it as well. I’ve never been in a band but it’s as close as I am likely to get! We had a lot of fun making our little homemade videos in lockdown too.
‘Sabotage (Looks So Easy)’ takes a similarly strident approach as the ‘The Art of Losing’ track – are there parallels to make?
That’s so interesting to hear as for me as one was written on the guitar, the other on an Oberheim synth. Of course I am always influenced by the things I love and listen to but ‘Sabotage’ was written way back in 2015 (and very much musically led by Bernard and our conversations around how much we loved Patti Smith). Whereas I wrote The Art of Losing alone in my studio in 2019, firmly under the influence of Depeche Mode, Talk Talk and Bowie with much more of a reflective frame of mind and very different lyrical preoccupations. I guess the only similarity for me was in consciously choosing an upbeat tempo!
Why did ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ take so long to complete? How much of the material dates back from the initial writing and recording sessions?
We actually only spent around 3-4 weeks writing and recording it in total! It’s so strange that from the outside it must look like this long, protracted project. It was finished back in 2015 but no one was interested in putting it out until Pete Paphides at Needle Mythology heard it! That’s really just why it took so long to have a release. It was homeless until Pete took us on.
What are the highlights from your time in music?
There’s too many really and I am always afraid of offending some of the incredible people I’ve worked with by only focusing on some. However, it has to be said that it was most definitely a highlight pulling James Dean Bradfield’s finished vocal into the mix of ‘The Exchange’ on the new album. I grew up idolising the Manic Street Preachers so you might even say it’s one of the highlights of my life to have him perform a song I wrote.
Personally I’ve found having a podcast a great way of talking to interesting people and sharing their stories. Can you tell me about The Art of Losing Podcast?
It’s been enormously cathartic and humbling talking to all the amazing guests I’ve had so far, sharing their stories of loss and grief. I’ve got some brilliant people lined up for season 2 as well!
How has the pandemic affected you?
As the name The Anchoress might suggest, I’m a fairly solitary person by nature anyway. It’s affected me hugely though in realising how much I miss my friends.
What are your plans for the rest of 2021?
To release the new album. And then start the next one!
The Art of Losing will be released via Kscope on 12th March 2021 on 2LP, CD & 3 CD ltd edition hardback book. See: theanchoress.co.uk
