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New York Times
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Ethel Cain, Pop's Experimental Problem Child, Will Never Be the Same
Ethel Cain is not your average pop star. As the Southern Gothic persona of the singer and songwriter Hayden Anhedönia, Cain became one of music's least likely cult sensations in recent years, not with quick hits but via deep storytelling lore and epic slowcore ballads. While 'Preacher's Daughter,' her first album from 2022, also featured some perky pop-rock, like the anthemic 'American Teenager,' it preferred to linger in darker sounds and moods, exploring small-town religious trauma, sexual violence and even cannibalism. Cain, 27, built intrigue along the way with a blunt, irreverent internet presence, and went on to open tour dates for Florence + the Machine and boygenius. She largely avoided the industry strongholds of New York and Los Angeles, preferring to create alone in remote isolation: rural Alabama, desolate Indiana, frigid western Pennsylvania. After her breakout success, Cain swerved even harder, following up her celebrated debut with 'Perverts,' a nearly 90-minute album of ambient drone music released in January. On Aug. 8, she will return to song structure, if not pure pop, with 'Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You,' a dense and lush album that alternates between peppy synths, detuned acoustic ballads and eerie instrumental passages, with songs clocking in at eight, 10 and 15 minutes long. Ahead of the release, Cain joined Popcast, The New York Times's music show, to discuss what happens when a bedroom fantasy becomes your career; how the characters she created both shield her and don't; and what it means to be a prominent trans artist in this social and political moment. Cain also spoke at length for the first time about the resurfacing of old social-media screenshots revealing her past racial insensitivities, alongside what she called a 'massive smear campaign' that targeted her identity. (Cain released a 2,000-word statement earlier this month that can be read here.) These are edited excerpts from the conversation. JOE COSCARELLI I thought we could start by talking about the difference between Hayden and Ethel Cain, and how you think about that character now, a few years into this project. ETHEL CAIN When you're from the South, people are very nosy. When I started making this project, it was a way to talk about the things that I've been through — my experiences in life, the experiences of people that I love, everything that I have witnessed — in a way where I could be open and honest about the nasty, the brutal, the ugly, without doing it in a way where everyone in my life is going to call me and be like, 'Why are you talking about this?' It was kind of a way for me to shirk off responsibility: 'All names and places have been fictionalized to protect the viewer.' COSCARELLI Has it worked as armor for your personal life and your history? CAIN It also creates problems that you don't realize. I thought it was going to protect me, and it was going to be Ethel Cain's problem, but then you get into this kind of interesting thing where you start to get eclipsed by your own character. So I keep jumping across this line and doing this funny dance where I'm figuring out: 'Where is she? Where am I? Who is she in relation to me? Do people know her better than they know me? Is it a good thing? Is it bad thing?' My relationship with the character and the entity of Ethel Cain really does change year to year. JON CARAMANICA I think a lot of people who come into the industry, even if they don't create a character with a name, they create a persona. CAIN Oh, absolutely. You have to understand, if I'm going to go for this, you are accepting to let your life, all of your everything, be played out in front of other people. No matter how much or how little of yourself you decide to share, you are saying hello. You lose control and you have to be OK with that. COSCARELLI I think having that lore, that back story, plus the dramatic presentation — the dresses, the religious imagery — was also a huge magnet. Do you think it worked as a marketing tactic, giving you a bigger audience than you might not have had if you just said, 'I'm Hayden, a regular person from Florida, and here's my music?' CAIN I absolutely think that it did. I always had two minds about me: I do this because I'm passionate about the project. I love creating. I love world-building and weaving a web. I loved 'Lord of the Rings' growing up, The Legend of Zelda, I love when something's a breadcrumb. At the same time, I thought: 'Well, I'm not really good at anything else. So if I'm going to go for this, I might as well try to make it at least profitable enough to live off of.' I wanted something with the richness and the complexity of a fantasy series, but through the lens of a Southern Gothic, female-fronted kitchen-table drama. Because that's what my childhood was, just watching all these women interact and hearing stories from my mother and my grandmother and my aunts and their friends, living in this stifling, small, evangelical community. I really loved the idea of kind of bringing that complexity and richness and drama and over-the-topness of a fantasy series to the very mundane, boring life that I grew up in. It makes sense that that aspect carried the project, because when people bite into something, they want more, they want to rip it apart and see how far down it goes. Sometimes I feel like people love the story more than they even love the music. COSCARELLI At the same time, we know about parasocial relationships on the internet, and there's a downside. Over the last few weeks, you've been dealing a large amount of your past that has been resurfaced online. Some of it was offensive, which you seem to regret, and some you've said is being weaponized against you because of your identity as a trans artist. CAIN It was very strange when it all happened because it was one domino after another, and there are aspects of it that you have to take accountability for — mistakes and actions that you have to atone for — and then there's other aspects that are being weaponized purely out of malice. I do like to consider myself a very open book and I'm by no means perfect. I come from a place that is very ass-backwards and it's kind of crazy the things that you still learn every day that just don't fly, things that are so deeply ingrained in you that you're constantly having to work on. COSCARELLI The part of it that you really seemed to want to address head-on was the use of racially offensive language and jokes. CAIN Yes, because in this specific instant, somebody had asked me [on social media] if I'd ever used a racial slur. And I said, in all honesty, yes, I have used it before. The way in which I answered it was more flippant than it needed to be. Sometimes I'm deadpan and a bit more blunt in matters that do require more sensitivity. It's one of the worst things you can do. It's hateful. It was intentionally inflammatory. I said that in my statement. I look back at a period of my life, when I was young and angry and lashing out at the world — it is deeply shameful and embarrassing to see that dredged back up, especially when I've created a project that is so built on trauma and healing. Moving forward, all I can really do now is try to use my platform to make right. COSCARELLI You also come from a generation where your whole life, every up and down of it, is documented online. CAIN I discovered and started sneaking onto the internet at all costs at about 15. It was kind of the escape from the life that I'd been living. And that culture on the internet at the time was so bad and so crazy, because it was a bunch of feral teens who were just so bonkers. I remember being on Stan Twitter before Stan Twitter was called that. I had no followers, no friends, nobody was looking at me, so I was able to just take all this weird negativity that I'd built up in retaliation — that I could never spew out at the people in my life who maybe actually deserved it. CARAMANICA You've also built this successful life, heading in a beautiful direction. Is part of the anxiety around this that it could undermine that? CAIN I don't come from this world. This was not mine. I never thought this would happen. So every day I get to do the job, I'm grateful. And if I ever lose it, especially by the consequences of my own actions, that would be my fault. So that to me wasn't a worry. The anxiety was just kind of, 'Am I the worst person ever?' I like to tell myself I do the right thing, I try to be good to people, to stand by these values that I was raised with and then thinking, am I completely not doing that at all? It was a crisis of identity, like, 'I'm the biggest hypocrite ever.' I do have a very kind of reactionary, inflammatory side to me. I've always described myself as being a little badass 8-year-old boy who has been sent to live with grandma — and I'm simultaneously grandma. I feel like this child who acts before I think. But then I also like to think when the fire has subsided, this is the right thing to do. This is how you can make right: Be apologetic, atone, be accountable. And sometimes I get scared of who's in the driver's seat. COSCARELLI I also want to talk about the flip side of your statement, which was standing up and saying, 'I'm also being attacked as a trans artist.' CAIN With my identity in this political time in America, you know, people are not going to like you. I don't even want to say it out loud, but being accused of the things I was being accused of that were so — COSCARELLI Glorifying child abuse, incest, bestiality … CAIN Yes, all of those very, very vicious things, which are also the same things the queer community has often been attacked as — sexual deviants and perverts and whatnot. It's a huge thing. Queer people are to this day attacked with all kinds of slanderous material. And I wanted to point that out. COSCARELLI You talked about warring impulses within you that are also in the music that got you here — this push and pull between pop and anti-pop. You were signed to Prescription Songs, the label and publishing company of Dr. Luke, the premier centrist American hitmaker. But you followed your breakout success with a drone album. How much of that is taste and how much is trolling? CAIN Again, it's like, 'Who's in the driver's seat?' A lot of times it starts with that little badass kid: I want to be reactionary, I want to get attention, like the EPs, 'Inbred,' 'Perverts,' the names alone. I try to let the 8-year-old drive less and less as I get older, but sometimes we hop in the driver's seat and it's like, 'OK, let's do something crazy.' When I first started making music, it was literally me and GarageBand. I said: 'Well, I'm not going to have a career. Nobody's ever going to know who I am, I can do whatever I want.' I was making Gregorian chant music. I was making electronic music, I was making pop music, I was making ambient music, I was making spoken word pieces — whatever tickled my fancy. With people watching, with 'Preacher's Daughter,' I thought: 'Well, I do have to be business-minded. I do have to clean up some of the sludgier, dronier aspects of this and make it more palatable.' I have people who are counting on me, there's money involved. So I was like, 'Let's put a pop song on there, try to grab audiences.' And if you come for the pop, stay for the drone, or the eight-minute piano ballad that follows it. But also, as someone who comes from Stan Twitter, I know the way that they treat pop stars as opposed to rock artists or women in alternative spaces. I don't want my life picked apart like that. I was very scared to get labeled that because I thought, 'Here come the piranhas.' But also that's my penance. Sometimes I look at this and I say, 'I deserve this.' COSCARELLI How did the business impulses, the realities of this becoming a career, affect the art going into this album? CAIN You have to accept when you make a business out of your passion, it is going to fundamentally forever change the way that you create. You only get one debut. I will never make a record the way I made 'Preacher's Daughter,' which has been heartbreaking over the past couple years of realizing that. 'Willoughby Tucker' was a very different process. A lot more frustration, a lot more heartbreak, a lot emptier. I cried every day that I was finishing it because I just thought, 'Will I ever love this again?' The only thing I have ever truly, deeply, unequivocally loved in my whole life was telling stories and making music. And the fact that I feel nothing for making music right now, for this portion, that was hard. I don't care what music people want from me. But it's still like, this is what funds my life. I do not want to have to go back to working a day job like I did for so many years to fund the music. So I do have to find the compromise of, we put out an album, I tour it, I make a pop song or two, and I enjoy that. But then I will make an hour-and-a-half-long drone album. The only way that you could really fail personally is if you stop indulging and start only thinking about business. You have to do both at the same time. COSCARELLI So where are you at with your record deal and the future of your career? CAIN I will be independent as of this record's release. I'm looking forward to being fully in control of my everything moving forward. I want to leave behind a long legacy of art that was genuine and heartfelt, that's not for anybody else, but I can look back on and say: 'I really gave it my all and I have a lot of good memories attached. And a lot of bad memories attached, too, but like I lived my life through those projects.' That to me is what success will look like. Watch the full episode here and follow Popcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or YouTube.
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Billboard Charts First-Timers: Dijon, Eddie Benjamin & Lil B Score Hot 100 Entries Thanks to Justin Bieber
Across Billboard's 200-plus charts this week (dated July 26), a fresh wave of artists debut for the very first time. From rising pop vocalists to a veteran internet rap icon who guests on Justin Bieber's new release, here's a look at the artists who debut for the first time this week. Dijon, Eddie Benjamin & Lil B All three artists debut on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time this week thanks to their guest appearances on Justin Bieber's new album, Swag. The set debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 163,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States July 11-17, according to Luminate — Bieber surprise-released the LP just 10 hours after announcing it. More from Billboard Jamal Roberts Shares How His Life Changed Since Winning 'Idol' & Why He Never Wants to Leave 'Mississippi' Daniel Caesar Talks Working With 'Genius' Tyler, the Creator, Says Justin Bieber 'Can Sing His A- Off' Here's Why Drake Fans Think New Music Is Coming Tonight Dijon scores his first Hot 100 hit with 'Devotion,' his co-billed collaboration with Bieber. The song debuts at No. 56 on the strength of 9.1 million official U.S. streams. It also opens at No. 7 on Hot R&B Songs and No. 16 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Dijon's past chart appearances include his 2023 debut album Absolutely (which peaked at No. 71 on Top Album Sales) and a feature on Bon Iver's 'Day One' earlier this year. He's also a key creative behind Swag, co-producing and co-writing multiple tracks including 'Daisies' (No. 2), 'Yukon' (No. 17) and 'Things You Do' (No. 35). Before working with Bieber, Dijon toured with boygenius, Clairo and Bartees Strange. Eddie Benjamin also earns his first Hot 100 entry with 'Swag,' alongside Bieber and Cash Cobain. The song debuts at No. 70 with 7 million U.S. streams. Benjamin had charted once before this week, via his solo song 'Weatherman' — the track peaked at No. 22 on Pop Airplay in May 2022. Benjamin co-wrote or co-produced 13 tracks on Swag, including 'Daisies.' He and Bieber have a longstanding history, as he opened on Bieber's Justice World Tour in 2022. Lil B, the cult internet rap icon, finally lands on the Hot 100 with his co-billed appearance on Bieber's 'Dadz Love,' which debuts at No. 84 (6.2 million streams). Though he first charted in 2011 with I'm Gay (No. 56 peak on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums), this marks a milestone in his unconventional career. Also known as the BasedGod, Lil B has released dozens of mixtapes in his career and built a legacy as a pioneering figure of internet-era rap. Many of those mixtapes were unavailable on streaming services until 2018, when he uploaded more than 30 of them to DSPs. Beau Nox The pop singer-songwriter scores his first Billboard chart entry with 'White Wine & Adderall,' a collaboration with The Chainsmokers. The track, released July 11 via Secondhand Happiness/Disruptor/Columbia, debuts at No. 8 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with 1.3 million U.S. streams. oskar med k The Norwegian producer notches his first chart appearance with 'Make Me Feel,' which debuts at No. 25 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, following a 142% streaming surge (691,000 U.S. streams). The song has gained traction on TikTok, where it's been featured in more than 13,000 videos to date. Stove God Cooks The emerging Syracuse, N.Y., rapper enters Billboard's charts for the first time with his feature on Clipse's 'F.I.C.O.' The track, from Clipse's new album Let God Sort Em Out, debuts at No. 20 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 34 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (5.3 million U.S. streams). Stove God Cooks released his debut album Reasonable Drought, a collaborative effort with Roc Marciano, in 2020. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Four Decades of 'Madonna': A Look Back at the Queen of Pop's Debut Album on the Charts Chart Rewind: In 1990, Madonna Was in 'Vogue' Atop the Hot 100 Solve the daily Crossword
CBC
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Lucy Dacus doesn't think love should be corny
On her new album, 'Forever Is a Feeling,' Lucy Dacus sets the record straight on what love is — and isn't. The singer-songwriter sits down with Tom Power to tell us what she thinks is missing in modern love songs, what she's learned about love (spoiler alert: she's still searching for answers), and how she feels about the end of her Grammy-winning supergroup boygenius. If you like this conversation, you'll probably also enjoy Tom's chat with Phoebe Bridgers.
Forbes
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Lucy Dacus Dazzles New York City Fans On Her ‘Forever Is A Feeling' Tour
Lucy Dacus credit: Shervin Lainez It's remarkable how Lucy Dacus' career trajectory has changed in almost a decade. In June 2016, the same year she released her debut LP No Burden, the indie singer-songwriter from Richmond, Virginia, played a very modest-sized stage at Rough Trade NYC in Brooklyn, New York. Afterward, with each subsequent record and steady touring, Dacus built up critical acclaim for her exquisite alto singing and heartfelt music about the complicated and tender moments of love and relationships. Fast forward to the present, and Dacus' fame has grown exponentially as a member of the popular supergroup boygenius (with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker), which culminated in their hugely popular 2022 debut album The Record, which racked up three Grammy Awards for the trio. Dacus has recently released her first solo album in four years, Forever Is a Feeling, another fine notch in her belt. In a recent Newsweek interview, she said of that album. "I'm not obsessed with the stories of my past. What really interests me right now is my present moment. It's primarily about love and what love means and how it functions in my life and society." The album's lush atmospherics and cinematic sound translated quite well on stage during Dacus' appearance Thursday at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, for the second of two sold-out shows. This venue was much larger and housed a bigger crowd in contrast to her 2016 show at the now-defunct Rough Trade NYC location in Brooklyn—further proof of Dacus' growing fan base. Another example of how far she had come is the stage backdrop, which was modeled after a museum gallery with electronic screens shaped like hanging picture frames. Despite all the bells and whistles of being on a legendary stage and with an elaborate stage setup, Dacus kept the focus on the music and the results were spellbinding. Accompanied by ber ace band, she performed a majority of the songs from Forever Is a Feeling—among them 'Best Guess,' 'Ankles,' 'Talk,' 'For Keeps,' 'Modigliani' and 'Limerence,' the latter sounding more heartbreakingly beautiful live than it was on the record. Some of Dacus' old favorites were sprinkled into the set, including 'VBS,' 'Hot & Heavy' and 'I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore.' A highlight during her New York City run was the surprise appearance of the Irish singer Hozier, who duetted with Dacus on the song 'Bullseye,' reprising his role from the studio version of sht song that appeared on Forever Is a Feeling. Hozier didn't make a return for the Thursday show, but the artist jasmine.4.t, one of the opening acts for Dacus' shows on the tour (the other being MUNA's Katie Gavin), ably filled in for him. After performing the tear-jerking songs from Forever Is a Feeling — 'Lost Time' and the title track — Dacus and her band returned to the stage for the encore. That included a performance of the song 'Bus Back to Richmond,' which has not yet been released on record; the boygenius song 'True Blue' and 'Night Shift from Dacus' second album Historian. Dacus had the crowd in her pocket and expressed genuine affection towards the fans in between songs. In turn, the fans reciprocated their love towards the singer not only by cheering with passionate fervor but also by singing the words to the songs. For those who have followed Dacus since the beginning of her career 10 years ago, this Radio City appearance felt like a well-deserved victory lap for an artist who has consistently stayed true to her musical vision. Setlist: Hot & Heavy Ankles Big Deal Modigliani Limerence Best Guess First Time VBS Talk Nonbeliever For Keeps Partner in Crime I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore Bullseye (with jasmine.4.t) Most Wanted Man Lost Time Forever Is a Feeling Encore: Bus Back to Richmond True Blue (boygenius song) Night Shift
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lucy Dacus confirms relationship with boygenius bandmate Julien Baker
Lucy Dacus has confirmed that she is in a relationship with her boygenius bandmate Julien Baker. The singer offered the revelation in a recent interview with The New Yorker's Amanda Petrusich, ahead of the release of her new album, Forever Is a Feeling. In the lengthy article, Petrusich outlined that the upcoming record is 'about falling in love', adding that 'Dacus is now in a committed relationship with Baker,' for further context. According to the journalist, although the pair have kept their romance somewhat private to this point, Dacus didn't necessarily want to hide it. However, with such an engaged fanbase, most of whom are respectful of boundaries, the singer says, 'It only takes a handful to make your life feel like a really easily threatened thing.' lucy dacus x julien baker ofc we knew it since ⬇️ — mish 🍉 (@thegirlwanders) March 17, 2025 She continued: 'It's been interesting, because I want to protect what is precious in my life, but also to be honest, and make art that's true…I think maybe a part of it is just trusting that it's not at risk,' she paused. 'Maybe a healthier way to think about it is that it's not actually fragile. These songs are about different people. But, you know, 'Most Wanted Man in West Tennessee'—what are you gonna do?' (Baker was born and raised outside Memphis.) Dacus also explained that she has only had romantic love with friends or collaborators. 'Almost every relationship I have been in, we've had some business or creative dealings. I don't mean this just sexually, but it turns me on…To have your minds meet on something, and be, like, 'Oh, my gosh, you said what I couldn't say. I love your mind.'' lucy dacus and julien baker confirmed that they are dating — sapphics like: (@sapphicslike) March 17, 2025 boygenius was formed in 2018 as an indie rock supergroup composed of Dacus, Baker and Phoebe Bridgers. The trio released a self-titled EP the same year and returned in 2023 with the Grammy Award-winning album The Record. After achieving huge success with the project and touring together across the world, the band announced an indefinite hiatus in 2024. 'The decision to take time off came even before the record came out. We always said, 'One year,'' Dacus explained in The New Yorker interview. 'Let's protect our friendship, let's protect our energy, let's not have each other feel pressure to keep it going for the others.' She concluded: 'It was so much fun, and I think we ended at the perfect time.' According to Petrusich, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker moved to Los Angeles together as the band finished its world tour, where they still reside. Bandmate Phoebe Bridgers reacted to the pair going public, sharing a photo on Instagram of the trio with herself blurred out. The news comes as Lucy Dacus also announced the tracklist for her new album ahead of its March 28 release. The project will include a song with Ireland's own Hozier entitled 'Bullseye', marking the first feature Dacus has ever done on her solo music. The post Lucy Dacus confirms relationship with boygenius bandmate Julien Baker appeared first on GCN.
