Hayden Anhedönia has been making music under the name Ethel Cain since 2019. But it’s not just a band name or a moniker; Ethel Cain is a fictional character, a sort of alter ego that Hayden’s been creating and world building around throughout her albums. The first Ethel Cain album, Preacher’s Daughter, came out in 2022. It ended up blowing up, and it made Hayden the first openly trans artist with an album in the top ten on the Billboard chart. In 2025, she put out the second Ethel Cain album, called Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You. For this episode, I talked to Hayden about how she made the song “Nettles.” As you’re about to hear, it took on a lot of different forms, over several years, before she got to the final version.

You can buy or stream “Nettles” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes:
Steven Colyer
Bryan De Leon – drums
Cigarettes After Sex and Beach House
Muscle Shoals

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Sam Fender is a singer and songwriter from the town of North Shields in England. He won the Brit Award for Best Rock/Alternative Act twice. His most recent album is called People Watching, and just like his first two albums, it went to #1 on the UK album charts. To help produce the album, Sam enlisted Adam Granduciel, the singer and frontman of the Grammy-winning band The War On Drugs. For this episode, I talked to Sam, and his bandmate Joe Atkinson, about the title track from People Watching, and the long journey that it took to get made, from Sam’s kitchen, to the Hollywood Hills, to Abbey Road.

You can buy or stream “People Watching” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Annie Orwin
Brooke Bentham – backing vocals
Dru Michael – drums
Dean Thompson – lead guitar
Mark Webb – trumpet
Johnny ‘Bluehat’ Davis – tenor sax
Jon Natchez– baritone sax
Rosie Danvers – strings arranger
Sleeper Sounds
Tom Petty
Billy Connolly
Check out the Perfume Genius episode to learn more about the binaural mic
Lost in the Dream – The War On Drugs
Dancing in the Dark – Bruce Springsteen

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