Ethel Cain

Ethel Cain is the recording persona of Hayden Anhedönia, born in Tallahassee, Florida in 1998 and raised in nearby Perry. The eldest of four children in a Southern Baptist family, she sang in her father's church choir and began classical piano lessons at eight, taking early cues from Christian music and from Florence Welch. She left the church at sixteen and was homeschooled throughout.

She started writing music in 2017 under aliases including White Silas, posting Gregorian-chant-inspired tracks online before settling on the name Ethel Cain in 2019. Early EPs Carpet Bed and Golden Age won her support from Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, and a Los Angeles show led the rapper Lil Aaron to bring her into music publishing. Her first single as Ethel Cain, 'Michelle Pfeiffer', appeared in 2021, followed by 'Crush' and the EP Inbred.

The name belongs to a fictional character whose story runs across her records, and the songs are written from inside that narrative: small-town America, family violence, religion and desire, treated at length and at a deliberate pace. Musically the work draws on slowcore, shoegaze, ambient music and country balladry, with long instrumental passages and heavily reverbed vocals.

Her debut album, Preacher's Daughter, released in 2022, brought her a substantial following and a cult audience well before it charted. A 2025 vinyl reissue pushed it to number ten on the Billboard 200. That year also brought Perverts, an experiment in drone, and Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You, a second album that serves as a lyrical prequel to Preacher's Daughter.