After soaking in a lifetime in the bible belt and a year of intense romance, the Floridian is ready to share her experimental dreamscape.
Photo by Mowgli Kirbo
In the final weeks of 2019, before the world subsequently fell into dystopian melancholy, a soft breath of fresh air provided a semblance of sun-drenched Americana. The woman behind the spiritual movement, Ethel Cain (formerly White Silas), welcomed listeners into her EP, Golden Age – a universe marked by easy rock and soft agony, sticky skin and fireflies. Better felt than explained, the work of the alluring Floridian has captured the imagination of her parishioners, who have deemed themselves the “daughters” of her preacher’s wife identity. But much like the nation she represents, Ethel is bound by strands of discontent; as she unwraps the beauty of echoing synth and vintage lace, a turbulent world of self-discovery is revealed.
Beyond a layer of aesthetic filigree, Ethel’s roots run true. Refined by a religious upbringing in what appears to be a land of cultural desolation to the untrained eye, Ethel’s seemingly endless creative energy teems from the inside out. With a bold foray into tattooing already in the books, she plans to add filmmaking to the cultural time capsule she actively cultivates. But, as for now, she aims to share her bucolic visions through ethereal melodies achieved with the help of her close friend and fellow Florida native, Yah Wav.
For the first time, Ethel reveals how she has become the woman she is today – one of grace, substance, and a streak of mystery.
What was growing up in Florida like?
Hot and boring! I had a really quiet upbringing in a tiny Podunk (and intensely religious) town of about 1,500 people. I got really restless there growing up but now that I’ve moved away, I miss it a lot more. I hope to live there or somewhere near it when I’m older and ready to settle down. Florida has a very strange and unique energy that I haven’t found anywhere else and I definitely know I’ll keep going back for the rest of my life and most likely ending up there for good in the end. It’ll always be my first love and my home.
How did you get into making music?
My mother and I were in our church choir from about the time I was 5/6 and I started taking piano lessons at 8, so I’ve always been surrounded by music my whole life. It was a bit sheltered though so all I had to listen to were church hymns and Gregorian chants per my mother and then classic country and rock per my dad until I was in high school and started discovering secular music outside that bubble. I realized around then that art, in general, was my passion and I wanted to create no matter what medium it was, but it wasn’t until I was 19 that I said fuck it and opened GarageBand for the first time and just started teaching myself to produce. I figured there was no time like the present to start.
Did you know this was always what you wanted to be doing?
Absolutely. I’ve never been happier than I am when I’m creating, whether it’s stories or videos or music or drawings. I’ve also always wanted to be a filmmaker, so I hope to transition into that someday and write/direct/score films all myself. It feels so good to bring all my ideas into the real world and share them with people and see how it affects them and makes them feel. It’s the best feeling in the world.
You used to go by the moniker White Silas. What inspired the creation of Ethel Cain?
White Silas was kind of my scatterbrained test run phase. I was testing out a million different genres and visual styles and aesthetics all at once to see what felt best and what felt the most ‘me.’ Eventually, I realized my heart was pulled the strongest to my roots, which is the intersection between my experiences in the heavily religious American South and my dreams of the wild and free American West. Ethel Cain is the unhappy wife of a corrupt Preacher, a trope I saw first-hand plenty of times growing up, dreaming of running away and living her life to the fullest. We have many things in common and she’s always been my out. We both just want to be rock stars.
Photo by Mowgli Kirbo
Your debut EP as Ethel, Golden Age came out at the end of last year. What was the creative process around that project?
I split Golden Age up into two separate aspects: sonic and emotional. Emotionally, Golden Age started with my first real encounter with love. I’ve always felt very alone and secluded in my life but at the very start of 2019 I fell in love completely by accident and it was very much an emotional awakening for me. I was feeling things I’d never felt before and it was all very intense and new and terrifying. I wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with it, so I ended up making a mess of the situation in a way, and it wound up being the most emotionally turbulent year of my life. Golden Age wound up just being the product of my hopes and fears and pleasures and pains all regarding that love. Some of it is from experience, some projecting, some wishing. Sonically, I just wanted to capture the drugged-out haze I spent the entire hot Florida summer drifting through. I wanted the entire EP to just feel like a washed-out, sweaty, and romantic fever dream.
What were the main influences around the EP and how have your musical influences grown over the years?
I will listen to just about anything as long as I like it, but I definitely had some key influences for this particular project. I wanted it to be my last run of straight ethereal dream pop before I moved into the classic rock/country/alternative sound of my album, so I drew inspiration from a lot of my favorite dreamy artists. Enya, Kye Kye, Nicole Dollanganger, Daughter, Clams Casino, with a splash of an edgier sound like Title Fight, who so graciously allowed me to sample their music on “Head in the Wall.” I was raised on country, hymns, and 90s Christian synthpop, moved into bubblegum pop in high school, strayed into very alternative and baroque music in my late teens, before finally returning to full county rock in my early 20s. It’s been a fun progression and I’ve learned a lot.
Is Ethel here to stay? Do you think you would revisit your older work at some point?
White Silas is dead for sure. That entire project was so bizarre and there’s nothing even substantial enough to revive, but I’m definitely planning on exploring more genres later in life. Ethel is my passion project and it’s where my heart is and will always be the main face of my music and what I want to be remembered for, but you never know. My mood and side interests are constantly changing so who knows what trouble I’ll get into in time.
What’s one element you would say has to be present in all of your music?
A strong melody. Throughout every phase, genre, favorite artist, etc., I have always been drawn to a good and unique melody. The lyrics will always come second to the melodies for me, and I spend a lot of time working on mine. Sometimes I create a melody I love in 10 minutes, sometimes it takes me six months. Every single note influences the emotion of a song in a huge way and changing even just one can completely shift the emotional quality of the song. I also build my songs around the melody; the melody will always come first.
You spent some time in the studio with Boyfriendz. How did you come to connect with Lil Aaron, Smrtdeath and Lotus?
Social media, honestly. You meet one person and they introduce you to two, and then four, and then it just branches off from there. I’ve found myself in circles I never expected to be in because we make completely different types of art, but they’re all so nice and fun to be around and I’ve learned a lot from them already. I think it’s been good to branch out and work with artists outside my style. You wind up creating some cool and unexpected stuff. But yeah, all three of them are great and have been so encouraging, love them to death.
You have also worked closely with fellow Floridian artist Yah Wav. Tell us a bit about them and how you came to create music together?
I met Wav through one of my best friends, who’s actually his sister. When I first met her and told her I made music, she told me her brother did as well and put us in touch. He sent me a couple of instrumentals and I laid down vocals over them and we immediately had an EP. I’d never collaborated with anyone before, but I knew that we were on to something massive together so we kind of just decided to team up for good and make some good ass music. He’s in the same space I am of just caring about nothing but the music so I knew we’d work well together to create art that exists for the purpose of just being good art and not for the money or fame or whatever. He’s an insanely talented artist and his solo work is incredible and honestly, he’s just been so crucial to my career. I met him right when I was ready to give up music and he just lit a fire under my ass to keep going. Now here we are working on my debut together and I can confidently say he’s the best thing to ever happen to my career.
What advice do you have for a sexual minority who may want to start making music but is scared to put themselves out there?
Sometimes you just have to take the jump. If you love it and it makes you happy then do it. Even if you’re doing it for no one but yourself, that’s still a good enough reason to do it. There can never be too much art in the world. Hone your craft, leave your legacy, and make something that makes you feel good.
Photo by Courtney Wilder
You describe your aesthetic as that of a preacher’s wife. Has this always been the brand you’ve been aiming for? How did you come into it?
My music has always been super religious due to my upbringing, but the preacher’s wife is definitely a refined version of it. When I first started, it was very much slutty nuns and upside crosses and all the guttural catholic whatnot cause I thought it looked cool, but as I’ve matured and grown as a woman, I think I realized the real shit that lied in the small country churches I grew up in. Growing up in the bible belt is a brutal experience emotionally because a lot of fucked up stuff happens, and no one ever talks about anything. The underbelly of it all is a really ominous and heinous experience. The things I’ve seen and lived through will never leave me, so I really wanted to try and highlight that in my music and art.
You more than know your way around a tattoo machine. What was your introduction to this particular artform like? (P.S. How in the hell did you tattoo your own throat?!)
I’ve always loved drawing and at some point, I just got sick of putting it on paper. I’ve always loved the look of ink on skin, I just think it’s so sexy and such a good disruption of the dead space on the blank human body. I love looking down at my own hands and arms and legs and seeing little scribbles. I started off paying an artist but then I was like nah, I’m too poor for this, let me do it myself. I also love the personal aspect of doing my own tattoos. Every stick n’ poke has a story and represents something that means enough to me to go through the pain of memorializing it on my body. As for my throat, it truly beats me. I just got high as fuck in my room and scrawled it backward on my neck and prayed to god it turned out readable!
Outside of music, you have an interest in the visual arts and filmmaking. Does this passion filter through to your songs?
For sure, I write all my songs as though they are scripts for a movie. I want each song to tell its own little story and I have music videos/scenes visualized for every single song I write. It’s a lot more difficult to just go out and shoot a film (or at least the type of film I want to make), so I settled for telling those films through songs. When I’ve made it big enough through music to have the resources, I want to bring about the resurgence of classic, shot-on-film American cinematic masterpieces like Thelma and Louise (my favorite film of all time, god bless).
You have a very unique and personal relationship with your fans; they refer to themselves as ‘daughters of Ethel Cain.’ How did this close-knit bond come about?
I’ve always been very ‘underground,’ so to speak. I wouldn’t really describe my music as accessible, so I’ve spent my entire career so far with a very small and tight-knit support group. I’ve been very lucky, though, to meet people who are beyond supportive and encouraging of my music. When you make music in my vein (emotional, personal, raw, very specific to a generation and group of people with certain life experiences), it really draws others to your story. I’ve met so many people who ‘escaped’ the church or others who have suffered really fucked up situations like assault or abuse, and it really just makes for a very intimate connection between writer and listener.
As for the ‘daughters’ term, it just falls in with the matronly mother figure of the preacher’s wife. I feel like I have my tiny little congregation who I speak to like they’re my little southern Baptist cult. One of my favorite ‘daughters’ on Twitter calls herself the Ethel Cain Stan Bot and is always referring to my listeners as my daughters and talks about the ‘cult’ and ‘church’ of Ethel Cain and she just cracks me up, I love her to death. I really like the family-like relationship we’ve created; they mean the world to me. I’ve even made a little signature brand that they want me to tattoo on them when I meet them in person! It’s so cute.
What can we expect from you in the future?
A lot, honestly. I’ve really dedicated my life at this point to just creating. I’ll create until I die. I want to create the best American records of my generation, films that stand the test of time, and so much more. I don’t personally want to be famous in any way, but I do want Ethel Cain as a visual and a sound to be remembered as part of a notable time in the history of American art and music and culture. I think my generation is very polarized right now in a very turbulent political and social climate and the art that’s going to come out of it is going to be insane and raw and beautiful. I just want to leave my mark alongside my peers. We’re all out here just trying to survive and make something meaningful in the meantime.