Photo: Press
"I love her, she's amazing," says Simple Minds guitarist Charlie Burchill of their friend and touring bandmate Catherine Anne Davies - aka, The Anchoress. "She's a consistently amazing singer, especially for such a small and petite person. She's astonishingly diligent and gives it everything. There's a great joy in her, and it comes through everything she does - sometimes it drives you nuts."
A fitting seal of approval from leading masters of art-pop melodrama, but now The Anchoress is stepping out on her own terms with the resplendent and lush, Confessions Of A Romance Novelist - already one of the finest albums of the year. Now, as she takes the record out on the road, we're proud the premiere the beautiful Bowie-inspired video for album highlight 'Doesn't Kill You' - starring David Gilmour's son, Charlie. Check it out below.
"I was also pretty obsessed with David Bowie's Low around this time," she tells us of the song's origins. "It was written in the midst of a very difficult time in the album's making, when it looked like it might not get finished at all, it’s probably one of the most personal songs on the album that deviates somewhat from my original intention to have each song sung by a different character – what you might call a musical ghost writing of sorts…
"Cenzo Townshend did a beautiful mix of this despite having to make sense of mix notes sent at 3am from sketchy hotel wifi while I was on tour in Europe. There’s lots of my vintage omnichord in there that I inherited as ‘asshole tax’ from my ex. The title? I promise you it has nothing to do with Kelly Clarkson… The song is about taking the chaos you find yourself in and channelling it into something more positive. 'You have to suffer…'
She added: "The piano crash at the end was brought to you by a combination of red wine, codeine, and being forced to play through the pain of (what I didn't know at the time was) a detached ligament in my hand when it had all gone a bit Bobby Fischer…"
Speaking of how the video came to be, she said: "Charlie Gilmour (son of David Gilmour) stars as my androgynous alter ego in this Bowie-inspired short film, which was styled by costume designer Natasha Lawes. Directed by Annick Wolfers (who has previously worked with Vivienne Westwood and Vogue Italia), it narrates what I have described as a “metaphorical battle between the super-ego and the id” but in reality was more about me not pushing Charlie around too hard as he's a mixed martial arts expert..."
'Doesn't Kill You' is released on 17 June. Confessions Of A Romance Novelist is out now.
The Anchoress' upcoming UK tour dates are as follows. For tickets and more information, visit here.
29 May LIVERPOOL, Sound City (main stage)
15 June LONDON, Bush Hall
15 July LATITUDE FESTIVAL, Southwold
5 August GLASGOW, CCA
6 August EDINBURGH, Summerhall (Edinburgh Fringe with Kathryn Joseph)
