Ethel Cain "insists on living in the middle of nowhere," a 2022 New York Times profile of the artist reads. The Florida-raised musician is intent on doing things her way and exploring America's roads less traveled. "I kind of just do what I want as I feel like doing it, you know, when it feels right in the moment," she said to Flood Magazine in 2022. "Sometimes I get up at 3 a.m. and drive to another state."
In May 2022, Cain released her debut album, "Preacher's Daughter," a sprawling collection of torch ballads about Americana themes, girlhood, religion, and trauma. The album follows her celebrated EP "Inbred" and earned her a record deal and major media attention, and she's set to follow in the footsteps of heavily visual, conceptual artists like Lana Del Rey; Florence and the Machine; and Tyler, the Creator.
Raised in an extremely religious Christian family, Cain eventually dove into pop culture and pop music, all of which would eventually blur together to form her artistic persona. At 20, Cain came out as trans on Facebook; that same week, she discovered a piano loop that inspired her to write the song "A House in Nebraska," which was the seed for an entire project spanning "three albums, three books and three movies tracing three generations of women," per The New York Times. Right now, she's enjoying the ride that is Ethel Cain. "I just love to not even write her story, just kind of let the story unfold naturally, as I grow with her," she said to Flood.
