The Anchoress

Catherine Anne Davies, the Welsh musician and songwriter, performs and records as The Anchoress while also using the alias Catherine A.D. Working as a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer, she focuses on an intense fusion of gothic chamber pop with shadowy, atmospheric art rock and has been likened to PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Anna Calvi, My Brightest Diamond, and Kate Bush.

Before adopting the Anchoress identity, she put out several independently released EPs that earned strong notices; in 2014 she released the EP One for Sorrow under the new name. At roughly the same moment she became part of Simple Minds’ touring lineup, an association that did not slow work on her first full-length album, Confessions of a Romance Novelist, which arrived in 2016. Paul Draper (Mansun) served as co-producer, and Davies reciprocated by co-writing five tracks for his debut solo album, Spooky Action, issued in 2017. The year after she stepped away from Simple Minds, allowing full concentration on her next Anchoress project, The Art of Losing, which surfaced in 2021.