Ethel Cain Artistfacts

March 24, 1998
Ethel Cain is the stage name of Hayden Silas Anhedönia, a singer-songwriter born in Tallahassee, Florida. Her music is characterized by a distinctive Southern Gothic aesthetic, often exploring themes of intergenerational trauma and religious imagery.
She grew up in a Southern Baptist family as the eldest of four children. Both her truck driver father and mother were deeply involved in their church.
Cain's personal journey includes leaving the church at 16 after coming out as gay at 12, and publicly coming out as a transgender woman on her 20th birthday, legally changing her name to Hayden Silas Anhedönia. She identifies as a bisexual woman and was diagnosed with autism as an adult.
Ethel Cain's musical journey began early on. She sang in her church choir alongside her mom from a young age and started classical piano lessons at 8. Initially, she shared her music on platforms like Tumblr and SoundCloud, gradually gaining a dedicated following. Before adopting the stage name Ethel Cain in 2019, she released music under the alias White Silas.
Cain wrote and produced her debut album, Preacher's Daughter, mostly by herself, starting at age 19. It was released in 2022 to critical acclaim. Crack, The Line Of Best Fit and Sputnikmusic all listed it as their Album of the Year. The album's second track, "American Teenager," landed on former president Barack Obama's end-of-the-year playlist for 2022.
Ethel Cain founded her own independent record label, Daughters of Cain, in 2022. The label served as an imprint of the publishing company Prescription Songs and was used to release her Preacher's Daughter.
Her hobbies include embroidering and reading novels by the likes of Flannery O'Connor and Cormac McCarthy.
Cain is a horror enthusiast, citing films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Blair Witch Project as favorites.
She has tattoos of Ashmedai and Gabriel, a demon and archangel from the Bible, written in Hebrew along her hairline.

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