What a journey ‘Anon’ (Goldfish in my bathtub) brings to the ears
After listening to Eleanors latest single ‘Anon’ it only left me wondering about the personal journeys a woman faces going from her child years into teenage years and then through to adulthood. The struggles women have and the power we have to get through them is metaphorically represented throughout this song. Eleanor explains ‘Anon’ is about menstruation and explores the taboo around it.
‘Anon’ (Goldfish in my bathtub) was released on 23rd July and is available to stream on all streaming platforms.
Interview below ⬇️
What else can we hear from you in the future? Have you got any performances coming up or new releases?
I have been writing for an artist called Jo Piguet, and we are working on her first E.P. At the same time I am currently curating my own release of my music collection, wether that will be an E.P. or an album is still up in the air, but there is definately something on the horizon.
As a woman myself, it's amazing to hear a fellow female musician explore and write a song about something so normal for us women yet so under spoken about. What impacted/inspired you to write this song?
It is an undeniable fact that stigma has surrounded menstruation for as long as it has caused people to bleed.
Yet, as a child, I couldn’t wait for my first period. I felt like it would be a badge of womanly honour. I knew all the theory. I knew the difference between tampons and pads. I knew the horror stories. I knew it would end around my 50th birthday, and I knew I would get a nice 9 month break if I got pregnant. Then it came, and just as quickly as the thrill and joy arrived... it left... while the bleeding remained. It felt unfair. Once a month for more than one week, I would have to sacrifice myself to the emotional, physical, mental and social upheaval that came with my period. But somehow feeling awful, ill and tired, I decided consequence of mess be damned - I would have a bath. So I lay there surrounded by my clots, that became beautifully gruesome in the water. I felt like an observer rather than a participant.
I was also reading a biblical story where Jesus was approached by an unnamed woman who was 12 years into an unrelenting period. I could write an essay about this story, but basically she completely shook the culture around her in doing so. And she is also the only woman, i can recall, documented while having a period within biblical text. So on one level this song was inspired by the various emotions and feelings having a period conjures. The silente fight against it, desperate for it to arrive, living in a comfy cohabitation with it, resenting it, or felt despair at the arrival of it.
You mention a lot about faith and how that influences your musicianship. What/who else influences your songwriting?
I’m very interested in the people around me. The things that unite us all and differ us from each other. There’s a constant battle that comes with having a faith and also recognising that the world you live in isn’t subject to the same life you live. I like looking at other peoples lives and trying to make sense of something I can relate too, and drawing on it in a way that others might relate to it. After all Empathy is our greatest tool. I’m also really inspired by make-believe. Books or films or plays etc. all open a vast number of experiences and emotions to draw upon, and often they are the ways we communicate shared ideals in a palatbale format, which is what I feel music achieves as well.
As a student on the songwriting course at Leeds Conservatoire have you found the COVID-19 pandemic has helped or negatively affected your music?
For all the horror that the pandemic held, the stillness of the lockdown, though it might not have felt it in the moment, was incredibly beneficial to my music. I started studying at Leeds Conservtoire in 2019, so the pandemic hit in the middle of my first year. Which left me with a freshly developing skill, but nothing that felt of any substance to carry me through a lockdown and making something. But the ability to sit down for litterally 7 hours and pick my own brain apart, using the internet as my greatest tool for learning, furthering my listening outside of music I am usually comfortable with. I am very beneficial for that element of lockdown. Pre-pandemic I was quick to shrug the work I had done as good-enough and I never spent time to iron out the creases, to listen to it and attend to it with care and love. However, I have found that I have become very self-contatined. I am not quick to collaborate since the pandemic started. Collaboration is one of the most beautiful parts of music. Different people bringing their insight to a piece can create the soul of the music. So I am hopeful to finally re-start collaborating and opening my music to other peoples contribution.
By Jemma Crane