Passing The Baton

Jul 26, 2026

It’s been a very busy week here at Anchoress HQ so I thought I would pause my own biro and pass the baton this time to signpost you in the direction of some lovely pieces of writing and conversation that I’ve been having ahead of the new album release in two weeks.

First up, this wonderful feature by the excellent music writer Alan Pedder for The Line Of Best Fit where we spoke about the voices we inherit and the way the past reveals new meanings when we learn to read it differently. Read it here:

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/the-anchoress-is-learning-to-reread-herself

“I ended up discovering that, actually, I didn’t feel angry at this person who had done me great harm, I just wanted to take that pain and let it go.”

Photo by Talie Rose Eigeland

I also spoke with Jim Ottewill at Music Radar all about the production process and how I immersed myself in Pete Townshend’s vintage synth collection to make the new album, As We Once Were.

https://www.musicradar.com/artists/the-first-time-i-walked-in-i-cried-as-i-was-so-overwhelmed-we-speak-to-the-anchoress-about-the-creation-of-her-new-album-and-harnessing-pete-townshends-synth-collection

“I always start my records not knowing how they are going to take shape, I just try things out, then halfway through you get an epiphany and that’s what happened here,”

Photo by Sean Adams

Elsewhere, this week’s essay for The Long Play Project by Ian Paul Sharp dives deep into my new record as a concept album with a lineage in the progressive family tree.

“Essays like this can sometimes make complex concept albums sound like technical exercises without soul. This album, arising from lived experience, is all soul, if not strictly soul music…”

Read it here: