The Anchoress on covering New Order, her new album and how there’s “not a fucking chance” of touring Europe since Brexit

nme.com:

The Anchoress, aka Catherine Anne Davies, has spoken to NME about her new single – a cover of New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ – as well as her new album and upcoming Spring tour.Davies has shared a number of covers over the past year as part of ‘Bandcamp Friday’ – with her rendition of New Order’s 1986 the latest in a line of indie classics.

She recently received kudos from collaborators Manic Street Preachers for her take on ‘This Is Yesterday’.“Whenever I’ve done covers, the criteria has always been: is this a great song, and is there something new or different I can bring to it?” Davies told NME, having already covered songs by the likes of The Cure, Depeche Mode and Blur. “I’ve tried to re-imagine them in a very different way to the original.”Despite dramatically changing some beloved songs, Davies said the covers have been a success with fans of the originals.“When I’ve tackled a song where there is a big fan base, like with Depeche Mode or The Cure, you do always feel a little bit of trepidation – like you don’t want to ruin someone’s favourite song!“But I’ve been really lucky in that all of the fan bases have been really kind, embracing the songs precisely because I have approached them very differently from the originals.

I’m not trying to replicate or spoil the thing they love.”Davies said she liked ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’s’ “ambiguity as a kind of mysterious novella.”She continued: “Great songs like this have that gap for the listener to insert their own interpretation.