The Anchoress unleashes a brand new duet with James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers.
‘The Exchange’ is an epic dark-rock anthem featuring the powerhouse vocal of the Manics’ James Dean Bradfield in a duet that examines the destructive dynamic created by “a world that sees people as puppets rather than as human beings”. It is accompanied by a powerful video directed by young filmmaker JJ Eringa that explores the exploitation of a young woman trapped inside a purgatorial cycle. Davies says: “We wanted to make a bit of a homage to The Red Shoes. We follow her fate as she is forced to play piano until her hands bleed, only to be brought back to life time and time again when she collapses with exhaustion”.
The new track is produced by Davies and mixed by Dave Eringa (Manics, Wilko Johnson). She says: “I was so lucky that James agreed to lend his vocal to this track. It was written as a duet that explores a toxic dynamic created by those that see people as puppets rather than as human beings. When I first pulled his vocal into the finished track I had one of those goosebump moments where you pinch yourself that one of your childhood idols is singing a song that I wrote. The power and emotion in his voice is what makes him one of my all-time favourite singers. He’s a very inquisitive and intelligent musician. The legend that is Sterling Campell (who played drums for David Bowie for decades) also very kindly agreed to guest on the track. He was a dream to work with and he nailed it straight away in a remote session from his studio in New York. We first met while I was touring in Australia and Sterling was also playing with the mighty B-52s. We struck up a friendship through Mario McNulty (also part of the Bowie cohort) and the rest is musical history…”