Anna-Varney Cantodea is a musician, and the only member of the band Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows, a Gothic Rockish, Dark Waveish, Neoclassicalish band.
Anna-Varney Cantodea's work is highly personalized, poetic, and melancholic. She refuses to perform "in front of humans". The reason for this is largely unknown but it is speculated that it is either childhood trauma and to perpetuate her image of being a reclusive an"odd creature".
Cantodea herself dresses as a sort of Nosferatu-esque vampiric Victorian noblewoman. When she was a child, she claims in an interview to have had a vision of her future self in a train station as “an ageless creature (of undefinable gender), all dressed in black, with a beautiful, kind of pennate black Mohawk". When she started her band, Sopor Aeternus, in 1989, she modeled her appearance after this vision.
Cantodea's gender identity is also up to speculation, she was designated male at birth, but some sources say that she identifies as a two-spirit, but others say that she is a transgender woman, but all consistently use she/her pronouns.
Her original stage name, Varney, was chosen and based off of the vampire in the 19th century novel, Varney the Vampire by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest. Later, she added on the feminine "Anna" to the front, and the last name of "Cantodea", which means "I sing, Goddess" in latin.
Cantodea is a strong advocate for animal rights, veganism, and LGBT+ rights.
If you wish to donate to support her upcoming album, click here!
No comments:
Post a Comment