Darkest Prime: Chelsea Wolfe Is Still Hauntingly Rocking

We’ve seen it before: Musicians who have been playing and creating for almost two decades become subject to burnout. Some continue to ride high, rehashing earlier material to crowded die-hards, while others bend between genres (and sometimes substance) to find that new and improved sound. However, singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe is truly a different breed. Like climbing the summit of a most treacherous peak, Wolfe continues to rise through her musical journey, with no sign of backing down. SLUG sat down with Wolfe 13 years ago, after the blossoming of her doom-and-gloom magnolia, Pain is Beauty. And with the release of her new genre-bending studio album The Dark, a follow-up was long overdue. “At this point in my life, I feel like I changed so much,” Wolfe says. “I feel like a completely different person.”

Wolfe first developed her roots in her hometown of Sacramento, where she noticed the male-dominated industry while performing local shows at clubs. “I found it challenging at first starting out because the popular thing in town was Math Rock and I was playing acoustic… I felt a bit of an outcast,” Wolfe ruminates. However, that didn’t stop Wolfe from continuing her passion, taking influence from all types of music and personal experiences. Her style is all over the map, blending a unique sound from goth bands like The Cure to homegrown dark country, that internet music nerd Anthony Fantano says sounds like intros to detective shows like Criminal Minds or True Detective. “I think if you come to one of my shows, there’s a little something for everyone,” Wolfe says with a gleam. “There’s an acoustic session, heavy industrial moments and a fair amount of rock music… I do like to play with genre and sound.”

Wolfe’s ninth studio album, The Dark, has garnered a reflection of emotion and manpower. The army of veteran musical personas like Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age and Air have come in to give the album the heavy blows needed to harken grief, darkness and intimacy. One person that Wolfe mentions is producer and songwriter Jennifer Decilveo, whose previous work with Hozier and Bats for Lashes was the essential edge to bring this album to life. “When I’m in the studio, I want to work. I want to write,” Wolfe says. “With [Decilveo], I felt like we were immediately jumping into it.” Although bringing in those high-profile collabs was necessary, Wolfe says going back to the basics of songwriting is what makes the album personal. “That was one of the catalysts to focus on the songwriting for this record was listening to some of my old music… I just have to give the grace of that’s who I was before,” she muses.

Through her own personal trials and tribulations, Wolfe has examined her life to full-send on making the life she deserves. “There’s a choice you have to make around this age: Am I going to be living the way I have been or am I going to make some changes and pursue things I didn’t think I was worthy of?” Wolfe states. “Ultimately, I found myself in the past constantly pouring myself into these bottomless pits… What if I poured this energy into myself and into my art?” Now being 42-years-old, and in the midst of a world tour, Wolfe continues to strive in her music by showing her fans that the darkest parts of life can give us the strength to find the light.

Check out Chelsea Wolfe’s new album The Dark on streaming services, or pick up your own physical copy, and catch her live at The Union on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Read other artist interviews from SLUG Magazine:
Tea in the Tear Garden: Legendary Act Tour for the First Time
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