Why did you move from Los Angeles to a more rural setting, and how has this affected your creativity?
I’m originally from a town called Sacramento, in Northern California. I moved to LA in my mid-twenties to get out of the small pool of my hometown, to meet new people, and pursue my music career, but ultimately after a number of years I felt the pull back toward Northern California. I don’t live in Sacramento now though, as I don’t really like being in cities and prefer to be in my small mountain town. There are times when I lament how much easier it would be to gather with other creatives if I lived in a big city though, if I’m honest. But on a personal level, I have a lot of anxiety, and I find that being in a quiet place amongst the trees when I’m not on tour helps me stay regulated.
What was your reaction to being called the "daughter of sorrow," and how you incorporated this into your identity?
My lyric/identity of “daughter of sorrow” is a bit about ancestral trauma passed down via the matriarchal line but caused by the patriarchy, but it’s also a bit playful and kind of a nod to how there was a time that my songs were considered “sad girl music” to a lot of people.
How did your childhood experiences with your father's home studio influence your musical career?
Growing up peeking into my dad’s home studio - which was really just a bedroom with some home recording gear in it by the way, nothing fancy - it made it feel normal to write and sing and be creative. At the same time though, I suppose I didn’t ever imagine that it could be a full-fledged career since my dad always had day jobs even while he was playing in a band and traveling around California to play shows. It took me until my early to mid 20’s to start playing my own shows and taking music more seriously as a pursuit.
What challenges you faced during the recording of your last album and how did you overcome them?
Well, I got sober from alcohol during the writing of the album, and it was also during the initial pandemic times, so my bandmates and I had to write from afar, and once we got into the studio together, if someone from the studio got COVID we’d all have to isolate and go home (6 hours away) and start again in a few weeks, and so on. It wasn’t an easy process in a practical sense, and also, I was changing and transforming a lot as time went on and I got into my sobriety. I was open to the demos changing from what we’d written into something new in Dave Sitek’s studio, but not everyone was open to that.. There were challenges happening at the same time within my career that gave making this record an underlying tenseness that I had to constantly be rising above as well. By the time the record was finished, I knew I needed to leave my record label and management company and sort of re-start my career, even though I didn’t have a plan in place. I was just going off of faith, and the courage that these album songs gave me. A song like “Whispers in the Echo Chamber” became a guidebook for how to cut cords and move forward in a new way.
How your collaboration with A24 came to life, most notably soundtracking the movie "X", how was the process, you worked on film scoring in the past, how was this experience different?
I had collaborated with Tyler Bates before, and he asked me to be part of the “X” soundtrack. My main job was to give vocalizations and melody to the two main characters, Maxxxine and Pearl. I learned a lot about my voice in the experimental process of doing so. I also learned a lot from working with Tyler, who’s done so many great film scores.
What's happening for Chelsea Wolfe in 2024.
It’s been a busy year! More touring than I’ve done since pre-pandemic times, remix versions of She Reaches Out coming soon, and some more new versions of the songs after that... coming back to Europe and UK in October and November.... writing new songs in the meantime, always.
