We sat down with Lone after his packed performance at Ksubi’s NYFW event, where smoke filled the air, and people spilled out from the dressing room into the cobblestone streets of SoHo, which had just been defaced with spray paint — someone's Mercedes-Benz caught in the crossfire. In our conversation, Lone spoke about his journey with manifestation, his decision to live without a stylist, and the meaning behind the term aura, which frequently appears in his comment sections.
Jack Kissane— Lone! How’s New York Fashion Week been treating you?
Destroy Lonely— It was lit. That shit was cool.
How's it been the weeks following the release of the album?
Shit, I've been enjoying just seeing everybody's reactions and listening to what my friends got to say and my family and shit. It is been a really good time actually.
That's awesome to hear. It's currently #1 on Billboard's top R&B and Hip-Hop Album chart right now. How's it feel to get recognition like that?
Shit, I don't know how it feels yet. I would never really understand and try to even judge myself by shit like that, but I just appreciate my fans and shit for fucking with me enough for something like that to happen and I feel blessed.
You talk about listening to feedback from your fans. Is that usually how you measure success after dropping music? How do you know if something's hitting for you?
Well, it definitely starts with me and my friends and my team first and then from there I look at how my fans are reacting and shit and that definitely for the better, or for the worse affects how I feel about what I have going on at the time.
The album is pretty inescapable in my world, and personally my favorite cut off of it is the opening track "Forever." The way the song builds with the instrumentation into your verse is crazy. Who sang the intro to the track?
Yeah, it's a sample from this band called All Saints, but yeah [lil88] had found a sample through my fans in a way.
How heavy of a hand do you have in the creative direction for everything we see as fans?
It is totally my hand, that part. Everything creatively is done on my end from the music to how it looks to how it sounds. Everything comes from my brand and then I push it out to whoever can help me execute the vision that I have. But it always starts from me just having some random idea that I want to bring to life. It always starts with me and it always ends with me.
Throughout the project and on your Instagram there's a constant theme of you talking about Baby Money. Where did that name and image come from and what does that mean to you?
So it really started with my friends Ken & 88. They used to call me 'Money Lone' and then got all my friends to call me that at the time. I was the youngest so I just kind of changed it into "Baby Money," but that just started from some real personal friends, joking around shit.
Word, I mean that song ["Baby Money'] off the project is definitely up there as one of my favorites too. I'm 20 years old and in school and so obviously you and your music are almost inescapable, but especially "Baby Money," I hear it from the time I wake up with my friends playing it in the crib, to commuting to school through my own doing, then especially at the functions. It's reallly playing everywhere man.
That's hard!
Do you have a favorite track to perform? Obviously you haven't performed tracks off the new album yet, but going into this new tour, how do you think your sets will differ from your No Stylist tour and do you have a favorite song that you're looking forward to performing?
Yeah, totally. I feel like the sets will just be way more energetic, way louder, way crazier, just because of the tone of the music that I dropped this time, but also a lot more welcoming to old and new fans. I got a larger discography of music now I guess, so I'll be able to mix a whole bunch of things together and play with my sounds and shit. But I'm really excited to perform "PASS ME THE KEYS," "LOCK IN," "SAY THAT, and "NO WORRIES." Like I want to perform all the lit songs for sure. I don't see myself as the craziest most turnt up artist, so it's like now I feel like I got some bangers that I could do that with.
Beyond music, what's your favorite medium to express yourself with? Do you have any hidden talents? Or how are you spending your time beyond the studio & stages?
[Laughs] Nah, I wish I could paint. That's pretty awesome. But yeah, I got a lot of things that I'm into outside of making music. I actually do really like four-wheelers and dirt bikes and shit. I like snowboarding, I play video games a lot, and I like fashion of course. I don't know I'm just really simple to be honest like I'm just inspired by life and everyday shit, honestly. I just live in my brain for real.
I've seen recently you did a shoot with Alpine Reserve. Is that shift in the stuff that you're wearing and you're style overall due to these new experiences as far as going on tour and visiting different cities and doing outdoor activities?
Yeah, a million percent because everything I do is inspired by something that I got going on in my real life at the time. I don't really just be pulling shit just from nowhere, so a hundred percent inspired by shit that I'm on. I just got some fast ass cars and shit. I'm just doing some X Games shit. [Laughs] That sounds corny, but I don't know. That's just how I feel right now.
Before the rap money came through what was your closet looking like? Like what were you stepping in when you were in high school?
Shit, when I was in school I was broke as shit, so I was wearing fucking Vans and Converse. It was normal H&M, black skinny jeans, and whatever. Or just any cool T-shirt I can get my hands on. Then I started making my own money doing whatever the fuck I was doing back then. I would wear Supreme and Palace. But I don't know, I got into clothes mad early because even before I was rapping for a little period of time in between and after school and shit, I had found a way to make money so I wasn't fucked up or nothing. I just wasn't rich as hell.
You described wearing Palace and Supreme. Did you grow up skating or was it just like you were tapped in with skate culture and that was the shit to wear?
Both. When I was at 12, 13, I was really really into skateboarding. I wanted to skateboard so bad, but then I had fell and fucked my arm up and I just gave up on that shit. But I love skate culture. That shit is another piece of the world that inspired my whole existence.
Yeah totally, I grew up on the same shit being close to soccer but always idolizing skate culture and live that to this day. Because yeah, fashion-wise, skate culture has always had an instrumental role in what people are wearing and what's cool or not. Recently you've worked with more so capital-F fashion labels like Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, and notably 1017 ALYX 9SM. What is your favorite brand to work with in the fashion world?
I couldn't necessarily say that I have a favorite just because I appreciate the art entirely and I'm just honored to be able to put my 2 cents in or just push the culture forward in any way. So I can't necessarily pinpoint a favorite, but I do love that world and respect it because I'm a student of shit and I didn't come up going to fashion school or really knowing too much about clothes unless it was something that I was into or wanted to study. So I'm just learning and just appreciating it for real.
When do you think you became a student of the fashion game? Was that a recent thing? I know that you said that you've been tapped in with the culture for a minute, but as far as really studying the art of it itself, did that only come recently with all of the success you've been having in music?
No, fuck no. No way. I've been the same person way before I was "successful" in music. I wouldn't even look at myself right now as being that successful. I guess I got a different definition of success, but hell nah, bro. I didn't have this shit, but I was definitely well aware of what I liked and what I wanted to learn about and the actual, I guess for lack of better words, textbook knowledge of fashion, brands, and designers way before I ever put on some [designer] clothes and it definitely didn't have nothing to do with money or rapping.
I've read that you're super into and grounded in manifestation, and in this interview, you've mentioned the different ways that you perceive success. Who or what got you into manifestation?
Honestly, my mom and my grandma for real. They raised me telling me I can do whatever the fuck I want. My folks weren't restricting me or telling me I can't do this or that. They was just always supportive and just saying 'Shit, if you could believe it, you could do it.' Literally from the time I popped out the fucking pussy, that's what n*ggas was telling me. So it is not something that I got into or something that I learned. It's just I always been like that my whole life. Believing in anything I want or feel like I could achieve and get. I guess that's just how I am as a person. And then I learned that it was called manifestation and all that shit and all the extra intricate words that people throw on top of it. I learned that shit and realized, "Oh, I've been doing this my whole life."
What's it like having such an instrumental role in one of the most influential moments in music and culture right now as far as being a part of Opium?
I really just am honored to be a part of something like it and I appreciate my older brother [Playboy] Carti for giving me the opportunity to stand next to him. And also, I appreciate my brother Ken (Ken Carson) my brothers Homixide Gang. It is something that I cherish a lot and I personally don't want anything to change or nothing. I'm very happy with where I'm at and I'm happy to be here.
Lastly, what are your thoughts on the term aura and are the fans dragging it?
[Laughs] I feel like I shouldn't answer this, but I will. They just need to let people live, man. I feel like I'm getting old. I just don't understand the internet anymore. I don't understand what's right. I don't understand what's wrong. I just know I'm going to do what the fuck I'm going to do and shit... [Laughs] Fuck that!
denim bra PRADA, bracelet SANTANGELO, earrings SANTANGELO, skirt FEY FEY WORLDWIDE, shoes INVASIVE MODIFICATION
Porches— What’s up Sab?
Sabrina Fuentes— Hi, how you doing?
I'm good. You're in London right now?
Yeah, I'm in London right now. I'm at a recording studio with my friend Jacob Budge doing a session and hanging out, and I'm going to go out to carnival parties tonight. What are you doing?
That sounds banging. I'm just home doing this call with you and then I'm going to go to the studio and work on some stuff today. How long have you been in London?
Been in London for about a week now, but I was in Berlin right before. I was staying with my friend, I'd never been there.
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That's cool. I was thinking about the last time I saw you, you came by the studio and you had just been in Mikey’s studio and wrote 50 songs or something like that, right?
Yeah, I was at Mikey’s and wrote like 35 songs.
And then we made some songs. How many songs do you have now?
Yeah, I have no idea how many songs I have at this point. Not all that I've ever done. There's a lot of sketches that aren't quite finished, but definitely more than 35 at this point. I think probably closer to 40-50.
Are you working on anything specific, like the next record or just making a bunch of stuff right now?
Yeah, I'm working on the next record and also just collaborating with friends, seeing where everything takes us. I'm letting it figure itself out. We're just trying every creative avenue that we want to explore more, did some heavier rock stuff, some emo stuff, some indie stuff, some electronic stuff. We're trying to figure out what works for the next full length album, exploring all the ideas that we’ve been sitting on for a while.
I've been listening to the last EP a bunch, even more just before our chat and it's super sick. I like it more each time. It's kind of hard for artists to shift genres sometimes because it can sometimes feel like putting on a tacky outfit. There's this really strong throughline in your lyrics and in your voice that sort of stands up to a drastically different production style from the other Pretty Sick sick stuff. It got me excited to hear what you've been working on.
I feel like when you complete something, it's the most exciting time to work on new stuff because you're not stuck in one world and you can just throw a bunch of shit at the wall and just wait until something starts to feel right.
Yeah, that's exactly where we're at right now. It's nice that after releasing something, you feel like you can let that idea go and move on to exploring new things. I feel like I can put down the world that the last EP was inhabiting and see what else we can do, like you said, throwing stuff on the wall and seeing what sticks.
Did you work on music with Woesum in person or was it all virtual?
It was all in person.
In New York or somewhere else?
Here in London in a small studio with a bunch of synths and a booth where we could play any instruments we wanted to track in. We figured that we would start with the strongest ones and put that foot forward and then see what else we wanted to explore. We made those songs as soon as I finished Make Me Sick Makes Me Smile.
We were going in and out of the studio every couple of months, and it was a lot of fun since we got along really well. We did some sessions where we were bouncing off the walls full of ideas, writing four or five songs a day. It's a way of writing that I never really got to explore that much before. I would write with a band, coming up with ideas with other musicians in the room or, more often than not, write the whole thing on bass with lyrics, melody, some vague guitar and drum parts then bring it to the band to record.
It was cool working with a producer who mostly worked with rappers who show up with nothing prepared and just play off of the beats that he makes. I feel like his production style inspires so much verbally and melodically and it's such a cool way to explore songwriting. It was more fun to write songs and also a faster way for me to write songs than anything I’ve tried before. Arthur's a really sweet and nurturing producer as well, which is always great.
left: jacket ALEJANDRA ALONSO ROJAS, leather pants VINTAGE GAP, necklace SANTANGELO, watch ring SANTANGELO, sunglasses AKONI GROUP, right: Shirt PRADA, denim corset PRADA, leather belt SANTANGELO, shoes PRADA, leather skirt PRADA, sunglasses MIU MIU, leather bag IL BISONTE
Do you feel like that’s why you're doing more sessions with producers now and what not? Did it unlock some kind of collaboration thing in you?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, we've been doing sessions a couple different ways, meeting with a bunch of different producers. I think some producers really bring a lot to the table and others just bring more of you out of you. Then there's shady producers that wait for you to come up with ideas and then try to take credit for them. Up until meeting Arthur, when I would write in the room with people, that's what would end up happening more often than not and I would leave frustrated because I just did all this work not feeling like it brought out anything that I couldn't have just done on my own computer.
Working with different producers has been about seeing if there’s anybody we really click with. We’ve been doing a few sessions of the band as the band — me, Ben and Ava with no production. Now I think we’re going back to some old friends we've worked with before.
We had the guys from Nation come by and we invited Cat Power to sing on something too, bringing in people who might add a different vibe in the studio. I’ve also been in sessions with producers like Jacob, who I’m with today, that are just one-on-one. I’m also figuring out which songs from all these different sessions fit in one semi-unified world.
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Yeah, I feel like the one thing about making music with a bunch of different people and in different scenarios is that it does take a long time for the general vibe to make itself known. At first, it doesn't sound like you're setting out to achieve this thing you're imagining and then you get there. I saw you at Nublu when you played solo. What do you like about playing solo versus playing with a band?
Well it wasn’t properly solo because Ben was playing bass, but it’s definitely a new experience. I've never really played without a band before. I never even do solo acoustic shit because I don't play guitar, I play bass. I do like not having to play bass on stage, I think it’s fucking annoying and I'd rather just sing so that was really exciting and fun for me. It’s like karaoke and I can put a lot more towards performing and singing. But yeah, that was the second time we'd ever done something like that and afterwards, we missed Ava immediately. After we played we told her she needed to figure out how to play some electronic drum pages so that we could have her on stage. It’s a lot more fun when it’s all of us.
Although, it’s nice to have the option to play a full set with just backing tracks and a bass. It gives us more opportunity to play in venues that are not compatible with full bands all the time. You know what I mean? Small spaces definitely. The first time we played the set was at a show at the restaurant underneath Search and Destroy, Kenka, and it was awesome; really, really chill. It makes it so much easier to do fun, intimate gigs like that when you don't have to bring in a whole drum kit and a whole bunch of amps and a crazy system. There's a lot of freedom as to where and when we can play, on the drop of a dime.
I know the live drums not being there is sort of tragic sometimes. It sounded sick and it definitely is kind of miraculous to not have to have a guitar on your shoulder and worry about playing the right parts. I remember how I felt the first time I did it, super awkward like I was at a high school dance or something. I didn't know what to do with my body or my arms or whatever. And then I feel like slowly I started to really enjoy it more than being strapped to a guitar these days.
Every once in a while there's a song that always feels good to play on your instrument while singing it, but for the most part I would rather have more space with my body and voice to give the best performance. I think that I can definitely sing better when I don't have a big heavy instrument pushing on my diaphragm. I can project and strain a lot less. I do a lot of karaoke in my free time, so I'm very comfortable with just the microphone.
You looked like a natural there for sure. Do you have any shows coming up on the books right now or are you just grinding in the studio?
Not so many shows right now, just trying to write as much as possible, taking a breather as well, just because it's been a long year. I just moved back to New York after living in London for five years, so relocating was a lot. Dealing with personal, emotional stuff and then just having released the EP, I think it's just a well-deserved break for me. Sessions like these are relaxing and I love going on tour, but it's physically draining for obvious reasons and I think for now I'm just slowing my pace a little bit. I'm from New York, where you're always trying to get things done as fast as possible, and I don't feel like doing that anymore. I want the next release to be fully thought out and complete. Not that everything else we’ve put out hasn't been. I’m not usually a perfectionist — I normally leave space for human error in projects in that way — but now I want to take my time and revisit the work until it’s exactly what I want.
What’s the song you’re writing right now?
I’m working on two. The first one is just kind of a snarky and fun song. “I know what boys like” type of thing. It’s about balling out and how it must suck to watch me ball out all the time if you're not in my life anymore. Then this next one is probably going to be a bit rockier and grunge because that seems like the direction we're headed in. So some more melancholic lyrics on that one probably, but it's going pretty good.
That's sick. It seems like you. I’m excited to hear it all. It was fun hearing, seeing you write lyrics and work. Whenever you're back, we should hit it again.
Yeah, absolutely.
Cool, cool. Does that feel like a conversation to you?
That felt conversational to me.
Andy Zozulya— How did your experiences with sleep paralysis and insomnia influenced the album "Abyss"?
Chelsea Wolfe— I’ve experienced sleep paralysis since I was a small child, and the sleep and dream world have inspired me a lot over the years. For Abyss, I more intentionally channeled my experiences and perspectives from sleep paralysis, night terrors, and the inner realm into songs. On “After the Fall,” the phrase “Don’t let them win!” is something I heard in a dream when I was in my early 20’s, and as I wrote Abyss later I wondered if that was my current self sending encouragement to my past self during a tough time. A lot of the songs were based on dreams or nightmares I’d had, or recurring themes in my dream-world.
Could you share with our readers a story about Berlin and Friedrichschain in particular.
I went there at age 22 with a group of performance artists, my friend and great artist Steve Vanoni invited me along and we did a show in a creative space there. I would play a short set of songs at the end of all the performance art (sometimes joining in on the performance art as well). It was my first time in Berlin and I was just taken by how magical Friedrichschain felt to me.. I couldn’t really put my finger on what it was exactly. Maybe it was the little playgrounds - that encouragement for children to use their imaginations and play, it felt so different and nice compared to the US, where the arts aren’t really supported. So my young mind just wrote a little story about it.
What prompted you to embrace witchcraft, and how it affects your creative process?
Embracing witchcraft was like a remembering. I’ve always had witchy tendencies, and my grandmother passed down elements of witchcraft to me, but we didn’t have that name for it. Tarot was one of my first gateways into witchcraft as a personal spiritual practice, and I just kept learning from and communing with more witches and it became this really joyful, really healing thing for me. Witchcraft affects me creatively in a positive way, as I’ve learned tools like creating a container of sacred space for ritual that I can also apply to songwriting.
What is your favorite Tarot card? Do you have a favorite tarot set?
I always say The Hermit and The Star, which feel like the two contrasting sides of myself: the very introverted homebody who loves to spend time alone, writing and contemplating mysteries and magic, and the one who goes out into the world and somehow becomes comfortable sharing her music onstage with an audience (even though I know that’s far from the full meaning of either card!) I really love Kim Krans’ Archetypes oracle deck, and last year I enjoyed the Dark Wood tarot deck by Abigail Larson and Sasha Graham because it’s a shadowy deck, and I was doing a lot of shadow work. I usually stay with one deck for a long time until I feel intuitively that it’s time to move on or shift energies. In 2024 I’ve been using a more lighthearted deck because life feels heavy right now!
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.
