{"id":1518,"date":"2025-05-26T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/chelsea-wolfes-gothic-heart\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T14:00:00","slug":"chelsea-wolfes-gothic-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/chelsea-wolfes-gothic-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Wolfe\u2019s Gothic Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/LeadPhoto-credit-Ebru-Yildiz-1.jpg\" width=\"\" height=\"\" alt=\"Chelsea Wolfe (Credit: Ebru Yildiz)\"><\/figure>\n<p>It was cloudy and drizzly when Chelsea Wolfe stepped onstage at the <a href=\"https:\/\/cruelworldfest.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cruel World<\/a> festival in Pasadena, California, where the lineup was dominated by a brooding crowd of dark wave, dark pop, and postpunk sounds.<\/p>\n<p>For Wolfe\u2014arriving in a long black dress, her stage fog blending with the natural mist\u2014it was her first live performance of 2025, after focusing part of this year on songwriting for her next album, which remains in the very early stages. It was also her first chance to perform her new collaboration with the noise-rock band HEALTH, the just-released single \u201cMean,\u201d with that band\u2019s singer Jake Duzsik.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/sparks-go-mad-on-latest-album\/\">Sparks Go MAD! On Latest Album<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-exploring-xmal-deutschlands-4ad-era\/\">The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Exploring Xmal Deutschland\u2019s 4AD Era<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/05\/stereolab-disorients-the-dream-of-the-90s\/\">Stereolab Disorients the Dream of the \u201890s<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In what will likely be one of the few live performances of \u201cMean,\u201d with its stuttering effects and heartbreak beat, Wolfe and Duzsik harmonized on the chorus: \u201cDid you want to be mean \u2026 For no reason?\/Did you take it out on me Cuz I\u2019m in the room?\/Did you want to be free \u2026 of the illusion\/That life could be sweet and you could feel good?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The downhearted Depeche Mode-ish performance had to land somewhere near a bullseye for much of the crowd in front of them, largely dressed in shades of black, some in leather and studs, fishnets, and pale complexions. One dude near the front of the stage had the words \u201cPeople are poison\u201d written on his black denim vest. When the song ended, Duzsik quickly slipped away with a quick wave goodbye.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHEALTH is a band that\u2019s kind of hard to define genre-wise, so I\u2019ve always felt a kinship with them,\u201d says Wolfe, in an interview following her 40-minute set. \u201cWe make dark music that has electronic elements and rock elements but with a softer voice. We\u2019re both kind of on the outskirts of everything.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CW25_MDRUMMOND-1631.jpg\" alt=\"(Credit: Cruel World courtesy of Goldenvoice)\" class=\"wp-image-465008\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CW25_MDRUMMOND-1631.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CW25_MDRUMMOND-1631-340x425.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CW25_MDRUMMOND-1631-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CW25_MDRUMMOND-1631-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/CW25_MDRUMMOND-1631-498x623.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Cruel World courtesy of Goldenvoice)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI love how a band like Depeche Mode takes a 20-second moment in time in a relationship and blows it up to this cinematic piece of music,\u201d she adds about the track. \u201cI can\u2019t speak for Jake, but for me, that was my aim with this song. The lyrics are kind of simplistic in a way. It\u2019s like, \u2018Did you want to be mean? Just \u2019cause I\u2019m here?\u2019\u2014it\u2019s this little moment in time, but it\u2019s reflective of what\u2019s going on in a whole relationship. It\u2019s this little seed of an idea, examining any kind of relationship, romantic friendship, business, whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The song was created in Los Angeles with HEALTH during a single day together in the studio, rather than sharing music files remotely, which is increasingly the norm in collaborations. Wolfe has made music that way as well, but is now more inclined to get together when it\u2019s time to create.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure any musician will tell you that there\u2019s just so much more magic to being in the same room, and things happen so much faster,\u201d she said. \u201cThe ideas just immediately spark off of each other. It\u2019s so much more fun and so much more fruitful. It was cool to do something with them. I feel like Jake and I both have strange voices and they go together in this interesting way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In her dressing room trailer, Wolfe was bundled up from the weather in a black trench coat, and every few minutes another friend would knock on her door to say hello. After this first day back onstage, she would be leaving within 24 hours for a tour of Australia and New Zealand through the end of May, only her third time touring there. She was still hoping to stick around Cruel World long enough to see the day\u2019s performances by Nick Cave, Garbage, and New Order.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always love when I feel embraced by the goths,\u201d she says of the festival. \u201cI obviously have a very gothic heart, but I don\u2019t fit the traditional sense of goth music.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_PhotoCredit_NicolasSandinoMoreno.jpeg\" alt=\"(Credit: NicolasSandinoMoreno)\" class=\"wp-image-465009\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_PhotoCredit_NicolasSandinoMoreno.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_PhotoCredit_NicolasSandinoMoreno-340x227.jpeg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_PhotoCredit_NicolasSandinoMoreno-240x160.jpeg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_PhotoCredit_NicolasSandinoMoreno-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_PhotoCredit_NicolasSandinoMoreno-498x332.jpeg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Nicolas Sandino Moreno)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Wolfe inhabits her own space, with elements of folk, rock, metal, industrial, electronic, and more, usually paired with a striking visual element reflecting a gothic, witchy flair. She is set for a fall tour of North America opening for the Norwegian dark folk band Wardruna, performing acoustic either solo or as a duo with main collaborator Ben Chisholm. She is still deciding on her approach, and says, \u201cI\u2019m always all over the place. I want to do rock and roll one second, and then I want to do acoustic the next second. I\u2019m driving myself crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, on those dates Wolfe will continue to lean heavily on songs from her 2024 album <em>She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She<\/em>. That record, produced by Dave Sitek of TV On the Radio, was another forward step in an evolution of sound and conviction. It is also a chronicle of her choosing sobriety (the frantic \u201cHouse of Self-Undoing\u201d) while cutting loose parts of her life that are no longer welcome. The music was equal parts understated and explosive, noisy and melodic, with trance-like moments (\u201cTunnel Lights\u201d) that echo classic trip-hop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was me realizing like, I don\u2019t have to live the same way I\u2019ve always lived,\u201d she explains of the album\u2019s frequent theme. \u201cI don\u2019t have to keep all the relationships that I\u2019ve always had, even if they\u2019re bad for me. I can release some things, I can cut the cords. And that was very freeing. But this whole time that I\u2019ve been releasing that music and playing that music, I\u2019ve still kind of felt like I was in this phase of it trying to pull me back into the way life used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She imagines the follow-up to <em>She Reaches Out<\/em> may be \u201ca little bit more definitive of taking that step forward, away from whatever it is I feel is truly not me anymore, or truly not right for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To get there, Wolfe is breaking from her usual obsessive songwriting and demoing habits to collaborate with other artists. Each songwriting partner so far has brought different creative impulses to their sessions. For some, a song might be tossed off as a very rough demo in a single day, while others will continue tinkering on a piece for months.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_SheReachesOutToSheReachesOutToShe_AlbumArtwork.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-465010\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_SheReachesOutToSheReachesOutToShe_AlbumArtwork.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_SheReachesOutToSheReachesOutToShe_AlbumArtwork-340x340.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_SheReachesOutToSheReachesOutToShe_AlbumArtwork-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/05\/ChelseaWolfe_SheReachesOutToSheReachesOutToShe_AlbumArtwork-498x498.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cDifferent songs require different things, and I really want the songs to be as good as possible. So I don\u2019t mind chipping away at them and spending time to make sure that they\u2019re good or at least I think they\u2019re good,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>The last album counted \u201880s anime as a visual influence. On her new material, she\u2019s been moved by the current anime series <em>Frieren: Beyond Journey\u2019s End<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit like a <em>Lord of the Rings<\/em>-y fantasy journey, but it\u2019s about human nature and I feel like the main character is very neurodivergent-coded and I resonate with that,\u201d Wolfe adds. \u201cI love this character. I always get inspired by some anime on every album. There\u2019s so many of them that have such great storytelling and visuals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her music has taken surprising turns. One project was the soundtrack to the 2022 horror film <em>X<\/em>, directed by Ti West. She was recruited by composer Tyler Bates, who used ethereal layers of Wolfe\u2019s wordless vocals as an essential, if ominous, element in the soundtrack, setting a tone for the entire film. The movie and the soundtrack album close with Wolfe singing a foreboding cover of the 1918 love song \u201cOui Oui Marie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving actual assignments to do that and write for certain characters was great,\u201d she says of the experience. \u201cI found it easy to read the script and try to get into these characters\u2019 heads and give them sounds. And Tyler wanted it to be very vocal based, which was great for me, because I love playing around with my voice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt got pretty intense. A lot of it was during COVID time, so I was just alone\u2014and you\u2019re watching these very stabby scenes and coming up with these growls and weird sounds. I find when I do stuff like that, I have to sort of ground [myself] after it because I get a little shaky. It was coming from a deep place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The <em>X<\/em> soundtrack was a meaningful side-trip from her own records, which began with her 2010 debut, <em>The Grime and the Glow<\/em>. And as she works toward what will become her eighth album, her mind remains open and hungry for other ideas and influences, wherever they lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so cool to look back at my music,\u201d she says of her past work. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s listening to a completely different person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was cloudy and drizzly when Chelsea Wolfe stepped onstage at the Cruel World festival in Pasadena, California, where the lineup was dominated by a brooding crowd of dark wave,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[921,31,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chelsea-wolfe","category-features","category-pushly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}