'I Don't Look Back': Chelsea Wolfe Enters The Abyss
Friday, 23 October 2015
Written by Ben Bland
Photo: Shaina Hedlund
With ‘Abyss’, the mysterious figure of Chelsea Wolfe reached out to a wider audience than ever before. The California-based musician’s fourth full-length album is quite a journey, one where dystopian electronics often dominate even as Wolfe’s tendency towards fragile and delicate sounds is retained. Their presence, meanwhile, only affirms the darkness of the title.
Some moments on ‘Abyss’ are almost impenetrably gloomy, but Wolfe is an artist who manages to remain accessible while making exceptionally bleak music. So, on the eve of a European tour that will wind its way across the UK and Ireland in November, how did it come about?
To start, how do you see ‘Abyss’ as a progression from ‘Pain is Beauty’, and indeed from the rest of your work to date?
I don’t think about things like a progression. I don’t look back. But I was more focused on the live show for this album. On ‘Pain is Beauty’ I didn’t consider how we’d play the songs live, I just focused on the recording. When I was writing ‘Abyss’, I kept in mind that we tour a lot and I wanted the set to be heavy, so combined with heavy subject matter, the album naturally headed in that direction.
The whole album has this dreamlike atmosphere to it. Was that something you were aiming for during the recording process?
While I was writing the album for a couple years before heading into the studio, I wanted there to be a feeling of dreams and nightmares, the ups and downs and sort of fogginess, yes. Once we got into the studio it became more about finding the right sounds for each song, and giving them new life.
Would it be accurate to see this as something of a concept album based around your experiences with sleep paralysis?
It’s not a concept album, but each album I do has overlaying themes, usually big, elemental themes, and then within them little stories, things that are more personal, up close and intimate. For this one, each song has its own story, but also each song has a nod to my years of issues with sleep and dreams and sleep paralysis.
The track After the Fall is inspired by Carl Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections, I believe. What is it about Jung that you find particularly intriguing?
The idea of the internal abyss, diving deep into your own mind and subconscious, that comes from Memories, Dreams, Reflections. I think After the Fall just became the most literal interpretation of that inspiration. That particular book is Jung’s last, and he’s looking back at his life and experiments with dreams. One dream starts with the line, “I let myself drop” and I felt connected to that visual. The album continued on from there in a more directed way.
As with ‘Pain is Beauty’, the band sound is really strong on this record. How did the songwriting process work? Did people come in and play parts as you had written them or was there some group development of the sound going on?
My bandmate Ben Chisholm and I are sort of co-producers for this project, so him and I wrote and demoed the songs, wrote parts, and then left room for new ideas from violist Ezra Buchla, second guitarist Mike Sullivan and drummer Dylan Fujioka - also the producer, John Congleton. Half the songs started as skeletons with just me and an acoustic or electric guitar, and the other half started as heavy guitar riffs from Ben.
I understand some of the ideas for this album originated as ideas for an electronic side project. With that in mind was it a struggle at all to find the right balance for this album between electronics and live instrumentation?
Some of the ideas for ‘Pain is Beauty’ started as ideas for a side project - not this album. That was our first experience playing electronic songs and we started to realise that this project doesn’t need any rules so we incorporated them into the live set. Then the balance comes with electronic sounds, real-life samples, instruments - we blend them together.
You worked with John Congleton on this album. In the last couple of years he’s done some pretty diverse records, working with St. Vincent and Swans, for example. How did his production affect the album?
His approach was cold and technical, and mine was warm and hazy. I think we met in the middle, which is great.
I read elsewhere that you moved to live in the mountains at some point last year. Has that lifestyle change had an impact on your songwriting for this record?
I just felt so much more focused. The energy at my house in LA when I put together ‘Unknown Rooms’ and ‘Pain Is Beauty’ was frantic, hectic. I started doing writing sessions out in the high desert at my manager’s farmhouse and fell in love with the quiet and desolation. So I found my own place on the outskirts, close enough to LA to take care of business but far enough away from all the noise and distraction.
The video for Carrion Flowers is very powerful. Are visual influences important to you as a songwriter? Are there any directors or visual artists that are particularly influential in that regard?
Thank you. Visuals are important for me but also not my main focus. I just want to expand or represent the music in a new way, but I’m usually pretty limited and end up doing it DIY style. I made the Carrion Flowers video myself with my bandmate Ben and just filmed around the area I was living since it was so intense visually - dried up lakes, washed out roads, industrial buildings. I love movies and they’re very influential on me. I love Werner Herzog’s magical approach to simplicity yet also John Waters’ colourful, wild style.
I know you have had struggles with stage fright in the past. I was wondering if the move to an ever fuller “band sound” was specifically envisaged as a way of dealing with that?
I love swimming in sounds and atmospheres so maybe subconsciously it’s a way of finding comfort. I do want to push myself to do a solo tour someday too though. It takes a lot for me to do that.
Are you an artist constantly aware of various potential future directions? Do you have an idea of where you want to go next following ‘Abyss’?
I am writing all the time and have a sort of storehouse of songs and ideas to pull from. Every once in a while I’ll notice a group of songs coming together, forming a group, and then I’ll focus even more and the album comes together. So it’s not premeditated, it’s more instinctual.
Chelsea Wolfe Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun November 22 2015 - LONDON Islington Assembly Hall
Tue November 24 2015 - LEEDS Brudenell Social Club
Wed November 25 2015 - DUBLIN Button Factory
Sun November 29 2015 - BRISTOL Fleece
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