Music
Press
"With a soft spoken voice emanating shyness she speaks to me before and after her set. With a haunting voice layered with sadness and honesty she sings to us during it. Chelsea Wolfe takes the stage and the notes that flow from her vocal chords captivate everyone present, and a silence falls throughout the venue. Her voice and the notes she plucks on her guitar bounce off the walls and her words cement themselves deep inside you somehow. It is not the sound of one who cannot face reality and the weight upon a heart that life may bring. It is the sound of one who is letting go every time she takes the stage.
Wolfe admits, "Sometimes things just haunt me until I write about them." All attention is focused on her set, and it is blatantly obvious that those captivated can relate in some way or another to her melancholy chords strummed in a minor key.
It is this search for understanding and meaning that perhaps brings everyone here tonight to surround Chelsea and witness what she explains to be the product of writing when "really overwhelmed. Some songs are personal but some of them are about people I've never met or things I have yet to see or feel."
- The Bay Bridged SF
"Chelsea Wolfe plays yearning dark folk rock wrapped in warm, classic analog, creating an ethereal grace that simultaneously charms and haunts. Everything about her music is just beautiful: her vocals are lovely and passionate, and her songwriting is gracefully subtle. Chelsea will surely be a joy to experience in a live setting - in fact, it's rumored that her live set includes some nifty vocal loops." - The Deli SF
"Chelsea Wolfe's voice is a secret whispered into the ocean wind: intimate, ephemeral, and blown away all too soon by the harsher elements of our surroundings. Her guitar parts, unwinding like a weathered wooden fence along our endlessly receding line of sand, help contain the music somewhat, but if you don't pay attention you could miss the delicate gist of these confessions. Nevertheless, hers is a voice adaptable to many different settings: sometimes evocative of Polly Jean Harvey under hypnosis, a Chelsea Wolfe/Azure Ray collaboration would probably yield some beautiful fruit. Or she could mix seamlessly into the post-classical ethereality of Amber Asylum. And one surmises that, were Wolfe to go completely electronic, she could create some otherworldly and unique darkbeat duets with Karin Dreijer Andersson of the Knife/Fever Ray fame. In the meantime, focus closely on her songcraft. You wouldn't want it to slip away before the secret is revealed." — John Graham - SF Weekly
Sad Music Makes Me happy
"...So as I was investigating helpful reader responses to my kitty query, I clicked on “Wolf” (a charming young woman who expressed how cute Camus is) and was whisked away to Chelsea Wolfe’s Myspace Music page. Since I’m always open to hearing new music (I’m lying, I’m impatient and quick to judge and deny almost all band requests) I took a listen. To make a long meandering blog story short, she’s really fucking good. Take a listen for yourself.
At this point I would say “you go, girlfriend” if I was apt to say such things." - Missbehave Magazine
“Cousins of the Antichrist are hiding everywhere, / watching as we let our guard down, / smiling as we eat their lies.” New Slayer album? Nah, it’s Sacramento’s Chelsea Wolfe—an artist who shows surprising range, both lyrically and compositionally. Whether she’s in front of hundreds of drunken fans with her rock band Red Host or performing solo, basking in the glowing red intimacy of the True Love Coffeehouse stage, Wolfe is always locked into the crowd and able to guide us through whatever story she’s trying to tell. Her vocals, starkly contrasted—pained and muted sighs, aching yowls, contemplative hums, soulful falsettos—provide safety from the danger of her story. No matter the venue, Wolfe takes the listener down her cold, dark path, but usually leads us to some sort of clearing—even if it’s just a place to contemplate and to feel out our surroundings for a while. So, yes, she’s like Slayer, but without the stench." - newsreview.com
Discography
LP to be released on Pendu Sound 2009/10, title tba
GOLD full-length, to be released on T-Rec (FR) Jan 2010
Winter Trees EP w/ Sister Crayon released summer 2007
Red Host UNCLEAN EP released 2008
Winter Trees Xmas Bitches EP released December 2008 on Are You Alive Records
Photos
Bio
CHELSEA WOLFE GREW UP IN A CITY OF TREES AND IN-BETWEENS. INSPIRED BY THE STRANGE BALANCE OF BEAUTY AND SADNESS IN THE WORLD AROUND HER, SHE BEGAN WRITING SONGS AT AGE 9 USING A CASIO KEYBOARD AND TAPE MACHINE AND HASN'T STOPPED WRITING SINCE. SHE LEARNED TO PLAY GUITAR WHILE LIVING IN SOUTH AFRICA, AND SHORTLY AFTER HER RETURN TO CALIFORNIA IN 2006, WOLFE PLAYED HER FIRST SHOW IN HER HOMETOWN OF SACRAMENTO. SINCE THEN SHE HAS GONE ON TO TOUR THE WEST AND EAST COASTS OF THE US AND EUROPE.
WITH INFLUENCES RANGING FROM OLD COUNTRY GREATS LIKE HANK WILLIAMS TO ARTISTS LIKE LAURYN HILL, VINCENT GALLO AND PJ HARVEY, WOLFE IS OFTEN FORAYING INTO DIFFERENT EXPERIMENTAL SOUNDS AND MOODS IN HER MUSIC, WHILE STICKING TO THE GENRE OF DARK ALTERNATIVE-FOLK AS HER MAINSTAY. IN A LIVE SETTING, HER EMOTIVE AND OTHERWORLDY VOICE CAN’T BE DENIED, WHETHER SHE IS ALONE ONSTAGE OR BACKED BY HER BAND ADDING ATMOSPHERIC SLIDE GUITAR, PERCUSSION AND CHOIR-LIKE BACKGROUND VOCALS.
A RECENT SHOW REVIEW IN SAN FRANCISCO’S BAY BRIDGED DESCRIBES WOLFE’S VOICE AS “HAUNTING…LAYERED WITH SADNESS AND HONESTY,” AND NEWS AND REVIEW MAGAZINE SAYS, “NO MATTER THE VENUE, WOLFE TAKES THE LISTENER DOWN HER COLD, DARK PATH, BUT USUALLY LEADS US TO SOME SORT OF CLEARING - EVEN IF IT’S JUST A PLACE TO CONTEMPLATE AND TO FEEL OUT OUR SURROUNDINGS FOR A WHILE.. SHE’S LIKE SLAYER, BUT WITHOUT THE STENCH.”
AFTER TAKING TWO YEARS OFF TO RECORD AND TOUR WITH ROCK BAND RED HOST, WOLFE IS BACK WITH AN UPCOMING EUROPEAN TOUR AND A NEW GROUP OF GOTHIC FOLK SONGS RANGING FROM “THE WHYS,” A MOODY POP PIECE SHOWCASED IN A 60'S-STYLE MUSIC VIDEO, TO “UNDERWATER,” AN ODE TO VIRGINIA WOOLF SWIMMING IN LAYERS OF CELLO AND VIOLA.
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