Our love for Chelsea Wolfe’s ghostly harmonics is hard to hide. We were lucky enough to chat with the doom-folk songstress before she hit the stage to charm the eager crowd by the light of the moon.
The Deli: Have you played a lot of festivals?
Chelsea: I haven’t played many festivals. I like it to be more contained. Typically something in the desert doesn’t appeal to me to play music. I love the landscape. It would be fun to come to a festival in the desert, but playing out in the heat doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. That’s why I requested a nighttime set rather than playing during the day.
The Deli: Do you have a favorite venue to play?
Chelsea: I don’t know if I have a favorite, but I like unique spaces. We got to play at the First Unitarian Church in LA for an acoustic show and that was interesting. It’s always more challenging to play in a space that’s not geared to having shows, but it was worth it.
The Deli: Today is Record Store Day, do you have something special planned?
Chelsea: Yeah, I have a split 7” with King Dude. He’s a good friend of ours and a really great musician. We each wrote a song for it and then sang on each other’s songs. It’s out on Sargent House. I’m excited. I’ve never participated in anything for Record Store Day before.
The Deli: Do you remember the first record you bought?
C: I don’t. I’m not really a collector. I’ve been given a lot of really good records over the years. I guess I just leave that to the people around me and then just listen to their music.
The Deli: Is there anything you’re listening to right now that you’re really into?
C: Wardruna. They just came out with a new album I really like.
The Deli: You’re music has a supernatural quality. Is that an intentional inspiration?
C: My aesthetic is a little bit drawn toward cult films. But I don’t consider myself someone who’s interested in the occult or witchcraft or anything like that. I definitely acknowledge the spiritual realm, but it’s not something I specifically draw upon. It’s more of just a sense of cinematic atmosphere. Like visuals in my head. I don’t usually have a lot of visuals live, like projections or anything like that. For me, it’s more about what you see when you close your eyes and really get into the song.
The Deli: What inspires your fashion?
C: I just like certain designers. Just stuff that’s kind of a bit off. I’m just drawn to a certain sort of aesthetic that’s interesting or a little bit different. I don’t think I have an amazing sense of fashion. Like I said, I don’t do a lot of visuals or visual art. I’m interested in a lot of things like sculpture, but I guess fashion is the only thing that’s represented visually.
The Deli: You’re about to leave for a big tour right?
C: Yeah we’re going to go to Europe and Russia for a month. We did a European tour, but I’ve never been to Russia. I was kind of surprised when we got invited there, but I’m down. We leave Monday. that’s why we’re not camping.
The Deli: Anything else coming up?
C: We have a new album coming out, but it hasn’t been announced. So I’m excited about that. We recorded in Los Angeles mostly. But a lot of the songs are recorded in different places. I like to use different spaces to record if I can.
Photo Courtesy of Leslie Andrew Ridings