With seven critically acclaimed studio albums under her belt, singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe has made a career out of deeply introspective, spiritual, and sonically grandiose music that taps into the most cerebral of places and, in many ways, cannot be compared to other artists if you even tried. On her most recent album, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, released this past February for the prolific artist’s new record label Loma Vista, Wolfe further expanded her musical offerings, incorporating a more electronic sound than ever before — a stark contrast to her signature goth-rock and folk-tinged doom metal sound to impressive results. She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She was also a pivotal record for Wolfe, written in the wake of her newfound sobriety. It chronicled the raw feelings and emotions that arose in the process and the tremendous changes she would continue to undergo.
Following the release of She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, Wolfe offered her cult-following listeners the Undone EP, which featured compelling remixes from a diverse range of artists, including dark wave duo Crosses — as well as additions from grindcore mainstays Full Of Hell and eighties synth-pop revivalists Choir Boy, among others. At the tail end of the She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She record cycle, Wolfe has returned with the Unbound EP, a stripped-down release that finds the artist in her most organic and minimalistic form yet. Stripping away the walls of reverb-soaked vocals, heavy guitars, and pulsating synths, Undone puts Wolfe’s vulnerable vocal performances and lyricism up close and personal with nothing to hide behind besides acoustic guitar or haunting piano melodies. Unbound, which also features a surprise cover of the recently Grammy-nominated track “Cellar Door, by modern metalcore titans Spiritbox, is sure to give you chills upon first listen and proves once again the testament of a good song if it can be stripped down to its most simplistic form without losing any of its substance or impact.
In a conversation with The Pretty Cult, prolific singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe details her stripped-down new EP Unbound, covering Spiritbox’s Grammy-nominated song “Cellar Door,” Tarot Cards, and more.
With Unbound, you have stripped your songs to their foundational core: A voice and a guitar or piano. In the process of doing so and hearing these songs back for the first time in this new stripped-back form, do you feel a new emotional connection to the songs and have new feelings and interpretations come to you as a result of hearing your lyrics so upfront and personal?
Chelsea Wolfe: I’d prepared some stripped-down versions of the songs for a small show and found that I really loved singing them that way, just with piano or guitar. I found that it helped me reconnect with songs that I’d been living with for so long. I recorded She Reaches Out in early 2022, and didn’t get to release it for two years.. So yea, singing the songs in my current voice and energy was my way to embody them in the now.
Walk me through the actual recording process of Unbound. Just listening to the EP, you can imagine that a particular vibe was set in order to capture these songs in the most authentic way possible. What was the process like transcribing these existing songs that initially featured vast instrumentation from walls of reverb, heavy guitars, synths, and vocal layers to such a minimalistic form? Where did you record the EP, and were there any particular lightning-in-a-bottle moments that occurred while tracking?
Wolfe: It was quite simple really, working out the arrangements in my garage with my collaborator Ben Chisholm. I wrote the new version of “Whispers in the Echo Chamber” and showed him and he just started playing piano and it all came together. We recorded the EP in a friend’s apartment.
Another compelling aspect of Unbound was your choice to cover Spiritbox's fan-favorite track "Cellar Door." What about this song first resonated with you on a musical and personal level? How do the themes of "Cellar Door" fit into the narrative of the EP and its full-length predecessor, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She? Lastly, with you being no stranger to collaboration, you recently joined Spiritbox on stage during their set supporting Korn at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. What was that experience like as a whole?
Wolfe: Those chorus vocals and lyrics really resonated with me, expressing the pain of rebirth and starting over, something I’ve been doing for two years.. Am still doing. I just did a quick version of it on TikTok, and then was asked to expand it to a full cover for a BBC session I did. After that, we thought it would be interesting to include as something special on the EP. I think Spiritbox is making such cool music, and I adore Courtney [LaPlante]. It was great to connect in person and get to sing a bit together at the Korn show. We didn’t have any time to prepare or soundcheck and were just thrown out there so I think some audience members were like “who is this random lady singing quietly in the background” haha.. But I still had fun - I'm into stretching myself into new experiences right now.
Visually, when listening back to the EP, what does Unbound look like in your head in terms of setting and atmosphere. What is the ideal setting for one to consume this body of work?
Wolfe: I always like to listen to new music for the first time by myself in headphones, where I have the space to move around a little bit or lay on the floor in the dark. I think Unbound is really simple.. It’s me coming back to my roots after a bit of a whirlwind of a couple years of breaking away from old toxic patterns and touring a lot again and doing a lot of work on myself, and starting to come out the other side. I love Unbound, but it’s certainly a bridge to something new in my opinion, not an end point.
You recently released your own Oracle deck that directly ties into the songs from She Reaches Out to She with distinct artwork that corresponds to the overall themes. What does the artwork for the oracle deck mean to you, and what is its significance to the themes of the music? Lastly, you also added an additional card to the deck for the release of Unbound; what were your intentions behind this?
Wolfe: The oracle deck was such an aligned, fun project for me with this album. I appreciated so much that my team supported my witch-nature and desire to present that side of myself to the world through my music and visuals. We would talk about the release schedule in terms of moon phases, it was amazing. The oracle deck was in collaboration with the artist who did the album graphics/art direction, Christopher Leckie.
I basically put together a document for him with card titles and suggested symbology that corresponded with each song, and then gave him some freedom to be intuitively guided for the right artwork for each card. I loved everything he came back to me with, only some small tweaks. Then, he had the idea for me to record them in my own voice and that spiraled into an online version of the oracle. I wanted the remix EP Undone and this acoustic EP to have their own cards as a sort of extension of the deck, and Unbound has a sort of end-of-the-journey feel to it, which is helping me wrap this album cycle up in my head.
Speaking of tarot cards, listening to Unbound and the themes you are exploring regarding loss, moving on, and starting anew, you can't help but think of "The Death Card" or "The Wheel Of Fortune Card," where maybe there are things you are putting to rest and making difficult changes in order to set yourself up for an eventual rebirth. With that being said, what changes did you want to examine and see to fruition regarding your personal and professional life to begin a new chapter?
Wolfe: For sure, the concept/character of THE VOID was very present on this album, which connects to The Fool, and to Death card.. There’s been some real Tower, reversed energy in my life these past few years. I let some things go from my life in order to figure out what I had been numbing out against, and that showed me such a more clear path forward for myself. Now I’m reexamining healthier relationships with things in my life, all around. I used to be very all-or-nothing, and that led to burnout over and over. I’m also slowly trying to surround myself with more supportive people, and not those who only show me love when I’m using my gifts to serve them personally.
On October 3rd, you supported Wardruna at Colorado's infamous Red Rocks Amphitheater. Not only did this show take place at such an iconic venue and setting, but Wardruna is also your favorite band. What did the energy feel like when you got on stage to perform, and what did this overall experience feel like now that we are a few weeks removed?
Wolfe: As soon as we drove into the Red Rocks park, my energy calmed and stayed that way. It was such a lovely place to be, and the Wardruna band and crew were wonderful people. Their music is so inspiring to my spirit, and I was very honored and grateful to get to play such a special, iconic venue with them.
Unbound by, Chelsea Wolfe is out now via Loma Vista.
Watch the video for "Place In The Sun (Unbound)" Below
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