Pain Is Beauty - Tracklisting
1. Feral Love
2. We Hit a Wall
3. House of Metal
4. The Warden
5. Destruction Makes the World Burn Brighter
6. Sick
7. Kings
8. Reins
9. Ancestors, the Ancients
10. They’ll Clap When You’re Gone
11. The Waves Have Come
12. Lone

Chelsea Wolfe NY &  EU Dates
6/13 - Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw / Northside Music Fest w/ Swans
8/02 - Cork, Ireland @ Indiependent Music Fest
8/03 - Katowice, Poland @ OFF Festival

CHELSEA WOLFE PAIN IS BEAUTY TOUR 2013 
8/25 - Los Angeles, CA @ FYF Fest, LA History Park
9/01 - Tucson, AZ @ HOCO Festival
9/03 - Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
9/04 - Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
9/06 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk
9/07 - Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
9/08 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
9/09 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
9/10 - Chapel Hill @ Local 506
9/11 - Washington DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
9/13 - NYC, New York @ Bowery Ballroom
9/14 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
9/15 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
9/17 - Toronto, ONT @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
9/19 - Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room at Crofoot Ballroom
9/20 - Lexington, KY @ Boomslang Festival
9/21 - Chicago, IL - The Bottom Lounge
9/22 - Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
9/24 - Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
9/25 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
9/27 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza
9/28 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
9/30 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall

Ticket info HERE

Chelsea Wolfe has already made quite an impression in her career to date. Her ability to combine old fashioned folk songwriting with elements of drone and psychedelia may not be as remarkably original as some will have you believe but the mixture is potent to say the least. With a band of four in tow, this date marks Wolfe’s first performance in Leeds and the main room of The Cockpit is fairly full to welcome her to West Yorkshire. The message, it seems, has spread.

Chelsea Wolfe initially emerges flanked by a violinist and a keyboard player, brandishing an acoustic guitar, and a voice that could halt any passer-by in their tracks. Despite the fact that the crowd are obviously expecting something louder the first few tracks are rapturously received and if anything it’s slightly disappointing when the violin and acoustic guitar departs to be replaced by two electric guitars and drums. Soon enough though the second half of the set proves equally arresting, despite the occasional moment when the aforementioned upstairs gig is audible at inappropriate moments.

Wolfe’s live band are far from showy, that much is true, but the added texture given to her songs by their involvement is what makes this an unforgettable performance. At times the reverberations of her voice and some simple finger-picking is enough to send the audience into hypnotic rapture but it is the dissonant, slightly krautrockian ending to the main set takes things to another level. Indeed, the power achieved by both sound incarnations, quiet and loud, is almost Swans-like in its graceful ferocity. Unmissable.

On May 6th, Chelsea Wolfe played a fantastic concert at the Trix in Antwerp. Before the concert, Phil Blackmarquis had the opportunity to meet Chelsea for an exclusive interview, done together with Michael Thiel, aka Weyrd Son, founder of Weyrd Son Records and a huge fan of the American singer/songwriter.
(Check the review of the concert here.)

PhB: Thank you very much for this interview. You are in the middle of your European Tour right now. How is it?
It’s been cool. It’s been different than usual because we’re doing a half acoustic, half electric set, so it’s been a little wierd sometimes to balance the energies of the two different sets. But it works out well.

PhB: Why did you decide to split the concerts in two sets?
We had the new(ish) acoustic album that had come out in October, so we incorporated a fair amount of it in the set but without doing an entire acoustic show, just to challenge the ‘old’ songs with something new… And we split the show in two sets…

PhB: In the US, I think it was only acoustic?
Yes, it was a suggestion from some of the venues that we’d do an acoustic and an electric set and it kind of worked out, so…

WS: Is your acoustic album, “Unknown Rooms” a sort of bridge for you between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ Chelsea Wolfe, especially since you changed label?
I think so. My label had asked me if I wanted to do an acoustic album because I had so many old acoustic songs. People were asking me when I was going to release songs like ‘Flatlands’, which I had done years ago but hadn’t released yet. So, when the idea came up and I started compiling these old recordings, I decided to do some new ones as well. At the same time, I wanted to get away from the imagery of my former label, Pendu.

WS: Is there any reason why you hadn’t released these old songs before? Because, to me, they have as much strength as songs from ‘The Grime And The Glow’, for instance.
There’s no real reason. Music often happens without order or time, you know. The album that come out this fall has songs which I composed two years ago. It’s all about finding the right time and context for a song rather than writing it and putting it on a record immediately. Sometimes, it’s an older song that seems to fit or something you’ve just written that helps putting the puzzle together.

PhB: I heard that ‘Unknown Rooms’ has entered the charts in the US?
I have no idea. I don’t know.

WS: It’s something we saw on your Wikipedia page. It says that this album is your first album to enter the Billboard charts in the US. (Note: No. 25 in the folk chart and No. 35 in the Heatseekers chart)

WS: On the next album, there will be several electronic songs. Is it something to do with the ‘Wild Eyes’ project you have with Ben Chisholm?
Yes, we’ve had that project for several years but it just didn’t do right to have it separated from the Chelsea Wolfe project because it’s the same people, Ben and I. Same vibe, just a different sound and different instruments so we decide to combine both in one project.

PhB: Like the new song, ‘Kings’, for instance, which you play, would you say it is an example of a new song in the style of Wild Eyes?
Yes, it’s one of the songs that come from it.

WS: So, Wild Eyes is totally behind you now?
As a project, yes. A lot of the songs end up on the new album…

PhB: And are you going to release the cover of ‘Dark Rooms’? I really love it.
‘Dark Rooms’? You mean that civer we did a long time ago? I don’t remember why we did that. No, I don’t think we will release it.

PhB: So the next album is planned for September/October? I understand it will be more electronic, but also folk and rock?
Yes, with a wide range. It’s gonna be on Sargent House as well.

PhB: Do you already have a name for the album?
I have one, pretty positive but I’m not sure I can tell already, but we will announce it pretty quickly. So I have to make up my mind.

PhB: You also played another new song, ‘Feral Love’ yesterday?
Yes, this one has been there for a while as well but we re-recorded it for the new album.

WS: I read in an interview that you wanted to do something with a choir of singers?
It’s always been like a desire to do that. You know: I have a lot of idea’s I want to try out but I hope I have enough time to keep experimenting with things like that.

WS: Every album is quite different, that’s the great strength of your music!
PhB: You also introduced a violin on the last album, with the very talented Andrea Calderon?
Yes, she played on the acoustic album and also on the new album, so…

WS: Will she become part of the band?
I don’t think it’s permanent but probably for a number of shows and tours.. In every tour, we try to make things a little bit different so,;.. But she’s definitely a great addition to the project. I love to be able to have the vocal harmonies. It’s always hard to find someone who is good at harmonies and she is really good.

PhB: And her instrumental bridge on the violin between the two sets is really nice!
Yes: I asked if she could write something and she came up with that really fast…

PhB: Let’s talk about your sources of inspiration and your lyrics. Why this fascination for death, car accidents and all these things?
All of my songs have to do with death because I’ve never really had to deal with it. No one close to me has ever died yet. And I think that singing and writing about it is my way to try to understand it. I’m also interested in materialities of the world, natural disasters, the way that life is shaken up so quickly and unexpectedly. You think about life as a routine and one day, an earthquake or a tsunami can change it all in a second. That’s the kind of things that I find interesting to write songs…

WS: What about this song, ‘Boyfriend’: I knew it was a cover but I didn’t know that Ben (Chisholm) co-composed it.
Yes, it was composed by Karlos Rene Ayala, a friend from my hometown, which we both knew before we started playing music together. I really loved this song when I heard it and I didn’t realize that he had played on it, so we ended up redoing that song on the acoustic album.

WS: How was the tribute to Rudimentary Peni received? Because it didn’t really get lot of coverage in the press.
I think some people were confused. I called it a Tribute album because it’s not just covers, I just took the lyrics. But I haven’t heard anything negative about it, apart from people being mad about the way the songs were covered but I like it a lot!

WS: Are you still in touch with the guys from the band?
They heard the album and seemed to like it. C. Orr did the artwork for it.

PhB: What happened in Aachen? You had to change the venue a few days before the concert?
It’s because of a cover I did years ago and the guys of the venue thought that we were a fascist group. So, we were kicked out of the festival where we were supposed to play, so we ended up playing at the Musikbunker, which is ok. It was a nice show; I liked the place. It’s too bad that people associate us with things like that. I don’t want to be insensitive; I’m not from Germany so I understand that feeling, with history, you know… But I don’t want to be associated with fascism…

PhB: Thank you very much, Chelsea!

www.chelseawolfe.net

Statuesque and striking, Chelsea Wolfe has only a violinist and keyboard player for company. She instantly captivates with an opening salvo of ethereal folk numbers from her current album, Unknown Rooms: A Collection Of Acoustic Songs. Her graceful voice both heals and devastates on the dark, haunting ‘Flatlands’ and ‘Boyfriend’.

She trades acoustic guitar for electric, returning with an axe-man and drummer for the second half of the performance, made up almost exclusively of tracks from 2011’s Apokalypsis LP. Huge walls of sound are slowly constructed, with elements of drone-metal, noise and blues drowning out Wolfe’s folkie timbre. The deafening climax of ‘Pale On Pale’ is drenched in reverb and enormous, swelling vocal loops. She’ll need a bigger venue next time.

CHELSEA WOLFE will play again in Cork, Ireland at the Indiependence Music & Arst Festival on August 2, 2013 on the Sargent House Stage.

It’s a miserable, grey evening in Dublin, but a gig at the Sugar Club is always somewhat of a transporting experience. While the light drizzle is altogether souring, there’s just something about the darkness and plush comfort of the Leeson St venue that easily shuts out such menial annoyances. With the right performer, it can become cocoon-like and suitably intense. Chelsea Wolfe, the ethereal Sacremento singer-songwriter with a lingering gothic sensibility, is such a performer, but until she comes on stage, Simon Bird will provide some blustering background listening.

Wolfe strides into view, wearing an ankle-length black skirt and a long-sleeved white top. She’s markedly slender and her face is largely covered by a mop of raven hair. With no drummer, she’s only accompanied by a violinist and a keyboardist/bassist. A small band will suffice for now as the set’s opening half takes solely from Wolfe’s 2012 album Unknown Rooms, a collection of acoustic songs that constitutes her most refined and affecting work to date.

The opening strains of ‘Appalachia’ usher the set into life and slowly gather momentum. At this point, everyone has found their spot to sit or stand and ended their conversations. Attention needs to be paid when a performer is so willfully quiet, but such reticence only focuses the audience’s attention. ‘Spinning Centers’ [sic] is the sound of the big bad wolf beckoning naive children deeper and deeper into the forest, which is appropriate, as Wolfe and her two backing musicians have that same creeping magnetism and eerie charisma.

It’s hypnotic at times, and the wonderful one-two punch of ‘Flatlands’ and ‘Boyfriend’ is truly flooring. The former is very simple in construction but undeniably effective in execution and builds with gloomy inevitability towards its spine-tingling chorus. You wonder why songs like ‘Flatlands’ haven’t been around forever; they just seem so obviously great that it seems stupid that nobody wrote them sooner. ‘Boyfriend’ does a great job of following-up, however, and never once lets go of a captivated audience, but shakes loose of acoustic limitations with a boggy, plodding keyboard line at its end. With that and a brief, violin-led interlude, Wolfe and co. exit.

A full band returns without that bewitching violinist, unfortunately, and the set’s second half is far more raw, taking from Wolfe’s first two albums, Apokalypsis and The Grime and the Glow. Although the second half may be more sternum-shattering in its intentions, it by and large fails to match the impact made by the first. Sure, the drummer makes his presence known on ‘Demons’, but it is not until the raucous ‘Moses’ that brute force prove as indelible in their breathless impact as earlier peaks.

‘Movie Screen’ is wispy and meandering allowing everyone a few minutes to breath before the finale, ‘Pale on Pale’, which matches ‘Moses’ for volume and aggression, adding its own disorientating intensity. It’s over suddenly and a focused atmosphere dissipates in an instant as some move to front to converse with Wolfe and her band. Meeting a musician tends to rid them of any enduring mystique they might have, replacing perceptions with an actual person while generally highlighting their on-stage ability. Wolfe is polite and humbled in person and anything but on stage.

Chelsea Wolfe’s European headline tour begins this Wednesday April 24th in Dublin her first time playing in Ireland. For this tour she has brought along her Violin player and will be performing a combination of both acoustic and electric songs (new and old) for these very special shows.

SEE ALL SHOW DETAILS TICKET LINKS AND UPDATES HERE.

CHELSEA WOLFE EU 2013
Apr 24, 2013 - Dublin, Ireland @ The Sugar Club
Apr 25, 2013 - Belfast, N. Ireland @ Auntie Annie’s Porterhouse
Apr 27, 2013 - Praha, Czech Republic @ Lucerna Music Bar
Apr 28, 2013 - Berlin, Germany @ Kantine am Berghine
Apr 29, 2013 - København, Denmark  @ Vega
Apr 30, 2013 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Debaser Medis
May 02, 2013 - Oslo, Norway @ Bla
May 03, 2013 - Lund, Sweden @ Mejeriet
May 04, 2013 - Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich
May 05, 2013 - Aachen, Germany @ Musikbunker Aachen
May 06, 2013 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix
May 07, 2013 - Paris, France @ Le Point Ephemere
May 08, 2013 - Diksmuide, Belgium @ 4AD
May 09, 2013 - London,UK @ Cargo
May 10, 2013 - Leeds, UK  @ The Cockpit
May 11, 2013 - Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts Wah Wah Hut
May 12, 2013 - Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute
May 13, 2013 - Utrecht, Netherlands @ Tivoli
May 14, 2013 - Arnhem, Netherlands @ Willemeen
May 16, 2013 - Zürich, Switzerland @ Bogen F
May 17, 2013 - Milan, Italy @ Lo Fi Club
May 18, 2013 - St Petersburg, Russia @ Skif Festival
May 19, 2013 - Moscow, Russia @ 16 Tons Club