A year ago this month, my album Pain is Beauty was released. Since then, my bandmates and I have been touring pretty much nonstop, in different incarnations and situations. We’ve done co-headline tours with Russian Circles, minimal acoustic tours, and full band tours opening for Queens of the Stone Age. Our last stop was a headline tour of Europe, based around the summer festivals there. My dear friend and photographer Virginie Khateeb from Paris came along towards the end to hang out and take some photos. Most of them are film. She’s a calm, lovely soul and one of the few people I’ve felt comfortable enough with to let into the strange microcosm that is tour.

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BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Here I’m getting my palm tattooed by Jean-Philipe Burton at his shop in Brussels. he’s a great dude and I’ve been a fan of his work for a while now.

My friends An and Filip from A.F. Vandevorst came to the Brussels venue to say hello before the show. It’s always fun to hang out and talk with them, they’re very inspiring people and I adore their designs. here I’m wearing Weekday neoprene shoes, a kimono from Japan and a dress made by this great designer Gemma Kahng, via my stylist Jenni Hensler.

Onstage with my Fender Jaguar. this show was nice, in an intimate venue called Le Brass. Belgium is one of my favorite places to visit on tour.

AMSTERDAM

The band rarely does group photos but Virginie got us all to pose on this shitty leather couch backstage in Amsterdam. I love my bandmates. I have a few different people I play with and this time I brought Ezra Buchla (far right) to play viola, he’s amazing. Dylan Fujioka (second from left) plays drums and Ben Chisholm is my co-producer and plays bass and keys live.

Virginie is an old friend of mine and we always make each other laugh. this is right before I went onstage in Amsterdam, wearing some of my favorites – Ovate Lorretine dress, Pagan Poetry harness, Hunter Gatherer rings, Aoi Kotsuhiroi horn cuff and white kimono cape by Jenni Hensler. I love that it catches the light onstage.

LUXEMBOURG

Writing set lists backstage in Luxembourg. we change it around a little bit each night. the numbers are references to pedal settings. I’m too forgetful to keep it all in my head.

Performing “Kings” and “Sick” in Luxembourg. it was our first time there. the folks who ran the venue kept feeding us absinthe shots.

LONDON

Virginie & I stopped by designer Alexandra Groover’s London studio so I could try on some things to wear to the show that night. my friend Stephen O’Malley from Sunn O))) had told me about Alexandra a while back since I was obsessing over the detail of the hooded capes she had made for them. I loved this hat, based on vintage swim caps. it reminded me of The Seventh Seal.

This is the Alexandra Groover dress and wild necklace I ended up wearing onstage, worn w/ K/LLER quill earrings. I quit smoking a while ago but snuck some drags of Virginie’s cigarette before the show.

Ezra playing viola at the show in London. we were supposed to play a festival called Jabberwocky there with a lot of other bands but it got cancelled at the last minute. we pulled together a last minute show with our friends Deafheaven at the Garage in London and it was a blast.

Written by Chelsea Wolfe
Photographed by Virginie Khateeb

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