Prelude:

Chelsea Wolfe is an American singer-songwriter and musician who incorporates folk, goth rock, and doom metal into her sound. Her most recent album, Hiss Spun, is her fifth. Wolfe co-produced the collection with longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm. It was recorded by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and features contributions from Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age and Aaron Turner of the post-metal band Isis. Her music has been featured in Game of Thrones, Fear the Walking Dead and How to Get Away with Murder. Here she discusses her songwriting process, explains why it’s worth shaking up your approach, gives tips for surviving in the music industry, and talks about the importance of old books.

Full Article Via The Creative Independent 

Conversation:

How do you deal with creative blocks?

If I start to feel stagnant, going to see a good show always helps. Watching a great band makes me want to play music. Like, when we opened for Queens of the Stone Age a few years back. I was unsure where I wanted to go next musically, and had a feeling, like maybe I should do another acoustic album… I was starting to put some invisible pressure on myself instead of letting my instincts lead. But after a couple nights of watching Queens play these rock ‘n’ roll songs that have been my favorites for years, it was like, “No, fuck that, I want to play heavy music and let some aggression out,” so then I started working on Abyss.

You did change your sound on your Abyss. It was clearly you, but it was heavier. The album that came after it, Hiss Spun, is darker and even heavier. As an artist, is it important to take risks?

Yes, and it’s important to follow your intuition. That’s what I was doing then. I did that tour opening up for QOTSA, and immediately after did a tour opening for The Eels, switching from a rock set to acoustic set with literally one day between. I wasn’t ready to be up there playing this quiet music, and cried through the soundcheck of the first show. I was so uncomfortable. That’s how I knew I didn’t want to make another acoustic album just yet, and went full-force with the heavy. There was something I needed to let out first, like an exorcism.

Can you talk us through your songwriting process?

I keep endless notes and recordings of lyrics and production ideas that pop into my head in the middle of the night, when I’m driving, when I’m reading a book, whenever…Then when I get a musical idea or have the time to sit down and work on new songs, I have this store of ideas to pull from. I’ll treat it like a collage at times—scanning over pages of words and seeing what stands out, conceptually or visually, and I’ll start from there, sometimes culling other things from those pages that relate, or sometimes just writing all new things based on the one thing that stands out at that time.

There are also instances where I write a complete song in one go. Those are the more exhilarating, revelatory times. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere when something hits me emotionally or instinctually, and sometimes it comes from writing sessions where I’ll set up my gear around me, get ready to record, and then take mushrooms, allowing myself to open up in a new way. It’s not always easy. Sometimes it can be daunting or physically taxing, but I can be so closed-off at times—protecting myself from the energies of the world—that I have to pry myself back open when I’m ready to start writing again.

Do you stick to any kind of regular regimen as far as writing music? What’s your daily schedule like?

My only real regimen is not to ignore any ideas. Inspiration can sometimes come at the most inconvenient moments, like when I’ve finally just started to fall asleep, but I force myself up and follow it through. My family inspires me a lot, so I’ve warned them that if I have to stop and do something in my phone while we’re in the middle of a conversation, I’m just quickly taking note of an old-fashioned phrase they said that I thought was beautiful, or something they mentioned that I want to look into later. When I get to a point where I’ve written a few songs that start to feel related, like the beginning of an album, that’s the most exciting time. At that point I’ll hone in, researching certain subjects, and I start to well up with musical ideas and melodies.

I have a small writing studio that’s right next to my bedroom where I work on lyrics and record demo vocals, and then downstairs is another studio room where the band and I will jam and work parts out together. I live in the middle of nowhere, but I’m lucky enough that my bandmates come stay with me and work on songs for chunks of time. It’s not so bad here—there’s lots of trees and lakes, and a dive bar with a jukebox and karaoke.

I’ve learned over time that keeping most of my thoughts, experiences, and ideas to myself and my close friends as they happen, instead of sharing them with the internet constantly—that helps them remain special. We’re in such a zeitgeist now that I also find it important to find inspiration sources that have nothing to do with the internet. Of course it’s going to seep in here and there. I mean, I still start my day with the news, usually via CNN, Vice, or Reuters, but for years I’ve been collecting books, and old books especially are an invaluable resource.

For me, going to an antique store or used bookstore is almost equivalent to going to a museum. I love to think about the stories those items hold. While I was writing songs for Hiss Spun, I experimented with getting up really early and writing with a fresh mind. Steve Von Till told me he does that, so I gave it a try. It worked well for me, but then as soon as I go on tour my sleep schedule goes back to late nights and late mornings! When I come back from Europe the jet lag brings me back to the early mornings so I try to take advantage of those times.

Is it ever okay to abandon something you’ve started?

I’m not afraid to let go of songs that aren’t working. I mean, I threw 100s of copies of CDs of the first album I did in my early 20’s into a dumpster behind my old apartment back in Sacramento. I wasn’t happy with it. I knew I wanted to make music, but wasn’t able to execute my vision yet. It was just practice, really.

How do you come back from a bad review?

I think because I’m so hard on myself, and constantly critiquing what I’m doing, it’s not weird for me to see a review with something negative about me… I’ll even agree. Like there was a show in Vancouver once with a review that said my voice was “much raspier than the recorded version,” and I was like, “Yeah, I was exhausted that night and the monitors were shit.” No big deal, I still gave it all I had.

That’s not to say it doesn’t affect me. I had to stop looking at comments because that can be a bit much, hearing everyone’s opinion on you all the time. But you kind of expect reviewers to be looking for something to pick out to counteract anything positive they have to say, because I think a lot of people read negativity as authenticity. I don’t, but I do try to see the balance in all things. To me, it’s worse when an artist spends their energy tearing another artist down. If you’re spending a lot of time and energy seething against another band, it probably says more about how you feel about the work you’re making.

Do you see social media as a useful tool?

It can be an insight into someone’s life who may otherwise be a private person, like myself, but I’m also careful about what I share. I rarely post photos of my closest friends, family, or who I date. Then every once in a while I’ll surprise you with something exhibitionistic or personal. I mostly just use Instagram, and I don’t plan out my posts… I just put things up when the mood hits.

Like the other night I drank a bit too much and was hyperventilating in bed at my friend’s house. I started almost speaking in tongues and then was repeating my album title Hiss Spun in a strange way. I took video of it (well just audio, the room was dark) and posted it because it felt very real and related to the feeling of the album. But then I’ll see someone like St. Vincent having these nice, well thought-out videos to introduce her new album and I feel like a total loser, but at this point in my life I’m just more spur-of-the-moment, I suppose. Anyway, social media is useful in the sense that you can let a group of people who are interested in your work know what you’re up to or have coming up, like a new album or tour.

What does success look like to you? Failure?

I have my own weird definition of perfection that I hold my music to, so sometimes the recording process can be grueling, but at the same time it’s the only way I feel like I’m successful at all—if I’m proud of the music I’m putting out, I’m successful. Failure would be to make music just to keep up with trends, or to give someone else control over your music because you’re not feeling up to it. If you’re drained of drive and ideas, it’s time to take a break, live life, and through that, find reinvigoration.

The music industry can be a weird place. What are your survival techniques?

It was like navigating through an apocalyptic wasteland for many years, dealing with human vampires and exclusion, but I’ve also held truly good and grounding people close along the way. Playing with musicians who aren’t sexist or controlling, but are instead supportive and willing to listen, combined with having a powerful woman as a manager have helped me maintain a certain kind of balance and sanity. I’ve always had a strong vision, but haven’t always had the strength to put myself out there into the world, so it took me a long time to get to where I am. I recognize that I have a long way to go, but I’m almost 10 years deep into this so I’m much more confident and enthusiastic about pushing forward with my ideas and perspective than I was at the beginning. I’ve also learned to say “No!”


When it comes to Chelsea Wolfe, there are some things that are too personal—in fact, most things are. But you’d never be able to guess that after listening to Hiss Spun. On her seventh album, the Sacramento-based artist delves into her own experiences with anxiety and addiction, laying bare all the emotions that come with growing up. And in a world where all we see are sun-drenched selfies and pics of girls on what feel like perennial vacations, Wolfe details the feelings of an endlessly bad day. That unapologetic honesty, coupled with the 33-year-old’s dissonant yet dreamy howl, makes Hiss Spunmore than a rarity—in showing her own bruises, Wolfe unearths ours. 

BULLETT caught up with the singer to talk exorcisms, empathy and how she’s evolved. Read our interview HERE. 

Tell me about the new album. What inspired you to make it? 

It really began with kind of a culmination of people in my life—musicians in my life. I used to have a band with my friends and drummer Jess Gowrie about ten years ago, in my hometown of Sacramento. At a certain point, I knew that I needed to do my own thing and follow my own vision, and write songs that didn’t fit within that realm. So I left the band, and it was a hard decision at the time, but I knew it was what I needed to do. Afterwards, Jess and I didn’t talk for a period of seven years until we reunited a couple of years ago. When we did, it was clear that our musical journey together wasn’t finished, and that the chemistry was still there. We decided we wanted to write some songs together—I started a side project basically just to write songs with her, and we had my bandmate Ben be a part of it, and Troy from Queens of the Stone Age. We were really digging the songs we were writing and I was like, ‘Why don’t we just make this the next Chelsea Wolfe record?’ Everyone was on board, so I moved forward with it in that way, and it was great—it was really low pressure, we were just writing to write, just for the joy of it. That was the catalyst for this record. 

How do you think Hiss Spun compares to your previous work? 

I’ve been asked a lot if this record is some sort of continuation of my last record, Abyss. At first, I was like, ‘No, I don’t think they’re related.’ But in a way, they are. In the Abyssera, I knew I wanted to write heavy songs. I’d been touring with a lot of heavy bands like Russian Circles, Queens of the Stone Age, True Widow—that really gave me a desire to write heavy songs myself. That was kind of my inspiration for Abyss. And I think when I rejoined playing music with Jess, that’s the kind of songs we like to make together, as well. So I continued that journey, it was just with a different group of people. And at a different time in my life. 

What were you able to do with this record that you weren’t able to on Abyss? 

I think for this album, I’ve been able to be a lot more open and honest. I’m 33 years old now—I’m becoming more comfortable in my own skin, with my own musical abilities. And I think this album reflects that—it’s very open and honest. It’s also kind of more in your face and unapologetic than things that I’ve done before. 

Right. Were there any specific themes you really tried to touch on? 

I mean, each record and each song has multiple stories within it. So sometimes, it’s hard for me to pin down in a conversation exactly what it’s about, or exactly what a certain song is about. But for this one, I think the word ‘spun’ really encapsulates the feeling of the album. There’s a lot of stories about self-destruction and dealing with anxieties, and I haven’t always dealt with those in the healthiest ways. So the album deals with addiction, or talking about relationships that I’ve been in, being in love with an addict and things like that—I’m approaching some subjects that really fit within this world of being spun out, or just feeling like you’re spinning, like a really long hangover. It’s a lot about the chaos of the world and meeting that head on with the chaos of the self, and embracing the mess of yourself and finding strength in that—showing that to the world instead of pretending that everything’s okay. In this era of social media, everyone is really expected to present this perfect version of their life. But the truth is, most of the time, life is really messy—I wanted to reflect that. 

Also, the word ‘spun’ references a sort of loss of control. In a way, writing music can be a way to reclaim that by creating your own narrative. You mentioned anxiety, addiction and unhealthy relationships. Is writing music your way of processing emotion? 

Yeah. Music has always been my way of processing either my own troubles, or the things that I see other people dealing with in the world. Because I’m an empathic person, I can’t just watch the news or hear a story about a friend going through some shit and just feel nothing. So I guess music is just my way of dealing with things that I find really sad or distressing—when I feel like I can’t do anything about it because it’s so far away, I end up writing a song about it. It’s a personal way of reclaiming control—whether it’s about your own life, or whether it’s about the world. 

It’s interesting, because a lot of people say they write music for others—for their fans. Of course, you want people to like what you do, but it seems like for you, music is more about therapy, or catharsis. 

I wouldn’t say that I’m writing for other people, but there are certain songs that are definitely dedicated to a person or a situation. Still, a lot of it is for myself—it’s like an exorcism. And there’s a lot of exorcisms on this album, especially the last song, “Scrape.” 

What’s your writing process like? 

I’m always writing things down—I have tons of text files and notebooks that just have either one line, or paragraphs, or full ideas. And then once I’m inspired musically, or once my band and I get together and jam, I’ll just look through those lines—almost like a collage, or a poem. 

When you’re writing about traumatic experiences, can making a record feel draining? 

It does, actually. And I think each album gets more and more draining as I’m writing it, especially because I want to put more and more of myself into the songs—I really want to dive deeper and deeper into those emotions and memories and stories because I don’t want it to be half-assed. I jump in all the way. Sometimes, I’ll use the aid of psychedelic mushrooms, or some weed to help open me up, because it’s a process that’s not easy to dive into and I don’t always want to do it. But again, I want the songs to be an honest reflection. So it’s a hard balance—sometimes I come out physically shaking when I’m writing because it’s such an intense experience. But there’s also songs on this album that were more about escapism—just like, ‘Let’s write a rock song that’s fun to play and that we can escape into—let’s get out of our heads for a little bit.’ 

Is it the same with performing? It’s like you’re having to revisit this dark headspace every time you play a song. 

I don’t really think about it so much as I’m having to revisit that headspace, because it’s already there, and since it’s already out in the world, it’s a little bit easier. Being in the studio and recording those parts is a little more difficult because you’re really putting it down in a concrete way—you’re like, ‘Here’s this thing that I went through,’ and you have to try to really express it in the right way. Once you do it live, it’s a little bit more loose, and you can reinterpret it or do things with your voice—that’s probably what helps me through the fact that it’s really heavy subject matter to keep reproaching every night. And when you’re on the road, all you’re really focusing on, is keeping yourself physically well enough to be able to perform night after night—that distracts me a bit. 

What was the hardest part about making the album? 

What we’ve been talking about—just diving into my own memories and really writing about my own life for the first time. With each album, I’ll inject a couple of lines here and there that are really based on my own experience. But on this one—I moved back to Northern California last year, not too far from where I’m from, and started spending a lot more time with old friends and family. It brought up a lot of memories and I really had to face some things that I’d avoided for a long time. Just being able to put that into songs was something I knew I needed to do, but it was not the easiest thing to start. 

Why did you decide to open up so much on this release? 

I’m just getting older, and it just started happening naturally. I started spending more time near my hometown and with friends and family from my past, and that was right around the time when we started this side project. 

Earlier, you said you started writing these song as a side project. Why’d you end up deciding to keep them for Chelsea Wolfe? 

We were all really into the songs that we were writing—it just would’ve been a shame to put out a record, but never be able to tour on it, because we’re all busy with other bands or whatever. It was like, ‘If we make this the next Chelsea Wolfe record, we can actually continue the train and play it.’ So I think it was just wanting to play these songs live that was the catalyst for that. 

How would you describe the sound? 

We have so many different types of songs on each album—I’ve done acoustic music, I’ve done rock ‘n’ roll, I’ve done electronic. I guess I just don’t feel like it’s that important to define my music. It just comes from me and it comes from the collective of musicians that I’ve been lucky to work with over the years—it’s very us. 

Were there any specific records or artists you were listening to when you started writing the album? 

Definitely. I was a teenager in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s—there’s a lot of music there that I’ve loved since then. A lot of rock, a lot of trip-pop—Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden. There’s definitely a lot of influence there. But there’s also a lot of influence from Ozzy and Black Sabbath—naturally, a lot of his influence creeps into my music. 

I would never guess Ozzy, but now that you say it, I can totally hear the influence. I was listening to the album this morning and reading some of your old interviews. It seems like everyone is quick to call you ‘dark’ or ‘goth.’ Does that ever feel limiting? Like, if you wanted to write a happy song, you couldn’t? 

Some of my songs have been a little more light-hearted and hopeful, and people have accepted that. But it’s funny, because I don’t really think of myself like that at all. Maybe my aesthetic choices and the designers that I’m drawn to—it’s a lot of black, like Ann Demeulemeester and things like that, but I don’t really think of that as goth. I’ve just always wanted to fade into the background a little bit. Even though my career choice has brought me to place where I’m onstage night after night in front of people, I still have that desire to hide a little bit. But other people will define me however they want. 

What do you get out of being a solo artist that you didn’t get when you were in bands? I mean, why did you decide to go solo, in the first place? 

The bottom line is, I don’t want to compromise for anyone else—I don’t want to compromise my sound. So while I’m working with a lot of really talented musicians, I’m able to still kind of be the curator, the dictator of this project. That’s really all it is—I don’t want to compromise. I have a vision for my music, for my sound. I respect everyone I work with so much. But at the end of the day, I need to like everything I do so I can keep the vision moving forward. 

How do you think you’ve evolved since you started this project? 

I think I’ve learned to communicate a lot better. In the past, I would’ve had a hard time telling someone, ‘This is what I want you to do,’ or ‘This is what I think we should do for the band.’ But now, I’m more able to say what I want to say to make sure I’m on the right path. I’ve also learned to edit myself better—trying to not put too much into the songs, to put just enough. But maybe a question someone else should answer. Being the center of this project, I’m not always examining myself or my process—I’m just looking towards the future, always.

Story by Adam Budofsky via Modern Drummer | Photo by Priscilla C. Scott

Drummer and singer reunite on one of the more highly anticipated albums of the year.

You know when you put your ear right up to a perfectly tuned floor tom and tap the head ever so slightly, and if the room’s quiet enough it sounds like that pillowy rumble could be coming from the very depths of the earth, and it might just go on forever? And you know when you’re at a metal show and the drummer launches into a double bass attack that’s so loud and low and forceful that you can feel your internal organs shiver and shake? Well, Jess Gowrie certainly knows those feelings. In fact, on Chelsea Wolfe’s seventh album, Hiss Spun, she’s the one pushing the music to the farthest ends of that dynamic spectrum. It’s an extremely satisfying thing to experience, and it perfectly frames Wolfe’s songwriting and arrangement style, which spans the fragile delicacy of acoustic icons like Nick Drake and the classic howl and drone of, say, the Cure’s Pornography or the Melvins’ Houdini.

The fact that Gowrie’s playing works so well with Wolfe’s music is no accident. Though this is the drummer’s first appearance on one of the singer’s solo albums, the two spent three years together in the Sacramento, California, band Red Host during the mid-aughts, a period when, as Wolfe has said in prior interviews, she was being influenced by the drummer’s taste in heavy music. “I have a hard time taking a hundred percent credit,” Gowrie tells MD. “But back then my friends and I were definitely listening to bands like Marilyn Manson and Queens of the Stone Age. So by default it sort of got her into it too.”

Cut to 2017, and we find the two putting their heads, hands, and hearts back together in the service of creating an album concerned with, as Wolfe puts it, “cycles, obsession, centrifugal force, and gut feelings.” Producer Kurt Ballou (Converge) helped flesh out the idiosyncratic tones that Wolfe is known for by providing a wide variety of snare drums and encouragement to try some unique production techniques. “I played on two different kits,” Gowrie explains. “One we called the trash kit, and it was set up in the basement, where it was really reverby, and the other was more like your regular live kit. A lot of times I’d record the entire song on both those kits, and we would use certain parts played on each of them.”

Ultimately, Gowrie’s most important considerations for parts and sounds depended on Wolfe’s voice and melodic sense. “One of the awesome things about playing with Chelsea,” Gowrie says, “is that she has a real talent for writing melodies that are very catchy yet unpredictable. When I approach writing drum parts with her, I concentrate on the melodies almost more than the riff itself, because they dictate the mood, the vibe. And then when we went into the studio and really [focused on] the tone of the drums and which kit, snare, and cymbals we’d use, it really mattered to me how her vocals sounded on each track. On the song ‘Twin Fawn,’ for instance, I played on a banjo instead of a snare, which is very different from just playing with the snares off. It worked so well with her vocals, and that was the main objective.”

MD: Tell us more about the making of Hiss Spun. You mentioned playing off of Chelsea’s melodies.

Jess: Lyrically as well. I never really thought about it until working on this record, but I was doing it without even knowing it. But lyrically and melodically, if the drummer has that kind of ear to separate themselves, the drums can become that kind of instrument too, not just like the 2 and the 4. Some of my favorite drummers I feel do that same exact thing. And it just dawned on me that that’s what I do, with Chelsea especially, even going back to when we were originally in Red Host together.

MD: And the way you play together has probably improved with each time you get together to create new music.

Jess: Yeah, hopefully. You’ll never be the best, you always have to try to get better. And her albums I think speak volumes about stepping up each time.

MD: There are great extremes in her music—sometimes it’s very quiet, sometimes it’s very slow. Drummers often look forward to playing fast or loud, but it can be just as much fun going the other way, if you embrace it. Do you have any thoughts on playing slowly or quietly without losing the intensity?

Jess: Totally. It’s interesting you should say that. I teach drums as well, and one of the things I stress, especially to the beginner, is practicing slowly with the metronome, and then taking the speed up. Like you said, everybody wants to go super fast, but if you don’t start slow, it’s going to be sloppy when you do get fast. You have to build up to that. Some of the slow dynamics on the album, once again, I’m trying to support the melody, but making it interesting by playing with mallets instead of sticks. It’s not reinventing anything, but it really adds something interesting to it without being all crazy or weird or fast. And I’ll just try to put accents in that shine, instead of relying on power and volume. It’s more about placement with the finesse of, like I said, a snare that’s turned off, or mallets.

MD: Do you encourage your students to record themselves?

Jess: I actually record our lessons, in part so that I don’t have to write everything down; we can go back and reference it. But also, we’ll do exercises in the beginning. Before we even get on the kit, we’ll do exercises on the practice pad—a lot of slow, boring stuff, they probably think, but in the end it’ll pay off.

MD: With Chelsea you’re also sometimes playing very quietly, like on the song “The Culling.” It’s so nice to hear drums played that quietly on an album. Drums can actually sound “pretty” at a low dynamic. That can be very demanding. I know in my own playing, I have to really take care not to get too loud during fills. It’s a constant struggle.

Jess: Absolutely. I think that’s really hard for any drummer. Because guitars have volume knobs. With drums, you are the volume knob. But when I went into playing with Chelsea again, I knew her style, and I knew that there were going to be slow songs, quiet songs, more intense songs. And it wasn’t until we started jamming on new stuff, not even knowing what songs were going to be on the record, I felt like we kind of pushed each other. That’s why I think it sounds different but it still sounds like Chelsea. Because it boils down to her vocals and melodies; they really shine on all her records. So my job is to definitely not play over those and distract, but to support. And if it was a quiet moment, then I had to figure out what to play on the drums. Sometimes there were no drums. And a lot of times I knew that there shouldn’t be. And I think that’s a sign of maturity with any type of musician, knowing when not to play a damned thing.

MD: You can even look at it selfishly: the longer you’re away, the better it sounds when you come back in.

Jess: Absolutely; a lot of the songs do come back in with a crashing moment. And it’s definitely amplified, especially live. We’ve been playing “The Culling” live in Europe. People have never heard the song before, and it starts off slow, with the mallets and the turned-off snares, and all of a sudden it comes in—bam—and you can see the reaction of the people, because they have no idea what to expect. It’s really interesting.

Another thing that’s rad about working with Chelsea—and maybe this is because we do have a past—but she definitely trusts her musicians to have ideas and their own personalities in their playing. She was very trusting with me just hearing the track and suggesting, “It could go like this….” We would discuss it, obviously, but when you can let other people be free to express themselves, you’re going to get a really good product, and an evolution in your albums, and improvement. Letting people in that small circle is really important.

MD: Going back a bit when you were discussing constructing parts in regards to her melodies and such, watching videos of bands that you’ve been in over the years, you seem to have a loyalty to that concept. Even when the music might be considered more wild, you seem to be very conscious of coming up with cool parts and orchestrating. Is that something that you’ve been conscious of for a long time?

Jess: I think so. I think it’s something I got from the drummers I listened to growing up, like Jimmy Chamberlin from Smashing Pumpkins and Matt Cameron from Soundgarden. They’re jazz drummers that are playing rock music. So their beats are more interesting. They’ve got the chops to spice things up but not overplay. I’m definitely not a jazz drummer, but learning those songs and playing along to them, it definitely forms you when you’re approaching a section: What can I play here that has personality but has a groove and works with what everyone’s playing, not just me? That’s what I get from Matt and Jimmy; their drumming is phenomenal and it’s perfect for their bands.

Photo by Calibree

MD: So what bands are you still actively playing with? You’ve played with Happy Fangs, I’m Dirty Too….

Jess: Unfortunately those bands are no longer. I’m Dirty Too in theory will always be a band, because it’s just me and my friend Zac Brown, and whenever we have time we’ll work together. But we haven’t had much time lately. The active bands I’m in are Horseneck, which is kind of a post-hardcore/metal band, and Chelsea.

MD: I was listening to Horseneck this morning; that’s a pretty recent release, right, the Heavy Trip album?

Jess: Yeah, it came out in February, though it was recorded a while ago.

MD: You have dates with Chelsea through November.

Jess: Right. The album came out September 22, and we’re touring the States now, but there will be European dates after that. And who knows, maybe even a second go-round through the U.S. next year. Then whenever I’m not out with them, Horseneck will book things around Chelsea’s schedule so I can play with them. So basically I never get to sleep. [laughs]

MD: Then when you’re home you’ve got lessons.

Jess: Yeah, though I’ve slowed down on that because I have no consistent schedule anymore. But for students who are open to me cancelling and rescheduling, I’m there for them. But I keep my schedule as open as possible for Chelsea and Horseneck.

MD: I was reading a story about I’m Dirty Too where you had to at one point decide to do the singing, which is great, you were basically letting circumstances lead you in a certain direction and following it. And then when I put on the record I was like, You sing great! I’m not even sure what you were shy about.

Jess: You have to keep in mind, I’m Dirty Too came out after Red Host broke up. So going from Chelsea to me singing…I mean, Chelsea is such a good singer, I had high standards for who my next lead singer was going to be. That’s why we ended up doing it. Because, honestly, we just couldn’t find anyone that fit the bill. I’m definitely a drummer, there’s no confusion in my mind what instrument I play. But it was cool, something different. I’d played drums forever, and this added something new. I could write lyrics, things I’d never done before. It was just fun. But Zac plays in the band Tycho, which is a huge instrumental band that was just nominated for a Grammy. So that’s why we don’t have a lot of time to play together. We’re always going to be friends, so….

MD: So have you been doing any singing since?

Jess: No. Nope.

MD: Well, keep it in your back pocket, because you sounded good.

Jess: I don’t think it’s my calling. I mean, you’re being very nice, but I don’t necessarily agree. [laughs] I do appreciate the compliment.

MD: Let’s talk a little more about specific songs on the Chelsea record. When the drums enter on “Vex,” at first I thought, “Oh, this song has a drum machine on it,” maybe because your bass drum pattern is this really insistent 16th-note pattern. But then I heard the hi-hats opening a little and I was like, “No, no, this is live drumming.” Can you talk a little about that song?

Jess: That song was one of the first we jammed on. At first Chelsea and I were going to do a side project together, and that was going to be for that. But then the more songs we jammed on, it quickly turned into, Oh, we should play together for real. So that song has definitely evolved from how it started to what you hear on the record.

Something that Kurt was very good about in the studio was knowing when the drums should have a sort of muffled, almost drum machine tone, versus and open, boomy live room sound. And that was such a tight, drum-machine-like beat that it made sense to muffle everything and, like you said, once the hi-hats open, the song sort of opens too. I think we might have even changed the snare for that part for when it opens up too.

It was really nice to have enough time in the studio to play around with that sort of thing. You know how you end up playing around with amps in the studio all day long? Well, I never had the opportunity to do that with drums until this experience. With this album, we had a month in the studio, and I’m used to having three days to play the songs. And that’s totally changed, from now on, all my studio experiences. Even if I don’t have all that time at my disposal, I’ll take the time to tune differently and experiment with the kit. And that’s definitely one of the songs where that shines. So this was a dream. You know, I didn’t want song number seven to sound tired, which can happen. We’d be like, Okay, let’s just pick up tomorrow. So on every song I had energy, which was great.

Everything in my mind had to be as perfect as it could be, even if that’s an impossible thing to ask for. So demoing the songs first…my boyfriend has a studio, so I went in there with him to write the beats and figure out the tones so that when we went in with Kurt, I was ready. I ended up having more time than I needed for the recording, so it was awesome.

MD: Can you talk specifically about what gear you used for the recording, and how that may or may not have differed from what you play live?

Jess: Live I was playing this company called Rocket Shells. They make custom carbon-fiber drums. It’s actually where I work—it’s where I’m at now. The cool thing is that the snare I play is predominantly the snare that you hear on the record. And we did blind tests of all the snares—we’d record a snippet of each snare and see which one worked with each song, and it was almost always the Rocket Shells drum that worked the best. So I was pretty stoked about that. But on the record I really wanted bigger drums than I had. I had a 20″ live, so I used a 22″ Tama. On tour I’m actually using a Tama bubinga kit, with 13″ and 16″ toms and a 22″ bass drum. My cymbals on the record were Zildjians, including a 23″ Sweet ride and an 18″ Rock crash.

MD: What’s your background in drumming? Did you take lessons when you were younger?

Jess: I started playing when I was around six or seven. I’m thirty-five now. I didn’t take lessons then, I was totally self-taught, though I spent so much time playing in the garage, and playing along to your favorite drummers is like the best kind of class you can take. I took band in high school but totally hated it.

MD: Why?

Jess: I got put in a class where the drummer was a year older than me and was in the band the previous year, and he just never let me play anything. He was really good, and I was probably intimidated. But I think he stifled my enjoyment a little. But also, my first band was when I was fourteen, and playing with other people is definitely going to accelerate your skills really quickly. That’s when you learn to write and play off other people. So I tell that to all my students: Get together with friends, and start jamming.

Chelsea Wolfe will be headlining a North American Tour in support of her new album ‘Hiss Spun’. All tour dates include support from Youth Code.

Tickets and more info HERE.

Sep 28 Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory SOLD OUT
Sep 29 Los Angeles, CA @ Amoeba Music
Sep 30 Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent SOLD OUT
Oct 02 Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern
Oct 03 Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
Oct 04 Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
Oct 06 Austin, TX @ Paramount Theatre
Oct 07 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Oct 08 Dallas, TX @ Kessler Theater
Oct 10 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
Oct 11 Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5
Oct 13 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Oct 14 Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
Oct 15 Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of the Living Arts
Oct 17 New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
Oct 19 Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Oct 20 Montreal, QC @ Le National
Oct 21 Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
Oct 22 Detroit, MI @ El Club
Oct 24 Chicago, IL @ Metro
Oct 25 St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Oct 27 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Oct 28 Salt Lake City @ Urban Lounge
Oct 30 Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
Oct 31 Vancouver, BC @ Venue Nightclub
Nov 01 Portland, OR @ Wonderland Ballroom
Nov 03 Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
Nov 04 San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom

Call her goth, metal or doom pop. Just don’t call her pedestrian. California-based musician and songwriter Chelsea Wolfe naturally defies categorization, siphoning influences as varied as Neurosis, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Tricky into her brooding new album Hiss Spun. The music spans distorted dirges, electronic ephemera and folksy tranquility, with her siren soprano vocals contrasting with the grittiness of the music, creating a striking contrast that has helped define her sound for many years.

Full Article Via Billboard.

When Wolfe spoke with Billboard, she was in the midst of heavy rehearsals for her next U.S. tour, which commences on Sept. 28 at the Constellation Room in Santa Ana, Calif. The touring lineup includes Wolfe, drummer Jess Gowrie, bassist Ben Chisholm and a guitarist filling in for Bryan Tulao, who has been pulled away by family commitments. 

“We’re having to retrain a new person, which is difficult but also keeps things interesting and keeps us on our toes as musicians,” notes Wolfe. Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, who guests on the new album, will join them for a couple of Southern California shows. 

Despite creating highly personal, rather uncommercial music that embraces a dark aesthetic, Chelsea Wolfe has received some high profile recognition lately. Her music has appeared in promo teasers for Game of Thrones, How to Get Away With Murder and Fear the Walking Dead. Jaguar used “Carrion Flowers” from 2015’s Abyss in a new commercial. And the title of said song was inspired by an essential oil scent she created for herself and wore and sold on tour a few years ago, which was a prelude for her two new products (Ash and Ember Eye Soot and Enchanted Lip Sheer), available now through Rituel de Filles. 

Chelsea Wolfe Drops Haunting Track ‘Grey Days’: Exclusive Song Premiere 

“It’s fun to branch out a little bit sometimes, and I think it wakes up your creative brain a little bit too,” says Wolfe of her cosmetic endeavors. 

First and foremost is the music itself. Wolfe calls her sixth studio release, Hiss Spun, her rock album, even though some people have immediately deemed it metal. Goth is another tag she gets labeled with even though, visual imagery aside, she does not identify with that scene. People have come up with new tags to describe her music, such as doom pop or doom folk. 

“I think there are a lot of different descriptions out there for what I do,” says Wolfe. “I think that most of them are probably valid depending upon what song of mine you’re listening to.” 

Hiss Spun was recorded by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou. The two met when she was asked last year to join the Massachusetts metal band onstage for a few European shows to perform reworked Converge songs under the group name Blood Moon, for which she sang and played some acoustic guitar. During tour rehearsals at Ballou’s GodCity Studio in Salem, Mass., she became enamored with the space and ultimately recorded the new album there. The set up with an apartment above the studio appealed to Wolfe and reminded her of home. 

“I work in my home studio whenever inspiration hits me,” she explains. “I like that vibe of being able to get out of bed at three in the morning and work on something if you’re feeling it.” 

The main Hiss Spun recording lineup includes Wolfe, Gowrie, Chisholm and Van Leeuwen. Wolfe considers Chisholm her co-producer because they worked closely while demoing and fleshing out the material before the studio sessions and she jammed with him and Gowrie, which is not her typical approach. “I like to write alone and send things back and forth to Ben or whoever I’m working with at the time, but for this one I felt really comfortable with Jess,” says Wolfe. 

Some interesting sonic bits were injected into the album. For “Particle Flux,” Wolfe sampled the sound of her fingers moving over a Walt Whitman book that she was reading while writing the song. While the group was visiting her former canyon home north of L.A., Chisholm recorded the sounds of coyotes howling and motorcycles riding by. “He ended up manipulating them and making them into this weird beat that we used on the breakdown for ‘The Culling,’” says Wolfe. “That was a weird one, but I really like how that turned out. It’s nice to create new sounds that people haven’t used before.” 

The musical and lyrical fodder for Hiss Spun arose from two reunions; one with her friend and former bandmate, drummer Jess Gowrie, and the other with her hometown of Sacramento, which she lives near again. 

Close friends Gowrie and Wolfe were in the band Red Host a decade ago, and the drummer taught Wolfe a lot about music and helped her gain confidence as a frontwoman. But then Wolfe departed to launch her solo project, which she says was a difficult decision to make, and the two friends did not speak for seven years. But a meeting on New Year’s Eve 2014 was the catalyst to renew their friendship and rekindle their strong musical chemistry. 

Another personal reconnection came about when Wolfe relocated outside of Sacramento last year. “A lot of this album ended up being about that in a way – just being around old friends, hanging out in old haunts and being around family,” says Wolfe. “It definitely dug up a lot of memories and unfinished business.” 

Part of what gives Wolfe her mystique is her intensely private nature. She keeps personal matters close to the vest, although in a recent Revolver interview she opened up about a patriarchal family figure with disturbing sexual predilections who harmed the female side of her family. Thus what she rails about in album closer  “Scrape” clearly comes from an intensely personal place. “Scrape” is probably her most intense vocal performance to date as she pushes both her emotional and vocal range. 

Wolfe was surprised by how personal her Hiss Spun lyrics became. She says her early, pre-studio music tackled more common concepts like breakup songs. 

“I didn’t just want to write about my own life,” she confesses. “But once you get older and you really start to process things that happened to you, things that you did and your memories, it feels a little more poignant to write about because I’ve processed things and I’m dealing with them and dealing with the aftermath of certain things. There is something about looking back at your own life rather than writing about it as it happens that makes a little more sense to me.” 

Many of the album’s lyrics address personal views without being overt about their origins. “I think there’s a line here or there that actually reflects the state of the world, but a lot of it is really internal this time,” says the singer, who reveals that she is already working on her next album. “I won’t say what it is yet, but it’s definitely different from what I’m doing right now.” 

Wolfe’s last studio release, Abyss, hit the Top 200 at No. 130 for a single week. As she notes, she is not getting played on the radio or being asked to do late night shows, but word of mouth is helping build her fanbase, which has resulted in a slow growth that she feels comfortable with. “I think it’s more of my pace,” admits Wolfe. “I’m kind of a slow person. Because I’m doing it my own way and not adhering to one specific genre, it does make it a little bit more difficult to move forward. But I think I’ve done some really cool things so I’m happy.” 

One imagines that if Wolfe stripped away the bellowing male vocals of the new song “Vex” and tweaked it a bit that she could have a potentially commercial single. But she is not sure she could write a really good pop song. The musician needs to have that crunchiness in her tunes. 

“I do,” concurs Wolfe. “I don’t know what it is, but if something sounds too perfect I just want to tear a hole in it and fuck it up a little bit.”

Growing up in Northern California, Chelsea Wolfe was always fascinated by Mother Nature. Whether it was themes of decay and growth, or motifs like the cyclical nature of the physical world, the push and pull of these forces shows up in her work again and again. Perhaps they’ve never been more prevalent than in her latest, sixth studio album, a magnificent seether called Hiss Spun that she describes as “the white noise of the universe.” That’s “hiss” at least, for her definition of “spun,” you’ll have to read on below. 

Full article via UPROXX

Even if Wolfe is a veteran artist, she brings the ferocity of an emerging musician to everything she releases, so in some ways, it feels like she’s just getting started. Though she’s been legendary in noise and metal circles for a while now, the mainstream is just get wind of the gothic-folk musician, who deftly blends gossamer, medieval folk elements with raging walls of noise and doom metal. For just about a decade she has been combining the lightness of her gorgeous soprano voice and softer melodies with a darker, terrifying metal sound, slowly but surely carving out her own unique space in the music world — and making room for more women in the historically male-dominated bent of heavier music. 

Hiss Spun is out this Friday, 9/22 via Sargent House, and it’s Wolfe’s third record for the label; she signed with them in 2013 for Pain Is Beauty, an album that helped her breakout to a wider audience back then. Based off what I’ve heard, I’d argue that Hiss Spun will be another breakout for Wolfe. Tracks like the angsty folk-metal of “The Culling,” or the sweetly gothic tumult of “Offering” are even more accessible for new listeners without losing any of their edge. In fact, the entire ethos for this album was about opening up, and taking inspiration from Henry Miller, Wolfe has done just that on Hiss Spun, digging through the mess for the marvel, and translating the whole process into distillations of that, like on “16 Psyche.” 

In advance of the Friday release, Wolfe and I corresponded over email about her new record, which includes a cameo from one of her musical heroes turned friends, roy Van Leeuwen of Queens Of The Stone Age, and some important collaborations on drums from her old friend Jess Gowrie. We also talked about inclusion, nature, and the song off the record that served as her own personal exorcism. Read our convo below for all of that, plus the final word from WOlfe on her album’s definition of “spun.”  

Hiss Spun is the latest in a long line of albums for you, how does it feel to be creating when you already have such an extensive discography? Is there an urge to hone your sound down or expand it outward, try new things etc? Or do you feel more equipped to be more direct and bold in the sound you want to achieve? 

For me, this is LP 6. There was an intention on this record to be a little more in your face sonically, and more unashamed and open about my own life. In that sense, the music and my voice reflect that aggressive nature at times, but I also tend to withdraw, and that’s reflected as well. 

Working at the intersection of beauty and darkness is a really rich place to draw from, are there more specific guiding principles you use between those two massive portals to define your own path between the two? 

I seek to understand the balance in all things, and the stark contrasts that exist in life is a good place to start. 

I read your interview with Cosmopolitan, you referenced reconnecting with a friend (drummer Jess Gowrie) to create this album, and you initially envisioned it as more of a side project. What does it take to move from feeling like “this isn’t a Chelsea Wolfe record” to feeling like it is? 

Sometimes I need to feel free from the pressure or constraints of releasing music after already putting so much out there. But really I just wanted to write songs with Jess again, after so many years apart. And the songs came easy. But once they were there, I knew they were meant to be played in more than just a side project capacity. 

The drums are such a huge force here, it was interesting to get that backstory and hear who they were coming from. They almost function as their own character here, which might have been part of what you were feeling about the side project aspect? 

Jess is an important person in my life because when we had a band together years ago, I was really shy and she helped me become a good front-person and a more fearless guitar player. And I love her drumming so I really wanted to feature it on this album to emphasize our reunion even more. 

Working with Queens of the Stone Age feels like a huge milestone/new direction for you. Can you talk about what they brought to the project or how the songs were shaped or informed through their inclusion? 

The member of Queens who is on this record — Troy Van Leeuwen — I’ve been a fan of his playing for a long time. When we met in 2014, I became a fan of him as a person as well! We remained friends over the years and when I asked him to be a part of these new songs, I knew he would understand the kind of twisted emotions they had. The parts he brought to the songs gave them an elevation into another realm.  

While I was listening to the record, I kept thinking of a couple other dark/heavy artist I love, Bat For Lashes and Marissa Nadler. I think all of you guys incorporate nature into your songwriting as this anthropomorphized figure or element and it’s really compelling. When did you first begin to see the world like that within your songwriting? 

As I grew up I started to appreciate my surroundings more and more, and appreciate the beauty of Northern California, where I’m from. I’ve always imagined certain things as characters though — Death, Nature. 

The heavier side of music has notoriously had issues with acceptance and inclusion, whether that be women or people of color. How do you deal with some of those more intense, super prevalent historical biases in that world? 

I can see it changing a lot, and I am lucky to play with the kinds of bands within that heavy world that don’t have biases against women or people of color. There are instances every now and then when I’m around some like 40+ year old white dudes backstage at a festival or something and I can tell they’re very used to not having women around and don’t care to, so that’s annoying, but I don’t want to hang out with those types anyway! 

The album title, Hiss Spun, already has so much movement in it. Both of those words are very visceral and even aggressive. How do you feel the title plays into the themes of the album? 

Hiss is the white noise of the universe, the comforting sound. Spun is the addiction and the withdrawals. 

Do you have a personal favorite track on the album, or one that has a story that speaks to you more deeply than some of the others? I always assume musicians have their own favorites, just like fans do. 

“Scrape” was an exorcism I needed. 

Hiss Spun is out 9/22 via Sargent House. Get it here.

Follow along as Chelsea Wolfe talks to Matt Sweeney about the American Professional Jazzmaster.

Ben Chisholm has played on critically acclaimed albums, toured the world and played Roadburn festival. He’s visible in a music video which was uploaded to YouTube over a month ago and has been viewed almost two hundred thousand times. Still, many fans of his work don’t really know him. 

The multi-instrumentalist has been playing with Chelsea Wolfe since 2010. His instrumental contributions and sound collages count as indispensable parts of the band’s macabre atmosphere live and in studio. 

Read the full article HERE. 

Chisholm’s fourth album with Chelsea Wolfe, Hiss Spun, will be released this Friday, September 22 on Sargent House Records. Together with Chisholm, we unravel his history with the band, his contributions to Hiss Spun, and recount how he and Wolfe came to join Converge for their ‘Blood Moon’ shows in 2016. 

What’s the story of your pre-Wolfe work? 

Growing up, I played in various punk, grindcore and noise bands around Northern California. Then I started focusing on solo recording projects. There isn’t a lot of past music available. My project White Horse had a boxset released by Weyrd Son in Europe, and another solo project called Revelator has a split 7” released with Wear Your Wounds which is Jacob [Bannon]from Converge’s project. Other than that, my early output is buried on scratched CD-Rs. 

And how did you and Chelsea meet and begin collaborating? 

I was playing guitar in a different band which happened to play some shows around Los Angeles with Chelsea Wolfe and her band in 2009. I was really into what they were doing and happened to be hanging around the Sacramento area often, so I started playing and recording with them. 

To start, I think we ought to get some background details. You’ve been playing with Chelsea Wolfe for a good deal of time—the official Hiss Spun info sheet calls you a “longtime collaborator.” When exactly did your collaboration with Chelsea begin? 

I played piano on a song from The Grime and the Glow, but didn’t join the band until early 2010. Shortly after that, we began recording the songs that would become Ἀποκάλυψις. That was my first real collaboration with the band. 

In your own words, what exactly is your role in the band, as a composer but also in live performance? 

I try to remain fluid as a collaborator. I help flesh out Chelsea’s demos and contribute extra progressions and sketches here and there. We send song files back and forth, and chip away at them like that. While we’re in the studio, I play a little bit of whatever instrument is needed. For the live show, I usually play bass and keys, and manage any tape tracks or interludes that are being run. For this upcoming tour, I’ll be filling in on guitar for the first time in the band, as our guitarist Bryan takes paternity leave, and I played a lot of guitar on the new album as well. 

In Wolfe you perform synthesizers and bass, but you also used sound collages on this album and others. Do you think more in terms of theory and notes, or do you approach music from another angle? 

Most of my ideas come in bursts, usually while playing piano or acoustic guitar, and usually in a kind of stoned nighttime “flow state.” I process those ideas later and find the tones and textures that feel right for them. The sound collages and ‘cut-up’ production techniques all happen in that space too. Chelsea is a great editor, she’ll hear one small section, or one element of something I’m working on and find the perfect place for it in a larger piece. Theory kind of comes in after that, adding melody lines or modulating entire sections to fit in different songs. I have a basic education in music theory, but I don’t usually think in those terms while composing. 

What’s your approach for collecting sound samples? 

I always carry a handheld field recorder with me. I’ve recently started using a smaller version that just plugs right into my phone, and sometimes even a regular phone mic voice memo will do the trick. Chelsea also collects sound samples from out in the world and sends them to me. It’s similar to taking a picture, the quality isn’t always as important as the content. 

I know that you recorded a coyote howl in California and put that somewhere on the record. 

The coyote’s howl, and a passing motorcycle, is heard during the heavy synth and bass breakdown in “The Culling.” I captured that on my field recorder and ran it through various guitar pedals and cut up the pieces from there. 

What was the story behind working with Troy Van Leeuwen in the studio? I’m a big fan of his work in Queens of the Stone Age and Failure, and he did a very good job of integrating his own style into the Chelsea Wolfe sound. 

The songs with Troy were originally meant for a side project we were working on. Chelsea sent him demos of “Vex” and “Spun” in early 2015. He tracked his parts at his home studio, some of which ended up on the final mixes. The other parts he played were written and recorded on the spot over a weekend at GodCity Studio towards the end of the sessions. I learned a lot from just watching him play. He’s a cool motherfucker. 

You also helped on the Converge ‘Blood Moon’ shows. What was the story behind that collaboration, and what was the biggest challenge in making those album-only tracks come to life? 

I’ve been a Converge fan for almost two decades. I had released that split with Jacob a few years prior, and had introduced myself to the band over the years whenever our paths crossed. We hung out with Kurt around Boston and Salem on the first Abysstour and a couple of weeks later, he called to ask if I’d be interested in playing keyboard with them at Roadburn Festival the following spring. I jumped at the chance, and eventually the project grew to involve Chelsea on guitar and vocals as well. Building out that set was a pretty big undertaking. Kurt sent me some of the original stems from certain tracks so I could recreate those sounds, and organize the backing tracks for what couldn’t be played live. There are lots of hidden gems buried in the songs they chose. Those four shows were very special. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to bring ‘Blood Moon’ together again in the future. 

Hiss Spun is the most overtly hard rocking record in the Chelsea Wolfe discography. Most bands get more accessible as they age but your work seems to get angrier and more abrasive. How do you think the album compares with your previous work? 

Hiss Spun is heavier as a result of a couple things. One being that we worked on the songs as a band a lot with drummer Jess Gowrie, Chelsea and myself in a room together, playing way too loud. On prior albums, there was a lot more isolation involved in the creative process. The second reason this album is louder is, as I already brought up, some of these songs were intended for a side project, which was going in a pretty heavy direction. The songs from that project felt right in the context of the band, so we harvested a few. 

Is there a particular song on Hiss Spun that you’re proud of or feel is a great example of your work? 

I’m very pleased with Hiss Spun, I’ve never been as happy with one of our albums right out the gate. It was quite a task to get everything to sit together properly, especially when we came into the studio with upwards of 30 tracks of pre-production stems for some songs, but Kurt did a great job. The way he recorded the drums and guitars is pretty much exactly how I’d hoped he would. 

If I had to pick a favorite song from the album right now, it would be “Scrape.” This was the first song we collaborated on with Jess, and it’s built primarily from a sample of a tractor bucket scraping on a concrete floor. My friend Travis actually recorded the original sample on his phone, and sent it to me. I manipulated it from there and built chords, which sound like a fucked up brass section to me. All of this combined with Chelsea’s intense, frenetic vocal performance makes this song feel like a very different approach for us.