LA-based Chelsea Wolfe peddles a peculiar brand of moody, fragile midnight rock. Her newest album, Apokalypsis, explores themes of revelation, discovery and nature-v-nature duality with a newly-formed ensemble. The Wolfe sound benefits from the contributions in broadening the textural palette and granting Wolfe\u2019s spectral bewailing space to evolve. Its obvious ancestors \u2013 Bristolian trip-hop, doom metal and US contemporaries Glasser, White Hinterland and Zola Jesus \u2013 are referenced throughout, but Apokalypsis stands apart in painting scenes of rebirth against dynamic instrumentation. We approached the disarmingly talented chanteuse ahead of the band’s West Coast tour, which begins on the 2nd December.<\/p>\n
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What was the process like compiling the band for Apokalypsis \u2013 do they share your influences and vision? Obviously they toured with you before it\u2026 How were the songs written?<\/strong><\/p>\n Typically, I\u2018ll write alone at first and then bring an idea or a song or structure to the band and we\u2019ll hash it out. Every once in a while I\u2019ll have a completed song to bring to the band – which parts and everything \u2013 but most of the time we end up writing them together. Yeah, I wanted to explore it. There were certain parts that I wanted to hear two or three guitars playing at once \u2013 make it really heavy or just get some atmospheres going. But yeah, I think it was a purposeful decision to introduce a doom-y quality to it, especially the live sound. I don\u2019t usually describe sounds by genre or by using any point of reference other than a feeling. Music is very visual for me, so I\u2019ll simply describe things in a visual way [to the band] and then kind of see what happens – feeling out ideas and working together instinctually.<\/p>\n Apokalypsis is a Greek word, meaning \u201clifting of the veil\u201d. Is the use of abstract imagery throughout the record your way of expressing inward thoughts? Well actually, I\u2019ve been thinking about themes of apocalypse or a sort of culmination of things for a while. I decided to use the Greek word because it has multiple meanings and allowed me to explore a broader spectrum of ideas.<\/p>\n And what inspired you to explore these themes?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, a combination of things. But sometimes I get obsessed with a subject or an idea or an image and kind of let things grow off of that – the end and the culmination of things, accepting and realising the truth – I just kind of started researching that, as well as certain scientific \u2018end times\u2019 theories that people had, which intrigued me in a visual way. I started thinking about the different visual interpretations of apocalypse. Then I began looking into spirituality – I got into the Book of Revelations, the wild imagery in there. I was reading the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, too, which really helped these ideas along. It gave me a grand vision that I wanted to start exploring for the album. I\u2019ve always been interested in combining dream states with reality; merging the spiritual with the physical and creating a contrast and a parallel between these two things.<\/p>\n
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\nAfter I made my first album [last year\u2019s The Grime and the Glow], which was kind of a solo effort with collaborations from various people, I\u2019d put together a band for the live shows, yeah. And there were songs I was writing at the time that we\u2019d hash-out as a group. Eventually I decided I wanted to record the songs with the full band, which was a new thing for me because I\u2019d never recorded an album with other people before. So we all went into the studio for a week or two and made the songs happen.<\/p>\n
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\nHow has the band built upon the Chelsea Wolfe aesthetic? Did they introduce the sound\u2019s metal elements, or were you looking to explore that yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nWell, it depends. This album ended up being pretty conceptual \u2013 sometimes a title begins to define an album\u2019s themes. The album as you said refers to lifting off the veil: revolutions; realisations and epiphanies. The songs came together really naturally.
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\nSo you came up with the title first, and found that it began to steer the album\u2019s themes?<\/strong><\/p>\n