The only constant is change. Just ask California singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe, whose seventh studio album She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She marks an inflection point in a journey of personal transformation.
Drawing from her recent sobriety and youthful influences of trip-hop and industrial music, Wolfe’s latest LP — released Feb. 9 via Loma Vista — is the sound of a time-tested artist searching for a new sense of self in a world that won’t stop spinning.
“It’s been cool to let go of the version of myself that I thought I had to live up to,” she says. “When you’re drinking, maybe it’s not even a conscious thing, but you are kind of holding on to this sort of ego or personality — and when you let the alcohol go, oftentimes you find a different version of yourself that you like.”
Emotional purging has been a thread running through Wolfe’s work since her 2010 debut The Grime and the Glow, but this latest song cycle allows the glimmered hope of renewal to peek through the darkness.
“I was feeling a little bit rawer and more vulnerable,” Wolfe says. “I’m OK with not feeling shameful about being more honest and open. A lot of people are going through similar transitions in their life, in one way or another, and I just felt like the things I was writing about were things a lot of people will be able to connect with.”
The void stares back
Infused with notes of witchcraft and the metaphysical, Wolfe’s new album also reflects her lifelong connection to esoteric practices introduced to her by her grandmother. She points to a work called The Moon Book: Lunar Magic to Change Your Life by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener as a major influence.
“It’s essentially about learning to live by the cycles of the moon, and the phase I felt most drawn to was the dark moon, which is the final three days of each moon cycle before the moon becomes new again,” Wolfe says. “It kind of represents this void space, this sort of in-between, liminal space that I became really attracted to because I’m still very much in this space. I felt like the dark moon and the void was kind of a character on this album.”
Gottesdiener’s book also offered Wolfe guidance on fusing elements of her past, current and future selves. Reflecting on her teenage years immersed in moody electronica and trip-hop — specifically Tricky, Massive Attack, Portishead and Björk — Wolfe found herself drawn back to the sounds of that cycle in her life, incorporating those influences on She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She.
“Writing this album in my late 30s, I was really inspired by the music I was listening to in my late teens,” Wolfe says. “I think my past self was sort of reaching forward a little bit and inspiring me.”
‘An unexpected blessing’
Wolfe is an omnivorous collaborator, working with metalcore behemoths Converge, post-metal group Russian Circles and black metal band Deafheaven, among others. On her latest album, she and her bandmates reached out to TV on the Radio guitarist Dave Sitek to produce.
“I like to push myself out of that comfort zone of working solo — getting into the studio with other people and bringing a new person into the mix” Wolfe says. “Dave was one of the first people we hit up who we really felt like understood the songs and understood the weirdness of them, and wanted to take them in an even weirder direction.”
But Wolfe’s collaborative spirit extends beyond the rock idiom. In 2022, she paired up with film composer Tyler Bates to work on Ti West’s hit slasher flick, X.
“I learned a lot on that project,” Wolfe says. “It was really cool to be watching someone else’s creative vision and getting prompts and notes from them, and trying to deliver on these different sounds they wanted.”
One sound they wanted was a cover of the World War I-era song “Oui Oui Marie” from 1918. So Wolfe delivered a traditional take on the standard, along with a little something extra.
“On my own one night, I did an acoustic version and sent that their way as well. And they ended up liking that,” she says. “It was cool to be able to do things that were just kind of off the cuff.”
That sort of in-the-moment creativity is a sanctuary for Wolfe, 40, during this new phase of her life. Strengthened by her newfound sobriety, the artist finds herself looking forward to a broader horizon of possibilities.
“I’m just so open to new things now,” Wolfe says. “I think before, I’m not sure if I would have been able to manage doing all that I was doing and also do soundtracks, but luckily that was an unexpected blessing.”
ON THE BILL: Chelsea Wolfe with Divide and Dissolve. 8 p.m. Friday, March 22, Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets here.