The Friday Dispatch
Chelsea Wolfe, Dylan John Thomas, Remi Wolf, Asha Jeffries, and The Last Dinner Party
Chelsea Wolfe and the joy of the infinite loop
Joseph Campbell once wrote: "The cave you fear holds the treasure you seek." In her cave, Chelsea Wolfe found multitudes. An unfurling kaleidoscope inspired by the shadows most cower in fear from, Wolfe's output is a light in the darkness for her cult-like fanbase. Throughout her solo work – as well as numerous collaborations, including with producer Tyler Bates for the soundtrack to 2022 horror movie X – Wolfe spins yarn, pinning them up against a corkboard of emotional vulnerabilities and fears. Her music feels like staring into a midnight desert. Panoramic sounds – often folk or metal-infused – guide as shapes and shadows manifest around you but within in the daylight, the reality is just your subconscious.
Zooming in from a room surrounded by spiritual symbols, a framed Dolly Parton LIFE magazine cover, and tarot paraphernalia, this multitudinousness is clear to me too. While softly spoken, the vocalist has a commanding presence all with the same genteel might that echoes throughout her work.
Born in California in the early 80s, Wolfe’s first years were spent in a creative and freeing space. Raised with a musical father, then with a stint with her spiritually inclined grandmother, she was also dogged by sleep paralysis which to this day informs as much of her creative output as her more human, earth-based elements. Now on her seventh album – She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, her first for new label Loma Vista – her newfound sobriety also figures into the music. "During the process of getting sober, you have to enter that cave, because that's where the treasure is,” she softly admits. “And, you know, facing your shadows is where you're going to find the sparkle within."
This cave Wolfe enters contains more treasure than she knows what to do with. Like stumbling upon a dragon curled up on a mass of gilded trinkets, the one thing that caught Wolfe's eye was herself. After years of sleep paralysis, she realised that what lay within wasn't necessarily an unwelcome visitor but instead a new layer of herself – a pivotal collaborator in her music. "I've become more…I guess conscious about it," she tells me. "In the past, it was just natural and inherent to who I was and the way that I was and the fact that I was experiencing sleep paralysis almost every night since I was a kid, so it was just naturally creeping into my music and my art. And then more recently, I've been more intentional about it, and putting it into the music and using it as – not using it – but collaborating with it."
As Wolfe has progressed, she’s allowed the darkness to envelop her. From one of her first musical iterations which came in the early noughties with the group Red Host – a ferociously melodic turn with future Mrs. Piss collaborator and touring partner Jess Gowrie – through to her eventual 2010 debut The Grime and The Glow, darkness has become a key element in her creative process. As Chelsea Wolfe grew into more than just a solo project to a now eponymous band – with long-term collaborator and band member Ben Chisolm, alongside Gowrie and guitarist Bryan Tualo – she found her own distinct sound by channelling disparate metal, electronica and folk.
It’s something that comes naturally to Wolfe: the dark is something she has never feared. "I don't think I've ever really been afraid. I think when I was younger," she smiles. "I was definitely disturbed by my sleep paralysis, and just not understanding what it was or the fact that we all have an energy to us, and that I was kind of a person that was maybe taking on other people's energies too much without realising it. And also not really having any boundaries of my own.”
Choose Live
“It’s always been about the live side,” smiles singer-songwriter Dylan John Thomas from a freezing afternoon at home in Glasgow. “It’s never been, let's try and get a radio song. When it came to recording an album it was, how can we make this just as much like the live set?”
Releasing his self-titled debut album next month, the young troubadour already has a wealth of life experience to pull from, as well as some integral industry mentors. Championed by Gerry Cinnamon and Ocean Colour Scene’s Steve Craddock, Thomas has already built a fervent fan base off the back of support slots for the likes of Sam Fender and Liam Gallagher, winning over crowds with his energy and showmanship.
Growing up in foster care, Thomas’ first encounter with music was through the Playstation games his siblings would spend their days on, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater a particular favourite. After he was given a guitar one Christmas it became his hyper-fixation, learning the familiar songs from the game’s soundtrack, most notably Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
It was through this early love of Cash that Thomas began to expand his tastes, delving into the works of artists such as Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. It didn’t take long for him to begin writing his own songs. “When you first start writing tunes, you think that this is your only songs. But it's like, you need to write another three-hundred before you get anywhere near anything,” he laughs.
Thomas began busking every day, honing his talents on the (quite often mean) streets of Glasgow. His foster parent at the time ran a local arts centre and offered him a slot at an open mic event which opened the door to a series of opportunities for Thomas, eventually leading to a meeting with local songwriter Gerry Cinnamon.
At the time Cinnamon was still working his way up through the Scottish music scene. Seeing something special in the young Thomas, he took him under his wing offering invaluable mentorship and encouragement. “I was gigging and I was busking and having that kind of brother figure, it was more the life lessons in there,” he says. “Coming out of foster care I didn’t really know what I was up to and having someone there to just guide me through it, I think I was blessed at that time.”
The culmination of his work and proof of how it’s connected with fans came when he headlined six sold out nights at the iconic Barrowlands venue in Glasgow last November. “It was mental,” he smiles. “I think that because we grew up just along the road from it and we would go past it every day, especially the weekend going out in the town and the markets and stuff. You go past and see the big lights and all the guitar shops. We used to sneak in the guitar shops and try and get a shot of the £3k Les Paul. I know it's cliche, but it literally is a full circle moment of growing up and busking there and gigging my way up through the Glasgow circuit. To get to the point when it's like, walking on to that stage, it’s a special one. When you're playing it and you’re on that stage, the sound coming back at you and off the wall, it’s the best venue ever.”
From honing his live show on the streets of Glasgow to its most important stage, Thomas is now ready to take his talents further afield. Having recently completed a UK-wide tour, he’s buzzing at the reception he met on both sides of the border. “There was always quite a split. We’d play the Scottish shows and we’d play the Barrowlands, but then we’d come to England and it would be like some kind of basement show,” he explains. “London as a musician, especially coming down from Scotland, is the hardest place to play well because it's a different thing. But I was so surprised by how well it went down there. That tour was great, it was brilliant.”
Remi Wolf on “Mary” by Alex G
Again, Alex G. A pioneer. A forefather to me. I fucking love him. All of these artists are wildly creative, singular voices.
I lived in this house of 10 different musicians when I was in college. It was this big Victorian house and pretty much what we would do all day was smoke weed, get drunk and jam for hours. We had a drum kit and a bunch of instruments in the living room and we would just play each other music all the time. That was the culture of the house. It was a constant rotation of music, all of our minds being blown all away by all of this music. It was amazing, because everybody was obsessed with music, we’re all in music school, it was beautiful.
We’d all cook food together and listen to tunes. “Mary” by Alex G was one of the songs that would be sitting on the kitchen counter, all playing and singing for months on end and we would play that song. There was an Angel Olsen song and we were really into The 1975 too. There were a lot of songs that made their way through that house, but “Mary” specifically paved a little crevice into my heart.
I still love that song and I still cover it. I learned how to play it on guitar, I never learned how to put songs on the guitar, but that one I did. That song was my first introduction to him and because of that song, I’ve become a super fan of him and all of his work.
In that house, I lived with my friend Liz who inspired my song “Liz” – I actually met Liz in my college audition, not even for USC, for another college. We both auditioned together. My friend Danny, who’s done a bunch of shows with me – he plays trumpet for me sometimes.
My friend Cole, who’s the drummer for Wallows, I lived with him for three years in that house and we’ve done collaborations together. They played their first ever Wallows show in that house which was amazing. Everyone is pretty much still doing music now and my drummer Connor lived in that house with me. It was a very, very formative time of my life and I’m still good friends with pretty much everybody.”
Three things to get excited about this week
The visual: Asha Jeffries is on a roll. After dropping a string of strong indie singles, the Brisbane-based artist is back with a queer anthem of self-discovery. “Brand New Bitch,” inspired by the likes of Hailey Blais, deals with the constant pull of wanting to become something different, something better, something newer than you are. "We shot this music video over 4 days across many locations in Meanjin leaving many passer-bys wondering - why is she wearing a bike helmet? Why is he annoying her with a balloon? Why is she being splashed with a bucket of water?” Jeffries says of the project. “The result is ‘Brand New Bitch,’ a story of getting free and moving on.” Both the song and the video have been released in support of Jeffries’s forthcoming album Ego Ride, which will be out April 12th.
The debut: After an extended period of knocking around the UK live gig circuit, The Last Dinner Party have had a breakout year. Today, they release their debut record, which Best Fit writer Sophia McDonald says leaves “no dramatic stone unturned.” Certainly, the record showcases the band’s proclivity for the grandiose. It’s a strong first showing from the band that’s been on every critic’s radar these past few months and, indeed, a great New Music Friday listen.
The gig: This week, André 3000 performed his new solo record live for the first time at Manhattan’s iconic Blue Note. And, New York Times critic Jon Caramanica chronicled the affair in a beautifully written expository piece. Caramanica pulls you into the intimate set and brings you to the front row of the former-Outkast member’s new era. A thrilling read for all lovers of writing and cultural coverage to sink their teeth into this weekend.
What’s the deal with…. UMG and TikTok?
On Thursday, fans around the world woke up to the sound of… well… nothing, actually. UMG, the world’s largest record conglomerate, went through on its threat to pull its entire catalogue from TikTok after negotiations between the two corporations went sour. The parties’ existing licensing agreement expired on January 31st, and with no alternative in place, many of users’ favourite songs just, well, disappeared from the app altogether. The key sticking point appears to be, as usual, royalty rates, with UMG alleging in a heavy-handed open letter that TikTok refuses to value its content fairly and pay artists their due. Other key issues cited are generative AI music and online safety. The label even disclosed that TikTok used bullying tactics in the negotiation process. With a roster that includes many of the biggest names in music — Taylor Swift, Drake, SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, and more — it seemed at first that the label had clear leverage in the situation. And yet, a curious phenomenon has bubbled under the surface. Circulating on social media now are posts and videos of artists — mostly those in the non-superstar ranks of the UMG ecosystem — who fear that their single most important audience engagement tool has been taken away from them. The pandemic-era TikTok music discovery boom had executives from all corners of the industry pushing the platform both as the single most important tool artists looking to grow and as the best A&R metric on the market. Where the negotiations will go is unclear, but neither party seems ready to concede just yet. In the interim, artists are scrambling to find paths forward.
Listen to the week in new music by following our Discovery playlist
Dropping at midnight every Thursday, follow our 20-track playlist for a taste of the best new music from the most exciting breaking artists.
These are the songs our editors and writers have on repeat right now, taken from the hundreds of tracks released in the last seven days. Leading the selection this week are new tracks from Julien Chang, Loren Kramar, Elle Coves, EFÉ, and coverstar Tyler Lewis.