Both of which come from the 'Birth of Violence' era shows and album sessions.
It's been two years since Chelsea Wolfe's acclaimed Birth of Violence hit the shelves, two years of memorable shows, introspective listening, and periods of reflection brought upon by Wolfe's profound lyricism. Today, we take a trip back at the making of the record with the release of Green Altar and Woodstock, the latter of which provides a new rendition of the Joni Mitchell classic. In her signature fashion, each track utilizes folk laden textures and places her wide vocal range at the forefront of a moving endeavor.
Chelsea Wolfe comments:
“While preparing for the ‘Birth of Violence’ tour, I was watching a lot of Joni Mitchell videos. A 1966 Canadian performance that I found of hers ended up inspiring the video for my song ‘Highway.’ One night after working on the live set, Ben and I were hanging out and I was just letting the Joni videos roll.. ‘Woodstock’ came on and I started singing along. After that I simply asked Ben if he’d be into covering it with me for the tour, and we just went back into the studio and started working it out. The cover came together quite naturally and it was a treat to play on stage every night. Joni is obviously such a big inspiration to this side of my music, so it felt right to pay tribute to her.”
“‘Green Altar’ is a cherished song that unfortunately didn’t make it onto the album. It’s a love song I wrote after finding out that my dear friends (artist) Bill Crisafi and (designer) Hogan McLaughlin were engaged. I envisioned them getting married in a lush, green outdoor space outside of some majestic castle ruins.”
She adds:
“It’s not my natural inclination to want cameras around when I’m in my head or doing vocal warmups before a show, or when I’m with friends or family backstage, but Bobby asked, and in the spirit of pushing myself to document that era of my musical life, I welcomed him along. Then, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and I had to fly home from the European acoustic tour before I got to play a single show of it, I was so grateful that he had this footage and was putting it together. I wanted to share this documentary for that reason as well, for those who had tickets to cancelled shows (I love you!), and as a sort of wave goodbye to the time I spent focused on ‘Birth of Violence’, as I’m now making plans for and in the headspace of the next new album.”
Stream the tracks and check out the tour documentary below. You can catch Chelsea Wolfe live at Substance LA on November 26th. Get your tickets HERE.
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