singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe says that her new song “American Darkness” is an “expression of freedom and beautiful humans being themselves.” She explains: “It began as a sort of homage to a scene in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia, where the characters are singing along to the Aimee Mann song “Wise Up,” but I wanted our version to be explored through the lens of The Tarot. I’ve been reading tarot cards for myself for many years, and researching the symbolic expressions of the cards for this video made me want to dive even deeper. To represent that, I played both The Fool and The High Priestess cards in the video, to embody both the beginning of the journey, and the realization that the sacred knowledge I was seeking was inside me all along. We cast friends to play a few other tarot archetypes, and Karlos’ idea was to bring the symbols and signifiers into the contemporary; deconstructed, and made everyday – “the magical and the unexceptional.” I loved that. At the same time, we really wanted to challenge the binary of the traditional tarot cards, and give them more diversity, which is something important that many cool artists and witches are doing. I’m such a fan of Karlos Rene Ayala as a writer, director, documentarian and friend, and have looked forward to making a video with him for a long time.”

Wolfe’s new album, Birth of Violence, will be released on September 13, 2019.

discography: The Grime and the Glow (2010); Apokalypsis (2011); Pain is Beauty (2013); Abyss (2015) and Hiss Spun (2017).

Chelsea Wolfe Acoustic Tour:

10/18: San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park

10/19: Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom

10/21: Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall

10/22: Estes Park, CO – Stanley Hotel

10/24: Chicago, IL – Metro

10/25: Detroit, MI – Senate Theater

10/26: Toronto, ONT – Queen Elizabeth Theatre

10/27: Montreal, QC – Le National

10/29: Boston, MA – Royale

10/31: Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer

11/01: New York, NY – Brooklyn Steel

11/03: Washington, DC – 9:30 Club

11/04: Charlotte, NC – McGlohon Theater

11/05: Atlanta, GA – Terminal West

11/06: Nashville, TN – Mercy Lounge

11/08: Dallas, TX – Texas Theatre

11/09: Austin, TX – Levitation

11/10: Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall

11/12: Santa Fe, NM – Meow Wolf

11/13: Tucson, AZ – Club Congress

11/15: Los Angeles, CA – The Palace Theatre

11/16: San Francisco, CA – Regency Ballroom

11/18: Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom

11/20: Seattle, WA – The Showbox

11/21: Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre