Chelsea Joy Wolfe was born in Roseville, California, and grew up in Sacramento. She is of Norwegian and German descent. Her father was in a country band and owned a home studio. By the age of 7, she had written her first poem and by the age of 9, she had written and recorded songs which she later described as "basically Casio-based gothy R&B songs."
Inspired by the dark state of the world and the strange connection between all things, she creates a unique musical blend of goth-folk, experimental rock and spiritual realm funeral songs. With influences ranging from the great minds of Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch to Soviet and end-times literature, her songs conjure visions of other dimensions, claustrophobic echo-rooms and parking garage cathedrals.
Wolfe has recorded seven full length studio albums: The Grime and the Glow, which was released on December 28th, 2010 on limited vinyl through Brooklyn’s Pendu Sound Recordings; Ἀποκάλυψις (pronounced “Apokalypsis”), which was released as a 12” LP on August 23rd, 2011; Unknown Rooms: a Collection of Acoustic Songs, which was released on October, 2012 through Sargent House; Pain Is Beauty, out September 3rd, 2013; Abyss, which was released August 7th, 2015; and Hiss Spun, out September 22nd, 2017; Birth of Violence[7i] which was released on September 13th, 2019.
The Wasteland
Chelsea Wolfe Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's gonna be a dark and narrow road
It's gonna be a fire
It's gonna be a heat you've never known
It's gonna be a wasteland
It's gonna be a gray dawn
Gray like the winter
Keeping time with the clicking of your tongue against your teeth spelling words you used to know to mean such things keeping time with your twitching fingers worn from the disease like humanity a cancer never sow more than we reap
(If you could hear what i hear
The whole world moving at the same time)
In these lyrics, Chelsea Wolfe seems to be describing a desolate, hellish world that is teetering on the brink of destruction. The repeated line "it's gonna be a wasteland" suggests that this is an inevitability - that we are hurtling towards a world that is barren, empty, and devoid of life. The second line, "it's gonna be a dark and narrow road", conjures up images of a difficult and treacherous journey towards this wasteland, where every step is dangerous and fraught with the possibility of disaster.
The next two lines, "it's gonna be a fire / it's gonna be a heat you've never known", suggest that the wasteland will not only be barren, but it will also be scorching and oppressive. It will be a place where survival is almost impossible, and where the heat is so intense that it cannot be withstood.
The final verse seems to be a commentary on humanity itself, with its repeated references to disease and cancer. The line "like humanity a cancer never sow more than we reap" suggests that Wolfe sees humanity as a destructive force that is consuming the world around us, and that we are all complicit in this destruction.
Line by Line Meaning
It's gonna be a wasteland
The future seems bleak and desolate
It's gonna be a dark and narrow road
The path ahead is full of dangers and obstacles
It's gonna be a fire
There will be destruction and chaos
It's gonna be a heat you've never known
The intensity of the situation will be overwhelming
It's gonna be a wasteland
The repetition emphasizes the foreboding nature of the future
It's gonna be a gray dawn
The beginning of this new era is gloomy and depressing
Gray like the winter
Further emphasizing the feeling of coldness and emptiness
A thousand years lost and gone
Humanity has lost its way and its history, becoming disconnected from itself
Keeping time with the clicking of your tongue against your teeth spelling words you used to know to mean such things keeping time with your twitching fingers worn from the disease like humanity a cancer never sow more than we reap
Describes the futility of trying to communicate in a world that has lost its meaning and direction, with the metaphor of cancer indicating the destructive nature of humanity
(If you could hear what I hear
The whole world moving at the same time)
The artist perceives a sense of unity and interconnectedness in the world, despite its apparent chaos and disorder
Contributed by Lila N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.