She later rerecorded the Peni songs with her band at Southern Studios in London, and released them as an EP, Prayer for the Unborn, in January 2013 on Southern Records.
In 2012, Wolfe covered five songs by British anarcho-punk band Rudimentary Peni, and issued them as A Tribute To Rudimentary Peni on February 17 as a free download via Pendu Sound. Wolfe performing San Francisco, California, 2013
"I could barely handle being onstage for the first few years, and it's the reason it took me so long to start my career as a musician". "Performing was something that I had to learn," she said.
Wolfe toured extensively in North America and Europe to support both albums, and suffered from extreme stage fright when she initially began performing live, Wolfe would wear a black veil over her face. Her next album, Apokalypsis (2011), stylized as Ἀποκάλυψις, gained her an underground following, as well as critical acclaim, receiving favorable reviews in Pitchfork and CMJ. Wolfe's first widely released album, The Grime and the Glow (2010), was issued on New York-based independent label Pendu Sound Recordings, preceded that same year by the limited-edition albums Soundtrack VHS/Gold and Soundtrack VHS II. 2010–2012: The Grime and the Glow and Apokalypsis I didn't want to be so much about myself, and I just had to find a new perspective". Wolfe later commented that she scrapped the album largely because it had been written about events in her personal life: "I was writing really personal stuff about my own life, and I didn't feel comfortable at all. I sort of took a break from music for a while since I wasn't happy with what I was making". I didn't even really want to be a musician back then, but a lot of my friends were like 'let's do this, I've got some producer friends' and they helped me make this over-produced, terrible record. Of the album, Wolfe said: "I was 21 years old and wrote a shitty singer-songwriter breakup album. In 2006 Wolfe composed an album, titled Mistake in Parting, which was never officially released. Wolfe lived with her grandmother during a part of her childhood, who taught her about aromatherapy, Reiki and "other realms". By the time I was 11, I was drinking 40s." She also struggled with sleep paralysis as a child and through her teens, which landed her in the hospital for sleep studies these experiences eventually became material for her albums Abyss and Hiss Spun. Of her childhood, Wolfe said, "I grew up pretty fast. By the age of 7, she had written her first poem and by the age of 9, had written and recorded songs which she later described as "basically Casio-based gothy R&B songs". Her father was in a country band and owned a home studio. She was raised in Roseville and Sacramento. 2.2 2010–2012: The Grime and the Glow and ApokalypsisĬhelsea Wolfe was born in Roseville, California, She is of Norwegian and German descent.