Beatie Wolfe

Beatie Wolfe
Beatie Wolfe in her Musical Jacket
Background information
Born	London, United Kingdom
Genres	Folk Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals Guitar Piano
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Indie
Website	www.beatiewolfe.com

Beatie Wolfe is a London-based^[1] Anglo-American singer-songwriter, described as "a pioneering songwriter"^[2] known for "seeing music differently"^[3] and creating new tangible formats for music, which include the 'World's First 3D Interactive Album App^[4]' for her debut album 8ight, the first NFC deck of cards and a musical jacket for her latest album Montagu Square.^[5] These innovations have gained her critical acclaim in both the music and technology field. Wolfe is also an Ambassador^[6] for Innovation for London Tech Week^[7] and the co-founder of a "profound"^[8] research project looking at the Power of Music for people living with dementia.

Wolfe has performed album tours in the United Kingdom,^[9] United States, and Europe and has given Keynote speeches at CeBIT, Wired UK's Conference, Apple's Global HQ Town Hall & Digital Life Design (DLD). She has spoken & performed on BBC Radio 4, Sky News, Monocle 24^[10][11] & East Village Radio^[12] amongst others.

Early life

Beatie Wolfe was born in Fulham, South London, to an English mother and American father. She attended the Young Blood Theatre group at the Riverside Studios between 2000 and 2004 where she wrote and performed in a number of plays at the Riverside Theatre and Lyric Theatre. Wolfe attended Ibstock Place School from age 3 to 16. Following Ibstock, she attended Goldsmiths, University of London where she studied English Literature. For her final year dissertation, Wolfe wrote about Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, which she received a first for and it was subsequently published online.^[13] This led to her musical interpretation of Cohen's poem "Thousand Kisses Deep".

Early music career

Beatie Wolfe, California USA

On 10 – 12 November 2007, Beatie Wolfe was invited to play the Jack Kerouac Festival^[14] at the Marquee Club alongside American performers Carolyn Cassady, Saul Williams and David Amram. David Amram, who declared Wolfe to be "the Baroness of bob", invited the London singer songwriter to perform at his residency night at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York. On 7 April 2008, Wolfe performed her first of several shows^[15] with Amram at Cornelia Street Cafe, alongside The Sopranos star John Ventimiglia and poet Penny Vlagopoulos. She also performed at New York clubs Rockwood Music Hall, The Living Room, Pete's Candy Store and on East Village Radio.

Burst EP (2010–2011)

Beatie Wolfe's debut EP, Burst was released in January 2010 as CD & iPhone App. BBC London premièred her song "Oh Darling" and promoted the EP launch concert at St Pancras Old Church. GQ's James Mullinger^[1] reviewed it as "the best concert [he'd] been to all year.”

In July 2011, Beatie Wolfe performed at the popular Secret Garden Party in Huntington. In August 2011, she was selected by EMI and Roundhouse to be featured in its 30/30 compilation album and recorded her song "Danger Blue" with producer Steve Hillage. This was released in December 2011 on Roundhouse Records. In August 2011, Wolfe shared the bill with American jazz musician Wynton Marsalis at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Following the show, Wolfe and Marsalis became friends and he became an important musical influence and mentor.

First Single "Never Ever": 2012

In August 2012, Wolfe's first single "Never Ever^[16][17]" was released and attracted the attention of a variety of acclaimed personalities including Michael Acton Smith and London MP Tom Watson. As part of its launch she performed at the Arts festival Wassaic^[18] in upstate New York alongside The Stepkids and Bing Ji Ling and did the radio premier on New York's East Village Radio. Back in London Wolfe performed "Never Ever" with her Pack on the Moshi Monsters TV show to its 80 million subscribers. Wolfe returned to New York in September 2012 for a residency with Punchdrunk's theatre show Sleep No More and a run of other performances.

Debut album 8ight: 2013 – 2014

8ight's Musical Innovations

Wolfe's debut album 8ight and it’s “world’ first”^[19] format was positively received by various critics such as Wired magazine who described it as an "ingenious 3D layered view that beautifully brings to life her captivating folk sounds"[4] and British GQ magazine who stated that Wolfe "continues to innovate with her beautiful new album 8ight".[23] Several magazines noted that Wolfe was "the first artist to introduce Palm Top Theatre to her product".[24]

Beatie Wolfe's 3D Interactive Album App "8" via Palm Top Theatre

8ight Apple Events

Beatie Wolfe Global Apple Theatre Tour for 8ight

Following her 3D Interactive App release, Apple Inc. invited Wolfe to perform at its worldwide flagship event theatres – London, New York & Berlin – to present her App in a live interview and perform tracks off 8ight. Live interviewers included New York's Spin magazine editor & chief Craig Marks at the New York SoHo flagship, GQ's commissioning editor Charlie Burton at London's Regent Street theatre and Debug Founder Sascha Kösch at Berlin's Kurfürstendamm theatre.

8ight World Tour

Prior to the US tour for 8ight, Beatie Wolfe appeared on Monocle 24's Review Show to talk about the influences behind the album, which coincided with a review in Monocle Mediterraneo 2013 summer publication. In September 2013, Wolfe performed a USA tour including headline shows in San Francisco, San Diego, LA, New York and Boston. UK tour performances included The Stables^[20] in Buckinghamshire, Hare & Hounds in Birmingham and 606 Club in London. European performances included Hamburg's Nochtspeicher, CeBIT in Hanover and the Berlin Kurfürstendamm theatre. In November 2013, Beatie Wolfe appeared on the front page of the Archant's Ham&High^[21] with a double page album review and was invited to present her App and perform at Wired's creative salon in Old Street. Her "8” App was later reviewed in January 2014's Insider,^[4] as a highlight of the night.

Album Lyric Book – Words of 8ight

Beatie Wolfe at Mayfair's Maggs Rare Books

On 19 February 2014, at Mayfair's Maggs Bros Ltd No. 50 Berkeley Square – one of the longest-established antiquarian booksellers in the world – Wolfe launched the first edition of 'Words of 8IGHT',^[22] her lyric book to accompany the album.

After 8ight: 2014 - 2015

Wish (Original)

‘Wish’ was launched in summer of 2014 at the Foreign Secretary’s official country residence, Chevening House,^[23] to 150 different nationalities in attendance and directly after the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom’s speech. 'Wish' performances of interest include performing a duet with Neil Baldwin (subject of acclaimed biographical film Marvellous) and live on BBC London to mark VE Day^[24] 70.

Kids Wish for the World

Kids Wish for the World, a charity single in aid NSPCC's ChildLine & War Child charity, is a re-recording of one of Beatie's original songs^[25] ‘Wish’ and this new version features children from all over the UK singing their very own wish for the world following a competition on Michael Acton Smith's children’s social media platform PopJam. The competition engaged over 50,000 children, received 22,000 children's wishes in two days. Of these entries Beatie chose ten finalists to record their wishes as part of the single and star in the music video. The single and video featured on MTV, CITV, BBC News, The Evening Standard and The Sun.

Album: Montagu Square: 2015 - Present

Beatie Wolfe’s second album Montagu Square was conceived at 34 Montagu Square - the former home and secret studio of Hendrix, Ringo, McCartney, Lennon & Yoko Ono - and the single 'Take Me Home' was recorded in the room where McCartney wrote ‘Eleanor Rigby’ & Hendrix penned ‘The Wind Cries Mary.’

Montagu Square received positive reviews with The Independent newspaper calling it “absolutely gorgeous”^[26] and Wolfe a “pioneering songwriter”, Forbes Magazine^[27] calling it “extraordinary,” The Huffington Post hailing it as “ingenious” and Monocle Magazine describing the album as: "pure and simple; a short, sharp flip-it-over-and-listen-again LP of well-made, expertly played, beautifully sung chamber pop." ^[28]

Montagu Square's Musical Innovations

Montagu Square Musical Jacket

Following on the innovations of her debut album 8ight, Montagu Square was released as a one-off musical jacket. Beatie Wolfe recorded the album’s live single ‘Take Me Home’ in the former home of Hendrix, McCartney, Ringo, Lennon & Yoko Ono and in the same room where Hendrix wrote ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and McCartney penned ‘Eleanor Rigby.’ Wolfe’s live recording - complete with its ambient sound, resonance of the room – was then translated into a woven fabric by textiles artist BeatWoven, who reveals the geometric patterning^[29] of music via coded audio technology, and cut by tailor Mr Fish (who dressed Hendrix, Bowie & Jagger in the 60s and 70s) into the first Musical Jacket of its kind. The Jacket has also been NFC-enabled, allowing people to hear the single by tapping their phone onto the fabric. Wolfe’s “Take Me Home” jacket has been featured Evening Standard, Craft Magazine, Huffington Post, WIRED, Forbes, Recode,^[28] The Next Web, Tech Crunch^[30] and Fast Company. Tech Crunch called the Musical Jacket “spectacular” and praised Wolfe for “making music physical again, in a very literal way.”

Beatie has told the story of her Musical Jacket at DLD alongside Arianna Huffington, in the Apple Town Hall (Cupertino), the British Embassy in Berlin and SXSW 2016.

Montagu Square Album Deck

In addition to the musical jacket, 'Montagu Square' was also released as the world’s first NFC Album Deck^[31] in collaboration with MOO and it’s smart paper business cards. The Next Web called this release “a brilliant inspiring idea that transcends novelty” and WIRED called it “bleeding edge.” The album comes as a pack of printed cards featuring artwork, lyrics and an embedded Near Field Communication (NFC) chip - allowing listeners to tap the cards from the album deck onto their phone to play the music and access its content. The Montagu Square Deck was previewed at London's Serpentine Gallery.

Album Lyric Book - Words of Montagu Square

In April 2016 Beatie Wolfe teamed up with Rohan Silva and his recently opened bookshop Libreria (part of Second Home) on Hanbury Street to launch the words of Montagu Square, the album’s lyric book.

Bell Labs' 'Human Digital Orchestra' and Beatie Wolfe

Bell Labs invited Beatie Wolfe to perform the world’s first artist show with the Human Digital Orchestra at Propeller Fest in Hoboken, New Jersey/New York on May 20, 2016. Wolfe together with the Nokia Bell Labs' team choreographed the first original artist show using the multi-dimensional Human Digital Orchestra platform which allowed the audience to effect sonic, visual and sensory elements of Beatie’s live performance in real time. The Human Digital Orchestra was conceived by multi Grammy/Oscar/Nobel winning Bell Labs as a foundational element for the restart of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T) that Bell Labs pioneered 50 years ago.

Power of Music

Power of Music & Dementia^[32] is a philanthropic collaboration between Beatie Wolfe, Spirit of Creation and 20/20 Research, supported by The Utley Foundation. It is one of the first studies to look at new (novel) music for people living with dementia. The study has been described as "ground-breaking"^[33] and "profound" for testing music unconnected to memory that patients are hearing for the first time. The research tour ran for 4-months and Wolfe performed her original music at Priory Group care homes across the UK while responses were monitored, both during the live performance and in the weeks following as the patients listened to the same songs on headsets. The findings, which included a significant improvement in communication and memory^[8] were published in May 2015 and received positive press from The Times, Independent, Guardian, BBC Radio 4,^[34] as the first study to both test and show the benefits of new (novel) music.^[35] Beatie has presented about 'Power of Music & Dementia' at WIRED's Conference, DLD, UCSD, Royal Institution, Social Innovation Summit (Silicon Valley) & the American Alzheimer Association. This is the first part of a larger project looking at the power of music to help to reanimate people living with dementia which she recently discussed in an interview with Stanford University for their "Of Sound Mind" TV show.^[36]

‘Need Somebody’ (featured on Montagu Square) was inspired by this dementia project.

Beatie Wolfe also collaborated with Punchdrunk on their Greenhive Green^[37] project as the musical artist for the installation.

Beatie Wolfe's Presents

Britain is GREAT Campaign

Beatie Wolfe represented Britain at CeBIT in Hanover on 11 March 2014 for the British government's "GREAT Campaign" 'Leaders in Tech' event^[38] alongside Dame Wendy Hall and BT Germany CEO Nina Wegner. Following CeBIT Wolfe was filmed for a 3D video with McLaren CEO Ron Dennis and other leading British leaders in the creative and sciences field.

Mayor of London

Beatie was invited to become a 2016 Ambassador for London Technology and will be kicking off the London Technology Week in June. Beatie joins Martha Lane Fox, Rohan Silva and the UK CEO’s of Microsoft, Google, Facebook.

Patron

New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth has announced Beatie Wolfe as its youngest Patron^[39] joining including Twiggy, Timothy West, Sheila Hancock and Prunella Scales. Beatie performed the first live music concert in their Minghella Studio.

Beatie Wolfe's musicians "The Pack"

She performs both solo and with her Pack what Time Out describes as "soulful folk-pop".^[40] Her musicians include violinist Nigel Kennedy and David Gilmour's bass player Yaron Stavi on double bass, Adam Hayes on drums and composer Peter Gregson on cello.^[41]

Discography

Albums

Montagu Square

Released: 26 October 2015

8ight

Released: 1 July 2013

EPs

Burst EP

Released: 1 January 2010

Singles

Videos

Apps

References

External links

• Official website
• BBC Beatie Wolfe Profile