Chris Wolstenholme

Chris Wolstenholme

Christopher Tony Wolstenholme (born December 2nd 1978) better known as Chris Wolstenholme, is a musician and the bassist and backing vocalist for the Grammy award-winning rock band Muse. He also sometimes plays keyboard instead of bass, though the latter is occasionally handled by Morgan Nicholls during live performances.

Wolstenholme has also performed on stage with Irish band Bipolar Empire. He lives in London with his family.

Early and personal life

Chris Wolstenholme grew up in the English town of Rotherham before moving to Teignmouth, Devon. While living there, he played drums for a post-punk band, while Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard played in another. After two years of failed bassists in Bellamy and Howard's band, Wolstenholme gave up playing the drums and joined with them as bassist to create Gothic Plague then changed the name of the band to Rocket Baby Dolls (later renamed Muse).

In 2003, when the band sued Nestle, he was the main reason behind it, being against the company that had a dubious reputation when it came to the promotion of powdered milk to new mothers in the third world. At the time, he had had his third child.

Wolstenholme and his wife Kelly married in December 2003 and have five children (Alfie, 11, Ava-Jo, 9, Frankie, 7, Ernie, 2 and Buster, born 4 November 2010). In late April 2010, the family moved to Foxrock, Dublin. He said their decision to move to Ireland was based on their need to be beside a major airport and a desire to avoid London, England. During the 2011 NME awards, it was confirmed that he, along with his family, have moved to London, due to the band's wishes to live in the same city whilst creating the new album. Despite not living in his hometown since his childhood, he remains an avid supporter of Rotherham United F.C., his hometown football team.

The Times magazine published an article in the summer of 2010 in which Wolstenholme admitted he had been a "raging alcoholic" and openly spoke about the depths of his addiction. He went into rehab halfway during the recording of The Resistance. Since then, he has not drunk alcohol. He also had a habit of smoking and would have a few cigarettes daily. In 2010 he switched to smoking out of a pipe. He has stated, via Twitter that he has quit smoking, now using an electric cigarette.

Wolstenholme holds an honorary doctorate of arts from the University of Plymouth.

Musical equipment

Wolstenholme in 2007

Wolstenholme has used many different basses since the start of Muse's career, starting out with Warwick and Bass Collection basses, alongside an electric double bass for use in the song "Unintended". He favoured the Ampeg SVT amps, with 1x18, 2x10 and 2x12 cabs.

Wolstenholme often uses distortion. Favouring the Russian Sovtek version of the Electro Harmonix Big Muff distortion / sustainer, this was used alongside a BOSS Bass overdrive and other effects.

In the Origin of Symmetry era, Wolstenholme had many custom-made Pedulla basses, mainly having five-string bass necks outfitted with only four strings, allowing for a wider 4-string neck. Only using the Pedulla Rapture SB4 basses with a single humbucking pickup, the JB4 bass with two jazz pickups cow shown in the Plug In Baby video was sold on eBay. Wolstenholme also changed to use two Marshall amplifiers (3 cabs in total counting his combo amp), he had two separate channels, one for clean bass and one for distorted bass. Chris has also been known to use his Marshall Bass State b150 which he drives to the edge because "it distorts nicely". His effects rig also expanded to include some Line6 effects and more BOSS effects.

For Muse's third album, Absolution, Wolstenholme kept the Pedulla basses but also recorded using Warwick basses (his old ones) and others. He also added a Fender Jazz Bass into his lineup for Sing for Absolution and a Zon Sonus Studio 4. For live performances of "Stockholm Syndrome" Wolstenholme used a beat up Pedulla Rapture SB5 - so beaten up that a tuning peg has been lost and is now only used as a four-string bass. No surprise that Wolstenholme threw it onto the stage from the audience, then into Dominic Howard's bass drum at the UK's biggest festival, Glastonbury.

He still kept his Marshall amps, and also included more rackmount effects in the form of Line6 Bass Pods and filter modelers, and more. His effects rig became so big that Rocktron All Access MIDI controllers are used both on and off stage to control everything. Also adding in an Akai Deep Impact synth pedal for the hit single "Time Is Running Out", a Digitech Synth Wah and a Big John Granny Puker alongside more effects.

For Black Holes and Revelations, Wolstenholme has changed his rig almost completely. Now favouring Rickenbacker 4003 basses and Fender Jazz Basses for new and old songs alike, he also uses a pick on a few new songs, including "Assassin", the beginning of "Map of the Problematique", the beginning of "Invincible", and the beginning and middle of "Knights of Cydonia", according to Muse's 26 August 2006 performance at the Reading Festival. He also plays an upright bass in "Soldier's Poem". The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is used more often in this album, nearly in every track, and his vocals are sometimes sung through a vocoder, most noticeably in "Supermassive Black Hole". Additionally, on the recent HAARP DVD he can be seen playing guitar, with Morgan Nicholls manning the bass, and Bellamy on the piano. Specifically, on the DVD, he uses a PRS 513 Rosewood. Recently, he has begun using Fender 1951 P-Bass, in a unique silver colour with tortoise shell style pickguard. Also use a Noah Bass(maybe the same as the before mentioned p bass just misidentified as a Fender P-bass) Before "Knights of Cydonia", Wolstenholme sometimes plays "Man With The Harmonica" (composed by Ennio Morricone) on harmonica, which fits in with the western style of the song.

After the release of The Resistance, Wolstenholme was seen playing a 1980's Status Bass, which he uses to play "Uprising", "Guiding Light" and "Unnatural Selection" live. He has also been seen playing a Gibson Ripper in the studio.

External links

• MUSE: Bassist Chris Wolstenholme, 8/01/2009