Chelsea Rifkin (Wilt)

"It's trash that evokes emotion," says Chelsea Rifkin of Wilt (wiltband.com) referring to her junk journal. The singer for the LA-based band uses this journal as an important part of her songwriting process. The title is literal: "It's a scrapbook of trash that I get throughout the day."
Rifkin showed me one of the journals. It was filled with napkins, stickers, cards, menus, wrappers--literally anything that might evoke a memory later on. This makes perfect sense because touching and seeing a concrete object from a past event would seem to evoke a more powerful memory than re-reading just your thoughts about that past event in a more traditional journal. It absolutely works for Rifkin. "The junk really unlocks a memory for me and exactly how I was feeling at that time." And it's often those memories that start the songwriting process for her.
Wilt's debut album "When No One's Watching (wilt.ffm.to/whennooneswatching)" (produced by Carlos de la Garza) is out now.