Christopher Tony Wolstenholme (born 2 December 1978) is an English musician. He is the bassist and backing vocalist for the rock band

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

Early life

Chris Wolstenholme grew up in the English town of

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

before moving to

Teignmouth Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at th ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, where he played drums for a

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

band. He met

Matt Bellamy Matthew James Bellamy (born 9 June 1978) is an English singer, musician, producer, and songwriter. He is primarily known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and primary songwriter for English rock band Muse. He is recognised for his eccen ...

and

Dominic Howard Dominic James Howard (born 7 December 1977) is an English musician who is the drummer and co-founder of the rock band Muse. Early life Howard was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, in England. When he was around 8 years old he moved with h ...

from another band while both bands rehearsed in the same building. Bellamy and Howard convinced Wolstenholme to take up bass and start a new band with them, initially called Rocket Baby Dolls. The band was renamed

in 1994. The members of Muse played in separate school bands during their stay at Teignmouth Community College in the early 1990s. Guitarist Bellamy successfully auditioned for drummer Howard's band, Carnage Mayhem, becoming its singer and songwriter. They asked Wolstenholme, at that time the drummer for "Fixed Penalty", to join as bassist; he agreed and took up bass lessons.

Other work

Wolstenholme featured on bass for Moriaty's 2015 single "Bones". He also contributed to Rick Parfitt's posthumous solo album '' Over and Out'', which was released in March 2018.

Musicianship

Wolstenholme's basslines are a central motif of many Muse songs; the band combines bass guitar with effects and synthesisers to create overdriven

fuzz bass Fuzz bass is a style of playing the electric bass or modifying its signal that produces a buzzy, distorted, overdriven sound, as the name implies. Overdriving a bass signal significantly changes the timbre, adds higher overtones (harmonics) ...

tones. Like Bellamy, Wolstenholme uses touch-screen controllers built into a few of his instruments to control synthesisers and effects including Kaoss Pads or

Digitech Whammy The DigiTech Whammy is a pitch shifter pedal manufactured by DigiTech. It was the first widely used effects pedal that could do foot-controlled pitch shifting effects. The pedal emulates sounds that a guitarist normally makes using the vibrato ...

pedals. Wolstenholme mostly plays fingerstyle. According to producer

Rich Costey Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling ** Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated comm ...

, who has worked with Muse on several occasions, "His finger strength is staggering ... He hits the strings really goddamn hard. It sounds that way because that's the way he plays." Wolstenholme wrote and sang lead vocals on two Muse songs, "Liquid State" and "Save Me", from their sixth album, ''

The 2nd Law ''The 2nd Law'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band Muse, first released on 28 September 2012 through Warner Bros. Records and the band's own Helium-3 imprint. Recording of the album took place in studios between London and Los An ...

'' (2012).

Personal life

Wolstenholme married his girlfriend, Kelly, on 23 December 2003. They have six children. In April 2010, Chris and Kelly moved to

Foxrock Foxrock () is an affluent suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is within the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, in the postal district of Dublin 18 and in the Roman Catholic parish of Foxrock. History The suburb of Foxrock was d ...

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In 2012, they moved to London while Muse recorded. After Wolstenholme and Kelly divorced, Wolstenholme married Caris Ball on 1 December 2018, the day before his 40th birthday. The couple have two children, a daughter and a son, as well as Ball's daughters Tabitha and Indiana, giving Wolstenholme ten children in total. Wolstenholme is a supporter of

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

, his hometown football team. He holds an honorary doctorate of arts from the

University of Plymouth The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

. Wolstenholme has struggled with

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

. In a 2011 interview, he said he would drink so much he would vomit blood, but did not grasp the severity of his situation. His bandmates had tried to broach the subject of his drinking several times without success. Wolstenholme eventually realised that drinking would kill him, as it had his father. His bandmates did not notice his problem for several years; according to Bellamy, "He's such a good musician that his motor skills or something just aren't affected. So he would come in and play brilliantly and then we wouldn't see him for a bit. We'd have a great gig and he'd go off to his room so we wouldn't really know what was going on." Wolstenholme's alcoholism did not affect his playing until the recording of Muse's fifth album '' The Resistance'' (2009), at which point he went into rehab. His experiences inspired the lyrics of "Liquid State" and "Save Me", from Muse's sixth album, ''

'' (2012).

References

External links

MUSE: Bassist Chris Wolstenholme
''Bass Musician Magazine'', 8 January 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolstenholme, Christopher 1978 births Living people Muse (band) members English rock bass guitarists Male bass guitarists 21st-century English musicians Progressive metal bass guitarists People from Rotherham People from Teignmouth Musicians from Devon 21st-century bass guitarists