Chris Wolstenholme
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Tony Wolstenholme
Born	December 2, 1978 (1978-12-02) (age 28) Rotherham, England
Genre(s)	Alternative rock New Prog
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Bass Guitar, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Years active	1992 - present
Label(s)	Warner Bros. Records Eastwest Records Atlantic Records Helium 3
Associated acts	Muse

Christopher Wolstenholme (born Christopher Tony Wolstenholme, 2 December 1978, in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England) is the bassist for the rock band Muse. He also sings backing vocals to some of the band's songs, and sometimes plays guitar instead of bass. He also plays keyboard on occasions, but rarely and only at live shows.

Biography

Wolstenholme grew up in Rotherham before moving to Teignmouth, Devon in 1989. 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 Matthew and Dominic's band, Wolstenholme gave up the drums and joined with them as bassist to create The Rocket Baby Dolls (later to be renamed Muse). Although he had never played a bass guitar before that time, Wolstenholme is now a highly regarded bassist in the music industry, being complimented by Paul McCartney after their headline at Glastonbury Festival set in 2004.

He currently resides in Teignmouth with his wife Kelly and their three children Alfie, Frankie and Ava-Jo, with whom he tries to spend as much time as possible.

Musical equipment

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 2x6 cabs.

Part of Muse's distinctive sound is produced by Wolstenholme's use of distortion; he has been one of few modern bassists to pioneer distortion and fuzz in songs, especially live. Favouring 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 Pedulla basses. Only using the Pedulla Rapture SB4 basses with a single humbucking pickup, the JB4 bass with two jazz pickups shown in the Plug In Baby video was sold on eBay to a lucky fan. 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 3rd 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 it is only used as a four-string bass now. 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 and a Digitech Synth Wah alongside more effects.

For the latest album, Black Holes and Revelations, Wolstenholme has changed his rig nearly 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 August 26, 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.

Trivia

• Rather than play with a pick, Wolstenholme is known to play with his fingers, in a manner similar to late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. Like Burton, he plays very fast with his fingers, as in Hysteria, Stockholm Syndrome.
• During Muse's stint on The Cure's Curiosa festival in 2004, Wolstenholme broke his wrist playing football with The Cooper Temple Clause. He was unable to play bass, causing the band to discontinue their tour. They did, however, play their tour's headlining spot at the United Kingdom's V Festival. A replacement in the form of Morgan Nicholls (The Streets) was drafted in and Wolstenholme was relegated to 'balloon duty' and keyboards.
• Wolstenholme is known to headbang in time with whatever song the band is playing during live performances (when not singing), although recently at the Canadian V Festival he admitted in an interview that the doctor has told him to tone it down a little, as he keeps developing knots in his neck and shoulder.
• Wolstenholme is known to like Alternative rock, Blues-rock, Heavy metal, Ambient music and Progressive rock.
• Is a big Rotherham United fan

External links

• Chris Wolstenholme on MuseWiki
• Chris Wolstenholme Fanlisting