Wulfer

Ashleigh Wulf, who records as Wulfer, is a Boston-based alternative artist whose solo work I’ve been hooked on for the past year. After finally catching a live set of hers at The Castle (a converted two-story house that feels more intimate than any venue), I really wanted to set up a chat and dig into her journey, and her plans for what comes next.

The following is a conversation with Wulfer.

When we finally connected I wanted to skip the usual origin story and jump right into her own music.

Q: When did you start writing and producing your own stuff?
A: Honestly, I didn’t start writing my own stuff until right after high school. Before that, I was always the guitarist in other people’s bands... Composing my own music felt like a new challenge.

Ashleigh grew up about thirty minutes outside Philadelphia; originally she wanted to learn how to play the piano but admits it was much easier to find a guitar. She mentions how playing other people’s songs taught her the essentials of performance, but following her high school graduation she started to have an itch to create her own work.

Q: What brought you to Boston?
A: College. I came here to study guitar performance at Berklee.

Graduating last year, she had already spent years gigging around Boston, so friends started looping her into bills under her own name. Before long she was on a new bill every weekend. If you follow Ashleigh on Instagram, you’ll see her feed is always buzzing with new show announcements, she seems to be playing every other night. She tells me that early solo shows in Boston often come through word of mouth, the process feels organic, a “snowball effect.”

Q: How do you find yourself playing on so many bills?
A: You play one show, someone mentions you, and before you know it you’re playing another show... I already knew so many people. It just builds on itself.

This cycle of informal invites reflects Boston’s broader DIY spirit, where artists actively champion each other.

Q: What’s been your most memorable live show?
A: An acoustic evening in February with two dozen friends crammed into a living room.

She observes that a stripped-down setting reminded her why she makes music, for those moments that can’t be replicated on a big stage.

I ask her about her time away from Boston and how it helped her development. Having spent summers living and working in New York she explains the differences between that scene and the one she finds herself in now. She agreed Boston’s vibe feels much more collective. 

Q: What would you say is the strength of the music scene in Boston?
A: There’s genuine, collective investment in each other's success.

For Wulfer, the sense of peers who “have their head on straight” creates a community where experimentation and authenticity take priority over anything else.

Q: How would you describe your sound?
A: Alternative indie rock, if you must, though that barely scratches the surface. My earliest songs had folk-soft chords.

When it comes to labeling her music, “alternative indie rock” is the shorthand only because no other phrase is shorter. Ashleigh notes that some of her biggest inspirations are Alex G and Adrianne Lenker. 

As our chat wrapped, I asked her what’s next and what advice she’d tell anyone starting out.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: An album, I’m hopeful to have it out by the fall. I’m in no rush to finish it... I’d rather hold back than share something half-formed.

Q: What’s one piece of advice for emerging songwriters?
A: Humor your ideas and don’t dismiss something before you explore it. Write the music you want to hear.

Wulfer is carving out a spot in Boston’s scene on her own terms, guided by nothing more than making good music. Her debut album is taking shape, she’s been stacking intimate shows around the city, and the momentum feels real. I wanted to talk with Ashleigh because she’s exactly the kind of independent artist who proves music doesn’t have to start with a profit target. Our conversation underlined that point: she writes because she loves the work, not because she thinks it will fill venues or playlists.

In an era when playlists and profit margins often dictate what gets written, recorded, and released, my conversation with her was a reminder that some musicians still chase nothing more than the high of making art.

Make sure to stream Wulfer and check her out on Instagram here!