By Neil Franklin | On Behalf of Tattoo Music | with slight edits.
Alternative Rock Singer, Song Writer ‘KULICK‘ drops new single ‘The Way I Am’ from recently released debut album ‘Yelling In A Quiet Neighborhood‘ via ‘ ENCI Records.’ Starting from an early age Jacob Kulick learnt to emotionally regulate through the art of music. Coping with anxiety and loneliness. Many school years being bullied for being a little different, took it’s toll. Survival kick started Jacob’s ability to tell his own story through a structural productivity of music. We caught up with Jacob to find out a little more.
So Jacob how are you coping with the current situation?
Excepting it at this point right, it’s been difficult.. I’ve been on like both sides of it, some things are open and some things are not allowed to be open, I don’t know who decided what (laughs) or whos right.. and no one will fess up on hey we kind of fucked up a little bit or not.. To many options, and you don’t want to talk about it because as soon as you voice any kind of an opinion, its like there’s already to many opinions.. so I don’t really talk about politics or the pandemic. It’s like talking about sports, I don’t really know enough to talk about it.
You did a tour with Andy Black, how did you find that went with the music indifferences?
I said yes cus I thought we fit, his music is definitely different, but him and the Faim (tour) together it made sense for me to go, because I felt like we were pretty similar to the Faim (tour) and also were pretty aesthetically close, I don’t know it’s like the emo type of fans, you know that kind of culture likes my music and that’s interesting to me, the typically Emo type bands, I love being classified as that, and I totally think I am that. I love gigs it doesn’t matter what gig it is, once your set up, I love the experience of the crowd, but I love being trapped in my own head, that’s what the in ear monitors do, your just watching me in my head, that’s my show (laughs) I’m very much one of those singers, like Chester (Bennington) that sings like the whole time with his eyes shut, very interior.
Your latest Album ‘Yelling In A Quiet Neighborhood’ How well has it been received do you think?
That record has been doing really well, it’s doing good and getting a lot of support on Spotify, radio play and I also always get messages sent to me about you know certain songs, ‘Just Be Friends’ is doing better, ‘Rope’ is doing really really good, then there’s a couple like deep cuts that only fans that are super close to the music, like, they listen to ‘Lonely’ a lot, which is the most definitely a raw one. If you like what’s coming up, I’m making an acoustic record with 5 songs on the EP, it’s like if you listen to a coffee house play list or a bike ride play list, really chilled, really laid back, not really produced and I really enjoyed recording that!
So obviously you’re in your own Home studio, do you do all your work there or hit rehearsal rooms?
No it’s all in here, I write in my living room a lot on the acoustic or piano. Well what we did with ‘Yelling In A Quiet Neighborhood‘ record. I didn’t have an apartment at the time, as I was going through a divorce , so I wasn’t living at my house, I was at my brothers in the basement, that’s where I made that record, and then took my laptop and Hard drive to LA and my Label, let me finish it in Capitol Records Studio, so basically beefed it up you know, got someone else to make it. This acoustic record I’ll be mixing and mastering I’m so excited for it, that’s what I went to school for! With the album it was so cool to get it to that level, and take it to LA, then get other peoples hands on it you know.
Did it turn out better than expected because of that?
You know, it was very much so I wasn’t expecting anything, because when I was at RCA all the songs that I did, like I would walk in to a studio the producer would have the songs done and I would sing to it and randomly write some lyrics to it and I was like co-writing with three or four other people, so it wasn’t personal at all. But when I was younger I would always write music the same way I wrote that record ‘Yelling In A Quiet Neighborhood‘ so I was like I really wanted to start doing it again, I haven’t done it like that since I was 15 years old, so I wasn’t expecting anything, but I’m really, Really happy on how it came out.. Honestly as with any project, I listen to it and say ok here’s things I could have done better, or something I could have done differently, but that’s what the next records for. It was really fun to do it that way and it’s really fun that I had creative control again, I’m gonna do this exactly the way I think it should be produced and if people like my stuff and if they don’t, that means they don’t like my stuff and that’s so much better than it being someone else’s production, you know.
One thing I wanted to ask you, I’ve recently discovered you are partially deaf. How different do you perceive music?
Yes in both ears, so it doesn’t really affect pitch, that’s fine I can do that, I write like a normal person would, well I do everything exactly the same, it’s just, well literally the way I would explain it is, voices in the high end registrar is way more difficult for me to hear, so there can be like high hats of a song, I wouldn’t even hear, so that frequency range is difficult for me, erm so that’s what my hearing test actually is, basically I can hear normal at the lows and then the mids and the highs I hear, most people hear 20 decibels and I hear 40, that’s why I say half deaf. So if you have your TV volume on 20 I’m hearing on 10, so that’s basically all it is, a little volume difference, a little frequency difference. But writing music wise, it doesn’t make it a challenge I don’t think, I actually think it’s been helping me because, I just started wearing my hearing aids this year, I didn’t wear them before this, I’d say ‘what’ every now and then but it’s not too bad, ok it’s pretty bad (laughs) I notice more now when I don’t wear them. So most of my life I just spent it like in my head with an internal voice, like my thoughts, I hear that voice talking all the time, and I think that actually helped me make music, cus I hear random things and I just make a bunch of random stuff up in my head all the time and I think it has to do with the fact I was half deaf.
You obviously like your Tattoos, so what you got there? (laughs)
Totally yes, I’ve got a screaming face, I got an anagram which reads ‘Faith’ one way and ‘fear’ the other way, a bible verse when I used to be super religious, I’m more spiritual than religious now but, yeah I got that. I got a microphone, which is just for the love of music, I have an ocean wave, ‘that erases the foot prints,’ which is one of the first songs I ever wrote, I got a Philadelphia skyline, an Aries tattoo. I have a meditation tattoo, with a ring worm which I’m loving at the moment (laughs) I really do man, haha..then like a street sign I got when I signed my first publishing deal, which is an inter section of my home street and New York street. My first tattoo was the music bars, which is a song that I wrote, and as my new most resent one, kind of like a boy slash girlish tattoo. A got a couple more too, got the Humming bird and I got one on my back and one on my chest. That’s it. I want to get a leg one. I just got them cus my cousin does them. His name is Jeff Zalesak. Pretty much ever holiday, he’d be like, hey you want a tattoo? Just pay me whatever, so I’d like throw him 50 or 100 bucks. So every single one is my cousins work, I didn’t draw any of this, I’d just go and say I wanna fill this piece and he’d just fit it in, normally freehand or with hi-lighters, he’s supper talented. I don’t think I would have tattoos if he wasn’t a tattoo artist. I will get more. I defiantly get them in different periods of my life, so I remember, so they’re all like memories, I guess maybe a worry work thing , but if I ever lose my memory, I can hopefully look down and hopefully remember like at least little points in my life. During Covid time, well I haven’t had one in a year or so, I defiantly need another one. I know some people who just get pointless ones, our bass player wanted to get a squirrel on his inner thigh reaching up for his nuts (laughes) I’m like I never wanna see it!!
One thing I really want to say, a really strange thing on the Andy Black tour for me was like three people got, like, well ‘Scatterbrain’ came out and they got like the ‘Scatterbrain’ art as my face, ok so my face is like on this girls like thigh and one like on her shoulder, I was like at the merch table going ‘Holy Shit you’ve got a tattoo of my face’ that’s fucking insane’, cool.. but fucking insane hahaha.. To me it’s insane, cus I’m like nobody, but they said they look up to me because of these songs, and that’s incredible, you know for whatever reason, one girl was like supper depressed basically, she wasn’t getting on in school, she listened to this song called Hydroplane, which is about me being bulled at school and how I made it out, it’s like that’s fucking incredible. If you want to take my story and do that, well that’s incredible!!
Music helps heal doesn’t it?
Yeah, it’s the only thing that’s felt like a really, really good natural release. It’s like running , I’ve never really liked physical fitness, but it’s kind of a healthy way to feel good, music does that, running does that, smoking weed does that, but I try not to do that (laughs)..but everything in moderation, except Tattoos hahaha!!
So True (laughs) Well thank you Jacob it’s been great talking with you.
Yelling In A Quiet Neighborhood Tracking – 
- Crawling
- Rope
- Just Be Friends
- Waiting For You
- Monster
- Fun
- The Way I Am
- Lonely
- Talking To The Ceiling
‘Yelling In A Quiet Neighborhood’ – 9 track debut album via ENCI Records is available to download from all major platforms.
KULICK Online:
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE | YOUTUBE
