Interview: Kulk @ ArcTanGent
Kulk by Jez Pennington
KULK, the dynamic two-piece band from Norwich, is making waves in the UK music scene with their heavy, noise-infused sound. Comprised of Thom and Jade, KULK draws from a mix of sludge, doom, punk, and noise-rock influences to create a unique auditory experience that challenges genre conventions.
Their latest album, It Gets Worse, released in May, is a testament to their ability to blend personal and societal anxieties into a cohesive and powerful musical statement. In this interview, we sit down with the duo to talk about their musical journey, the creative process behind their sound, and what’s next for the band.
Hello Kulk! Lovely to meet you. Now admittedly you’re a new band for me. I know you're from Norwich and I know you came to us highly recommended by Cal from Other Half.
Thom: Yes, yeah, they are very sweet. Fellow Norwich people, you know. We always see them around, and they are very lovely.
Jade: Love them so much. They're so cute.
The Norwich scene is really having a moment right now.
Thom: Yeah, I think there's a little bit of something in the water there. Lots of good people doing good things.
Jade: I think we've got some good venues as well, which helps.
Thom: It does help. If you have somewhere really nice to play, people are going to aspire to play there and want to do something really good to get that chance. I guess that's part of it. The more good things happening, the more people want to start bands. I imagine loads of people started bands off the back of bands like Other Half.
For anyone who hasn't heard you before, can you give us a bit of your history? How did you come together and how would you describe your sound?
Kulk by Jez Pennington
Thom: It's very noisy. It's loud. It’s kind of like sludge, a bit of doom, but maybe with some faster influences that keep it a bit jumpier.
Jade: For the two of us, we try and make as much noise as possible. One of our favourite compliments is when people say, "I heard you but had no idea you're a two-piece." We try to layer as many things as possible. We’ve got synth going as well, plus all the guitar stuff. You do guitar stuff to make it sound good, make big sounds.
Thom: Yeah, it's all about heaviness. How can you be as heavy as possible with what we've got?
Jade: We started off knowing each other since high school, playing really bad covers. Then we were more punk, quite a fast punk band, and then we kind of... I don't know, matured?
Thom: Yeah, discovered the whole plethora of metal out there. It's about blending all the things we love—not sticking to one particular group of metal. There’s doom influence, but taking little bits from hardcore, punk, thrash, noise rock, industrial sounds…
Jade: Lots of industrial sounds for the last record.
Jade: Yeah, and making something that's a bit more interesting, getting rid of those genre clichés.
Your album It Gets Worse which was out in May, that’s very much about personal anxieties but also the anxieties of the world and the chaos of things. Can you tell me about that?
Thom: The last one was, yeah. The whole record wanted to be about one thing. I wanted to make every single song the same theme, the same idea, just explore this one. It was about the general anxiety you feel when you want to do more, elevate yourself, your position, but also the struggle that comes with that. Are you doing enough? Too little? And what really is "more," anyway? Is it something you want, or is it killing you a little bit every day? That was the general idea.
Kulk by Jez Pennington
Really light stuff, easy questions, not heavy at all ;)
Thom: No, no, very casual. Very easy stuff. You won’t think any inner thoughts while listening to it. Just your typical Tuesday.
Tell me about your songwriting process then. With just two of you, how do you balance the responsibility between the synth, the noise, and everything else?
Thom: A lot of it comes out of necessity. It's not just, "Do you want to do this?" It's, "Can you do this?" Jade has to do the synth because I can't. Or like with vocals. We need that, so someone has to do it. It's about thinking inside the box with what we have.
Jade: We're not the best musicians; we do what we can.
Thom: I'm not a very good guitar player at all. I keep it very simple, but it's about what you can do with what you've got.
That's really interesting because there's this perception that our favourite bands are all the best musicians ever. When really, they’re kind of just the people who picked up the instruments and followed through.
Thom: Exactly. So much of the best stuff you've ever heard is really simple to play, and some of the hardest stuff is really not that enjoyable. So much of heaviness is just a feeling, a vibe. I've been living by the mantra, "Don't let a good idea get in the way of a great song." If it wants to be two notes, let it just be two notes.
Jade: Same with drums. I can't play very well, but all my favourite drummers are quite simple when it's heavy. So I always keep everything really, really simple.
Thom: Dale Crover from Melvins is a great example.
Jade: Amazing!
Thom: Just basic beats, but it sounds amazing.
So what have you been working on recently?
Thom: It's weird. We're trying to do some new stuff. I'm thinking about following a theme again, making a record about a specific concept. Maybe something shorter this time. The last record was about 22 minutes, and I liked that. Nothing was rushed, but nothing stuck around longer than it needed to. I want to do something that’s to the point.
Jade: We’ve got a few things now. In the set yesterday, we did play a new song already. But we're so picky now. We’ve probably written so many albums' worth of new material, but we really want it to be good enough. Like the right thing for us next.
Thom: Our writing process is very...dumb? We take riffs, do half a song, then scrap it. We say if it doesn't have the "sauce" then it doesn’t go in. So we’re writing a bunch of binning a lot.
Jade: And I want to really like it. You don’t want to be playing something that you’re not happy with. We have to both like it. At least there’s only two of us. If it was five people, it would be harder to agree on anything.
Thom: There's no deliberation. If it doesn't have it, it's gone.
Kulk by Jez Pennington
Jade: We're just honest about it.
Really direct process then. So when you’re not creating, what are you listening to right now?
Thom: I’ve been really into the most recent VOW record. It's crazy amazing. Also, I really really loved Iris’ set we just watched. That was really cool and their album is really good. Our label maters, Modern Technology, had a fantastic record too.
Jade: Their set today was really really good as well.
Thom: They’re so good. Anyone on Human Worth is good in our books. Beautiful stuff.
Jade: I’ve been really into Pest Control lately.
Thom: We went to their show in London last week
Jade: It was a five-band hardcore bill, for like a tenner. It was amazing.
Thom: It was crazy, so good.
Kulk’s latest album, It Gets Worse, is out now via Human Worth. Catch them live on 14 September at the Waterfront in Norwich and on 17 September at The Baths in Ipswich.
