Monroe Native Jackson Culp Creates “Vampire Rock”
The Brooding Sound of Vampire Rocker, Jackson Culp
For every artist who creates music effortlessly, there are many millions more who just need the right push and passion to find their song. Monroe native Jackson Culp, whose self-styled brand of “vampire rock” can be heard in his debut album “What Happened to the Skull Boy,” certainly grew up in a musical household — his mother and grandmother each raising him with the simple elegance of the piano. Yet, it was the melodic seduction of an electric guitar which spurred Jackson’s first dalliances with writing music amid a teenage fascination with bands like The Lumineers and the Arctic Monkeys. Not just wanting but needing to understand how those artists ripped magic from their guitar strings, Jackson set about teaching himself how to play the electric guitar, come hell or high water.
“My senior year of high school, I decided I would figure out how to write a song,” says Jackson. “There was this track by The Arcs that I wanted to learn so badly. The only thing I could do to understand was dive into the guitar. Then I started learning and figuring out how to do my own thing.”
So Jackson wrote his first song, which made the second that much easier. Soon after, the sounds coming from the guitar found purchase and definition. They began to take the shape of something wholly its own, -what Jackson has come to call “vampire rock.” As a mix of sultry soul, stabbing guitar riffs and a beat built for swaying in the back corners of dark alleyways, the sound he found takes the idea of skulking Nosferatu less literally and more philosophically, transmuting its essence into a feeling that lingers like the sting of a bite to the neck.
“When you think of a vampire, you can see a dangerous person, but you can also see an emotional person,” says Jackson. “They can be good or bad, but each is filled with an inner turmoil. So when I started to think about ‘vampire rock’ it was through that lens, making something that people would want to bob their heads to, something they could feel.”
It’s no surprise that Jackson’s style of performance leans into the theatrical, a byproduct of his own acting background. While many performers of the vampiric persuasion have taken personas of the more malevolent variety, Jackson’s path lends more to truth than artifice; the sound less a mask than it is a microscope pinpointing within himself that only music can excavate.
“The best way to describe it is that I ran to music because it felt so real,” says Jackson. “When I’m up on stage, I’m trying to be as in the moment as possible. A few years ago, I realized I was trying too hard to make my performances come off a certain way. Now I’m loosening the grip and just riding the wave.”
Though Jackson has surely found his niche with “What Happened to the Skull Boy,” there is still ample space for exploration, reinterpretation and certainly artistic experimentation in his near future. Ever pushing himself toward new and more novel expressions of himself, it’s safe to say that this is just the beginning of Jackson Culp’s unveiling as not just an artist but a persona with a soundtrack tailor-made for anyone who enjoys a dalliance with the creatures of the night.
