What Happened to the Skull Boy? A Conversation with Jackson Culp

SNQLX: There’s a moment in your bio where you talk about this “miraculous encounter” where you truly heard an amplified bass guitar for the first time — and it uprooted everything. What were you listening to before that moment, and what did you hear after that you couldn’t unhear? 

JACKSON: This change happened in late-2021! I had always appreciated bass – as in sub-bass – but I’d never truly been able to hear a bass guitar and appreciate its sonic impact. Up until this point, my understanding of bass had always been aggressive. When I was able to finally comprehend the sound of a live, electric bass guitar, I began to hear movement and energy. This was hypnotic. 

It was my senior year of college and I was commuting. For the first time ever – and during my commute – I listened to Abbey Road in its entirety. Truthfully, in my youthful ego, at first, I was not totally impressed. Then, I heard the melodic reference to “You Never Give Me Your Money” at the end of the album. I can truly say that’s what started the entire change in my musical journey and my life. Afterwards, I was able to hear more than simply surface-level sounds, and my Beatles obsession began. During this period, the song “Big Barn Bed” by McCartney held the majority of my bass-based attention. 

SNQLX: You record everything alone — writing, performing, producing — all in your Northeast Louisiana studio. When did isolation stop feeling like a limitation and start feeling like the only way to work? 

JACKSON: I grew up participating in community theater, and I was heavily involved in the theater until I graduated high school in 2018. When I began recording, it was spring of 2019, and I had just spent the majority of the previous year learning the electric guitar and discovering songwriting. This was a total escape for me. Not only had I never recorded or written music before, but all my previous artistic endeavors had been collaborative. Because of this, I was intoxicated by and totally enthralled with the process of creating on my own. 

SNQLX: You spent two years building WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SKULL BOY? Does working on something that long change you, or does the character start to take over? 

JACKSON: Working on a project for that amount of time absolutely changes you, but my personal change also influenced the project. 

Many times during the creation of the album, I was frustrated – I ran into a multitude of creative roadblocks. Looking back, though, I am able to understand that the different seasons I navigated, as well as my changing personal perspective, directly informed the process and the outcome of the project. Now, when I listen to the work, I can see I was not stuck in the process – I simply had to wait for personal experience in order to unlock the next piece of the project. 

SNQLX: The vampire imagery runs through everything you do. But “vampire” can mean a lot of things — seduction, hunger, transformation, immortality. Which one of those feels truest to what you’re making? 

JACKSON: To me, vampire means emotion. Specifically, it represents someone with a dark and mysterious exterior, but, on the inside, is bursting with emotion – someone not understood. 

SNQLX: THE LAGOON is about two people who hate each other traveling to paradise together. That’s such a specific, bitter kind of love. Where does that come from — observation, experience, something darker? 

JACKSON: Personally, I’ve always believed this type of transactional love is more common than not, but I promise I am not as jaded as that sounds! THE LAGOON is just my fictional exaggeration of the souring of transactional love. 

SNQLX: In EVERYONE’S FAVORITE VAMPIRE, there’s this figure that “seems inviting but transforms into something darker.” We’ve all met people like that. When did you realize the scariest ones aren’t monsters from the start — they’re the ones you invite in? 

JACKSON: Truthfully, I feel as though I’ve always known. I grew up on stories, but I never had any illusions about humanity. Recently, though, my understanding of the darker side of humanity has definitely grown, but I am still able to see a great amount of good. I hope that remains! This latest album has helped me work through some of those darker realizations, though. 

SNQLX: You’ve called the Skull Boy “a mysterious, decaying, once-dangerous character who enters an arrangement he doesn’t fully understand.” That sounds like someone who signed something in blood without reading it. What’s the arrangement? 

JACKSON: Within the last two years, I was tormented by the idea of change, but in a different way than I had been in the past. This time, the torment came from a brutal realization and understanding that even if someone gains enormous and absolute status, achievement, and knowledge, after enough time passes, that power and pride will all evaporate. 

These thoughts were suffocating and they led me to ponder what an all-powerful, immortal character – one who has remained for too long – would do to stay all-powerful. If this character were desperate enough, they would probably give up their soul. There’s always a collection on this arrangement, however. 

SNQLX: You’re also an award-winning actor. Does writing songs feel like writing a character, or is it closer to something you can’t hide behind? 

JACKSON: Writing a song absolutely feels like a character, but without pretending. 

SNQLX: You’ve built this interconnected story across three releases — toxic lovers, the vampire, the Skull Boy. Did you know from the beginning you were building a mythology, or did it reveal itself as you kept writing? 

JACKSON: Vampire rock revealed itself to me. I’ve always loved fantasy, but never expected to make this kind of music – I never believed I could make music, in general. Even now, it’s hard to wrap my head around. I didn’t sit down and expect to write this wild, fantastical music. If it didn’t feel truthful, though, I wouldn’t record! 

SNQLX: If someone finishes WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SKULL BOY? sitting alone in the dark, what do you want them to feel? 

JACKSON: Based on the ending of the album, the listener might feel unsettled. But I don’t want anyone to be scared! I myself have never liked being scared. I would definitely prefer the listener to be intrigued and curious enough to then restart the album – listening with a different perspective now that the entire picture has been revealed. Or so it seems.