When Jack Cullen takes the stage on this tour, you’re not quite sure what “stage” means. Tonight, it’s a café floor lined with cushions at Kontrast in Manchester — the UK’s first sauna and ice venue. It’s an incredibly intimate affair – just Jack Cullen and his guitar in front of fans. He interacts with and chats with them throughout, laughing, smiling – it’s almost like your best mate has just whipped a guitar out round his place and is demoing new material to his closest friends – and that’s meant in a most positive way.
He’s around halfway through a truly one-of-a-kind tour: cycling from Scotland to Glastonbury, playing a trail of pop-up gigs along the way. We caught up with him at the venue to chat about the tour, new music and getting ready for Glastonbury.
Why? “I think, honestly, there’s a lot of different reasons,” he says after the set of the decision to cycle to Glastonbury. “I think from a personal level, you get a lot by doing things like this. You’re getting out of your comfort zone, being out on the road, meeting new people. You learn a lot about yourself.”
That spirit of connection runs through everything Cullen is doing right now — especially his new single All I Need, released just under two weeks ago and marking his debut with RCA. “The song All I Need felt like a perfect start to that,” he says. “So me and George [his tour manager] — we’ve got our bikes with everything we need on — cycling to Glastonbury, which it feels like it’s like a big point to kind of get there. You know, it has a ring to it. I think I just why I wanna go on an adventure and I wanna meet fans along the way.”
“I wanna connect with fans. Really. I think I just… I wanna go on an adventure and I wanna meet fans along the way.”
The idea is simple: take the music directly to people. Along the way, Cullen has performed in a surf centre in Edinburgh (complete with a fake wave), at the Manchester open mic institution The Whiskey Jar, and now here — playing solo, acoustic, just him and the guitar sat on cushions with a hooked intimate crowd. “I wanna connect with fans. Really. I think I just… I wanna go on an adventure and I wanna meet fans along the way.”
I ask about him dropping in at the Whiskey Jar and his instant love of the place shines and excitement to perform on their renowned open mic night shine straight through. “Ohh. What a place. Just I mean, what a place. I absolutely loved those folks. We absolutely loved it. It was so cool” he enthuses. “This is what I wanna do I wanna just play to people. And so we knocked on the door at half past four (they open at 5) and we were like can we come and play tonight? It was a full bill, because they do it properly and so I told them the story of what we were doing and the guy let me on 1st to just play one song and very kindly got asked to play another song which is really cool and the guy Joe that ran the night was such a lovely, lovely guy and yeah, I couldn’t recommend the Whiskey Jar enough. It was really cool.”
There’s been the odd bump in the road — a few punctures, one real bike issue — but nothing disastrous. Except, maybe, a rogue drone. “We were shooting the music video for All I Need in the Lake District over three days,” he says. “Some guys came up — who I worked with before — director and producer. Shot a proper music video for All I Need, which will be coming soon. And the first night before we shot a thing, we flew the drone for the first time. And it went far and far and far. And we tried to go and look at a tree that was on top of this mountain, this single tree, and then all of a sudden the drone falls into the mountain and goes black. And so we then have an hour till sundown and we’re like, ‘we’ve got one thing to do here. We either go and get it now or … ‘ and we had to climb up this mount. It was wild. And we ended up getting it! So it was a great, great start to the trip. Morale was high.” He laughs as he tells the of the experience.
As the journey heads further south, Glastonbury draws closer — and though the destination looms large, Cullen’s focus is still on the road ahead. “It doesn’t come into my mind until random points in the day. I’m, like, ‘Oh God, we’re actually going to Glastonbury and this is why we’re actually doing this — is to get to Glastonbury.’ So I’m incredibly excited. I am trying to stay present in the days in this adventure, you know, but knowing at the end of it I’m gonna be cycling into Glastonbury and onto stage and then that’s gonna be that. .. it pops into my mind regularly and it’s exciting! It’s funny, I think, actually.” Every mention of Glastonbury sees Jack Cullen’s eyes light up.
That Glastonbury setlist is still taking shape. “It’s just kind of evolving as we go down, trying out new songs and unreleased music,” he says. “As I kind of move into this new chapter, I have a lot of unreleased music that I wanna test and I wanna play and see what people think.”
We talk about this new chapter. He’s enthusiastic – as he seems to be about everything. The EP is already finished and on the way. “It’s done. It’s ready to go,” he buoyantly declares. “I think it’s exciting. Whilst I adore playing songs acoustically and stripped back and slower and more intimate, the EP has an energy to it that I’m really excited about showing people.”
That balance between introspection and energy seems to be at the heart of Cullen’s songwriting too. Asked how his process works, he smiles: “It’s spur of moment, a lot of the time, or at least the beginnings, the kernels of ideas are. It’s 3:00 AM as I go to the toilet in the middle of the night and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s good.’ Or like, you know, just whenever.”
“I like to write in the morning with a bit of coffee and a guitar, or the piano. But then I’ll take those ideas often in the studio with writers that I work closely with, I’ll say, ‘What do you think of this idea?’ And then we’ll build from there. I think that’s usually how I like to work.”
But has his approach or feel changed much since he started? “You know what? I don’t know. I think I work with and I write with amazing friends of mine, who I love, and I think get the best out of me. And we have, you know, a fun time doing it. I think it’s constantly evolving — new ideas, trying to push the boat out, trying to explore different chords and melodies. But I think at the core of it, I think I’m still the same, you know?”
“It’s a journey? Yeah, a journey”
The tour might sound like a challenge — and Cullen laughs when it’s described that way — but for him, it’s something more meaningful. “It’s a journey? Yeah, a journey,” he says. “Like I say, it’s an adventure, a way to meet people. This differs from the marathons thing [his previous challenge was a series of marathons in support of 12]. And whatever comes next will differ from this. I don’t know what that would look like, but I think the music inspires it. 12 inspired the 12 marathons. All I Need is heavily inspiring this, we’re cycling with All I Need on our bike and it’s about love and connection and so that’s what I wanna do. The next song will inspire whatever happens next.”
The call of Glastonbury is beckoning and the start of a new era for Jack Cullen. He’s taking an unbounding enthusiasm and spirit in to it. With a few hundred more miles to cycle and a string of intimate pop-up gigs to go, he’s very much living every moment up of the run up, connecting with fans, trying out his new material – and he’s doing it all with a smile.
image of Jack Cullen courtesy Chuffmedia.com
