Kulick remembers Tamaqua poet who overdosed with new recording of song ‘H’
From a press release:
23-year-old Alexandria Sienkiewicz wrote a poem about her struggles with heroin shortly before she accidentally overdosed on fentanyl on April 2, 2016. Kulick then turned her poem into a song he titled “H,” originally released on YouTube in 2017.
Sienkiewicz was from Tamaqua, the same small town as Kulick, and like many small towns in Pennsylvania and the United States, it is suffering from a major opioid problem. Her mother Tammy reached out to the young alternative pop rock singer/songwriter and asked him to make her deeply personal and honest words into a song. “H” was the result.
“Five years ago, we lost our daughter Alexandria, which feels like yesterday. The realization of knowing the last time we spoke to her and said ‘I love you’ was five years ago is heartbreaking. We were so uneducated looking back on substance use disorder and embarrassed to ask five years ago, but we are happy with the changes we helped to make. By bringing substance use disorder out of the darkness and into the light has helped so many people save themselves. Our hope is that Alex’s words and Kulick’s music inspires more individuals to reach out for help and more parents to get educated in this matter of alcohol and drugs – that is what our daughter wanted,” she said.
Kulick also worked with her family on a documentary about her story called “H: The Power of Poetry, Music, and The Life of Alexandria Sienkiewicz” that was uploaded in 2017:
To commemorate the five-year anniversary of her death, he recently rerecorded the track and gave it a wider release on April 9.
“We wanted to make a better version of the song and release it on all platforms instead of only YouTube so that it could reach more people going through a similar situation. I wanted to share the message of love and support instead of the stigma that is associated with ‘drug addicts,” he explained.
“I wanted to give Alexandria’s poem about her struggle with addiction a voice. This is a story about heroin, first and foremost, but anyone who has ever felt depression, anxiety, addiction, experienced negative self-talk, or internal struggle will be able to feel the power of Alexandria’s words.”
H
Kulick (A Poem by Alex)
Hey girl, it’s been a while
I see you got your color back, and that pretty smile
Well put together and mostly upbeat
I know you’re still hurting with demons to defeat
They say staying positive will help you get through
So you push and you fight till you’re alone in your room
They say staying positive will help you get through
So you push and you fight till you’re alone in your room
That’s when I creep in
And mess with your, with your head
I’ll keep, keep you down
Heart as heavy, heavy as lead
(I am the devil on your left, I am the angel on your right)
The disappointment, lies, and secrets you keep
Eating you alive, countless nights with no sleep
Suffer in silence day in and day out
Tell them you are fine, eyes full of doubt
No longer using, but still dying inside
You’re wanting the help but still you’re trying to hide
No longer using, but still dying inside
You’re wanting the help but still you’re trying to hide
That’s when I creep in
And mess with your, with your head
I’ll keep, keep you down
Heart as heavy, heavy as lead
I am the devil on your left, sitting on your shoulder
Soon the angel on your right will take over
Eternal peace is not hard to find
I’m that final relapse forever on your mind
That’s when I creep in
And mess with your, with your head
I’ll keep, keep you down
Heart as heavy, heavy as lead
After he surpassed three million combined streams on Spotify, Kulick dropped his debut full-length album, “Yelling in a Quiet Neighborhood,” on Oct. 16 via Enci Records, run by longtime Goo Goo Dolls manager Pat Magnarella.
Originally from West Penn Township in Schuylkill County, Jacob Kulick, who now goes solely by his surname, turned his tiny closet into his own private music studio at age 12 and began writing and recording songs as a way to cope with his anxiety and the loneliness of being an outcast as he attended school in Tamaqua.
“Middle school was a tough time – I went through a lot of disassociation and bullying, like a lot of people do when they’re different in a small town,” the 29-year-old vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, and producer admitted.
Kulick co-founded a high school band called Story of Another, self-produced his own album, and went on to study audio engineering at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. He got a job with CBS Radio in New York City as an engineer and crossed paths with a fellow musician who had a connection at RCA Records. Once he landed an introductory meeting with the label, Kulick devoted the next two years to building up his solo material and collaborating with other writers. In the summer of 2017, those two years of intense creativity led to Kulick signing a deal with RCA/Gold’n Retriever Records.
A tour with Sleeping with Sirens and The Rocket Summer in 2018 was followed by the release of his debut EP, “Hydroplane,” which featured the powerful Active Rock-charting single “Ghost” and went on to accumulate over three million streams worldwide. In 2019, he performed with RCA labelmates Flora Cash in Scranton, toured with Andy Black (Andy Biersack of Black Veil Brides) and The Faim, and released a standalone single titled “Scatterbrain,” which he said is a song about “today’s busy society, both young and old, and the battle to stay true to who you are.”
With the release of “Yelling in a Quiet Neighborhood” on Enci Records, the Southern California label recently launched by industry veteran and Goo Goo Dolls manager Pat Magnarella, Kulick continues to showcase his rare ability to turn everyday pain into music that’s undeniably life-affirming.
With the album’s recurring themes of uncertainty, guilt, sadness, shame, love, remorse, and closure, Kulick explained, “It is the record where I learned the most about who I am and how much of that reality I was avoiding. This record is me. You know how nice it is to really feel like that? It’s incredible! I love the ‘Hydroplane’ EP, but I didn’t feel like it was entirely me. I wanted to be more hands on with making the music, producing it, and engineering my songs. On this record, I was allowed that, thanks to my new label Enci and my managers Pat Magnarella and Steve Masi.
“I wrote this record for most of the year and got to produce the songs with Chris Szczech in LA. I was able to record live drums in Capitol Records and track all of my own vocals and instruments, so it was a completely different process and I enjoyed every moment creating it. It was my therapy, like it always is, but in the most trying time of my life.”
Since September, the new songs have been paired with creative lyric videos, starting with the ultra catchy first single “Rope.”
“‘Rope’ was written immediately after getting off of the U.S. and Canada tour with Andy Black and The Faim in May 2019. I had a tough year in my personal life, and I wasn’t ready to face it when I got home. I wrote this song with my drummer Keith Gensure, who I’ve known and played music with most of my life, and I felt safe enough to write this very personal song with him,” he recalled.
“This was written when I was feeling so unsure of what to do when I got home. It was such a roller coaster of wanting life to be the way it was before I left for tour, and some days wanting to start over. I knew something was wrong; I didn’t like who I was while I was gone, and I didn’t recognize who I was before I left. It really took a toll on the people in my life that I really love and care about, especially those closest to me, and for the rest of my life I’ll wish I handled it differently.”
“Talking to the Ceiling” followed on the heels of “Rope,” which landed on several major playlists, including Spotify’s New Noise, Poprox, New Music Friday, and The New Alternative playlists.
“I was born half deaf in both ears. This was the inspiration behind using subtitles/closed captions for the lyrics [of ‘Talking to the Ceiling’]. I wear hearing aids, which help, but it’s made life different for sure, and in some moments has made me feel a bit more alone or to myself. It also made being an artist, musician, engineer, and producer a challenge,” Kulick shared on his social media.
“But I’m up for it, and I continue to grow, adapt, and create. I swear I love music so much because of this, so I am grateful for it.”
“The Way I Am,” which is “one of the darker, more personal, and introspective songs on the new record,” landed on Spotify’s All New Rock playlist and includes home video footage from Kulick’s childhood in the video.
Now based in Lemoyne, a borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Kulick is looking forward to getting back out on the road, armed with the lessons he learned during the making of this album.
“I am ready to tour as soon as it is safe to. I miss my friends and everyone who shares these songs with me. I miss their energy. When we’re able to tour again, look forward to hearing the first record that is truly a Kulick record. I look forward to sharing it with everyone.”
See NEPA Scene’s photos of Kulick performing at Stage West in Scranton with Flora Cash and The Charming Beards in 2019 here.
