KULAS BIOGRAPHY

In small town Canada, growing up for most boys means following some well-worn traditions.  In Lakefield, Ontario there's no exception. Winters are spent playing early morning ice hockey before the sun comes up and while the rest of the world sleeps.  Summers, for the most part, are spent playing baseball or casting fishing line in to rivers and lakes, waiting for that ever-illusive catch.

For eleven-year-old Michael Kulas, an old six-string guitar his father owned and which lay idly in the basement, one day struck him as something to add to his list of boyhood hobbies.  After all, he had been listening for years to the music his father played from what seemed like an endless supply of LP's.  Jan and Dean, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who...they could all be heard echoing through the walls of his family home.  And it wasn't long before this relentless stream of music began to capture his imagination. In the songs and the sounds, music started to offer up a New World.  A world away from the slow pace and the seemingly dead end associated with small town life. A world where rock stars became legends and legends could change the world with their words and their voices.  And with that, the guitar was resurrected and Kulas embarked on a path towards finding a voice of his own.

By following the instruction of his sixth grade teacher during daily music classes, Kulas soon learned his way around the instrument.  While the other students were lumbered with the limp tones of the Ukulele, only he was given the opportunity to play the guitar, a position that left him feeling quite separate from the rest.

"..because I was the only person besides the teacher playing a guitar, I was filled with a sense of purpose. It sounds very egotistical, but I became totally engrossed by the instrument, if only to feel more unique than the rest".

Soon he took on odd jobs to pay for his hobby.  A new electric guitar and amplifier motivated him to spend any extra time he had learning the instrument.   He would scrutinize pictures of Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon and copy their finger positions to learn new chords.  He would listen to every album he could, trying to lift as many of the parts as possible.  And he began to write songs of his own.

"..by the time I was 14 I had bought a 4 Track recorder and was writing and recording all the time.  I would take it to school and set up in the music room after class had ended. I would end up spending all night recording until I was kicked out".

Kulas would use his recording skills to put his first band, The Crowd to tape.  

They had already performed a handful of shows at local schools and it wasn't long before they were demo-ing their own songs.  But throughout High School, his taste in music began to change.  Bands like The Ruts, Stiff Little Fingers, Sham 69, The Jam and The Attractions all pushed aside the artists from a decade before and began to change the musical climate.  The raw impassioned vocals of Stiv Bators, Elvis Costello and Paul Weller, along with their biting social commentary gave Kulas a new perspective on a more modern approach to song writing.   He used this inspiration to write a new selection of songs which he in turn sent to the prestigious Berklee College Of Music in Boston.  A week before ending his high school career, Kulas was informed of his acceptance.

"Looking back, as much as I was happy to be accepted, I never really thought I would go.  First, it cost too much to even consider.  And second, it's hardly rock and roll is it?".

After graduation and deciding to take a year off before going on to University, Kulas fell in with a group of musicians down the road in Peterborough who were looking for a guitarist.  The Sea would prove to be his first taste of working within a professional band.  Within 6 months of joining they had a Toronto record producer, an album in the works and a steady supply of shows across Ontario.  But a year on, the band fell into all the rock and roll clichés of infighting, battling egos and problems with drink and drugs. Their album never was completed, and after the singer was sacked, Kulas, with Bass player Marc Paille and Drummer Greg Heard, relocated to Toronto for a fresh start. 

Now called Speak and with Kulas taking over lead vocals, the band embarked on a new album with Producer Mark Baldi.   Their first video If I Was In Love With You Beth saw them gaining local recognition on television, while their continuous appearances on the Toronto club seen saw their fan base flourish.            

"&ldots;The music we were making was admittedly heavy handed in  being socially conscious.  As a songwriter I was under the naïve illusion that music had a responsibility to it's listeners.  I was idealistic, taking to heart the commentary of Weller or Costello, but unfortunately we wrapped it up in music that asked too much of the listener"

Feeling trapped within the confines of musicality the band was putting on itself, Kulas began writing music apart from the other two, and again the album they were working on was shelved.  As the spring of '93 approached and with Kulas nearly finished an album worth of songs, a call came in from drummer Heard. He had met Saul Davies, multi-instrumentalist with the UK band James at HMV earlier that morning and after much conversation they had planned to meet again the following afternoon.  Davies was interested to hear some of the music they had been working on and after their first meeting was keen to lend a hand.  Over the next 12 months when in Toronto, Davies would add violin to some of their material as well as performing live with the band at the famous Squeeze Club and other venues.  

In 1994, Kulas approached Davies about producing an album for him based on the songs he had been working on outside of the band. His demos had already won him a New Talent Demo award from the Canadian song writing council FACTOR, and when Davies agreed, the two travelled to Vancouver that summer to record his first solo album "Mosquito". 

Released in 1995, "Mosquito" was credited by Chart Magazine as one of the "top 20 Independent albums of the year". Impact Magazine hailed it "&ldots;an extraordinary album" while The Record viewed it as having "&ldots;a Tysonian punch".  The following year was spent touring the album with a new live band, while University and mainstream radio air play meant sales in the thousands for his independent label. 

Taking a break in the summer of '96, Kulas travelled to New York to join Davies and James front man Tim Booth.  The two were in town to promote Tim's solo album Booth and The Bad Angel with co-writer and Producer Angelo Badalementi.  When Kulas first met Booth in Badalementi's midtown recording studio, he was asked to join in on vocals for a b-side they were finishing, the America song "Horse With No Name". By the days end, Kulas was ecstatic to have also added some atmospheric electric guitar to the same track.

His first meeting with Booth would prove to be an auspicious one. Six months later, at the request of Brian Eno, Tim was asked to think about a backing vocalist to help support the new James album Whiplash when the band played live.  Based on the previous summer's experience, Booth asked Kulas to again return to New York in February of '97 to audition for a spot as backing vocalist in James.  The initial audition was a success and with three American shows ahead, Kulas took to the stage with James to test out his contribution live.  Four days later, with the shows in Washington, Atlanta and New York under his belt, he again joined the band on Late Night with David Letterman to perform the new single "She's A Star".

As the band prepared to return to the UK, Kulas was asked to take the next step and help out on the upcoming British tour to support Whiplash.  Just two months before, Kulas was presented with the runner up award in the Scott Liddle Song writing contest sponsored by Toronto's biggest radio station Q107.  The success of Mosquito coupled with the new material he was working on made him think very seriously about taking time away from his own career. In the end, with everything weighed out, Michael Kulas packed his bags and travelled to the United Kingdom to begin his new career with James.

In almost five years since leaving Canada, Michael Kulas has grown as an artist both within James and without.  His contributions within the band have seen him become a multi-instrumentalist, at times playing guitar, bass, keyboards and percussion while always applying his distinct backing vocal support to the songs.  He has been pivotal in adding his unique sound to songs from the albums Whiplash, Millionaires, Pleased To Meet You and the multi-platinum selling Best Of album. He has worked extensively with Brian Eno on Millionaires and Pleased To Meet You creating wonderful vocal landscapes while also furnishing many songs with his unique guitar playing and arrangement ideas. And keeping true to his song writing spirit, he has also co-written the b-sides "Stolen Horse", "Wisdom Of The Throat" and "Pocket Full Of Lemons" with Tim Booth.

Outside of James, Kulas has continued to write songs of his own.  The result has been the release this year of his second solo album "Another Small Machine".   Recorded in Scotland and in Canada, Another Small Machine captures a side of Kulas that is more subdued and observational than his past work.  He takes a fly on the wall approach to understanding the life that is surrounding him now and wraps it up in a beautifully understated album.  The songs are emotionally very powerful yet reflect very traditional sounds.  The result is an album of great depth that prefers to take a less is more approach and yet still sound larger than the sum of all of its elements. 

It has been a long journey from small town Canada to the lights of London, Los Angeles, New York, Lisbon, Berlin, Johannesburg and Beijing.  With James, Kulas has toured the world.  Yet outside of all the trappings that success brings he is still a traditional type of person.  Still looking at the world through the eyes of someone with much more to see and learn, many more miles to travel and explore and many more words to find a voice for. 

Looking ahead, it isn't hard to see the road and Kulas are inseparable. It's only on the journey that you find out who you are and who you will become.  And what's more, the music you make becomes a reflection of all that has gone before you.  And yet somehow, all that has gone before you is still to come. 

Written by: Sheamus Monk