I feel like Julian Skiboat knows me. Knows that I am sitting in my room doing nothing. His new single “My Room” is the perfect self-deprecating tune to make you feel good and bad about yourself at the same time. He sings, “Nothing ever goes my way, so I’ll stay inside.” It’s true. But at least we have a room to be bored in. And Skiboat was known for making music in his room on his iphone. Rooms are good.
The ansty 24-year old artist has the perfect longing punk-inspired voice that pairs ironically with the airy tropical guitar instrumentals. “My Room” is the ultimate ‘I can’t tell what I’m feeling or if I’m feeling anything it’s overwhelming boredom’ anthem. A feeling we all know too well now a days. Skiboat knows how to pull on our heart strings and also confuse us. We look forward to what he comes up with next as he grows and hopefully gets out of his room. We got to talk to the San Antonio-born, multi-instrumentalist about what got him into music, what he’s learned this past year and writing “My Room.”
What’s up, what are you up to, what do you want to be doing?
I’m making some coffee right now starting my day off nice and slow. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else haha. Still trying to wake up.
What first got you into music? I know you were making music on your iphone for a while. Tell me about that and how you’ve evolved into the musician you are now?
My family got me into music as a young child. My dad was always playing in bands so I got introduced to music super early.
Yeah, I started making music on my phone because it was there and I didn’t have a laptop at the time. I always wanted to record myself so when i discovered the garageband app i just started going for it. I used to upload crazy amounts of music onto soundcloud every week. I think having that freedom of being able to create and post just for fun of it really helped me experiment with my sound. I’m far from where I want to be but i’m evolving with every release. Something that’s really helped me grow has been collaborating with different producers. I think it’s really put my music on a whole other level.
What sparked “My Room?” What was the writing process like? How long did it take to finish?
My good friend Peter Kuli (who produced the song) sent me an instrumental and I literally played it over and over and just fell in love with it. I wrote most of “My Room” that very first day. The hook came instantly cause that’s literally what was going on haha. I was stuck inside my bedroom, bored as hell.
My writing process tends to stay the same. I just freestyle melodies over an instrumental, pick the melodies I love, and then have a little solo therapy session and just talk/write about how I’m feeling. I want to say the song was wrapped in like a week…minus mixing and mastering.
If your music could be the soundtrack to any movie or tv show which would it be?
I mean obviously “Euphoria” has is covered but I would love to work on a show like that one day. Or some classic movie that has the same energy as “Donnie Darko”.
Learn anything new about yourself in the past year?
I’ve actually learned a lot about myself this past year. Definitely been growing as a person and as an artist. It’s been nice being able to give myself time to know myself.
The main thing I’ve learned is to understand my own emotions and give myself time to reflect on events happening in my life.
What do you listen to when you’re sad? What do you listen to when you’re happy?
I don’t know if i necessarily have a go to for specific moods. Let’s just say Frank Ocean for when I’m sad and AG Club for when I’m happy.
CONNECT WITH JULIAN SKIBOAT
photos / Sydney Roberts
story / Vogue Giambri