Today we’d like to introduce you to Ian Kussin-Gika.
Hi Ian, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My story starts and stops in San Fernando Valley with various side quests around the Monterey Bay, Ventura County, and the rest of California. I grew up in a musical household but neither of my parents actually played instruments. Still, by the time I was in elementary school my musical tastes were pretty eclectic. My younger brother took guitar lessons at our house in Granada Hills as a kid and one day he decided he didn’t want to take the lesson. The teacher had already shown up and my parents didn’t want to waste the money and his time so I took the lesson instead. Fast forward to high school and I had already written tens of songs and could play four instruments. By the end of high school those numbers grew to hundreds and tens, respectively. Now, almost at the edge of 30, I am proud to say that I even like some of those songs I wrote.
I played my first show in 8th grade. I covered “Yellow” by Coldplay as a solo piece and covered “100 years” by Five for Fighting. It wasn’t until high school where I really began to perform regularly. I forayed into brass music, orchestral compositions, chamber music, jazz big and small, and avant garde new music. I began to experiment with my own songs. I added chords which, technically, aren’t chords, syncopated rhythms, and branched out lyrically. Where I had started as a wannabe Bob Dylan (I still am a little bit) I was incorporating lyrical stylings outside of folk and rock. I began to write more poetic, less narrative, songs with just a small amount of snark and pomposity. As it stands now, my song catalogue showcases more of this work than not.
Starting the band Corporate Bike Culture was an easy move since it was really just a continuation of several folk/bluegrass bands I had been in. The name came from a smokey night in college during a competition of who could come up with the best band name (congratulations to Elena, your winning legacy is through your winning). Once I had moved back to LA from Santa Cruz and the rest of the band from their respective colleges we knew it was time to get serious. Through in a move back up to the Monterey Bay for graduate school, a pandemic, and juggling a teacher’s schedule, and you end up with the closest version of my musical self currently available for streaming on soundcloud, apple music, and spotify.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No, this has not been a smooth road for me. Most of my songs come from a deep personal place and are influenced heavily by the people in my life, the events I have lived through or, some might say, endured, the struggles I have faced with mental and physical health, and a slew of other circumstances that brought me here. If you know what to look for you’ll find that some of the songs I have written, including many on the album, are actually quite depressing. Themes of suicide, loneliness, and unrequited love are present throughout because these are things I have dealt with, both during the time I was writing those specific songs, and after that. Because of that performing can be difficult for me as well. Billy Corbin of the Smashing Pumpkins once talked about how he couldn’t stand performing his songs for people night after night because of how triggering they could be for him. I understand that sentiment, albeit not to the same extend. Still, one of our more popular songs (I won’t say which) has always been hard for me to perform live because of how dark a place I was in when I wrote it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My day job is a 12th grade government/economics teacher at a small charter school in the northeast San Fernando Valley. I have always been academically inclined, although teaching was not on my list of dream jobs. Both of my parents are teachers and watching them growing up instilled a lack of love for that job. After I graduated with my masters degree in fancy international relations (I specialized in nuclear weapons and counter-terrorism policy) I discovered quite quickly that that line of work was not for me. I moved back to LA from Monterey in Spring 2021 and needed a job. I applied all over the country to a variety of different positions related to my degree and didn’t hear back from any of them. I applied to a variety of different positions around the country in fields not related to my degree, and didn’t hear back from any of them. Finally, I applied for a substitute teaching job and found work day to day subbing. After a year of that my school hired me on directly and I’ve slowly been working my way up since then.
At school I’m known for being a) very smart, b) having great rapport with students, and c) doing way to much work. On top of full time teaching I am also a full time graduate student (again), coach volleyball, co-coach debate, and take on a number of other roles around the school. I think this is both what sets me apart from others and is what I’m most proud of. I can make strong, lasting relationships with students and I can work to make sure that they feel valued through the things that I offer them.
In many ways being a musician is similar. You need to establish a rapport with an audience, you need to get them to listen to you and trust that what you’re going to give them is worth their time and money. In many ways both of my jobs bolster the other. Teaching requires a good sense of stagemanship while performing requires a good sense of self, confidence, and the ability to lead groups of people in real time.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I, like many Angelenos, have a love hate relationship with our city. I generally don’t like the heat so a good chunk of the year I’m not happy. Much of LA’s culture is rooted in being artificial. We’re the dream makers so everything here is a dream. There’s little substance to much of the main culture of LA and that is often reflected in some Angelenos. It can be difficult growing up in a city with such extremes. For example, I went to a private performing arts high school in the Valley. Some of my classmates came from incredibly wealthy, famous, or both, families. This clashed significantly with my lower middle to middle class upbringing in the far reaches of LA’s city limits. LA is a material city where people are valued by their clout in a gig economy based around one-upping others by weaponizing FOMO.
Of course LA isn’t a monolith and everything I just wrote can be argued against. The best parts of LA are the ones that don’t get advertised. Our incredible nature, rich history, incredible food, and general laid-back vibe are all things I love about LA. There’s a feeling about this city – I don’t know if its the same feeling other people get for their home towns or not – but I can pinpoint the exact spot in my heart where LA lives. I ventured there in college in bouts of homesickness, watching Bojack Horseman and bitching about bad LA geography. It lives in my memories of being 17 and walking around Hancock Park at 2 in the morning. It lives in the traffic of the freeways, the smell of the oil, the heat of the Valley, the sickly sweet scents of patchuli and marijuana reeking out from alleyways, and the endless strip malls and water stores so ubiquitous here.
I guess, in short, my least favourite part of the LA is the part that the world wants LA to be. My favourite parts are the things that we actually are, minus all the bs.
Contact Info:
