Sit Down With Social Cig

I met up with Parker Schultz, lead singer of Social Cig, a Milwaukee native indie-rock band. From early in his life, Schultz was surrounded by music. His parents put him in piano classes at a young age, but he was drawn to guitar more. His grandpa was able to show him his first guitar chords. Schultz's older brother was inspiring to him, playing his earlier shows with him.​

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"My older brother, he inspired me a lot too, just because he was also a musician," Schultz said. "He started playing drums right when I started playing guitar. So we made a band together and then we had two of his high school buddies join in and I was the rhythm guitarist."

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While in his brother's band, Boarder Line, Schultz hadn't really sung yet. While in Boarder Line, he opened for the Plain White T's and played at Summerfest multiple times. It wasn't until later that he found his voice.

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"We broke up when the other guys went to college," Schultz said. "Everyone graduated high school, and I was still stuck in high school. So I started writing stuff on my own and found my voice."

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Schultz's project became known as the band Social Cig. The name came to Schultz in college, while he was trying to come up with a name that both worked as a solo project, but also as a band. Inspiration struck him over time as part of a long running joke with friends.

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"In college, we had this big bag of tobacco in our duplex," Schultz said. "We'd all sit around the table and stuff these little cigarettes, and we called them social cigs, because none of us really smoked cigarettes. I was at work one time, and my friend came in. She was like, oh my god, last night, I smoked a social cig with Young the Giant. And then, at that moment I heard the name, I looked it up to see if anyone was named that musically."

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While on the topic of inspiration, like many other people today, Schultz's musical inspirations are also diverse and spread throughout different genres.

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"It seems like, with the Internet, people are exposed to crazy amounts of genres," Schultz said. "I don't really listen to one, like movie soundtracks, like Frank Sinatra, like weird stuff, but I don't know. I don't really think too much about it, but the sound that I put out, my main instrument is the guitar. So the skeleton of the song starts with the guitar."

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Following up on this, Schultz gives a lot of artists that formed his music taste, and helped form the music hat he makes today. To name a few: Blink 182, Weezer, Mac Miller, Arctic Monkeys, Charley Crockett, and Courtney Barnett.

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Focusing on inspiration and the past, I asked Schultz about his favorite concert memories. He's been playing Milwaukee shows for years now, ranging from Summerfest to playing at The Rave. Milwaukee has a very strong music scene, and Schultz has seen much of it firsthand. He's really enjoyed playing with the many local bands that call Milwaukee home, and playing at all of the venues across town.

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"I really have some good memories at The Back Room," Schultz said. "Those were some formative times, like in 2021-22 we had some pretty crazy, gnarly shows there. That place will always have a sweet place in my heart, but it's not around anymore, so that kind of stings. Otherwise, Turner Hall is really cool."

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While talking about the city and future plans, Schultz was very excited to announce the things that Social Cig are currently working on, including tours and an album.

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"Looking ahead, in the winter, just working on this album," Schultz said. "We expect the album to release early September, then we're going to do an album release show for it. And then, we're going to do an October-November U.S. tour.

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Recently, they have been on the road with Pretoria, an indie-rock band originated from Grand Rapids, MI. This year, Social Cig will be releasing their next album, supported by the lead single "Lasso". They are expecting to tour in the following months.​​​​​