What Ulysses Wulf Did When Going Through A 'Transformative Experience'

"Are we living in a corporate-driven dystopia that appears pleasant and orderly on the surface?" Anyone who has ever picked up a copy of 1984, studied the Cold War or experienced social disillusionment during their formative coming-of-age years would have probably contemplated the same existential questions that racked the brain of Ulysses Wulf frontman Yule Guttenbeil.   

From Guttenbeil's confronting and often isolating experiences of the professional and personal environment was borne Like The Present — a conceptual project that surrounds the band's newly released EP and includes interactive micro-theatre and storytelling via social media. The latter element uses the hashtag #LikeThePresent and following Ulysses Wulf's narration of someone living in an ambiguous space, offering vignettes of their daily existence and internal struggles: "Going through the airport, I just received my fifth random search in a row. I wish I had such luck in the lottery. #LikeThePresent".

"Going through the airport, I just received my fifth random search in a row. I wish I had such luck in the lottery. #LikeThePresent."

"I thought I was writing the songs to escape what was happening in my personal and professional life at the time. When I listened back I could hear the turmoil, which sounded to me like someone living in a dystopian society trying to make sense of it," he says. Guttenbeil is ambiguous about the trials and tribulations, which lead to the dark undertones of the band's philosophy, explaining, "I was going through a transformative experience at the time, where a lot of the basic assumptions that formed my world-view were being challenged, particularly in relation to my family and my place in society. So I guess the songs reflect the changing of my perspective from black-and-white to grey."