THE CHAPEL HILL HERALD
arts & entertainment
Friday, August 27, 1999

Local one-man band enjoys quick success
By SUSAN BROILI (The Chapel Hill Herald)

CHAPEL HILL--Andy Kuncl, 23, comes to the interview with a list. On it, he has dates that are milestones in his short, but intense music career--such as his win earlier this year at the Skylight Exchange's singer/songwriter's contest.

Kuncl will be one of five singer/songwriters to perform at the ArtsCenter Sept. 11. The list also includes the groceries he needs to buy so he can prepare the refreshments for tonight's party to celebrate the release of his second CD: "who i am." The Chapel Hill native will play guitar and sing at the free, public event that starts at 10 p.m. at Go! Studios on Brewer Lane in Carrboro.

"I have to get all the food ready. That catering stuff is too expensive," Kuncl said.

He wants to make stuffed mushrooms--with spinach, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes--"if I have time."

Since he's pretty much a one-man music business operation, writing and distributing press releases, designing his CD covers, writing all his music, booking engagements, he'll probably end up going with cheese, crackers, vegetables and dip and "lots of grapes."

He's enjoyed some measure of success despite the fact he's only been playing guitar a short time. "People still tell me they're amazed at what I've done in three years. I just tell people I've been playing constantly," Kuncl said.

When he started playing, he was a sophomore at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

"My grades went down. I didn't participate in the men's glee club, music theater any more. I had found what I wanted to do." Kuncl said.

Seeing singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco perform live in Buffalo prompted him to take up the guitar. He liked how she wrote and sang songs based on her experiences and the percussive way she played the guitar.

"I had never seen anybody play the guitar like that before. A lot of people just strum," Kuncl said.

So, his folks, for Christmas, helped him buy his first acoustic guitar over at the now defunct Fat Sound Guitar in Durham.

His folks have been supportive of his music and the fact that he's currently living at home in Chapel Hill has enabled him to focus only on his music, he said.

He taught himself to play by listening to DiFranco and others. "It just seemed pretty natural to me," he said. "I can read music, but it takes awhile."

Like DiFranco, his style is percussive. His music blends alternative folk, funk and jazz.

Shortly after he started playing, he wrote his first song, "Too Quickly," in response to his grandmother's sudden death. "It was a good way to release what I had inside," he said.

All of the songs come from his experiences--sometimes from journal entries. He's been so busy getting out his second CD, he hasn't had time to write and looks forward to getting back to it. "I have so many ideas in my head," he said.

" My songs are very personal, somewhat story-like," he said. he has written and recorded 22 songs on his recent and first CD: "Too Quickly," released in December 1997 on his own label Missing String Music. For "who i am," he had help from Chris Stamey to produce and record it at Stamey's Modern Recording in Chapel Hill.

He listens to a lot of folk music because he likes people who write and sing their own music. "It's coming from their own hearts," he said.

He spoke of some of the inspirations for songs on his new CD such as "Missed Opportunities," based on his experience of meeting a woman when he lived in Vermont. "We really felt a bond," he said. "She was leaving. We were both in different places in our lives. I never told her how I felt."

In "Make Things Different," he makes a plea for acceptance from and communication with his family. "how can i, how can you, how can we make things different.
I've grown up with you all my live and we don't know each other at all . . .
I don't want to live my life behind a wall . . .
Yes, it's true I've got a couple of tattoos, Got my ears pierced and my nose, too
And my hair it changes almost every other day, but that don't mean i'm not okay . . .
I want you to be my friend
I want you to know who i am."

When he performed the song one time in Hillsborough, and a woman came up crying because she had been so moved; it reminded her of her own son, he said.

" A lot of songs are dealing with me finally learning what I need to do to be comfortable with myself," he said.

His fans have a favorite--"they always call for the hurricane song," he said.

In "Hurricane," he claims as sisters: Bonnie, Bertha and Fran and compares his own behavior to a hurricane.
"I'm moving fast, picking up speed
and i'm not sure what i'm gonna need . . .
my life is such a wreck, people got their predictions on where i'm going next."
Then, he sings about how something like a hurricane makes a person question whether they are living life to the fullest.
"you've gotta love those around you. you've got to let them know."

He wrote the song while in college. "I get so busy. My room's a mess. I'm trying to figure out what to do . . My taxes are coming up."

Besides the satisfaction of writing his own music, it's getting up in front of a crowd that gives him energy.

"Performing is what I really like," he said.

He has performed in more than 20 Triangle nightspots and in more than 15 states.

He's been performing since the third grade when he joined the NC Boys' Choir and was involved in music theater in public school and college, when one summer he worked as a singer/dancer at Busch Gardens.

He doesn't ever expect to use the geology degree he earned in college; he graduated in 1998. He's in music to stay.

"I generally forget to do the break. I just get so much into it. I just love performing," he said.