KUNZEL Is Building Something Bigger Than a Genre
Blending rock, country storytelling and pop instinct, KUNZEL is approaching his next chapter with ambition, purpose and a refusal to fit neatly into one lane. With a full-length album planned for 2027, the artist discusses songwriting, live performance, resilience and the bigger vision behind what he is building.
GHR: Great to have you on board Kunzel. What inspired you to start writing music?
KUNZEL: Music has always been a way for me to take something I’ve lived through, felt, or witnessed and turn it into something that can connect with another person.
I didn’t start writing because I wanted to fit into a particular genre or become a certain type of artist. I started because there were things I needed to say, and music gave me a way to say them honestly.
As KUNZEL has developed, I’ve become even more comfortable allowing all of my influences to exist together. There’s rock in what I do, but there’s also country storytelling and pop sensibility. I’m not interested in forcing the music into one box. I want the song to dictate where it needs to go.
GHR: Can you tell us more about your experience performing live, and what has been the most memorable experience you’ve had?
KUNZEL: Performing live is where everything becomes real.
You can spend countless hours writing, recording and perfecting a song, but when you walk onto a stage, none of that matters unless you can make people feel something.
Some of my most memorable moments haven’t necessarily been the biggest stages. They’ve been those moments when I could look out and see that somebody in the audience genuinely connected with what I was singing.
There’s something powerful about watching a song stop belonging only to you. Once someone attaches their own memory, struggle, relationship or experience to it, the song becomes part of their story too. That connection is what I chase when I perform.
GHR: What does your songwriting process usually look like?
KUNZEL: My songwriting process usually starts with emotion and truth.
Sometimes it begins with a phrase. Sometimes it’s a melody. Other times there’s something happening in my life that I can’t stop thinking about, and I know there’s a song somewhere inside it.
I try not to overthink the beginning. I want to capture the emotion first and worry about polishing it later.
I’m also very focused on making songs that can live in more than one world. I love the honesty and storytelling of country, the energy and attitude of rock, and the accessibility of pop. Bringing those elements together has become a big part of the KUNZEL sound.
Working with producers like Skidd Mills, Warren Riker and Ron Geffen has also helped me explore how those songs can become much bigger records without losing what made them honest in the first place.
GHR: What motivates you to create music and bring awareness to different situations through your songs?
KUNZEL: I believe music can get through doors that ordinary conversation sometimes can’t.
A three- or four-minute song can make someone think about their life, their choices, their relationships or something happening in the world around them in a completely different way.
I’ve lived enough life to understand that everybody is carrying something. Sometimes people just need to hear somebody else say, “I’ve been there too.”
That motivates me.
I don’t want to make music that people simply hear and forget. I want to make records that make people feel something, even if that feeling is uncomfortable at first.
If one of my songs helps somebody confront something, heal from something, find strength, or realize they aren’t alone, then the song has accomplished something bigger than entertainment.
GHR: What can you share about your next projects?
KUNZEL: The next chapter of KUNZEL is about evolution.
I’ve been developing new music that pushes further into the intersection of pop, country and rock. I want the records to feel modern and competitive without sanding away the human element that makes them mine.
There’s new material in development, and I’m being very deliberate about the songs, production, visuals and overall presentation. I’m not interested in releasing music simply for the sake of staying active. Every release should move the story forward.
My goal is to build a body of work that can stand alongside major artists while still being unmistakably KUNZEL.
I’m ambitious about where I want this to go. I want bigger records, bigger stages and a global audience, but I want to earn that one song and one listener at a time.
My full-length album will be released in 2027. Y’all get ready.
GHR: What do you want people to understand about KUNZEL as an artist that they might not know yet?
KUNZEL: That this is much bigger to me than chasing fame.
Of course I have big goals. I want to reach the highest levels of this industry. I want to perform on the biggest stages, make records that matter, and yes, winning a Grammy is one of the dreams I’m pursuing. But success without purpose doesn’t interest me very much.
I’ve spent a lot of my life learning about music, business, people, failure, resilience and what it takes to keep moving when the path isn’t obvious. All of that comes into KUNZEL.
I want people to hear someone who has actually lived behind the words he’s singing.
I’m not trying to become somebody else’s version of an artist.
I’m building KUNZEL. And I think we’re just getting started.
Follow KUNZEL as he builds toward his 2027 full-length album and the next chapter of his career.
