When life took a turn in 2019, 40-year-old Kiwi builder and designer Geoff Kunac picked up a guitar.
Six months later, he had nearly enough songs for a whole album.
“I think for lack of anything better to do more than anything else,” Geoff says. “It became my cathartic diary or voice, as I was silently watching my life simultaneously fall apart around me.”
Geoff of Martinborough didn’t come from a background of music. Teenage memories of messing around on the family’s piano, dropping out of guitar lessons at school, and listening to his older sister’s CDs and mixed tapes were the extent of his music experience.
But a messy break up was the bump in the road that urged him to dust off his mum’s old $200 guitar as a way to process the darker days.
“Chords or melodies would just flow out onto the guitar whenever they felt like it… I didn’t have much control over it. I quickly learned to push record on my phone to capture the moment or I’d wake up the next day with no idea what the tune was or how I’d played it.”
There was no intention to take the recordings any further, it was merely a way to “stay sane”. But he soon decided to try and make something of his creations by taking an online singing course, picking up a free piano, tambourine, and learning to use some old microphones and a recorder his friend had given him.
The 10-song album Freedom was released and published on Spotify and other streaming providers this year.
“The whole thing was hard. I was going through messy personal stuff. Drifting around, living in an office, cabin, caravan and trying to build a little house to get settled, while at the same time trying to creep myself into this world of ‘music’ that I knew absolutely nothing about – at forty.”
Described as avant-garde, Freedom is a collection of raw, acoustic, indie-rock tunes. Geoff’s emotion and honest storytelling is at the forefront of this album, with the single-mic and ground floor method of recording only complimenting the rustic feeling of his songs.
When asked if music would continue to be just a hobby and outlet, Geoff responded definitively: No – he wasn’t going to stop now.
“I have much bigger plans – I want to take it as far as I can. I have lots of songs waiting to be produced. I’d love to perform on the big stage someday. I like to travel – Glastonbury or the US somewhere would be great fun, I think.”
Keep an eye out on Geoff’s Instagram here for upcoming gigs over the summer where he will be performing his debut album. In the meantime, check out his debut album Freedom below.
(My personal favourite are Something in Your Way and the guitar in Dancing in the Sea. Geoff’s favourites are Gypsea Son and Rainlight.)
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