Andy received an award from the State Music Council!
Here’s the report in the ARD Mediathek!
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Here’s the translation of the tv report by Jenifer Doerrich:
Andy Kuntz: Singing means everything to me because it allows me to express myself. I also write the lyrics myself and there is always the story, which I express through music.
Narrator: Andy Kuntz is a professional musician. His voice is captivating. The singer of the band Vanden Plas received a very special honor this year: he was chosen as the patron of the instrument of the year, the voice.
Andy Kuntz: I was very happy to receive this honor because there must have been some people who thought about me and thought about why they wanted to choose me as patron for the Year of the Voice. That meant a lot to me.
Narrator: It was 45 years ago that Andy took the mic for the first time. The singer is self-taught. He never took singing lessons.
Andy Kuntz: I actually wanted to be a guitarist, but my anatomy didn’t suit it. If you can’t play barrè chords, it really sucks. Then they told me: “Why don’t you sing?” That was still possible at the time. I wasn’t good, but better than the others in the band.
Narrator: He remembers his first tv appearance clearly.
Andy Kuntz: We were a student band and we wrote and produced our own songs. We submitted them to the Saarland Radio and that lead to our first tv appearance. This went well. That’s how you started enjoying it and suddenly you became aware of a certain possibility: for the first time there was this feeling that this could become something.
Narrator: So far, Andy Kuntz has recorded 15 records with his band Vanden Plas. The band has toured all over the world. He can’t say how many concerts they have played. There were thousands.
Andy Kuntz: We played Wacken twice. No second-rate, not at noon, but actually around 4 or 5 pm. That’s something for the main stages. That was an important step. Then we played Sweden Rock. I had my room right next to Ian Gillan, the singer of Deep Purple. I met him. He talked to me about the food he had just ordered while he was standing there in his silk pajamas and everyone was attending to him. It was sensational.
Narrator: The singer is currently working on his 16th record. The music has already been recorded by his bandmates. Now the vocals are being added in Markus Teske’s studio. It can take a full day to finish a single song.
Markus Teske: It’s a mystery to me how he does it. With everyone else – and I work with many singers – there comes a phase after 3 or 4 hours of singing that you have to call it a day. Maybe 5 hours if someone is really good. But he (Andy) can sing at top performance for 8 hours if necessary. Honestly, no one else can do that.
Narrator: Andy Kuntz is very versatile. The singer from Kaiserslautern wrote six rock operas with his band and has brought them to many international opera houses.
Andy Kuntz: It all started when an artistic director came up with the idea and said: “You’re made for the theater stage!” I didn’t think I could do that myself.
Narrator: In his rock operas, the singer likes to work with young talents.
Andy Kuntz: I experienced this myself. I was fortunate to have mentors who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself at all. I think you have to support and guide young people who are talented. I have a real soft spot for that.
Narrator: As Voice of the Year, Andy Kuntz has plans for a project after the summer.
Andy Kuntz: In the second half of the year, I can imagine that we will develop something together with young people, maybe also with children. Supporting them would be a wonderful thing. Spending two weeks rehearsing together and wrapping it up with a great show: this could give them something they’ll carry with them for life. That would be a dream of mine.
Narrator: Until then, a concert-filled summer lies ahead of Andy Kuntz and his band Vanden Plas.
