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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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Trivial Pursuits

Trivial Pursuits
 
Production assistant makes music in variety of ways


 


By Monique Bos
Published: Friday, July 14, 2006

Brian Kucinski has enjoyed creating music since he started piano lessons around age 5. As an adult, he has continued to pursue his passion in several different ways.

A production assistant in the Savannah College of Art and Design’s video department, D-61, and a Master of Fine Arts candidate in sound design at SCAD, Kucinski hones his musical skills through personal projects, soundtracks for student films and a newly formed band.

“I’ve been playing music all my life,” he said. “It’s a way for me to speak.”

After eight years of piano lessons, he pursued the trumpet for another eight years, then moved on to learn guitar.

“I played with several bands in high school and with the school jazz band,” he said. “That’s when I started playing bass guitar for fun, too.”

Although he doesn’t play the trumpet anymore, Kucinski has rounded out his musical skills with keyboards and singing. Many of his projects are solo endeavors that he undertakes purely for his own enjoyment and education.

“I kind of just do it for myself,” he explained. “Music is my hobby, and sometimes I let people hear it and sometimes I don’t.”

His current project is a “concept album that includes elements of sound design, video, music and sound art,” he said.

His inspirations are eclectic. “Johnny Cash is amazing,” he said. “He’s one of my biggest influences and always has been.” He also cites performers as diverse as the Beatles, Elliot Smith, the Beach Boys, Radiohead, Gomez, Travis, Badly Drawn Boy and the Kinks.

“I like George Gershwin a lot too,” he said.

He has composed scores for three student films —“Garden Dwarves,” “Earthly Things” and “Melibee,” which garnered him a nomination for best original score in the film and television department’s annual competition, and in which he also acted.

“Film soundtracks are something that I thought would be cool to do, and after I came to SCAD I had the means,” he said. “I can play in a bunch of different styles. For example, I’m not a jazz aficionado but I can write jazz songs. I can emulate a lot of types of music for film soundtracks. It’s more about expressing the characters than it is about the music itself for films.”

Although he admires the work of composer Jon Brion (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), Kucinski said his film scores aren’t heavily influenced by other soundtracks.

“I kind of do what I do,” he said.

He also recently started a band with four other SCAD sound design students. Although they’re so new they don’t yet have a name, Kucinski said, “It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. I was in bands before, and I wanted to come back to it.”

He plays guitar and sings. The band also features a drummer, another guitarist, a bass guitarist and a keyboard player. Kucinski said they plan to perform mostly original songs and a few covers.

“It’s a little difficult to categorize the type of music we do,” he said. “There are so many genres that it doesn’t fall into just one. It’s sort of jazzy-bluesy-folksy with pepperings of country and rock-and-roll.”

Contrary to what one might expect, Kucinski doesn’t aspire to be a big-name rock star or sound designer. Instead, his focus is on retaining his passion for music.

“Music to me is a pretty personal thing,” he said. “I don’t ever want to have to do it; I want to do it because I love it. If you have to do it, it loses some of its innocence and some of its appeal.”

To hear some of Kucinski’s work, visit www.myspace.com/thestructures.