Meet Amy Kucharik

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Kucharik.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was playing the ukulele and writing songs, performing at open mics and playing for fun, when I got laid off from a publishing company in 2009. During my job hunt, I started busking (street performing) in the subway and in Harvard Square to earn a little cash. I learned that I had a passion for performing and that people were actually interested in what I was doing. My band played our first official show in early 2012 and I released my debut CD, “Cunning Folk,” in 2014.

In 2015, I won a prestigious songwriting contest, the Kerrville Folk Festival Newfolk competition, and started doing a lot more touring. Along the way, I have simultaneously been building my art and graphic design business, and I do all the artwork and marketing for the band as well. Over the past year, I’ve been working more with the band locally, getting into events, and working on our follow-up album, “Until the Words Are Gone,” which we’ll be releasing this spring. You can find us at the Burren on April 15.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Making a living as an artist and musician is a smooth road for almost nobody. It’s a tough market. There are the typical financial challenges, as well as the emotional challenges of competing in a very subjective area and being away from home for long stretches of time. There are challenges that face women in the music business: Being judged on appearance, being undervalued… sexism still looms large.

There is a huge and constant learning curve and a thousand things to stay on top of, everything from accounting to doing my hair to running sound to reading up on the latest social media marketing trends. 2017 was especially challenging because, in the midst of fundraising for and making the new record, I found myself facing a huge health scare, with a breast cancer diagnosis. So instead of releasing a new record in 2017 as planned, I was treated for breast cancer (which I survived, and I am back in the swing of things and improving daily).

Please tell us about Amy Kucharik.
I go back and forth between making art and making music. I’ve been drawing and painting since I was a little kid, but I spend most of my time these days on music — all the aspects from songwriting to practicing to the business side of it. I perform as a one-woman band (vocals, ukulele, tenor guitar, harmonica, foot percussion) and with my bands, Friends With Benefits and Tiger Moan, playing my original music as well as blues and jazz standards and a few covers.

A lot of people seem to have trouble looking past the ukulele. Ukuleles are great; I love playing mine, but it’s only a small part of the picture. On the first album, Cunning Folk, I was going for a dark cabaret sort of mood… like, let’s take this cute little instrument and see how we can make songs that are a twist on the Vaudeville act people are expecting. That was fun for me, but I wanted to try to go somewhere more heartfelt and honest and not so tongue-in-cheek. On Until the Words Are Gone, I dug more into personal experience and wrote songs that are rooted in the real world. I tried to express some of my thoughts and feelings about what’s going on in the world and come at it from more of a folk troubadour and feminist perspective. The 2016 election was on everyone’s minds when we were starting to record.” But I also don’t want to be a huge pain, so I won’t sweat it either way. Even the three “lighthearted” tracks (“Catcallin’ Blues,” “How I Became a Villain,” and “Everything But Love”) have some political teeth. Instrumentally, I play some guitar, some harmonica, and even french horn on the new record. But the ukulele is there, too.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Making up songs and musicals with my sister, Laura, and recording ourselves on our Fisher-Price tape recorder.

Contact Info:

• Website: amykucharik.com
• Email: 4stringserenade@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amykucharik/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4stringserenade/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/4StringSerenade
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/4StringSerenade

Image Credit:
Caroline Alden, Devon Rowland, Neale Eckstein

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