Local musician “Andicus” uses songwriting to cope with multiple sclerosis

JAKE GUNTHER, Features Editor—

Andy Kuss has had musical talent flowing through his body for as long as he can remember. Like most artists, he was introduced to music by his family. When he was seven years old he picked up his Mom’s folk guitar. Soon after, his Grandfather taught him the baritone ukulele. His first exposure to the folk tradition, however, didn’t come from an instrument alone, but through the Joan Baez songbook that was always floating around the house. It was there that even as a young kid, Andy recognized the significance of telling a story and creating culture through song.

These experiences stuck with Andy as he grew into a teenager and started exploring other genres of music like classic rock, with his best friend, Townsend Buckles. Townsend’s older brother, Andre, went to college in California where he traveled around the state, taping the legendary and eclectic American group, the Grateful Dead and other local jam bands. “He’d come back [to Bexley Ohio] with these wooden crates of cassette tapes in his BMW 325i coupe hatchback,” Andy recalls, “He’d pile it full with hundreds of tapes.” Andy received a travel case with an assortment of 30 or so rare and odd bootlegs right after he had gotten his license. “Imagine just getting your license and having this dude bestow on you some of the best music in American rock history,” Andy says. 

Because he had hundreds of tapes, dishing out a handful of them to his younger brother’s friend probably didn’t mean much to Andre. But for Andy, having a glimpse into the magic and aura of the Dead, where once again the folk tradition was present and at the heart of every song –– it meant the world. 

Andy went on to college at Miami University of Ohio where he studied geology and continued to explore music, playing in bands and hosting a weekly radio show. While he loved supporting friends in making songs, he never truly felt like he was creating art that was uniquely his own.

As he neared the end of college, Andy was studying abroad in Greece, when something shocking began to occur. Andy began experiencing random pains and spasms throughout his body and losing his fine motor skills. At one point he lost function of the left side of his body. It was scary. Shortly after, he was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis). It quickly developed into spells where Andy struggled to communicate clearly and play guitar well. Since the diagnosis, Andy has learned to deal with symptoms, and it’s made him all the more grateful for the things in life that are taken for granted. 

Still, at the time this was heavy for Andy, especially because when he graduated from college, he was still figuring out what exactly he wanted to do. For a while he thought he would study music therapy, “I was interested in that in as much as I needed it, I needed music therapy, music was therapy for me as a way to cope with everything and make life sweeter,” Andy says. But after visiting the Berklee School of Music in Boston, he realized that it wasn’t for him. So, one day it dawned on him, “Why don’t I have my own band?” Andy says, recollecting his younger self.  “Why am I not making my own voice heard?” At first, he wasn’t sure if he had enough to say to create a full record, but as the years went by Andy kept coming back to songwriting with the certainty that he’d release an album –– his own album. 

In 2017, Andy released his debut project, Win Win World, under the name Andicus. “When I released Win Win World, my life was falling apart by all accounts.” Andy was going through a divorce and had to move back in with his parents. “It was almost a plea to myself to say, let’s get some momentum in the other direction.” And that he did. Win Win World became as much of an outlook on life as it was the title of his record. Since releasing the jazz, rock, and folk influenced album, Andy has devoted himself to a healthy lifestyle especially by restructuring his thought patterns to maintain positive reinforcement. He met and married his lovely wife, and they are expecting their first child in October. Best of all, he just landed his dream job. 

“We as humans, transform the world, by transforming ourselves. If you want to change the world, you have to change yourself” In many ways, creating Andicus is Andy’s way of doing this. By releasing positivity into the world, Andy has seen everything fall into place.  

Andicus will be playing at Hashi Up in Granville on Saturday, April 9th. Come see the band perform and put on a fantastic show!