Teddy Kumpel is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. In 1988, he moved to New York City to settle into being a professional musician. In 1989, he interned at a studio on 45th St. in Manhattan where he learned how to cut tape, run midi from a computer in sync with tape and work a mixing console.

Teddy has always had a passion for making his own music. He put out his first record, NOME SANE?, in 1994. His band did a European tour and recorded another record called The Lost in Montreal at Studio Piccolo. Teddy started writing songs with developing artists and helped catapult two record deals on Warner Brothers in the late 90’s. This earned him a publishing deal with EMI Music Publishing. He continues this activity with NYC artists to this day. After successes with songwriting, Teddy decided to try his hand at writing songs for a rock band he would then front. He called it “Teddy But” and put out two records.

In 2008 Teddy was creating a funk band with two guitar players, but couldn’t find another guitar player who was happy just playing rhythm guitar. Around this time, the first multi-track looping pedal came out and Teddy spent a couple of years figuring out how to loop with a live trio. This created LOOPestra which played over 300 gigs at a Monday at midnight residence at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC between 2011 and 2018. LOOPesta live performances became a NYC institution and community building experience.

Teddy toured with Joe Jackson between 2015 – 2019. After that tour, Teddy decided to resurrect ‘NOME SANE?’ with the original drummer, Matt Miller and amazing musician, Bob Stander.

Photo: Bob Adamek