So, I was chatting to Richard Münchhoff after his appearance as drummer at Unter der Zeder a few weeks back with Yassmo and the Soulfisticated People. He mentioned a new project – A Rock band with Richard on guitar. One of the best young jazz drummers around shredding guitar licks? I was intrigued. Saturday saw the band – Munchy Bunch – on only it’s second live outing at the RPZ in Bad Godesberg. Has Richard gone from being the next Billy Cobham to the next Richie Blackmore? Read on…

Saturday’s outing was actually the end of an evening introducing bands coached by Richard at the Musikschüle der Stadt Königswinter. When I arrived Richard was already centrestage, guitar in hand, and, accompanied by some of his students he was doing a Foo Fighters set – a young drummer was laying down the backbeat with all the enthusiasm of the late Taylor Hawkins himself. All indications are that there will be plenty of good solid rock music coming out of the Bonn area in future.

I hadn’t paid a visit to the RPZ in a few years and I’d forgotten how dark the stage is there. All the lights seem to be behind the musicians. I remember now – last time I brought a fast 1.8 aparture lens with me. It’s too late now to go back and get that, and indeed it isn’t really necessary. The dark atmosphere and resultant grainy images suit the music. The Munchy Bunch website is all black & white too – I should take it as the bands corporate colours.

The music of Munchy Bunch is anything but colourless though. When the band rock out there is a clear element of the Foos in their attacking style. I can’t give song titles here to back it up, since the songs are not yet out on disc or spotify (more about that later from Richard himself). The compositions are largely by Richard and given his experience and talent as a Jazz drummer it’s not too surprising that an element of progressive Rock is also present in the band’s music. There is not much else I can tell you – other than that although Richard is a competent guitarist what really blew me away was his voice. If the man wasn’t such an exceptional drummer he could easily step into a top rockband behind the microphone.

Enough from me about Munchy Bunch. Let’s hear what Richard Münchhoff has to say about the new band…

3SONGS: First off – ‘Munchy Bunch’? How did you come up with that name?

RM: Munchy Bunch came from my last name. Originally I was about to call the project „Munch“ but after seeing that a few very successful artists already claimed that name i started looking for other ideas. Since many rock bands these days especially in that sub genre of hard and progressive rock have kinda serious names I thought it would be refreshing to have something that takes itself not tooo serious and that’s when „Munchy Bunch“ was born. A not too serious but nonetheless great looking and sounding band name

3SONGS: How did the band come into being?

This project was born from my idea of always wanting to be in a rock band paired with a strong desire of being able to finally express my thoughts and feelings into not just drumming but an entire musical journey in the form of Songs that are inspired by all the great bands and artists I’ve been listening to my entire life.

In 2023 I was in a very tough spot in my life. Personally but also artistically and still fighting the aftermath of the Covid 19 pandemic that all freelancers and especially artists of all kinds had to face. So naturally a lot of emotions were ready to be expressed and screamed to be released. As a random one off I picked up a guitar to play „All my life“ by the foo fighters with one of my student bands and I immediately fell in love with playing big and loud electric guitars! Within the first week of practicing guitar I wrote the first 2 songs which in August of 2024 would turn into demos for a 12 song album. For the demos I chose the path of tracking every instrument myself since at this point in time everything about this project was the most vulnerable thing I’d ever done. Doing it all by myself felt very therapeutic. Finding the right people for the Live band took me a long time but I’m very happy to able to play with musicians that really are my friends and make playing music more fun then ever.

3SONGS: You are best known as a Jazz drummer. Why the change of style?

Since my early childhood my biggest musical influences weren’t only jazz artists and bands. It originally started with Phil Collins who is one of my biggest influences to this day. Besides him there were bands like Deep Purple, Linkin Park and the Foo Fighters. So I naturally always gravitated towards a very energetic style of playing drums since I spent hours upon hours playing along to those records. Even the „jazz“ stuff I play is often rooted within the jazz/Rock of the 70s and 80s so the Rock was always in there. With Munchy Bunch I’m finally realizing my dream of being in a Rock band.

3SONGS: Who is in the band with you?

3SONGS: What can we expect from Munchy Bunch in the near future?

Very soon we will release our first outing of the material I wrote in form of a live recording which took place on the 29.08.25. wich will feature the Song „Blu Light“. It will be released as a YouTube video and on most steaming platforms. The beginning of next year will see the release of the studio album and also hopefully a lot of live shows! We are a rock band after all so we’re best experienced live. There are also a few gigs lined up for October and November this year so keep an eye out for that on our website www.munchybunch.com. We are also on instagram: @whoismunchybunch And regarding the future plans there is also a collaboration single in the works with a great musician from the UK called Marlee King.

In general this project feels like the closest I’ve ever been to my true musical self so my plans for it involve giving everything to see it succeed as a live act.