Today, the Nation's Treasure of Swaying and Guitar Strumming, András Kispál Turns 60
The guitar playing and persona of András Kispál are indispensable elements in the history of Hungarian pop music.
As we have written countless times before, the landscape of the decades following the political changes in Hungary would have been markedly different without Kispál és a Borz. The band's songs form the soundtrack of the last 30 or so years, but primarily the period between 1988 and the 2010s. Everyone has their own favorites they hold dear.
"Traveling on the next bus, asked what we see, we say trees. Waiting at the Tisza Train Station for the buffet car, the one who is ill, that's us. Living happily in a sedated country until we die. But for now, just one more time tonight. On some bed, in Hungary. Though, the sun doesn't shine into the bed like in a hotel room in Athens."
Although these songs are primarily associated with András Lovasi, it's András Kispál’s contributions as a guitarist that significantly define their mood, sound, texture, and musical fabric. Indeed, without him, these songs simply wouldn't be the same. His guitar playing is at once traditional, classicizing, and unique rooted in beat and rhythm and blues, occasionally inspired by classical music or familiar folk motifs, yet transcending all categories when Kispál picks up his guitar. Just as there is a Lovasi school of music, so too exists an András Kispál school.
András Kispál was born on March 27, 1964, in Szolnok, Hungary. He is the founder of Kispál és a Borz and a father of two. Legend has it that he played in so many bands with animal names that he only agreed to the now-familiar distinctive name for their band.
After the dissolution of Kispál és a Borz, he played with his band Velőrózsák, then stepped away from the stage for a few years. He later returned with concerts featuring re-recorded Kispál tracks, followed by new songs and a new album, and has been actively performing ever since. Moreover, he is not only recognized for his contributions to Kispál és a Borz but also for the offshoot project Kispál és a Lovasi.
"I used to chop wood. I was a happy retiree. I always enjoyed this. When I returned home from tours in the past, I became a different person at home, not continuing the rocker lifestyle of 'let's run into the night'. András once said that I am an absolutely bourgeois-type person. He is right. I lived like that until now, pulled out from it. But probably for the best, as I was beginning to grow bored of it. I went out, bought an amp, a guitar, and off I went,"_ he said in 2022, while working on songs for the new Kispál album titled "Beszorult mondat," on which he prominently appears on the cover.