John Kunc was born and raised in Marshalltown, Iowa.  He started playing piano at six and guitar at nine.  He soon found that guitar suited him much more than the keyboard and concentrated on the six-string.  Trained in classical guitar he didn’t get a taste for rock music until well into his high school years.  By then he was no longer taking lessons and began to free-lance with Clayton Condit, one of his boyhood friends who happened to play bass and piano.  They began to collaborate on songs together and soon formed their first band, Equus. 

In his senior year of high school John and Clayton did a small recording session at Catamount Studio in Cedar Falls.  That next fall as John was entering his freshman year at the University of Northern Iowa, two of their songs began to get air-play on KDWZ 93.3 in Des Moines.  However, the two began to focus less and less on music and more on academics.

In the fall of John’s junior year he met another budding musician in a music appreciation class.  John was intrigued at this fellow’s choice in one of the pieces he brought to class (Icharus’ Dream Suite by Yngwie Malmsteen).  The two started talking, decided to meet to play some songs together, and soon formed a new band called Panic City.  Based mainly out of Cedar Falls, Panic City was a very successful college rock band but as with all things, time moves on.  John was the oldest member of the band and first to graduate.  In 1994 during the spring of his senior year, as he was preparing for an internship in Washington with an Iowa Senator and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in German and another bachelor’s in Public Administration, Panic City officially broke up.

It wasn’t until the winter of 2002, when John had a 12-string acoustic guitar shipped to him at his office that he thought about playing in a band again.  By having the guitar shipped to his office John inadvertently pointed out that he played guitar to a fellow worker in the office next to his in the courthouse.  Andy Rhodes, an assistant in the Marshall County Engineer’s department had no idea that the mild-seeming Director of Planning and Zoning in the adjoining office was a die-hard rocker.  Well as usual the two started talking and jamming and soon Andy had convinced John that their ability to play and sing great harmonies would make for a great two-man acoustic show.  However, as they began to work up a set list Andy asked two other guys to join them one night “just for fun.”  So Bob and Rusty Roseland soon became members of this new band, and soon after that so did their sister Jeannie Long and Rusty’s wife Kellie Roseland.  The final piece to the puzzle was an aging bass player with a penchant for Miller High Life.  Enter Mike Bullen.  So now Andy’s “little acoustic two-man show” had grown to a seven-member ensemble with keyboards and a sax!  So Retro was born.  Soon though the Roseland’s felt they needed to cut back on the band activities and concentrate on familial responsibilities.  However, John, Mike and Andy still wanted to continue.  So after a couple of different drummer’s passed through the band they found a new drummer in Travis Case and made him permanent.  And Mary Anderson, now Alexander, joined them about the same time as their female lead singer.  The group chose a new name and became Loose Neutral.  Now they play half the weekends of the year in some small bars and some big events, but mostly they have fun making live music.  Oh yeah…..by the way, John rarely gets a chance to play his twelve string anymore…………Thanks Andy!