With lyrics that wow and a voice that captivates, Nancy Dunkle is a musician to look out for.

Words By Dayna Bhatti Roberts / Photos and Graphics by Jeanish Mariah

Singer-songwriter Nancy Dunkle has been creating music for as long as she could speak. As a child, she fondly remembers walking around the house, rambling and singing originals. This childhood infatuation with music continued throughout her life: whether it took route during her ukelele era when she would post clips on her social media or when she got to college and music took over her whole world.

“I was originally undecided when I entered college but I decided to become a musician because I was looking through majors and I realized I could actually do music, which I had always loved.”

Inspired by a wide range of artists — from Stevie Nicks to the Police to Frank Ocean, — Dunkle is an experimentalist at heart. Her first single, “Poster Child,” was released in June 2022 and she hopes that her next project will be entirely different but just as captivating.

“The next stuff that I release is definitely going to be very different from the song I have out, I’m going to do more of an alternative rock sound.”

As a lover of songwriting and lyricism, Dunkle has a knack for enthralling lyrics that keep audiences interested. When she performs, it’s hard to not go silent and listen to every word she has to say. A lot of her music has a melancholy feel to it that is almost dissociative, as the lyrics linger in your mind. One of Dunkle’s songs that she treasures most touches on absorbing someone’s personality when you really admire them, an emotional and relatable topic for many listeners.

“I wrote this song called ‘Out of My Own Mind,’ and I like the chorus a lot. It says, ‘You are a symptom of something more, exposing the flaws in my design, out of my own mind and into yours, out of my own mind.’”

With a single out, songs on the way, and a reputation as one of SU’s most genuine student artists, Nancy Dunkle certainly has a bright future ahead of her. One focus of hers is to work with as many inspiring people as she can, and in turn to learn from them. Along with wanting to be taken to cool places by her music, Dunkle hopes her music can also take listeners places.

“I want my music to sound interesting, yet familiar. When I listen to the artists that I look up to the most, I feel inspired and find myself wanting to create something new. I hope that one day, my music can have this effect on others.”

Meet Nancy Dunkle: SU’s Rising Singer-Songwriter