As a performing musician Kuehn's career began in Orange County's early punk scene, when he left his classical piano studies at
California State University, Long Beach to join
horror punk icons
T.S.O.L. Together they made the album
Beneath the Shadows, still a highly regarded and influential work. Following his tenure in
T.S.O.L., he spent several years as a recording and touring musician working with artists including
Bob Dylan,
The Church,
Duane Peters,
Megan Mullally,
Berlin and
Ian Astbury of
The Cult. Most recently, Kuehn has been performing with LA punk legends
X, filling in for the late
Ray Manzarek of
The Doors.
Composing film scores Kuehn got his start in film working on the score for cult classic
Repo Man, on which he arranged music and played keyboards. Since then, Kuehn has scored numerous films, including
Confessions of a Superhero and
Meet the Hitlers, both directed by
Matt Ogens and produced by film maker
Morgan Spurlock,
A Small Section of the World, directed by Lesley Chilcott, and
The Achievers,
The Story of The Lebowski Fans. One of his songs was featured in the documentary
The Other F Word, directed by Andrea Nivens. He worked with producer Peter Jackson scoring the trailer for the Amy Berg directed doc,
West of Memphis, and has completed the score for
Go North a new feature film directed by Matt Ogens, and starring
Jacob Lofland,
Sophie Kennedy Clark and
Patrick Schwarzenegger. Kuehn composed the music for
Shooting an Elephant, a narrative short film featured in the 2016
Tribeca Film Festival, directed by Juan Pablo Rothie and written by
Alec Sokolow.
Code Blue, a short film Kuehn scored based on the
T.S.O.L. song and the
Jack Grisham short story, was featured in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage (Short Film Corner).
Television and commercial work Kuehn has composed the music for
CNN Heroes, Stand Up 2 Cancer, Give it up For Greg Giraldo and The Daytime Emmys. Kuehn has scored hundreds of television commercials for clients including Toyota, Ancestry, HP, Subaru, MINI, Hyundai, Honda, Blue Shield, Nike, Adidas,
DirecTV, Miller, Gatorade and Petco among many others. His company, Peligro Music and Sound is one of Los Angeles' most sought after boutique music houses. ==Personal life==