Chris Gibbons (junior-international relations) is a busy guy.

Aside from being a full-time Penn State student, he sings with and directs the a cappella group None of the Above, sells programs outside Beaver Stadium on game days and plays guitar for the acoustic duo Funderburke Goulash.

The aspiring singer-songwriter will be taking time out of his hectic schedule to perform his original pieces at 10 p.m. Thursday at Late Night Penn State on the first floor of the HUB-Robeson Center.

No stranger to the stage, Gibbons first began performing in high school with his funk rock band, Zinammon. But since everyone in the band went away to college, the group is now defunct.

Gibbons, who started writing poetry, realized he could write songs with just his acoustic guitar, and that's what he did in his spare time.

"I write more for my own benefit. It's therapeutic," he said. "Each song I write is inspired by a moment in my life, spurred by things I don't have any control over. I guess it's mostly about love and girls, pretty much all rock and roll is about that."

Gibbons takes time to carefully construct his songs, and he aspires to compose like artists such as Weezer and Simon and Garfunkel, who tell stories with their songs.

"Sometimes you have a rhythm and a lyric and you can't necessarily put them together. I try to be as uncliché as possible," he said.

He also said he is striving for the aura of a songwriter who gives his or her album a certain flow, in which all the songs interact with one another. As an example, Gibbons talked about Weezer's Pinkerton or John Mayer's album, Room For Squares.

"I guess you could say I am jealous of that sound. It has a mood as an album," he said.

Gibbons said all his friends will be supporting him at his first-ever performance of all-originals, but he said he knows they might realize that some of the songs are about them. This is the key to an acoustic show, he said -- a personal atmosphere.

"I know that it will be a close-knit group of people I know," he said. "Usually the people I am singing about know that I am singing about them, or they can guess."

His bandmate in Funderburke Goulash, Kevin Giarnella (junior-journalism), said he has only heard a few of Gibbon's songs, but the ones he heard were good.

"I'm interested to hear the rest of his stuff. He is sort of John Mayer-ish, but not really," Giarnella said. "He is going places. See him now before he takes off."

Gibbons was also seen this past semester performing at Late Night Penn State with Funderburke Goulash. Funderburke Goulash plays Tenacious D covers, throwing in Mitch Hedberg jokes between songs.

Gibbons and Giarnella met each other as members of None of the Above, and after going out on a Thursday night, they both realized they played guitar and were interested in the same music. After a couple name changes, including Chris and Kevin's Acoustic Belly Stew and Chris and Kevin's Acoustic Goulash for your Belly, they settled on the name Funderburke Goulash.

Giarnella said Funderburke Goulash currently has no shows scheduled.

"We kind of play it by ear," he said. "We don't have that much time."

Gibbons and Giarnella will be performing with None of the Above on Oct. 24 at Late Night Penn State.