To say Mike Kinsella has an impressive rock resume is a bit of an understatement. First off, he’s from Chicago, the breeding ground of some of the most influential indie bands ever. His first project was drumming for Cap N’ Jazz, a band he formed along with his older brother Tim Kinsellas. Cap N’ Jazz also happen to be one of the founding fathers of the emo/indie rock scene. After Cap N’ Jazz he once again joined his brother Tim in Joan Of Arc, a band whose every action seemed to garner a response from the community (rarely have reviewer’s committed as much bile to paper as they have while reviewing a Joan of Arc album). While away at college, and on hiatus from Joan of Arc, he fronted American Football, whose only album remains one of the true lesser known gems to come out of the mid-nineties emo scene. American Football was also Mike’s debut as singer and songwriter and hinted at his potential. Earlier this year, when Cap N’ Jazz reformed as the Owls, Mike once again took his place behind the drum kit.

Most recently he’s once again gone off on his own, transmorfing into Owen and releasing a magnificent self-titled debut on Polyvinyl Records. Unlike his other projects, which were known for their mathier/angular sounds, there’s nothing complicated about Owen, just fantastic hushed songwriting, accompanied by swirls, whooshes and other sound dreamt up by Mike. He’s also incredibly intelligent, nice, sincere and maybe a bit too shy. Before his show at Brownies we had a chance to sit down for a few minutes. Despite initial requests from the label to do this interview over the web, I’m really glad that we were able to do it in person. I just wish I hid the tape recorder as he seemed to loosen up as soon as it was off. Oh and he didn’t mumble at all.

Unpop: How’s the tour going so far?

Mike: It’s good, it’s only a couple of shows we just played Boston and all the amps blew out at that show, something that’s never happened to me before.

Mike Kinsella: Is it hard playing a double set (Mike also drums for labelmate Kyle Fischer)?

Mike: No, it’s really laid back music, it’s not like you’re really exerting yourself. Actually it’s really fun. I get to do two different things.

Unpop: Why Owen, why not Mike Kinsella?

Mike: Kyle? (motioning to Kyle Fischer)

Kyle Fischer: Mike named it after his car, cause he’s kind of a dude’s dude, he’s also working on a hip-hop project called beer and kraut.

Unpop: What was the genesis of Owen?

Mike: Well I played in Joan of Arc for a long time and after I kinda’ wanted to do my own thing. So I was like “Oh I can get a computer and try and fool around with it and create my own thing.” And when we started Owls we just knew from the get go that we’d just go right in and kinda’ record, spend a few days together hanging out and writing songs and stuff. It was an extension of Joan of Arc and Owls was just a little interruption.

Unpop: Is there ever a conflict between Owen and Owls?

Mike: No, I stopped playing with Owls.

Unpop: With the advent of newer technology it’s really changed the recording process and to a great extent the ability to record - has it been a positive or negative development?

Mike: Probably a bad development, because, well, I don’t know. It enables me to write my songs in a lazy process - I can fool around and see if something cool happens instead of sitting down and focusing. I enjoy the process a lot but it’s probably not great for music as a whole for everyone to just be able to hang out and...

Unpop: How does the whole singer/songwriter - Dashboard Confessional affect you?

Mike: Yeah it affects me, I think these people give acoustic guitars a bad name. Hopefully my songs have more to them. I read an interview, I’m not going to say names, with other dudes and they just get up there with a guitar and they talk about how emotional it is and it’s so fucking dumb. I don’t know, I just like playing music. It’s fun.

Unpop: Owen sounds different than all of your past endeavors - what influenced you in writing this album?

Mike: It’s funny that you say it doesn’t sound like Owls, me and Tim have had talks about that, he’s always been really good at that style of music. He’s just a really good writer, he’s an amazing reader, and it comes out in his writing. As far as trying to write my own songs I’ve always, consciously or unconsciously, tried to not do what he does. Cause it wouldn’t be as good anyways. We always laugh about how everything I do is just a reaction to what he’s already done. I just appreciate thing straightforward. Tim’s stuff is like, two years later I’ll have a Joan of Arc song in my head and then I’ll think of a line and be like holy shit that’s the best thing ever. Even after time, I read it, I didn’t get it at first, I kinda’ passed by it and later it hit me.

Unpop: What’s it like being in so many bands with your brother?

Mike: It’s really good, it’s all I ever knew really. We fight like brothers, if one of us is having a bad day we take it out on the other one.

Unpop: Does it affect band dynamics?

Mike: No, at least I don’t think it does. There’s just this group of, I don’t know, however many people around Chicago and that’s kinda the only people I ever played with. And then when I went to school I played with the two Steve’s in American Football. This is my first time playing with Bob (steel guitar) and Josh (bassist).

Unpop: Does being in so many bands add a level of pressure to putting out your own album?

Mike: No, not pressure. It is kind of a shame that people, actually I shouldn’t say that either, it’s probably the only reason some people bought the record so I’m not going to complain. When Cap N’ Jazz broke up no one cared about Cap N’ Jazz and then eventually because Promise Ring got big people started liking it. And we were already doing Joan of Arc and people were like “Aw they suck they don’t sound anything like Cap N’ Jazz.” And it was like totally like years ago and obviously we changed. The fact that people buy the record and really care is really neat.

Unpop: How much of your sound is influenced by where you come from?

Mike: 100% of it. I can’t imagine it not. I think there’s been a direct path towards what I’m doing now. The scene we’re talking about, the mid-west scene, is really pretty small at the time it was going on. And some bands made it out and by that time it was over all. I mean it’s fucking crazy, we just turned on the NYU radio station and it’s like how many bands sound like bands you were playing with seven or eight years ago. What I write now, the things I appreciate about music, I’m attracted to melodies, and I find odd time signatures really interesting - and it could be just something dumb like in my formative years that was what was cool. The bands I used to go see, like this band Gauge, I used to go see those shows and during those shows think “music will never be better than this.” And obviously I try to emulate that.

Unpop: What’s it like being in a band that was around ten years ago that suddenly has such a huge influence on bands that are playing now? Do you ever just want to yell “move on we already did that?”

Mike: I think people do settle for what comes easy, and you hear something and you hear Braid and you say I can do something like that and it is kind of lame. Some of these bands are young too. There are a lot of young bands out there, I keep hearing about these bands and I’ll go see them and they’re like eighteen or nineteen, and it’s like they are good, they’re still young and learning.

Unpop: Has the recession affected you?

Mike: I don’t think so. We’re part of this great dumb scene made up of these kids who are going to find a way to spend twenty bucks on a cd whether they our parents have a job or not. I think there are some indie or psuedo indie labels I should say who are really trying to run a business and they’re probably affected. But it seems like indie labels aren’t cause they put out records cause they want to.

Unpop: Is it hard to come out from behind the drumset?

Mike: Yeah, it’s a getting a little easier. Did you ever try singing in front of a lot of people, it’s really fucking stupid.

Unpop: Do you have a job?

Mike: I do seasonal work, but no. I had to wrap gifts once.

Unpop: If your surroundings affect your art, does being in a band warp your perceptions?

Mike: You’re totally right. When I get home from touring I’m really fucked up, I’ve been noticing it more an more. When I get home from tour it’s weird, I’ve learned to not shower everyday, or not eat till dinner, or to be really quiet, like if your on tour in a van by the third week everyone gets in and you drive for eight hours in total silence. So when I get home, people want to talk about what’s going on and you’re not with it at all. It’s becoming more and more weird, the longer I do it. You know I’ve been trying to tour for years now, and I used to come home, but now people are getting jobs and settling down more and I have a different life from everybody else. It’s kinda weird but we choose to do it. Ideally I’d like to make enough money where I don’t have to do a seasonal wrapping job.

Unpop: What’s the future of all the bands?

Mike: Owls are writing new songs with Ryan on drums. Joan of Arc, I think Tim has written a bunch of stuff and do an album or something to work on. American Football I don’t think anything will happen. I’m writing.

by Adam Dlugacz
[January, 2002]