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Mike Kinsella’s vast and sprawling musical career spans well over 20 years and a half-dozen projects. Many of them, such as the Buffalo Grove-based Cap’n Jazz, which he formed in 1989 with his older brother Tim Kinsella when he was in his early teens, were vastly influential and arguably responsible for shaping the entire genre known as emo music.

Like with Cap’n Jazz, he’s been busy behind the drums with the later Tim Kinsella-fronted bands Joan of Arc and Owls, as well as Their/They’re/There, the short-lived local math-rock trio with Evan Weiss and Matthew Frank. More than that, he’s solidified his reputation as one of the genre’s best songwriters with his solo folk project Owen and as frontman of Champaign, Ill.-based American Football, one of the most genre-defining emo bands, who’ve reunited to release “American Football,” out Friday. It’s the group’s first album since their only record, 1999’s “American Football.”

Most importantly, Kinsella, who’s now 39 and lives in Roscoe Village, is a husband and a father to two children. So, on a Friday afternoon, he met up with RedEye at one of his favorite neighborhood haunts, Laschet’s Inn, with his youngest son in tow and picked one song from each of his various musical projects. Read below to get the stories behind songs by Cap’n Jazz, Joan of Arc, Owls, Their/They’re/There, Owen and American Football, the latter of which is playing with Joan of Arc and Low at the Vic Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 29.

1. Cap’n Jazz – “Planet Shhh” off “Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped On and Eggshells We’ve Tippy Toed Over” (1995)

The band was originally called Toe Jam before it turned into Cap’n Jazz, and I played rhythm guitar—I was 12 years old when it started. The drummer was our high school’s star running back. He was awesome, was totally into metal acts and Slayer, so he used to cut out basketballs and put nails through them to make nail guards on his shoulders and stuff when we played basements. He was great and loved it, except he was really good at football. He quit, and then my mom bought me a $400 16-piece drum set, and I’ve never played before. I was garbage, but it was hilarious—I had way more than I needed. I basically just taught myself.

I was young, and so I was very I was super into all the local bands we played with, like Gage and Bob Nanna’s band Friction. We were playing this kind of stupid music, and we were called Cap’n Jazz, and [Mike’s brother and Cap’n Jazz frontman] Tim would scream, and we’d play our basement and stuff. When we played with other bands, we realized we could do different time signatures and change up our dynamics.

“Planet Shh” is a riff that [guitarist] Victor Villarreal had. I remember writing a lot of those songs, which is funny. By the album, what we were good at was that our arrangements were pretty thoughtful, and I think that song is a good example of that. As a drummer, that one was always such a big release to play because it’s got that big chorus, so behind the drums I could sing along and play. “Little League” is kind of our most immediate track, where you put it on and it’s a good representation of what the band sounds like. “Que Suerte” was another one where I loved playing live. I didn’t realize I was going to pick “Planet Shhh” until I was skimming our tracks.

2. Joan of Arc – “Perfect Need and Perfect Completion” off “So Much For Staying Alive and Lovelessness” (2003)

With Joan of Arc, I was kind of floating around the first few records. I mostly played drums and sometimes was on the guitar. I wrote a few songs on the first couple of records, but I was at college so I was in and out and kind of a part-time member. I would do some of the tours, but most of the time, I’d be at school. This song, “Perfect Need and Perfect Completion,” was off “So Much For Staying Alive and Lovelessness.” With this one, I was kind of out of the band for a while, and then Tim said he was going into the studio. He just had a bunch of really loose sort of sketches. I played drums and bass on half of this album, where I’m attached to this album more than the other stuff.

I thought that song was really cool. It sounds like an old western or something—it’s just long. Most of the songs I’ve picked for this interview are like this. For example, where Joan of Arc is super weird, but this song isn’t—it’s really tuneful. With these songs, I kind of feel like I wrote them more than a lot of the other songs. And even if I wrote like just a guitar part, the song would take off with whatever bleep, noise or computer thing the rest of the band would add to it.

That album was a reaction to the album we released prior to that, “The Gap,” where “The Gap” was so Pro-Tools manipulated and everything, but this wasn’t. “The Gap” was Tim and [engineer] Casey Rice was just locking themselves in a room and seeing what they could do, what could they do with these Pro-Tools. The Gap” was all over the place tuning-wise and would be hard to play live. With this album, it’s in standard tuning, and was Tim’s attempt to write songs. I was happy to help.

I think now more than ever, [I have my brother’s back]. I mean, we got our back generally, but I think we really do now in a way that maybe I’ve come to appreciate more what he’s trying to do and he’s come to appreciate what I’m not trying to do musically, if that makes sense. We’ve always had different tastes and objectives. I’ve always approached music as just musical while he’s always approached it as an art project. I didn’t always enjoy that process, but I’ve always appreciated and respected it.

3. Their/They’re/There – “Travelers Insurance” off “Analog Weekend” (2013)

It was Matt [Frank], who I’d never met, who asked me to be in Their/They’re/There. I was at some show at the Metro, and he came up to me and must’ve just caught me after the exact right number of beers or something and said, “I’m doing this band with Evan [Weiss], do you want to play drums?” I knew he was playing with Evan, but I didn’t know him at all. I said yes because I think I was just looking for an excuse to play drums.

So we scheduled a practice at their space. I remember walking in and Evan’s holding the bass, and I’m like, “Fuck. What did I get myself into?” because I loved how Evan writes on guitar and had never heard this guy play before. I was so bummed that Evan wasn’t going to write the songs on guitar, but then Matt plugged in and fucking shredded. This song is me just playing a straight beat under them just killing, with Evan killing it singing and Matt’s guitar-playing. It’s fun to play live too.

Evan wrote everything. I agreed to the band to practice once or twice a week and as an excuse to go drink beer. They would usually come to me with songs loosely arranged, and they’d get together on their own then come to me as the old guy—I’d come out after I put my kids to bed—and we’d finish them. That’s their band; I just had fun doing it.

4. Owls – “A Drop of Blood…” off “Two” (2014)

On this song, Victor’s parts are insane. When we agreed or decided to do another album, I was sort of like, “I can’t do that much math anymore [for Owls’ often non-standard time signatures].” So Tim and Victor got together and ironed out a lot of it. Tim was playing guitar too, which he didn’t do on the first record, so a lot of the songs are Victor’s leads dancing all over it.

We came together with 12 or 14 different songs that they had worked out, and with this one, I was like, “That sounds like Oasis!” And because of that, I loved it immediately because it’s just like these four chords. Then whatever Sam [Zurick] wanted to do, I’m sure I just told him that he was playing these chords too because it sounded so good. I don’t know, I just love it. I want to be in a band that always sounds like that, like Jesus and Mary Chain, like raw, straight-up rock.

That song is sort of my influence on Owls. There are other, more clever Owls songs that I thought about picking, but I think now I’m beyond caring about that sort of thing.

5. Owen – “Lost” off “The King of Whys” (2016)

I liked the process of this record. I liked being forced to create and work with super talented—and they’re from Wisconsin, so super nice—people [Bon Iver drummer S. Carey at Justin Vernon’s April Base studios in Eau Claire, Wis.]. I loved everything about it, and I want to do it again. There were two eight- or nine-day sessions, and the first few days of the first session, it was like, “Hey, how are you?” and small talk. We had met before because S. Carey opened for American Football in 2014 and with Owen. I knew I liked their music and their musical aesthetic, but I didn’t know how he worked in the studio. I didn’t know if he’d show up at 9 a.m. smoking a huge blunt or whatever. He didn’t, by the way.

I had a record last year with Neil Strauch, so I had this one guy I trust that I can sing these awkward and sincere lyrics to. And because I hadn’t sung in front of other people [in the studio] for years, I was kind of nervous. Would these people care? Is it like a paycheck for them for two weeks? But after a few days, I realized like they had listened to the demos I’d sent, they had ideas, they were critical, telling me I could do certain parts better, which was cool. So I did that first session, and then I came home for Christmas and all that stuff, and I went back to another eight or nine days. The second session was way more comfortable.

I picked “Lost” because I really like this Owen album because it’s not very technical or math-y [in the arrangements]. I think I’m wandering away from it. So this song in particular, while it sounds completely different now, it’s also in some way is exactly as it [sounded] when I wrote it in my kitchen. It’s just a guy and a guitar. Zac [Hanson], the guy who engineered the record, arranged the strings at the end in such a way that just kills me. I’ve cried listening to this record. So, he killed it.

I relate to this one the most. It’s the most relevant to me. I think I did a good job saying what I wanted to say. I had the “stay poor and die trying” line, which is just a rephrase from that “get rich or die trying” thing. I have another old song called “O, Evelyn,” which isn’t my daughter’s name, but it’s my song to her. So I started writing one for my son as like this young hell-raiser: “Stay poor and die trying/Take the drugs I didn’t take/Lay the whores I didn’t lay.” Obviously, he shouldn’t do any of that stuff, but the song fleshed out from those lines.

6. American Football — “Give Me the Gun” off “American Football” (2016)

I think with that one, I just think we all nailed it. I think some of [the] songs, not to get too much into the process, we were being a real band. We were just passing files back and forth via Dropbox. And then a couple of times we got together in a room and tried to like arrange stuff and then we were just in a studio. So it was like, what can we make out of these ideas we have.

That song was started by the drummer Steve Lamos, he literally just had that beat. A couple of days went by, and Nate [Kinsella] had that bassline and the harmonics. So he kind of had the whole melody. And I was like, “What the hell do I sing on top of this 5/4 or 5/8 arrangement?” I tried to give it some weight right off the bat by saying, “Give me the gun.” I think as a listener you’re sort of invested already if there’s a gun involved. I don’t know. I think I killed it. I think we all did. Then with the production from Jason Cupp, I think that song just sounds great too.

Honestly, that one was more work in a way that the other ones there weren’t work. Where some songs I don’t know what to say or whatever, but that song, it was like, “How do you fit a melody on top of that beat?” Once I figured out the cadence—so when I’d write lyrics, I tapped the beat to myself—but once I figured it out, it came to me fast. There’s only like seven lines on that song. That one was easy, actually. Maybe that’s why I like it: I associate it with being comfortable.

@joshhterry | jterry@redeyechicago.com