Welcome to WXA v 88.3 FM. I'm Sean Anderson and I am on the phone with Mike Kinsella of American football of Owen and of Captain Jazz as well and many other projects. Mike, how you doing? I'm pretty good.
Good and Mike throughout your whole career you've pretty much practically had all of your releases Ben and Pauli vinyl and how has your I mean what about Pauli vinyl is really made you want to stay with this label for your whole career? Well I mean I knew I met them when they were just like it was Matt and Darcy were just like music fans putting out seven inches by local band at the like you know so yeah and I mean I would just hang out with them at shows so I just knew they were in it for the right reasons and then you know right off the bat they had a great you know fair deal with the artists and it's literally been the same deal that I've had since watching the first like I don't know 10 releases are up until maybe like three or four or five years ago I never actually signed in contract with them it was always just like hand-shakes and yeah it's rare in this business the sort of people that you like and trust enough so it's kind of been over here as long as don't you know let me keep doing it and I'll keep putting it out with them. That's awesome yeah and they just have their 20-year anniversary and you've pretty much been with them for about 17 or 18 of those years and they put up the poly or they're putting out the poly vinyl plays poly vinyl compilation and you're part of that you cover Raina Maria why did you pick ears ring to cover out of all the catalog that poly vinyl? I associate Raina Maria with poly vinyl just because you know back in the day they sort of at some point they were sort of like the band that was like pushing poly vinyl ceiling like they Raina Maria was touring all the time kind of blown up and poly vinyl was like kind of starting to keep up so yeah they were one of the band that I first saw kind of like do really well and they're on that label and I've always been on front of them I love them with people and that's not in particular was a sort of going back to it like when I'm traveling there's just a lot of them about you need contact daily your conscious is failing you know when I'm kind of going away from home and it's me a little harder so I've been it's been like on my playlist recently or relatively recently so gotcha and also on that compilation Tank recovers a fever from Owen and the dodos cover never met from American football so have you ever heard a cover of that a band is known of your songs that has made you think differently about that song you wrote?
Well I mean just tankers anytime I hear a girl singing any of my songs I kind of get mad because I get jealous I mean I can definitely I wish I had a girl's voice and I can hear about my songs with girls voice so that's always that always hitting like oh it's just gonna better that I can do it yeah I don't know covers are weird like it's weird to do what it's weird to hear like I don't know there's just something about it like if you're familiar how you can very familiar with my original songs but if you're familiar with the original it's sort of often hard to get past that like I know everybody kind of went crazy for like the Ryan Adams Taylor Smith covers but I don't know I just didn't believe any of them so I gotcha yeah and you mentioned about the whole with going back to Rain Maria how that one kind of helps you coping with like being away from home and stuff like that and really with Owen the the record you put up this this year off of Owen King of Wise you kind of talk about you know being away from home a little bit so are you really inspired by stuff from your past or is it stuff that you know you're constantly finding like where do you find inspiration like from other artists yeah I don't really keep up with current music so much I'm more inspired by people like I know I'm inspired by when players in the place in Banjo Park and not so much the music but just like they're sort of like they're desired to create their sort of like energy that they put into creating inspiring in a way that like I mean I've got kids and sort of like dancing so I can't really dive a beautiful time but when I give a chance to create like it's inspiring to see your sort of you know emulate that sort of like energy and then I got you know like the Ryan and Rio do they know they're still like making music and they sort of like they want to complete different directions at the break it up and then they get back together are really enjoying making music together again and stuff so that's inspiring and that's sort of the exact same as the make football guys you know it's like now coming in and now when we all like it's real life every fall into it just means a lot more now so it's just sort of inspiring just to be able to do it all these days yeah and you bring up American football getting back together how was it difficult kind of getting back into that mindset to write for American football after 17 years or was we always been kind of in that same mindset of writing for American football I don't I didn't write for American football as much as I sort of edited what I stopped I wrote I would just edit and push it in this words and oh and song or an American ball kind of song so I wasn't like it wasn't like I was speaking with a different voice I was just sort of like editing it so you know because it's already had more one voice instead of like sort of multiple voices you know yeah and with that too you kind of in an interview with prefix mags on like 2012 you said in a reference to the Captain Jazz reunion from 2010 that you're sort of dreading the reunion and it felt like most of us had hesitations that reunions are cool but you did kind of say that you know getting back together Captain Jazz was worth it did you have any of those same kind of feelings of anxiety of getting American football back together I mean you did say you were kind of writing the same mindset but was it kind of difficult and kind of an anxious time to get back to a mindset you guys haven't been in for 17 years well yeah I mean even I don't think it was definitely not on the radar even in 2012 like it really wasn't it wasn't an idea until it happened you know like it wasn't like this plan I'm like what we do okay let's do it then we'll make a big plan it was like the high line was gonna be issue the record and then they did and there was a better response than we sort of anybody sort of thought and then we got a couple show offers and we just sort of like you know we're like okay well if we did we talk we do and sort of do them properly and then once we figured it out we just like kept doing it because it's fun and with you guys finally getting back together do you think that's gonna be something that stays a project or do you think it's gonna go back on the shelf and your guys's mind is the fun outweighing you know going back to it good question I don't know it's still it's very part time like I think we're playing about one show every month the next three months and then we have some shows that have been June so as long as it's still like something we all look forward doing instead of something you feel we have to do I think we'll keep doing it but yeah the writing I mean the writing part was fun you know it's a little bit of pressure right when the album was you like there's some pressure to get it done in time which is just like exponentially harder because we all live in different cities and we all have kids and jobs and stuff so it wasn't like we can like well it's just been another week doing it's like you know the plan you know these specific days we plan about eight months ago so people can get up working stuff yeah I don't know I mean like I think it's kind of cool we can like walk away or have a shell but it's awesome like it's still fun so we'll keep doing it so we'll see and something that I think might be seen as fun at least for you since you are from Chicago Cubs obviously you know this but it comes from the World Series they did with World Series so have you always been a customer because I know you're posting a lot on Instagram about the Cubs winning and if you are a Cubs fan what was it what was the feeling kind of seeing them finally when I said this in the past I just traveling like I'm fully aware that the white dr. Cooler than the Cubs you're right I mean they are just cool outside setting the form they don't have go cubs goes if you saw them that's cool but I grew up with them you know and you kind of can't really help it yeah I was great I got really new I mean playoff baseball just so fun and then to see the Cubs just to watch those games like this they want I kind of like I was over it kind of like I went to ring me and I kind of walked out this down beat drunk but you know like that I woke up I felt elated but I wasn't like I didn't even keep seeing the replayings and all this stuff like I was talking and those games were so fun to watch and it's so exciting and then it was obviously satisfying that they won yeah so pretty much and then Trump won and then he'll go by you know talk about it I mean that was the thing like be I'm from the South Side so you know having all these crazy Cubs fans around me you know brag about them winning and then having the Cubs fans were also Trump fans bragging about two things was worse that's the worst like luckily all my friends who like the Cubs are educated but yeah I mean the record in American football record in the same I don't know if your fans would call it a curse but yeah it might be a curse you might start another curse I don't know I got three more questions for you the first one is something that I saw online and I want to pass it on to you guys and it was really why did it take them 17 years to get to the house yeah to get into the house I don't know like I said it wasn't we since we broke up we it was never a plan to get that you know I'm trying to think of all of the other projects I'm in like people about there they're there and you know I could see that happening again some point I could see me playing with your market some point the other band I was hit like America football was never planned you got it never meant okay I get it yeah so I don't know I was so well I mean it wasn't even we never thought about it that's a lot you could be living a regular life the other question is are you son and daughter into music yet and more specifically are they fans of your music no I wouldn't call fans my music they usually grab the guitar when I'm trying to play it yeah my daughter's in violent and she got a guitar recently she's trying to learn to have a six song and Archie more like his uncle to me than they have to react kind of music maybe so what so we'll be teaching your daughter any sweet hammer on the pull off yet yeah I went she's not into a map rock and then we asked two questions to every single person we interview and these are the final ones the first one is what is college radio done for your career and has it had an impact that you've noticed oh it's funny and you are at 89 3 I think so yeah I mean I totally very can't really remember listening to like a radio in my bedroom when I was in eighth grade maybe the summer before high school and I used to like love I have like ASMR a little bit so I used to love just like the sort of like really relaxing college radio just Jackie voices you know I don't know anyway it's sort of like all the great kind of stuff but I heard about painters on and you are and I never heard of them I never it was before the internet so I couldn't even Google anything it's kind like oh my god what the song you know I think I'm able to call the station or something find out and I mean like hearing that I was a great cathedral park and there's just like this there's elements of that song that are like I think every song I've ever band every song I've ever written you know has elements from that song in it so yeah I was ready oh man thank you shit it's not that bad and the final question we ask people is if you had to fight someone in a steel cage match and this could be anyone whether it's it's real Donald Trump I mean maybe like the most obnoxious old I'm currently see I've been asking this question for about a year now and I've been waiting for someone to say Donald Trump and you're the first person to say Trump well I mean yeah but if I beat him then it's been like take his place that's right you might I'll fight him all man you'll just take him down you and Joe Biden you can come I'm yeah that's awesome like thank you so much for joining me this is a that's been awesome