Mike Kinsella

Mike Kinsella (born March 4, 1977) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He has been involved in many Illinois-based bands and is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the emo band American Football.

Career Kinsella's first musical project was serving as drummer for the band Cap'n Jazz, which he co-founded with his brother Tim. Cap'n Jazz originally featured their local high school star running back on drums. When he quit to focus on football, a 12-year-old Mike Kinsella learned how to play a 16-piece drum set.

With either Tim and/or cousin Nate Kinsella, he has also participated in the projects Owls and Joan of Arc.

In 1997, Kinsella, along with Steve Lamos and Steve Holmes, formed the band American Football, which would go on to release an EP in 1998 and a full-length album in 1999, before disbanding. After a 15-year hiatus, the band returned in 2014. They issued a second album in 2016, a third in 2019, and a fourth one in 2026.

In 2001, Kinsella began his current solo project, Owen, in which he performs vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, loops, etc. Kinsella was also in a band called The Shirts and Skins, with his wife. In 2013, he released two EPs with Their / They're / There, a project featuring Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It. and Matthew Frank of Loose Lips Sink Ships. He has also been part of the band The One Up Downstairs, alongside American Football drummer Steve Lamos.

Many of his albums, including Owen and No Good for No One Now, were recorded at his mother's home.

Legacy John Hill of Loudwire wrote, "It's not often a guitarist is credited for being the progenitor of an entire style of music; however, you'd be hard-pressed not to give Mike Kinsella his dues for what he's given to the worlds of mid-west emo and math rock", adding that "emotion bleeds into every note he plays".

Personal life Kinsella married his wife Ryan in 2006; they have two children together. In 2019, Ryan discovered that Kinsella had been in a two-year relationship with another woman, leading to their divorce.

Discography