Sunday afternoon, with blue skies and fairly warm temperatures, WNUR brought local Chicago artists to Northwestern for a kickoff concert to help bring the radio station closer to the students. Owen, made up of Mike Kinsella and his acoustic guitar, brought soft, mellow sounds as the opening act. Joan of Arc, an eccentric indie band made up of constantly rotating artists and Mike’s brother Tim Kinsella, brought faster, crazier beats for a solid concert that would please any alternative rock fan.

Owen opened with “New Leaves”, a song from his new album of the same title. His set was very intimate, and his unassuming presence made viewers feel like old friends. He then played “The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi” from the album At Home With Owen. “Bad News” paired a sweet melody with somewhat angry lyrics, crooning: “Whatever it is you think you are, you aren’t: / a good friend, unique, well-read, good-looking, or smart. / Well now you know.” Another highlight, “Broken Bones”, had a faster pace, and used guitar drum beats in between the riffs to pull the audience in. In between songs a photographer approached the stage, and Kinsella said, “Hey dude, how’s it going?” This comment was the epitome of Owen’s set: a down-to-earth guy simply playing calm, personal songs for a bunch of friends.

In contrast with Owen, Joan of Arc played a much heavier set. A six-piece ensemble, Joan of Arc combined multiple percussive instruments with synth beats and acoustic instruments for a fresh, unique sound. Tim Kinsella’s coarse and emotional voice tied everything together for a raw yet cohesive set. The band opened with “The Surrender” parts 1 and 2, with the former an instrumental piece that sounded like a fluid jam session, the members smiling and nodding their heads to the beat. Standout songs include “Eventually All At Once” and “The Garden Of Cartoon Exclamations,” which sounded like something out of a Tim Burton film, combining a music box-like xylophone melody with loud bellows of “She’s come to recognize the sound of her own name being written/And each breath is her signature.” At the end of the song, Kinsella exclaimed, “I forgot the words!” Joan of Arc sped it up with the fast, groovy “Living In The Sea Of Umbrellas” and other songs of a similar nature. Throughout the concert, fans gathered around the front of the stage, nodding along with the music despite the increasing cold as it neared five o’clock. It seemed like one big picnic, with viewers spread out in clusters simply enjoying the sun and some good vibes with their friends.

North by Northwestern sat down with the two bands after the concert to talk about the Chicago scene and their respective projects.

Owen — Mike Kinsella

Why did you choose the name Owen for your solo project?

I just like it more than Mike. It looks good written out, too.

Your album, New Leaves, came out September 22. How does this album differ from your previous ones?

I don’t know that it does so much. I think the label tries to say it does, but [all of the albums] are about where I’m at in certain points in my life, so I guess I was in a different place a little bit. But musically, it was recorded in a proper studio so hopefully it sounds better. And every album I try to be more concise lyrically. Hopefully it’s better than the other records, but I didn’t have a goal this time, there wasn’t any real ambition to sound different.

What is your favorite song to play?

There’s a song on the last album, At Home With Owen, called “Bad News”. It’s finger-picky, which keeps me interested.

A lot of your songs combine sweet, sort of charming melodies with almost angry lyrics, such as in “That Tattoo Isn’t Funny Anymore”. What is your idea behind that combination?

I guess it’s somewhat conscious. I think that those melodies are the only thing that comes out for me musically, like I’m not really good at writing discordant stuff, not that I really want to. And then I find myself writing or singing really sweet stuff on top and it just sounds so corny I can’t take it, so maybe I try to express something else so it’s not overkill.

What do you hope fans take away from your songs?

Whatever they want. I don’t like to think about people listening to [my music]. If they are listening to it, that’s cool, and if they like it that’s cool.

Joan of Arc — Tim Kinsella, Theo Katsaounis, Bobby Burg

Your album, Flowers, came out June 9. Describe the album.

Tim Kinsella: It’s the first one where we knew the cover before we had it done, so I think that was a big part of it. Sometimes we’d make a decision and be like, well what do we do here? I don’t know, let’s look at the cover. What would a record like that sound like?

What is your recording process like?

Theo Katsaounis: Well with Flowers, there were already some recordings that we had done like a year prior with some other folks, and then I guess with this lineup we […] once Tim put our names in a bag, kind of like Oblique Strategies, our names were in one bag and things to do in another bag. For example, Bobby’s name got pulled and he was told to tell Theo what to do and everything, and so I had to do whatever he told me to do

Bobby Burg: Yeah, like I wasn’t allowed to touch the instrument myself, I could only do it by telling Theo what to do, how to play.

Theo: And then there was another time where we all brought one riff or line or verse or something to the table and then we wrote songs out of that. We didn’t know what was going to happen

Tim: Yeah I think we didn’t realize until we got there that none of us had really brought instruments or amps or anything, and we thought, man we’ve gotten really lazy about this, all assuming that there would be something there we could pick up.

What do you guys do before a show to get ready?

Theo: I don’t eat. It’s more of a ritualistic kind of thing. I feel better when I’m starving.

Bobby: We order before the show, let it sit there, and eat it the second we’re done.

Theo: I feel like I’ve earned the food. Very primitive, you know? Futuristic caveman, right here. I’ve got the beard to prove it. (laughs)

After 13 albums, how has your music changed? Have you changed style at all or do you just kind of go with whatever?

Tim: I don’t know, I mean I’m too in the middle of it to know. From my very subjective perspective on it, it’s like I’ve just learned to relax about it, but I can’t tell the difference. I know that I used to spend a lot more time on things, and then for a while I thought that maybe I’ve just been lazy now because I don’t spend as much time as I used to, but now I sort of think that I’ve spent a lot of time making mistakes and figuring stuff out, so now we can execute things quicker. It’s like what Bobby was saying about language, isn’t built up between people who don’t play together a lot. We all have a more sophisticated language though for what we’re trying to do, so it’s simpler to execute it. Now we don’t worry about things either. They happen or they don’t in a certain way.