Mike Kinsella, Steve Lamos, and Steve Holmes recorded American Football’s only LP in their final days at the University of Illinois in the late 1990s aware it would probably be their only one. “When we started making music, it wasn’t to be popular, or even be a band,” says Kinsella. So it was no huge surprise when the self-titled record was largely overlooked, even in its hometown, and the trio broke up about a year later. But then something unexpected happened. The album became “a rite of passage for young kids getting into emo music, for whatever reason,” Kinsella deadpans. Over the last few years in particular, American Football—which perfected an inimitable alchemy borne of Midwestern longing, jazz, Steve Reich and the post-rock of the Sea and Cake and Tortoise—emerged as the single most influential record in the fourth wave of emo that restored the genre’s good name.
So the group’s triumphant reunion in 2014 actually ended up being a front for what amounted to a college homecoming. In an interview shortly preceding the deluxe reissue of American Football that year, Kinsella estimated the trio had talked to each other more in the previous six months than they did in the 14 years before that. Though Kinsella is an indie rock lifer, the other two members need excuses to take time off for band practice. Holmes works an office job in Chicago, while Lamos is an English professor at the University of Colorado and author of Interests and Opportunities: Race, Racism and University Writing Instruction in the Post-Civil Rights Era. “Steve’s an actual genius,” Kinsella notes. “He’s really respected in his field, so he has some pull where he can get away for a bit.”
And you know how things go when college buddies click up after a long hiatus, everyone saying, “We should do this more often!” Typically, those plans fizzle out before the first camping trip or whatever, and American Football could’ve basically held out and been their realm’s version of Neutral Milk Hotel or Slint—a band whose brief existence and massive influence results in the ability to play festivals whenever the hell they want without any new music. But no. American Football decided they had to make another album. So they did. It’s also titled American Football and it’s out October 21.
The first song released from the sequel, “I’ve Been So Lost for So Long,” is straightforward, thumping, and anthemic. When Kinsella sings, “Doctor, it hurts when I exist,” it’s heartfelt, but certainly aware of its own melodramatic tone. Lest any of the diehards get overly concerned, the new American Football is rife with nocturnal, wistful ambience, horn solos, and, yes, overlapping guitars in off-kilter time signatures. Yet “I’ve Been Lost” is fairly indicative of the record, which is much more streamlined and song-oriented than its predecessor. Kinsella attributes the change to the influence of his cousin Nate, a new addition to the band on bass. “This album doesn’t seem to meander as much, but it wasn’t on purpose,” Kinsella says. “It’s what came out in the time frame we had.”
Perhaps seeing how an open-ended songwriting process and consistent public updates could lead to years of deflating rumors, Kinsella set a deadline by which recording had to get done. In fact, he found himself rewriting lyrics until the last minute. “A lot of the songs were tracked, and we were finishing overdubs even before the other guys knew what the vocals were,” he says.
Kinsella is accepting of the fact that things are unquestionably different this time around, and perhaps the magic these guys once captured in a four-day span in Champaign can’t be replicated. “But at least we can try something new and see if we can do it,” he muses. So the new American Football has the same attitude about facing the uncertain future as the old American Football: Let’s just see what happens.
Pitchfork: When did you decide to record new material after getting back together to play shows?
Mike Kinsella: We had been doing the reunion thing maybe a whole year, and it was super fun. So it became, like, “How can we keep having excuses to hang out together once every month? We can’t just keep playing the same nine songs for people...”
Is there still that old punk rock concern that making another American Football record is a betrayal of some sort?
I dunno if it’ll be received as, “Oh these guys are all trying to cash in and they’re fucking dorks.” Maybe it’ll be more like: “Holy cow, I used to like this record, and now they made a record that’s way better than that.” Which is what we all think. If they liked that record, they’re gonna love this one. I hope people don’t overthink it. We didn’t. It was just, “This was more fun than we’d thought it’d be, let’s write more songs.”
How is the band’s songwriting process different now?
It wasn’t very organic; we don’t spend a lot of time in a room together just jamming. We have a Dropbox folder, and people can chime in with their ideas. We just kept being like, “That’s cool, let’s do that later” and “We have to write that song!” It’s very different from being young dudes who had band practice three times a week.
Do you feel like this album is more likely to appeal to older fans or the ones that recently discovered the band?
We’re not like, “Holy shit, if we were this popular with this record that we didn’t think would get popular, now we’re gonna be huge!” Maybe this will implode. Or maybe it’ll sustain it longer. With the first one, no one cared [at the time]. We weren’t a punk band; if you wanted to sit down with your headphones on and you liked counting weird time signatures, you might’ve liked the record. Maybe people connected with it at a younger age lyrically, and once you get older, you appreciate the music and the patience of it.
This new album seems more lyrical than the original, to the point where it’s very similar to your project, Owen. Did you have trouble separating one from the other?
I felt more comfortable being sincere, in a way, in American Football, than on Owen records—where I’d be embarrassed to do that as a grown man or something. The other [American Football] record is nothing but sincere. Here, I can just say, “I need you more than ever.” It’s not a lyric I’m sorta proud of, but OK, I actually mean it. It’s sort of embarrassing for me! It’s diary stuff. I wish I could write fun songs, like, “I wanna get laid, I wanna get drunk.”
There are Owen songs about wanting to get laid and drunk, though.
I guess Owen can satisfy that. I guess I can write fun songs, cool.
Were there times when your confidence was shaken while making the new album?
It got stressful at the end. They were waiting for me to finish the lyrics at the last weekend recording session. So instead of cleaning up or adding bells and whistles, it was literally me tracking vocals, which was sort of a backwards way to do it. People were not having fun at that point. But if there wasn’t a date on it, I would just keep recording forever and adding stuff. Someone has to tell us when to stop.
There’s far higher expectations for this album than anything you’ve ever released—is it difficult to keep something like this under wraps?
No one can know about it unless you come and drink beers with me. [laughs] I haven’t publicly made a statement or whatever it is people do. All my friends know. As far as the trailer and all that, it’s exciting. It wouldn’t come to me naturally to do something that dramatic. We’ve taken the position that it’s our job to write the songs and play the shows as well as we can.
Do you feel that American Football is competing with the bands they’ve influenced?
After watching bands try to rock and have this huge release, I feel way more comfortable thinking that it’s cool out to chill out a little bit. With American Football, you can get in your own head and watch us rather than having to be in this sweaty room with all these other people. I don’t know a lot of bands that are content doing that. With Owen, I’ve had people play shows with me and say, “That was so awkward.” No, that’s just how those songs are! There’s a lot of space. American Football is the same way.
After finally making another American Football record, does it seem more feasible to make a third?
I don’t think it’s like, “Oh shit, we gotta make another record.” It’s more like, “We should make another record now that we know what we’d do that we didn’t remember 15 years ago.” Now that it’s fresh in our brain, we can make an even better one.