About Owen
Owen is the primary solo project of American indie rock and emo musician Mike Kinsella, known for its soft melodies and complex acoustics, combining acoustic guitar with keyboard and other guitars, plaintive vocals and drums.
Owen's debut, Owen was a stark departure from previous Mike Kinsella projects. For 2002's No Good For No One Now, Owen's second album, an arrangement of purchasing recording equipment instead of studio time was agreed upon. In 2004, in collaboration with Cale Parks , Bob Hoffnar, Jen Tabor, and Paul Koob, Mike began recording again. What resulted was . The joint effort marked a turning point of sorts for Owen. Rumors began to swirl that a live band would be taken on the road for the first time, but these rumors never materialized as Mike again rejoined Joan of Arc and became a touring member of both Maritime and Aloha. had been written as a companion piece to a scheduled full-length. In summer 2004, Mike again began recording and collaborating, this time with cousin Nate Kinsella who lent assistance both on instrumentation and engineering. The results of these efforts were I Do Perceive, Owen's third album.
On At Home With Owen, Mike figuratively leaves the at-home bedroom that has characterized so much of Owen's past musical presence. His step away from bedroom recording allowed for an alternative approach to the songs recorded on at Home With Owen. "I've always hated how two dimensional the other Owen albums have sounded, and I think this one's finally got a third dimension," Kinsella says. The new approach to recording involved a fraction of pre-recording at Mike's mom's house, followed by sessions at Semaphore Studios with cousin Nate Kinsella and finally at Engine Studios with Brian Deck .
In July 2009, Polyvinyl Records released The Seaside EP, a collection of Owen songs previously only available as Japanese bonus tracks, as well as a track from the Association of Utopian Hologram Swallowers".
Since the release of his 2006 album, much has changed for Kinsella. During the writing process for the fifth album, New Leaves, Kinsella became both a husband and a father, adding a sense of responsibility and new direction to the personalized quality of Owen releases. As the title would suggest, New Leaves finds Kinsella building upon and branching off of the core elements of his efforts – clever lyrics over intricate guitar work – now aided by a more complex song structure and refined lyrical matter. Produced by Brian Deck , Graeme Gibson , Tim Iseler and cousin Nate Kinsella, New Leaves is 10 tracks of renewal and personal growth.
In 2010, Owen released the "Abandoned Bridges" single. He has also released an EP titled O, Evelyn in April 2011. Owen's album, Ghost Town, was released on November 8, 2011. Owen's album, L'Ami du Peuple, was released on July 2, 2013.
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