CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project

Erik Roldan writes

A Coach House Sounds Conversation with Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc has been a steady fixture in Chicago for many years, forming after the dissolution of famed emo band Cap’n Jazz. Tim Kinsella has been the only permanent member of the group and has maintained steady out put under the Joan of Arc name.

The band recently recorded a session at Coach House Sounds, and you can listen to CHIRP for preview tracks of the session. Starting April 25th, you’ll be able to stream the entire performance at coachhousesounds.com!

What the dumbest thing you’ve ever done in a basement?

Basements have probably been more formative to me than kitchens – I can’t cook – or living rooms – TV bores me – or bedrooms – my dreams aren’t very vivid. High school was of course spent in friends’ basements with malt liquor and bongs and a record playing while a movie is on and someone is playing guitar or bass along to the record. I once played a basement show naked. That was pretty weird, but not dumb.

I guess the dumbest thing might’ve been feeling bad this one time when that Led Zeppelin song “Thank You” came on while I was watching the girl that had just dumped me go to third base with this guy in front of everyone hanging out. Or we all got in the habit of pissing in this one drain in this guy’s basement so we wouldn’t have to go upstairs and face his parents while all fucked up and after awhile the drain started to reek of piss. But that was collective stupidity, not as stupid as feeling bad while that hokey song played.

Joan of Arc has a long history in Chicago. Can you tell me about one time when you realized this was YOUR city?

Eh, I’ve never thought of moving. My family and friends are all here. Everything’s simple. We travel enough and I have a terrible sense of direction, so it’s nice to come home and know where everything is. And when we were without a practice space for awhile a couple years ago, we moved everything into my gramma’s basement on Belmont for a couple weeks. Couldn’t do that anywhere else.

I guess one time, on a rare visit to a 4 a.m. bar, this Chad-dork-creep put his arm around my ex-wife and I instinctually grabbed him in an aggressive way. When he started to push me and threaten me, the bouncers, who I’d never seen before, kicked that guy out instead of me, even though I kinda started it. They pointed at me and said, “he’s cool.” Maybe that’s a perk of living in the same neighborhood for years and years?

Describe a scenario where Joan of Arc could be someone’s life coach and the top 2 life lessons you’d teach them.

It’s not so far-fetched really. The band has such longevity because of its “always open, revolving door” membership policy. We are quite a crew of misfits. Organizing it keeps me occupied, less likely to fall wayward. Whenever someone has better things to do or something going for them, they drop out for awhile. Then they lose a job or a girlfriend or whatever and the band is there to give a little structure to a wayward period.

So, lesson #1 – Entertain no pre-conceived expectations. Collaboration will only come from listening and being open to other people’s ideas, and with trusted collaborators, the unified vision will often surpass the depth and expressiveness of imposing one’s view.

And #2 – Remain conscious, alert and engaged. The world is an endless and inexhaustible splendor of wonders. The sublime strangeness of the world is endlessly inspiring if you are awake to it. The only true challenge is the stamina, so you have to fight off the oppressive war-mongers and feudal overlords that wanna drain you of imagination and fighting spirit. This battle is in itself endlessly inspiring as the capitalist pigs are gonna clamp down even harder before they inevitably die.

The future of the earth, not to mention our species, depends on this battle. What could be more inspiring than a battle for one’s life? And remaining conscious, alert and engaged is the necessary first step. Those pigs we’re fighting have all the power in the world at their disposal to hide the fact that there’s even a battle being waged! Fuck those pigs. Love will prevail!

Tell me about your CHS session—what did you like about it? Was there anything that surprised you or was spontaneous that came out in the recording?

Man, it was on St. Patrick’s Day, blah! The worst. We hadn’t rehearsed in a couple weeks, so we were very unprepared, but it went well. We played fine anyways. Lovely place Matt has there and everyone involved was real friendly and easy to work with. Good coffee. Cool set-up in concept and execution. Yeah, it was fun.

What’s happening? What are your current/upcoming shows or releases?

We are currently buried in writing a score for the Dreyer film The Passion of Joan of Arc to perform live. It’s been thrilling to work on. Totally stretching us to work in new ways, very exciting for us. And our new record comes out in May and then we go on tour through most of May through September, which is exciting, get to see our friends everywhere. Steady is the course.