Birthmark

Originating as the solo outlet for Chicago indie/emo veteran Nate Kinsella, Birthmark lets the multi-instrumentalist redirect his experimental tendencies into introspective indie folk while also pursuing more assertive alt-pop and electronic directions that often incorporate orchestral layers. After launching the project via the folk- and indie-rock-oriented The Layer in 2007, he shifted toward more robust, art-pop-inflected textures reminiscent of Animal Collective for his fourth full-length, the 2015 release How You Look When You're Falling Down. The protracted fifth Birthmark album, Birth of Omni, arrived in 2024 and extended that trajectory while addressing themes of identity, fatherhood, middle age, and related concerns.

While active in groups such as Joan of Arc and Make Believe—frequently alongside one or both cousins Tim and Mike Kinsella—Nate Kinsella first explored solo ideas by attempting to score a film for a friend; those pieces later became The Layer, issued in 2007 under the Birthmark name on independent imprints that included Germany’s Coraille. During the same period he contributed to Mike’s Owen project and appeared on recordings by Chris Connelly, the Love of Everything (alongside Joan of Arc’s Bobby Burg), and additional artists. Shaking Hands, the follow-up, surfaced in November 2010 and featured more than a dozen guests handling strings, woodwinds, percussion, and backing vocals. The project then moved to Polyvinyl for the 2012 album Antibodies, a contemplative set that again augmented Kinsella’s guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and other instrumentation with chamber elements. Birthmark returned on Polyvinyl in 2015 with the livelier, more expansive How You Look When You're Falling Down.

In 2014 Nate joined the reunited emo band American Football, fronted by Mike Kinsella, and played bass on their 2016 and 2019 self-titled albums, both of which reached the Top Five of Billboard’s Independent Albums chart. Delayed by commitments to American Football, family life, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the fifth Birthmark album also followed the formation of the experimental pop duo LIES with Mike, whose self-titled debut appeared in early 2023. On Birth of Omni, released by Polyvinyl in January 2024, Nate examined those experiences along with sexuality, identity, middle age, and further subjects; the final version enlisted more than two dozen musicians and received production advice from genre-bending composer William Brittelle.