Tim Kinsella is a musician, author, and film director from Chicago, Illinois. He has been a member of many bands, including Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, Make Believe, Owls, Friend/Enemy, Everyoned, and others. His early solo material appears under the alias Tim Kinsella(s).
Kinsella is known for his eccentric singing voice, and has worked as a bartender at the Rainbo Club in Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood for most of his adult life. His brother Mike Kinsella refers to his bartending in the song "Breaking Away" on Owen's (The EP) (2004).
Tim Kinsella is the writer-director of the feature film Orchard Vale, which opened at the Chicago Underground Film Festival on August 15, 2007. His first novel, entitled The Karaoke Singer's Guide to Self-Defense, was published by Featherproof Books in September 2011. His second book, Let Go and Go On and On (Curbside Splendor Publishing), takes its inspiration from the late actress Laurie Bird's brief film career in the '70s, and was published in April 2014.
The 2017 Noisey documentary Your War (I'm One of You): 20 Years of Joan of Arc focuses heavily on Kinsella's biography and personal experiences.