What high school did Mike kinsella of capn jazz go to

Checked on February 5, 2026
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Executive summary (1–2 sentences)

Mike Kinsella, the drummer and co‑founder of Cap’n Jazz who grew up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, has stated in interviews that he attended Wheeling High School [1] [2]. Multiple profiles connect Kinsella and Cap’n Jazz to the Buffalo Grove scene, which has led to confusion about which specific high school he attended; the primary on‑the‑record source available here is Kinsella’s own remark that he went to Wheeling [3] [2].

1. Early scene, common assumptions

Cap’n Jazz is widely identified with the Buffalo Grove/Chicago suburbs scene where Mike Kinsella and his brother Tim became formative figures in what later was labeled midwestern emo [3] [1]. That geographic shorthand—“Buffalo Grove”—shows up repeatedly in reporting and fandom, and it creates a natural assumption that band members attended Buffalo Grove High School, an assumption explicitly voiced in an interviewer’s question to Kinsella [3] [2].

2. Kinsella’s on‑the‑record answer

When asked directly by Joshua Minsoo Kim if Cap’n Jazz members attended Buffalo Grove High School, Mike Kinsella replied, “I went to Wheeling,” providing the clearest first‑person source on his secondary education in the reporting supplied [2]. This is the strongest available direct evidence in the provided material about which high school he attended.

3. Why the mix‑up persists

Profiles and encyclopedic entries about Kinsella and his bands tend to emphasize hometown and early scene over specific institutional detail—Wikipedia and magazine profiles repeatedly cite Buffalo Grove as the band’s origin and Kinsella’s upbringing—so the exact high school can be elided or generalized in secondary sources [3] [1]. The interviewer’s question captured that expectation, and social memory of a local scene often collapses neighborhood, venue and school into one shorthand label [2] [1].

4. What the documentation shows and does not

The materials provided include Kinsella’s own verbal statement that he attended Wheeling [2] and independent reporting that he grew up in Buffalo Grove [1]. The supplied sources do not include school records, yearbook scans, or an official biography that would corroborate or expand on Kinsella’s remark, so the finding rests on his on‑the‑record comment and the contextual reporting about his upbringing [2] [1].

5. Final assessment

On balance, the best, directly attributable answer in the available reporting is that Mike Kinsella attended Wheeling High School, per his own reply when asked about Buffalo Grove schooling [2]. Secondary coverage situating him in Buffalo Grove explains why many observers assume Buffalo Grove High School, but that assumption is contradicted by Kinsella’s stated school affiliation in the cited interview [1] [2].

Want to dive deeper?
What schools did other members of Cap'n Jazz attend?
How did Buffalo Grove and the Chicago suburbs shape the midwestern emo scene?
Where can one find primary documents (yearbooks, local press) confirming musicians' high schools in the 1990s Chicago suburbs?