Justin Ford from the Kinetic Stereokids was equal parts effusive, thoughtful and friendly when Pras Rajagopalan called him in his newly adopted hometown of Chicago. What a lovely young lad. It probably comes from going up in Flint. And the partial neurosis.

SO INTRODUCE US TO THE KINETIC STEREOKIDS, AND TELL US WHAT IT IS ABOUT BEING A PART OF THE GROUP THAT KEEPS YOU MAKING MUSIC FOR HALF A DECADE.

OK, well I guess the best way to introduce the Kinetic Stereokids is to say that it is, at heart, a collective of like-minded compadre's from the wastelands of Flint, Michigan who share common interests in music, art, and life in general. That always sounds a little grandiose until you realize its core is really based around four best-friends-since-high-school who have literally been with each other through every major life event imaginable. We also share an interest in music that has been channeled through this band for so long that it's easy to say certain things are telepathic between us all. It's really like we're all married or something. It's kinda homosexual at times. So what keeps me playing with these guys is that we're just hopelessly stuck with each other, simple as that. We'd have to all divorce and give the rings back for KSK to un-exist.

YOUR SONGS HAVE ALL MANNER OF NOISE BURSTING IN AND OUT OF MY HEADPHONES, AND THEY SEEM TO BE THROWN ON TOP OF EACH OTHER IN WARPED LAYERS. ARE YOU TRYING TO CONFUSE, BEWILDER AND DISORIENT ME?

Almost everything we do is four minds working together. Most of the stuff we put out is on one album that we've worked on for the past three years. Sometimes we just say, "This one is going to be a total headfuck" and we throw all these sounds in. Although some of the time we have too much time on our hands and we throw too much stuff in there. I think some of the stuff we have now we are going to try to simplify.

IS FLINT REALLY THE DESOLATE, CRIME-INFESTED MICROCOSM OF THE AMERICAN DREAM GONE WRONG THAT MICHAEL MOORE WOULD HAVE US BELIEVE?

I suppose I could start by saying that basically everything Michael Moore has instilled in the minds of (everyone) about Flint is true. Michael Moore and I have a very similar vision of this place, partly because he happens to be a very good friend of mine. I grew up with Mike as a kind of godfather--my mom and dad actually met and started dating each other in 1980 while they were all working on the seminal liberal newspaper The Flint Voice. My parents have always been quite philanthropic, and as their hometown started to rot, they all--Michael especially--tried to fight back with words, art and literature. In this way I relate very much to them; I really see the Kinetic Stereokids as one more small pillar of culture and expression holding up the dignity of a whole region of otherwise jaded and vacant people.

THOUGH YOUR MUSIC ISN'T OVERTLY POLITICAL, IT DOES SEEM TO BE INSPIRED BY YOUR ENVIRONMENT '“ THERE'S FRUSTRATION, BOREDOM AND PARANOIA HERE. IT'S SORT OF INDIRECT POLITICISM.

You're right. We focus on how things that are happening affect us and our friends. Right after 9-11, I experienced all this paranoia and had sort of a nervous breakdown. I thought we were all going to die of anthrax and about how fucked up the government was. That's kind of where we come from. I'm not really into obviously political stuff.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO LEAVE FLINT FOR CHICAGO?

The decision to leave Michigan was pretty much inevitable. Things now have gotten pretty bad back home. A lot of our friends can't find jobs or have really shitty ones. Heroin got really big in Flint, and we watched as it tore apart a lot of our friends. I think there's only so much of 'raw' and 'gritty' a man can live around, before he finds himself actually becoming 'raw' and 'gritty' inside... so we left. So that's the serious part of the story about where we're from. The things that better describe our times there would be getting drunk and streaking down the street with guitars overhead. Playing packed shows at now-defunct coffeehouses off of Saginaw St. overlooking huge deserted parking lots and the sun setting on the vacant buildings as a huge throng of kids--punks, hippies, geeks--danced and thrashed around us.