Amigo the Devil defeats doubt in Bend

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 24, 2019

Amigo the Devil has a lot of doubts. Turns out, so does everyone else.

That’s what the folk punk songwriter born Danny Kiranos learned as he put together his first studio album, “Everything is Fine.” Doubt courses through the album’s lyrics, from the dark yet anthemic love song “Hell and You,” to “Cocaine and Abel,” which lays out a laundry list of insecurities that the song’s narrator eventually comes to terms with.

“A lot of the doubt initiated itself with coming to the realization that I wasn’t feeling secure with the songs that I was writing; I wasn’t feeling secure with the person that I was at that moment in time,” Kiranos said recently from a tour stop in Orlando, Florida, a city he once called home. (He now lives just outside Austin, Texas.)

“I wasn’t really bettering myself for not only myself, but anyone else around me: family, friends. And the only way to get out of that pit that I was I guess just drowning in was to accept that change happens, that change is something that is crucial. I wanted to bring a lot of acceptance into the themes, and I was very curious to see how many people felt this way. And it turns out that a lot of people do.”

You might be under the impression that Kiranos, who will play his first show in Bend at Volcanic Theatre Pub on Sunday, isn’t the happiest person. But his songs, often tagged as “murderfolk” due to their dark themes, showcase a wicked sense of humor — take a listen to the tongue-in-cheek “I Hope Your Husband Dies,” in which Kiranos sings the title as the anthemic — and catchy — chorus hook. And he laughed often while discussing the album and his history as a musician and former beer brewer (“I’ve been to Bend quite a bit because of brewing stuff; I love the breweries out there,” he said).

“I think that a lot of people expect me to be a very miserable person just inherently,” Kiranos said. “I sing about some dark things; I understand. It makes all the sense in the world for someone to believe that, but I guess the part that isn’t apparent on the forefront is that the reason those songs are being written is so that I don’t have to feel that way in real life — I mean, not real life, but in the public I should say.”

Kiranos grew up in Miami and started playing guitar in metal and hardcore bands when he was a teenager. At the same time, he also was listening to artists such as John Prine, Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen.

The influence of both can be heard in Amigo the Devil, which Kiranos started around 2010 as a way to relax after working in a brewery all day. He put music aside to study brewing in Chicago and Germany, but missed playing.

“I had a banjo and an acoustic (guitar),” Kiranos said. “I didn’t really play either of them very well — I didn’t know the banjo at all — but I would pick it up, and I’d fumble with it and make some noise and all that. And because this wasn’t born out of necessity and because this wasn’t born with intention or a goal, I think that it was a very, very natural process where I wasn’t gonna call anybody over to play music with because I wasn’t trying to start a band. I was literally just trying to make noise for myself and come up with a couple of fun songs for myself.”

Eventually, a friend suggested he record these songs and tour behind them.

“Obviously, I thought he was just a friend being a friend and trying to be supportive,” Kiranos said. “But I brushed him off, and he called again. That’s when I started trying to play shows. … But that was the birth of it, was my friend believing in it and me doubting it — very common themes.”

He came up with the Amigo the Devil moniker in order to start a Myspace profile to upload his music: “That was the first thing that popped into my head that didn’t sound completely stupid.”

He released a series of EPs independently over the next decade, usually recorded in quick bursts in whatever studio time he could afford. By contrast, “Everything is Fine” had a much longer and more nerve-wracking recording process as Kiranos wrestled with the album’s dark themes.

“It kind of sucked,” he said. “… As rewarding as it is to some degree, it definitely was not fun.”

Recording with producer Ross Robinson (Korn, Red Fang, At the Drive-In) and drummer Brad Wilk, known for his work with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, was fortunately much more fun for Kiranos. However, once again he had to deal with doubts about working with two of his musical heroes.

“Going back to the doubt thing, you doubt your own skill, you doubt your own ability,” he said. “… Then you have somebody who has succeeded in what you’re trying to do come in, and it’s very — it’s this imposing figure coming into the room and working on what you’ve been doing, your songs and all that. And at that moment, it’s so easy to just start asking yourself, is this worth it? Are these songs good enough? Is what I’m doing acceptable (or) am I wasting their time? And the whole process, they were very supportive of letting me know that they were there to help.”