Acclaimed US singer-songwriter Amigo The Devil (aka Danny Kiranos) recently added a third Irish show to his previously announced UK & Ireland tour, taking place over the next two weeks. Kiranos and his band have been touring throughout 2024 to promote ‘Yours Until The War Is Over’, his third studio album that was released in February.
The record has received a swathe of accolades and drawn comparisons to the likes of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen with a set of songs that serve as cinematic vignettes threading together stories of the human condition, trauma bonding and the method of using relationships for survival. All heart, with no boundaries, it is an album to be experienced from beginning to end in order to recognise the perspective it offers.
Amigo The Devil on his touring lifestyle
Touring can be taxing for the body over long periods of time, and Amigo the Devil is no stranger to this fact. Having completed a US tour with Flogging Molly in late March, Danny & co. played 14 headlining shows Australia and New Zealand in April before coming to the UK. “The adjustment period for being on the road versus being at home is so different,” Kiranos explains, “I think people really underestimate how hectic the shift between being at home and being on tour really is.”
He talks about visiting the UK specifically: “I have a lot of friends out here, so it’s nice to catch up. I’ve already got all the tourism out of the way over the years…I have a routine I’ve built, you know? I’ll go eat here, I’ll go drink there.”
On social media, the pandemic and how it affects music
Being on tour is a more personal way of sharing your music, compared to the prevalence of online streaming. Certainly for most artists, it’s their preferred way of sharing what they’ve created. Danny talks about how he prefers live music, and how online content in general often takes away from our actual lived experiences: “I see so many people around me trying to embellish moments that are already special to seem more special. I always have to wonder, ‘is the memory they keep the embellished version?’ The true memory on its own was good enough.”
When asked about the complications the pandemic brought to this, he elaborates: “It’s proof that the deeper we go into social relations being strictly online, that the distance between people is crushing. Even at shows, some people have forgotten how to interact socially to some degree. You do see how much that distance and time apart from each other affected us.”
He goes on to talk about how it affected him personally, “I was wildly fortunate enough where the pandemic was a break for me. I would have never ever given myself that time if I wasn’t forced to – it was an amazing growth period for me. I didn’t wanna waste that opportunity.” When asked about if this affected his song-writing, he mulls the question over for a second, before replying, “It wasn’t any of the grim aspects of it that changed my song-writing — it was simply because I had time to think.”
On how he personally writes his songs
“The majority of my songs are written alongside each other — the melodic structure and the lyrics are written together. I’ll come up with a quick little flash of a song with a lyric over it, and that portion alone dictates where the rest of the song is gonna go.” He expands on this, detailing the steps in his writing process: “I do that to get the mood, then I’ll write out a story based on it. After that, I re-write the lyrics to adapt the story to the melody. It’s a big back-and-forth: it’s a conversation between instrument and lyrics.”
The Cannibal Within is one of the singles from ‘Yours Until The War Is Over’, and one of the standout tracks. Kiranos explains the process that took him through creating it, and how it differed from some of his other songs: “It ended up being wildly personal – probably more personal than I would have liked it to be. I think that made it easier to write because it’s based on true-to-life experiences, rather than imagining moments. It was easier to write, but it was a little complicated to relive.”
The meaning behind his lyrics
“I way prefer people to get their own meaning — which is one of the reasons that I’m happy to talk about the songs and the process, but it does get to a point where I don’t want to tell people exactly what the songs mean. It takes away from whatever they need themselves (from the songs).” He elaborates that although there’s specific imagery in his songs, there’s a lot of vagueness as well: “It’s kind of a vague play for people to draw whatever they need or want.”
Speaking about ‘The Mechanic’ in particular, he talks about how this philosophy affected the writing of the song. “I had written (The Mechanic) to be very, very specific about my experience, and then I had to go back and rewrite the whole thing to allow for that freedom from someone else. I wanted it to be accessible to anyone’s own memories, rather than trying to understand what memory I’m reliving.”
YOURS UNTIL THE WAR IS OVER LP | CD | digital is out now to buy | stream
The album title is a reference to the love affair between Ernest Hemingway and his nurse Agnes von Kurowsky in the closing months of World War I, a (trauma) bond that developed after the future novelist was severely wounded in Italy just after becoming a Red Cross volunteer at the age of 18. She would sometimes end her love letters by writing “Yours until the war is over,” a sign-off that proved prophetic, her ultimate rejection devastating and scarring him.
Tour dates:
15.07.24 LEEDS Wardrobe tickets
16.07.24 GLASGOW Slay tickets
17.07.24 BIRMINGHAM Asylum tickets
18.07.24 LONDON O2 Academy Islington tickets
20.07.24 GALWAY Roísín Dubh tickets
21.07.24 CORK Cyprus Avenue tickets
22.07.24 DUBLIN Whelan’s tickets
