Kier Byrnes & the Kettle Burners’ newest EP—out only on Bandcamp—romps through time and place. "Before the Fall" is both an escape to thrilling times long past and an ode to the unique anxieties of the contemporary everyman. In it, the tribulations of love, youthful malaise, and artists' woes collide with high-speed showdowns and shady backroom drama. Its existence is also a tribute to the band’s ability to rally and muster forth through adversity. The EP’s name hails from a serious accident that could have derailed the project.
From the first track, “Before the Fall” plunges listeners into a world of intrigue and shady characters, illustrated with masterful rhetoric and delivered in a raucous, swinging manner.
It features Kier Byrnes on acoustic guitar, Dan DiBacco on electric guitar, Jason McGorty on accordion, Joe Miller on bass, and Brian Lilienthal on drums and percussion. Byrnes and DiBacco trade off lead vocals, and everyone chimes in for gang vocals.
The results invoke elements of Americana and Celtic roots, as well as country and gypsy-punk styles. Or, as the band describes it, “a high-octane blend of face melting accordion and chicken pickin’ electric guitar."
The songs tackle serious topics with disconcerting levity. “Some of my favorite country and folk songs are the ones where it seems really nice, happy-go-lucky, but if you listen to the lyrics, it’s really gory, or really dark or even has a tragic tale to it,” said Byrnes. “It’s fun to sing about darker stuff in an upbeat, energetic way.”
Byrnes tipped his hat to artists such as Sturgill Simpson, Gogol Bordello, and the Clancy Brothers as inspiration.
Part of what makes the EP unique is its wide range of topics and unique sound pairings. DiBacco said each band member brings a different musical background, all of which show through to produce this mosaic. He added that, "It's fairly easy to sound old-timey when an instrument such as the accordion–played masterfully by Jason–is featured so prominently in our songs."
Byrnes and DiBacco split songwriting duties for "Before the Fall." DiBacco penned "Hurting or Helping," an existential tune that will strike particularly close to home for creatives wondering what AI means for their craft. Aptly, he said, "the song itself is undergoing a bit of an identity crisis–a rollickin' and triumphant outlaw-country-sounding hook & groove, that could be from the late ‘70s, superimposed over these lyrics addressing the grievances of being a millennial (or perhaps Gen X, Gen Z too) in our modern workforce."
"White Russian" came to DiBacco while on a winter run. The salt caking the streets inspired its first verse. "I thought this was such a beautiful image: the white streams of salty residue plastered on the black pavement... so I used it as a metaphor for salting the 'streets' of your mind, to rid it of another person's negative influence, represented by the 'glistening ice'." The lyrics pair with a melody he described as, "something a bunch of Soviets would drunkenly chant in a 1930s canteen hall, clinking their glasses of vodka, while a blizzard rages outside."
These and "Quarter Life Crisis" all reflect tidbits of his own life. "My hope is that even my most super-specific lyrics still paint a vivid story, or evoke similar experiences for others, even if they aren't initially understood beyond face value," he said.
Byrnes wrote “Trains Off the Rails”, a fast-paced narrative-driven song about a train ride gone dangerously wrong, and “When the Money’s All Gone,” a soulful reflection on true love. He likes to tell shadowy stories and often designs lyrics to revolve around a moment of high conflict. “Tragic ideas are some things I gravitate to when I’m songwriting,” he said. “I like the juxtaposition of how they fit over fun, kind of tap-along, boot-stomping songs, melodies, and rhythms.”
Some of those conflicts are drawn from Byrnes’ own life. “I’m not writing about myself, but I take parts of my life or parts of experiences that I see from people around me and sort of take a little bit of that, a little bit of that, kind of molded together.”
“When the Money’s All Gone” parallels his own experiences. It examines what happens in a relationship when one person hits rock bottom. “Many people have been in relationships where you don’t know where your footing is. Does the other person like me as much as I like them?” He said. “When you’re starting out, everything’s beautiful, everything’s wonderful. But what happens in a year when … things get more real, you know? All the shine and sparkle has worn off. Do you still embrace what you had before in the same way?”
“Trains Off the Rails” has less intimate roots. With that song, Byrnes let himself have some fun just for the sake of it. “I just wanted to write something that was a total literal train wreck. We just start playing faster and faster and let the adrenaline take over.”
Like Byrnes' storied train, there was a point in developing “Before the Fall” when things went off the rails. In August 2024, Byrnes was carrying a stack of chairs down a flight of stairs while wearing flip flops. He caught a toe and took the fall that would later inspire the name of the EP. When he landed, he couldn’t move his legs. He would later learn that he had torn the quad muscle in one leg completely off the bone.
After surgery, Byrnes had to relearn to walk. He knew he would be on crutches with limited mobility for months, but the band had already paid for recording sessions at Q Division Studios, a world-class recording studio in Cambridge. To cover the costs, the band had curated a calendar of shows that they could not afford to miss.
Byrnes was up for the challenge and so were the Kettle Burners. “The band was super awesome … like literally I would just get hobbled up onto the stage—I could stand stationary—and they would put the guitar on top of me,” he said. It took patience, teamwork, and some awkwardness, but they didn’t miss a single show.
The shows did look a bit different. Byrnes said they had to reexamine their playing style, which often relied on visual cues such as jumping or turning to signal another person’s solo. “I couldn’t do any of that,” he said. He also did not have the mobility to step on a guitar pedal. “I’d have to stab it with my crutch to activate it [then] play and stab it with my crutch back to turn the pedal off.”
His perseverance earned him new respect from his bandmates. "It was really tough on him, and it was tough to see at times, not just as a bandmate, but as a friend," said DiBacco. "We were already inspired by Kier's drive and tenacity before the fall, but I think everyone in the band can agree we're even more impressed with it post-fall."
Despite the setback, the band celebrated some big successes recently and looks forward to a packed year ahead. In 2024, they released the EP “All Gone Wrong” in October and won New England Music Award Americana Act of the Year soon thereafter. Now, with Kier regaining some of his normal stage presence, they are diving back into performances with a month of Irish-themed gigs ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, including the Harpoons St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Boston this Friday. On April 11, they will host an official release party for “Before the Fall” at Plough and Stars in Cambridge.
“Before the Fall” is available in its unmastered form on BandCamp but is slated to appear on other platforms ahead of the April release.
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