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WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | MAY 6, 2020
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Tolleson’s Chico Diaz powers the chart-cracking Black Moods
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI West Valley View Executive Editor
Crammed in Scottsdale’s Old Town Tavern, The Black Moods’ Josh Kennedy, Chico Diaz and Jordan Hoffman are whipping songs from their forthcoming album, “Sunshine.” Sure, fans know every word to the hits “Bella Donna,” “Whatcha Got” and “Bad News,” but thanks to relentless touring, lyrics to songs like “Sunshine” and the latest single “Throwing Shade” are rote as well. The Tempe-based band has become one of the Valley’s favorites, but it goes beyond the music. They’re nice guys, among other things. “We like to party,” said Kennedy, as Diaz and Hoffman laugh at Ra Sushi Bar in Old Town. “Seriously, we hang out with our fans. We make friends. I think that goes a long way,” Hoffman added. “We like people,” Diaz, a Tolleson native, chimed in. “Plus, a lot of people want to hear rock ’n’ roll again. I know I do.” Kennedy’s chugging guitars, Hoffman’s aggressive bass and Diaz’s muscular drums are behind the three songs that landed on the Billboard rock charts. But there’s something different about the song “Sunshine,” which Kennedy dubs “our home run.” The song has spread like wildfire across rock radio since its mid-April release. The album of the
same name is due out Friday, May 8.
Humble beginnings Kennedy was bred in the most unlikely of spots for a rock singer—Wheaton, Missouri, in the Ozarks, where his head was filled with Southern rock and country music. Wheaton has a population of only 700. He found his calling when his dad summoned him to the living room to see a band he liked. “They didn’t have MTV,” he said. “This one day I was in my room playing and my dad says, ‘Hey, bub’—he calls me ‘bub’—‘Come check out this band.’ It was the Gin Blossoms playing ‘Hey Jealousy’ on an awards show.” Kennedy’s dad told him he could write music like that because it wasn’t virtuosic. “I decided when I was 13 that I was going to play guitar for the Gin Blossoms,” he said. “On my 21st birthday, I was on tour with the Gin Blossoms. They invited me onstage and I got to play guitar.” Flashback to when he was a teen, when he met the Gin Blossoms’ Robin Wilson after a show with his side project Gas Giants. “I was a super fan,” Kennedy said with a laugh. “I talked to him after the show. His advice? Go to college. He was playing 200-seaters to 50 people. Of course, I didn’t listen. I came out here. I found him playing Long Wong’s and I hit him up for
a job. I worked at his studio.” The Gin Blossoms have proven to be a huge influence on Kennedy’s songs, like “Someone to Save Us” from The Black Moods’ 2016 album “Medicine.” “‘Someone to Save Us’ is an example of a song that has the Gin Blossoms kind of feel,” he said. “It also has a harder rock sound than those guys have. “We take elements of stuff I grew up on—Bad Company, Led Zeppelin. I listen to them just as much as I did the Gin The Black Moods: Drummer Chico Diaz, left, Chico Diaz, Josh KenBlossoms.” nedy and Jordan Hoffman (Photo by Jim Louvau) Music is all the trio does. When they return from touring, they get a Doors-esque style groove, ‘Love Me right back into their Tempe studio. Usu- Two Times.’” ally, they’re joined by producer Johnny “When I went back to Missouri, I was Karkazis, to whom The Black Moods sitting by myself in my grandparents’ were introduced by Adelitas Way singer house. Nobody was there, and it was the Rick DeJesus. first time I had been there alone. I was “He’s got a great track record. He’s playing the acoustic. When I returned, we a really good dude, and when Rick ar- talked about what we were working on.” ranged a call with us, he was all southHe played the song for Diaz and Hoffman. side Chicago and intimidating.” “We lit into it and everything started Not much has changed since then. “He’s quick to tell us that’s stupid,” falling into place,” Kennedy said. “A Kennedy said about Karkazis, who has case of beer later and 3 a.m. came around worked with Disturbed, Plain White T’s, and we were doing backup vocals. I was 3 Doors Down and Megadeth. nervous. I didn’t know if Johnny would How does Kennedy handle it? like it or hate it. He said, ‘This is great.’” “Drink and cry,” Kennedy added with“Bad News” came next, followed by out cracking a smile. “He’s just trying to “Whatcha Got,” the latter of which finalget the best out of us. He really lets us ly landed on Phoenix rock radio. have it. It wears us out eventually. By the Coming with the “Sunshine” album is end of the session, the song is great. We a white wine to complement the red wine “Bella Donna.” The album is out May 8. love him to death, seriously.” It all goes back to The Black Moods’ Breaking the charts good old rock ’n’ roll. “Bella Donna” was the first song by “It’s just what happens when we play,” The Black Moods to crack the charts and Kennedy said. “It’s not like we looked the nation’s radio stations. The relent- around at radio right now and decided there lessly addictive, Doors-influenced song wasn’t a lot of rock on the radio. We’ve hit streaming services June 1, 2019. been on the same path since we started.” “We were working on music and our Diaz added, “It’s not like we’re adjustproducer, Johnny K, was in town,” Ken- ing, because rock’s coming back. People nedy said. “But my granddad passed want to hear guitars, bass and drums away. I had to go back to Missouri. When again—and people actually playing I was leaving, he was trying to bring out them again.”
