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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 na tive, 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 go ing 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 play ing 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 Blossoms.”

Music is all the trio does. When they return from touring, they get right back into their Tempe studio. Usu ally, they’re joined by producer Johnny Karkazis, to whom The Black Moods were introduced by Adelitas Way singer Rick DeJesus.

“He’s got a great track record. He’s a really good dude, and when Rick arranged a call with us, he was all southside Chicago and intimidating.”

Not much has changed since then.

“He’ s quick to tell us that’s stupid,” Kennedy said about Karkazis, who has worked with Disturbed, Plain White T’s, 3 Doors Down and Megadeth.

How does Kennedy handle it?

“Drink and cry,” Kennedy added with out cracking a smile. “He’s just trying to get the best out of us. He really lets us have it. It wears us out eventually . By the end of the session, the song is great. We love him to death, seriously.” Breaking the charts

“Bella Donna” was the first song by The Black Moods to crack the charts and the nation’s radio stations. The relentlessly addictive, Doors-influenced song hit streaming services June 1, 2019.

“W e were working on music and our producer, Johnny K, was in town,” Kennedy said. “But my granddad passed away . I had to go back to Missouri. When I was leaving, he was trying to bring out a Doors-esque style groove, ‘Love Me Two Times.’”

“When I went back to Missouri, I was sitting by myself in my grandparents’ house. Nobody was there, and it was the first time I had been there alone. I was playing the acoustic. When I returned, we talked about what we were working on.”

He played the song for Diaz and Hoff man.

“W e lit into it and everything started falling into place,” Kennedy said. “A case of beer later and 3 a.m. came around and we were doing backup vocals. I was nervous. I didn’t know if Johnny would like it or hate it. He said, ‘This is great.’”

“Bad News” came next, followed by “Whatcha Got,” the latter of which final ly landed on Phoenix rock radio.

Coming with the “Sunshine” album is a white wine to complement the red wine “Bella Donna.” The album is out May 8.

It all goes back to The Black Moods’ good old rock ’n’ roll.

“It’s just what happens when we play,” Kennedy said. “It’s not like we looked around at radio right now and decided there wasn’t a lot of rock on the radio. We’ve been on the same path since we started.”

Diaz added, “It’s not like we’re adjust ing, because rock’s coming back. People want to hear guitars, bass and drums again—and people actually playing them again.” The Black Moods: Drummer Chico Diaz, left, Chico Diaz, Josh Kennedy and Jordan Hoffman (Photo by Jim Louvau)

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ANSWERS ON PAGE 14

ACROSS

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WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | MAY 6, 2020

SUDOKU TIME

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

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DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK H H H H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!

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SCRAMBLERS

Unscramble the letters within each rectangle to form four ordinary words. Then rearrange the boxed letters to form the mystery word, which will complete the gag!