The Black Moods are Tempe’s next big thing
Most local acts would kill to have the kind of week the Black Moods just had. By the time they hit the streets with their latest album, “Sunshine,” on May 8, Billboard was reporting that the title track had just debuted at No. 37 on the mainstream rock chart.
This marks the Tempe rockers’ fourth Top 40 entry on that chart since they politely asked to be released from their first major-label deal — with Sony Music Entertainment-linked Another Century — because the label didn’t see that kind of airplay in their future.
“They kept saying over and over that we weren’t a radio band,” singer-guitarist Josh Kennedy recalls. “They said, ‘The next record, we might go to radio, but you guys are a touring band. You’re gonna build your thing touring.’”
Kennedy thought that was crazy talk and definitely not what he’d signed on for.
“The cool thing about being 13 and playing guitar by yourself in your bedroom to songs you hear on the radio is thinking one day you’ll be on the radio,” he says. “And it’s funny, being told that by these heavy hitters in the business. It just shows that they don’t always know what they’re talking about. We knew we were.”
To his ears, there were songs on “Medicine,” their previous release, that could have gotten airplay if Another Century had gone to radio.
“They didn’t even budget anything for radio,” he says. “With the merger going on with Sony, I think they had more on their hands than our band. Because we weren’t that big. We didn’t have that many followers. We were just building the brand at the time. And they didn’t believe in us like we believed in us.”
Although they parted on good terms, he feels that label may have been a bad fit from the start.
“The truth is they were metal,” he says. “And they had no idea what to do with just a straight-up rock ‘n’ roll band. They’re great guys. They just weren’t great for our band.”
‘Everybody wants rock ‘n’ roll again’
It should be noted that this is a better time for straight-up rock ‘n’ roll bands with a clear affinity for the sounds that rocked the sports arenas of the early ‘70s than 2016 was, given recent breakthroughs by Greta Van Fleet and Dirty Honey.
“We’ve been this way forever,” drummer Chico Diaz says. “We haven’t changed a thing. It’s just starting to get cool again. Everybody wants rock ‘n’ roll again. And so I think this is the perfect time to have this record out.”
There is one thing about the timing of this record that’s less than ideal: the fact that they’re releasing “Sunshine” in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that’s forced them to cancel the touring they’d planned to promote it.
Did they think about postponing the release?
“We just decided to stay the course,” bassist Jordan Hoffman says. “Now the album’s coming out and things are starting to get a little lifted. Hopefully, people can start to move around again, but I think it’s a perfect time. It’s May. It’s called ‘Sunshine.’ People are home listening to music. It might actually work in our favor.”
The recording of ‘Sunshine’
It’s been about three years since Kennedy and Diaz brought in Hoffman to complete the Black Moods’ current lineup, just in time to start recording “Sunshine” in their Tempe studio with Johnny K, a Chicago-based producer suggested by their tour mates Adelitas Way.
Those sessions got off to a somewhat shaky start when the producer asked to hear some songs and they played him a few of their favorites.
As Kennedy recalls his less than blown-away reaction, “”Sunshine’ was one, when we played it for him, he was like, ‘Ehh.’ He wanted to start getting his producing hands right on it, changing it right up, like, ‘Oh lemme add some (expletive) garlic to your (expletive) banana split.’”
They quickly decided to put the songs they felt most passionate about on the back burner, Kennedy says, suggesting that they knock off early.
“We were like, ‘Go get some rest and we’ll have something for you in the morning,’” he recalls. “And within 15 minutes, we had come up with the basic structure for ‘Bad News.’ So we tracked it that night. He came in the next day, looked at us and said, ‘You guys did that last night?!’”
The producer’s initial reaction was frustrating, Kennedy says.
“You’re on the defense automatically when somebody comes in trying to change your stuff. But that’s what we brought him in for. It wasn’t our first rodeo working with a producer.”
Recording in their own rehearsal space was fun, Diaz says. “That way, you’re not looking at the clock. You don’t have to worry about 10-hour days or whatever. We went probably 16 hours a day.”
Or as Kennedy puts it, “Until we went cross-eyed or got too drunk.”
They spread the process out over four sessions, cutting “Whatcha Got” at Johnny K’s place in Chicago.
“We were on tour,” Diaz says. “We stopped in for a day off, recorded that song and kept moving.”
It was Johnny K who brought the conversation back around to “Sunshine.”
“We hadn’t played it for him since that first day,” Kennedy recalls. “And he was like, ‘You know, that “Sunshine” song, there’s something there. We should go back and revisit it.’”
The crowd reaction at their shows to “Sunshine” quickly made it clear that it was worth revisiting. “It’s an immediate singalong,” Kennedy says.
Breaking through with ‘Bella Donna’
In late 2018 they peaked at No. 29 on Billboard’s mainstream rock chart with their breakthrough single, “Bella Donna.”
They were in St. Louis when they first heard “Bella Donna” on the radio.
“I think they were the first to play us,” Diaz says. “And to actually hear that on the radio 2,000 miles away from Phoenix, it’s incredible. It never gets old. And we just heard our new single the night before last on 98 KUPD. That was just a huge bucket list for all of us, especially me because I grew up here.”
Kennedy is from Missouri and he still has family in St. Louis, so the fact that his home state broke “Bella Donna” was especially rewarding.
“It had nothing to do with me being from there,” he says. “It just happened kind of organically. Now when I go back home, they’re like, ‘Holy (expletive), you’re on the radio.”
Was there any concern at the time that “Bella Donna” could have been a one-hit wonder situation?
“If you’re signed to a major, that could easily happen,” Kennedy says.
“If they think you’re putting your best foot forward and they go to radio with it and you sink, you’ll probably get dropped. Or they’ll just quit paying attention to you and keep putting you on the back burner until you go nuts on each other and implode.”
Growing the audience one single at a time
Instead, the Black Moods’ current label, Steelhorse Entertainment, went to work on making sure the second single, “Bad News,” charted even higher, followed by Top 40 showings for their next two singles, “Whatcha Got” and “Sunshine.”
That’s the most Top 40 entries on the mainstream rock chart for a Valley artist since Gin Blossoms’ quadruple-platinum breakthrough in the ‘90s with “New Miserable Experience.”
It helps that they’ve been building strong relationships at radio since “Bella Donna” hit.
“It’s made it easier for us to get added as these other singles drop,” says Hoffman. “People know us now. Some of these stations started spinning ‘Sunshine’ before it was even released.”
They’ve seen the impact of that airplay in the crowds they’re drawing.
“The audience has been growing,” Kennedy says. “They sing along, which is amazing.”
For the longest time, he says, the one place where you couldn’t hear the Black Moods on the radio was Phoenix.
“It was saddening for a while,” he says. “So the fact that KUPD added ‘Sunshine’ to rotation this past week just kind of solidified the whole thing for us because you know, this is Chico’s home but it’s our home now. I’ve been here since 2002.”
‘People start returning your calls’
Those hits have also helped their standing in the industry.
“It definitely legitimizes all the hard work we’ve been doing all these years,” Kennedy says. “And the industry takes you a little more seriously is what we’ve found. People start returning your calls, which is nice.”
They’ve had calls “with some pretty important cats” at major labels in the past two weeks, he says. “And they’re very blatant about it. They’re like, ‘Sorry I never called you back before but you were never this successful.’”
They’ve also lined up a recording date with famed producer Eddie Kramer, whose engineering and production credits include the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix
and Led Zeppelin.
Kennedy had met him through Gene Simmons many years ago but hadn’t spoken to him in a while.
“He’s on quarantine just like the rest of us,” he says. “But he’s gonna produce a song for us. He’s gonna Zoom in and we’re gonna have him on a TV in the studio. We’ve known each other but the success of the singles helps facilitate that kind of stuff.”
For Diaz, the best part of what’s happened for the Black Moods since their breakthrough single hit is seeing all the hard work they’ve put into doing what they do come to fruition.
“Josh and I, we’ve always had the same dream, always had the same goal,” Diaz says. “It hasn’t changed once in the 15 years I’ve known this guy. It’s hard to find someone that’s that like-minded. Same with Jordan. So we just kept going.”