Los Black Dogs is a Spanish psychedelic rock band based in Chicago, IL. The band consists of Joel, Gerardo, Juan, Ricardo and Fran all tied with the passion to create music within their rooted latino community. The band has performed across DIY venues, supporting local bands and being able to craft their influences from those around them. Their music expresses rich tunes of groovy guitars with a twist of heavy bass and drums that lights up fans to emerge themselves to the heat of their everlasting tune.
When was the band formed?
Ricardo: The band was formed in 2012 and has gone through different band members since that time. As of now, these are the permanent band members.
Joel: A backstory on how we started was at first with just Ricardo, Gustavo (former member) and myself. Ricardo and I have known each other for a long time and decided to create a band together. We decided to jump into making the band as soon as possible literally the next day. I was focused on making the lyrics and Ricardo was in charge of crafting the instrumental. I was supposed to sing but I didn’t feel comfortable so I decided to lean into the bass and eventually loved it more. What started with me, Ricardo and Gustavo, who was a previous band member. Eventually we landed on our current band members through personal connections and is how we ended up with the lineup we have now. Throughout time, what began as a hobby has turned into a passion in creating music together. We still strive to make our music be heard across Chicago.
What led to the formation of “Los Black Dogs” and share the meaning behind the band name?
Ricardo: In the past, we’ve participated in the battle of the bands, the rules were to have 3 original songs, but we didn’t have a singer and not even a band name. At the time, we simply wanted a name to be suited for the purposes for the battle of the bands. . We didn’t really sit down and think about the band name to the fullest. It wasn’t until my friend at the time who was a DJ, was playing tunes at the event and he was playing various songs. While he was playing we were sitting down thinking about our band name. He played a song by Led Zeppelin called, “Black Dogs” and me and Gustavo (former bandmate) looked at each other and decided to pick the name “Black Dog”. The purpose was to just use this name for the battle of the bands event. We ended up in third place and from there we began to receive people reaching out to have us play gigs. We didn’t have time to join together as a band to sit through and think about the official band name. Throughout time, we decided to call ourselves,”Los Black Dogs” to showcase our roots to the latino community from where we come from.
In 2022, the band released its debut EP, LBD, a vibrant blend of Spanish rock infused with psychedelic grooves. Can you walk us through the creative process behind tracks like “Fuego” and “Deep Inside”? What inspired the sound of this album, and how did the songwriting journey unfold?
Juan: Fuego and Deep Inside were our very first couple of songs. Deep inside specifically, was one of the songs where I’ve had the lyrics for a while and we decided to structure it together. Through the years playing together, we are still trying to find our song that is rooted to our representation of the band. Overall, it’s a mix of everyone in the band that contributes to the song writing process.
Gerardo: To dive into specifics it really also depends on the song, especially after a jam session. We tend to follow through with crafting a song once we all can agree it’s worth exploring more. For example, “Sweet Lips” was a song that I wrote a while back and there wasn’t any instrumental to it. We all ended up putting a lot of pieces to this song. Overall we collaborate with each other in both lyrically and musically. We provided criticisms, in a good way for all of us to make sure we can stay true to ourselves. Our goal is to craft music we find to be true representation to us as a group rather than focusing on what’s the most popular music outline nowadays.
Ricardo: If one of our members has a song laid out , we jam and go about building the song in the moment thinking out loud. These ideas can be good or bad, but ultimately we lean on creating a song that ignites our band together. For example, “Siempre” had the majority of the instrumental laid out from my initial start. Next thing you know, Juan took the lead in singing the song and the rest of the band members jumped into crafting their sound together. We focused on laying out the instrumentals first and foremost.
The Chicago music scene is thriving with bands experimenting in the psychedelic genre. What sets your band apart is the way you fuse the rich cultural roots of Chicago’s Latino community with both rock and psychedelic influences. Has blending Spanish and English in your music presented any challenges when breaking into the local scene?
Joel: My primary language is Spanish and it’s how I go into writing all lyrics. One of the challenges we all faced was that the scene was filled with individuals who spoke English and having to perform our songs in Spanish felt like a hurdle we faced at the start. We felt that we should incorporate a bit of English into our songs to allow listeners to feel welcomed. Thankfully, after our sets, people came up to us to express how amazing our performances were and express positive feedback. These individuals may not speak Spanish fluently, yet they still expressed our music in a positive environment which made us feel more included into the scene. We feel very thankful.
Nowadays, it seems Spanish rock is on the rise in the music scene here in Chicago. From your perspective, how do you all feel about seeing these new bands emerging in this scene?
Joel: These new bands should be able to grow in a respectful manner. We have a lot to consider as we represent our culture into our music, it’s important to be mindful to keep your roots intact without changing for the need to change due to social norms. Our culture comes from a great community and we should all nurture that.
Gerardo: It’s exciting to see new bands out, especially Spanish singing bands from all genres. Before, it may not have been socially acceptable, however it’s becoming more aware of representing our culture to the fullest. Without needing to hide or not being able to sing in Spanish. It’s becoming more popular across the nations, and now we have other artists who are famous advocating for us. This gives us hope that we shouldn’t fear showing who we are as a person and how we want to represent ourselves in a band.
Ricardo: We see the combination from all genres expressing their roots into these genres whether it’s blues, R&B or even Rock and Roll. At the end of the day, I find it to be very amazing to see bands being able to combine their native language into all genres.
Fran: It’s beautiful to see bands retain themselves for who they are. Though it might be a bit difficult to be able to not change into fitting what people want to hear. Maintaing the purpose of the band’s overall genre will surely find the right people who are wanting to hear more, it’s worth keeping.
Los Black Dogs recently added a new member to the band as a percussionist. What were the initial steps that led to this decision?
Fran: It came as a surprise! I’m currently in another band with Gerardo as a percussionist too. When the band asked me if I was interested to join I was a bit nervous. I’ve been a fan of the band for a while now and though I started out as a friend supporting their shows, it feels like a full circle. I’m extremely thankful to be part of this incredible band, who’s bandmates are already my friends so it’s less awkward.
Gerardo: For me personally, it was a need to have percussion added into certain songs.I’ve been told that adding percussion to the songs would influence our genre into a new level. I can certainly say it’s exciting to have Fran to influence our songs down the line and it just feels right.
Ricardo: We always wanted to incorporate a percussionate to certain songs, however we never had the right time to seek a new band member for this purpose. It was a bit difficult because we wanted to make sure the person was suited to our band and to who we are as a person, vibes were important. Since Fran was a photographer who’s been attending our shows for a while, we grew a connection with Fran over time and became friends.
Joel: I felt more comfortable with Fran after jamming. I don’t need to worry about filling in gaps in jamming the instrumentals. I can lean on Fran from a percussionates standpoint to help guide me into the right rhythm. As the bassist it just feels right knowing I can lean on him on certain tunes and I can allow time to concentrate more on exploring my rhythms.
Juan: He’s a great percussionist! We’re excited for him to be part of our band to further develop songs into how we’d always liked it to be from the start.
Can you share any local Chicago bands you all are currently loving?
Juan: Zac Fendor and the Long Goodbyes has been my favorite current band.
Gerardo: Kosmic Kicks, I really admire their live shows. It’s really incredible to witness their energy in live performances.
Ricardo: It’ll have to be two bands as my top, Deadfeathers and Satin Banshee. Both bands are amazing and can highly recommend them both.
Fran: Recently it’s been Cabeza de Chivo! They’re combination of psychedelic and cumbia integration really are one of a kind.
Joel: Satin Banshee! They’re really amazing and I love their musical performances, especially their bassist.
Do you have any advice for individuals who feel hesitant about creating music that doesn’t follow today’s top chart trends?
Gerado: Just do whatever you want to do. I think you should always play your music for yourself. It’s important to focus on what you want to do, then go on about it. Just give it your all, at the end of the day no matter what I appreciate all bands that they play their hearts out. Seeing them play whatever they want without limiting themselves based on people’s opinions is incredible.
Ricardo: We are in a different generation, we have the opportunity to be heard, I personally feel that you should make music through love and from that it comes with lots of opportunities. Do it because you love it, it really does go a long way.
What can fans expect from Los Black Dogs in 2025? Any upcoming shows?
Gerardo: We’re going on our first show outside Chicago that will be in Denver on August 16th. We will be tagging along with our good friends, “Roka Hueka” a Ska band from Denver, Colorado. Our goal is to dedicate and aim for 1-2 new singles before the end of the year. Make sure to follow us on social media for the latest updates.
To see our favorite photos taken by Joanna, check out the full article on our Substack.
