Words by Kara Zuaro
January 21st, 2004

At the age of 12, guitarist/vocalist Joel Morales saw La Bamba and asked his mom, a former mariachi singer, for an electric guitar. She didn’t buy him one. The sounds of LL Cool J and Run-D.M.C. carried him through high school, and he didn’t really encounter guitar rock until his late teens. His relatively recent discovery of the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Neil Young may may be the inspiration for the pure and forthright devotion to them on his band’s self-titled debut (Startime International). Rock references pervade the eponymous record, from a Brian Wilson vocal riff ensconced in an original tune to a heartbreakingly tender cover of Neil Young’s “Birds.” Morales is part cynic, part shit-talker, and the mastermind behind some seriously biting break-up lyrics, but once he gets to chatting about his favorite bands, he’s got nothing but love.

Dios released an EP entitled Los Arboles in January, 2004 on Dim Mak/Love Parade which was just enough to set the stage for the sweet and tender pop constructions on the recent full-length. Other members of the band include brother Kevin Morales (guitar, vocals), JP Caballero (bass), Jackie Monzon (drums) and James Cabez DeVaca (keyboards).

You guys are from Hawthorne, CA, the former home of the Beach Boys, but I hear it’s a different sort of town than it used to be. How has the neighborhood changed?
It’s kind of strange. You see remnants of what it used to be like – the suburban housing and nice lawns. It’s mostly low-income housing now, and nobody even knows about the city’s music culture. I went to Hawthorne High, and I didn’t even know the fucking Beach Boys went there until after I graduated. We’re still proud of its legacy, though. It’s like growing up in Liverpool for us. Except in Liverpool, they wouldn’t be tearing down fucking Paul McCartney’s house and shit, which they’ve already done here with the Wilsons’ old house. There’s nothing left. I wanted to do a fucking mural for this city or something. I told the school I’d do it for free, but they didn’t go for it.

Are you a painter?
Yeah, I’ve liked painting since I was little, or drawing anyway. That’s one thing I’d love to do – in homage to the Beach Boys and pop. We’re all kind of artistic. My brother is a really good artist, and JP is really good at hair.

At hair?
An amazing hair stylist.

For real?
Yeah, just take a look at his hair. People come to him to get free haircuts. He’s pretty much a style guru here. Kevin’s an amazing dancer. Jimmy works out and he looks really good. We’re all artistic one way or another – whether we’re sculpting clay or our bodies or our hair.

All right, fair enough. When did you get into the Beach Boys?
I was a late bloomer with a lot of things involving music. I didn’t discover the Beach Boys and the Beatles until my last year of high school. I don’t remember when I found out they were from Hawthorne, but I definitely know it was directly after high school. It kind of sucked because I would have appreciated being at that high school more if I knew. The idea that these kids from our part of town could make that sort of music was just amazing to us. It just proves that you don’t have to be from cool, artistic parts of town to make really important, artistic music. You can do that anywhere. You can be from anywhere and make some really fuckin’ great music. It’s stupid musician talk, but the fact that Brian Wilson combined a bunch of instruments to make different sounds, and layered that experimentation over good song writing – that’s our inspiration. Ultimately, you can play their songs on acoustic guitars and it’s all good. That’s the kind of shit we enjoy.

And you like Neil Young, too?
Yeah, definitely. You can probably tell from our recording that After the Gold Rush and Harvest are our favorites. We listen to him a lot when we’re out on tour, driving through the canyons or mountains.

Where did you record your album?
I actually live in our practice space, and that’s where we did it. It’s good because all our equipment is there and you can make noise 24 hours a day, which was necessary because I don’t work well with schedules. One minute I like to get up and record, so it’s really cool to live in the practice space, but since we don’t have a shower and shit, or a refrigerator, I go to JP’s and use his. I use his computer, play chess and eat his food.

So, since you live in the practice space, is that your burp on the opening track?
[Laughs] Yeah! We thought that was funny because there’s this supposed tense moment coming up, this burst of energy is going to come with the song opening, and you totally deflate it with the burp. We just left it in. It’s our sense of humor.