“Every time my dad sees me on stage, he loves seeing me play on the bass he used when he was younger,” Cunningham said. “It makes him really happy, so it has that sentimental value to me.”
The four-stringed Hondo has been out of production for decades, as the company ceased making guitars in 1985. But the maroon-bodied bass with an oak fretboard lives on through Cunningham, who can’t remember a time when his father wasn’t playing music.
“My dad used to work the night shift, so I remember him coming home when I was getting up to go to school,” Cunningham said. “He would always be playing the guitar.”
Playing on a Japanese-made instrument that was crafted long before he was born, Cunningham first received the musical relic from his father, after having technical difficulties on stage with his cheap, entry-level bass. During the 21-year-old’s first show with SLS, his starter thud-staff had cut out in the middle of a performance. So his dad passed on the Hondo to Cunningham, because he wanted his son to have a reliable instrument.
The SLS bassist was a freshman in college then. Now, three years later, Cunningham still rocks out on his dad’s 24-fretted thunderbroom at every concert.
“I’m really happy with the Hondo,” he said. “It’s really cool and sounds good.”
Cunningham’s father Brian formerly played in a one-man band called 1 B.C. He attends every single one of his son’s gigs in the Phoenix area.
“My parents are some of the biggest SLS fans there are,” Cunningham said. “They have been really supportive of my music, ever since I started playing when I was six years old.”
The University of Arizona senior is the newest addition to the four-piece reggae rock group SLS, which initially formed when the rest of the members were in middle school.
The trio of Esteban Obregon (drums), Connor Shea (vocals and rhythm guitar) and Nik Gelo (lead guitar) started out playing Blink 182 cover songs.
“In seventh grade, Esteban and Nik wanted to start a band, and I had the least bad-sounding voice,” Shea said. “So they convinced me to start this band with them.”
As teenagers, SLS performed at school dances occasionally, but the members said that music was more of a hobby for them in their earlier years.
However, during the band’s senior year of high school, SLS refocused, and the group switched from playing punk music to reggae rock. The genre change was, much in part, due to reggae influences and SLS wanting to take its music in a new direction.
“We tried the punk route, but it didn’t sound as good as our reggae stuff,” Obregon said. “We wanted to play party songs instead of angry rock songs.”
Upon the group’s graduation from Brophy High School in Phoenix, SLS’s bassist moved to California to attend San Diego State University.
So during their freshmen year of college, the members picked up the Hondo-playing Cunningham to become a four-piece once again. The band said they began taking their music seriously when he entered SLS.
“We first met Tyler when he walked into our dorm room and started playing Sublime,” Gelo said. “He quickly became one of our best friends and is a really skilled musician. He has a different background in music than the rest of us, so it adds variety and makes for a more well-rounded sound.”
The first show the current SLS members ever performed together was an opening act for Through the Roots.
“After that, we got such a good response that we realized that we should keep doing this,” Obregon said. “Eventually, we started getting bigger and bigger shows and making more connections around town.”
Since then, the Arizona-based band has released two EPs titled From the Sun and Lost in Emerald Cove and has opened for national acts such as Rebelution, The Dirtyheads, Authority Zero and Iration.
“One of the ways we’ve grown the most is the level of our knowledge of what works in a song and what doesn’t,” Gelo said. “We’ve matured a lot since we began. You know, we are better at our respective instruments now, we gel better as a band, we write songs better. It’s a continuous process, and we always want to keep evolving.”
Playing together for three years now, SLS is scheduled to drop their first full-length album Weapons of Mass Seduction sometime this month.
The 10-track release includes “Stay,” which is about the meaning of happiness and the importance of finding it within yourself instead of relying on the world to provide it for you. “The Island” compares missing a lover to being stranded alone on an island, and “What’s Good Enough” encourages individualism and inspires seeing things from other peoples’ perspective.
The band’s upcoming album also has melodies about more casual topics, like party-seeking aliens invading Earth, being broke and having fun through music.
“You know, we aren’t out trying to change the world,” Obregon said. “We are simply sharing our experiences with people and hoping they have a good time with our music. We want to play what people like, so they can dance and party.”
In terms of music videos, SLS has released “Inhale the Fumes,” “Wasted Weekend” and “Simple Things,” all available for online viewing. The group has another video in the oven for “Checks and Balances,” which is Cunningham and Shea’s favorite tune on the new album. The song celebrates SLS’s long-term best friendship.
“I wouldn’t be in a band with anyone but my best friends,” Obregon said. “It wouldn’t be as open or honest otherwise. You know, if you’re in a band with people you don’t know real well, you might not bring up problems that need to be talked about. But in this case, I can say whatever I want, in a good way.”
The four best friends kicked off their 11-day winter tour to nine different cities throughout Arizona and California yesterday in Tempe, Ari. The band hopes to eventually expand their touring schedule to more than two states.
“Our No. 1 goal is to get our music in front of as many people across the country as we can,” Cunningham said. “A lot of people have found us online and like our music, and that’s cool. So we’d really like to be able to play live for them.”
SLS and Cunningham with his Hondo bass next perform live in Long Beach, Calif. tonight.
