March BEAT

5 Minutes With Tom Costanza of DIFFUSER

by Erne Thomas

        Their major label debut album – Injury Loves Melody – may have just shipped to stores last month, but Diffuser has been climbing the national record charts since the holidays with their song, “Karma.”

      The song would most likely be well into the Top 40 of the national ‘Hot 100 Singles’ chart if in fact it had ever been released as single. “Karma” was a deep album cut from the “Mission Impossible 2” film soundtrack that radio grabbed hold.

     “We owe a lot of our success to Chicago’s Q101,” reported vocalist/guitarist Tomas Costanza. “They were the first radio station in the country to start playing that song and because of them everyone else jumped on it. Because of Q101 and Chicago music fans, ‘Karma,’ just this week went into the Top 20 on Billboard’s ‘Mainstream Rock Chart’ (#23 w/bullet) and on Billboard’s ‘Modern Rock Chart’ (#28 w/bullet). We thank you for that Chicagoland!”

     While their album has just hit the streets, the music on it was actually recorded in late 1999 for would have been the band’s third indie release. Back then, the aggro-punk quartet of Costanza, second guitarist Anthony Cangelosi, bassist Lawrence Sullivan and drummer Billy Alemaghides went by the name of Flu 13 and had a four year history of criss-crossing the U.S. in a bohemian fashion and crashing on floors at the homes of their fans.

     “We had all these songs and we knew that they were the best thing we’d done yet,” said Costanza, a Berkley trained classical guitarist and composer who has more in common with the Clash than Chopin these days. “We wanted to put this one out on a major label so people would really hear this album.” Hollywood Records eventually signed the band. “It was no Cinderella story, sorry. They just offered us a fair deal and we said yes.”

      Along with shedding their indie status, they shed the name that had risen to cult hero status in the underground scene. “There were too many bands with name and number names,” declared Costanza, citing the likes of Blink 182 and Matchbox Twenty (nee 20).   “We looked at taking a new name as a way of starting fresh, but that doesn’t mean we have forgotten where we came from.”

     To that extent, Diffuser, still dust off some old Flu 13 fan favorites and they even toss a few cover songs by The Beatles and The Clash into their live set.

      Bringing a completed product to Hollywood and having them sit on it for several months proved frustrating for the band. “They were waiting for the right time to release it. Our band is not used to sitting around so we just started writing like crazy,” said Costanza. “We have what will probably be our next two albums already written.”

     Since “Karma” is still going strong as an album track, Hollywood plans to officially release it as a single to give it the thrust it needs to fly up the Hot 100 Singles chart.   “It’ll probably some time until they release a second single,” said Costanza, who predicts the label’s next choice for single will be “Tidal,” although he would personally prefer the opening cut, “I Am.”

     If all the songs on Injury Loves Melody, seem rife with frustration and fueled by anger, it’s because lyricist Costanza used his music as a means to mend a broken heart.

    “I’d been dating this one girl for like nine years that relationship made me realize a lot of things about myself. A lot of my frustration over that break up came out in those songs. The words in songs like ‘35’ and ‘Leaving With A California Tilt’ are brutally honest. When I wrote the lyrics for this album, it was probably the darkest period of my life. These songs connect with people I think, because we all go through heartbreak at one time or another.”

     There must have been an odd evening of mirth in the midst all the dark and heartbreaking stuff, because the band wrote and secretly recorded a tongue-in-cheek track that ranks right up there with such like-minded classics as Cheech & Chong’s “Earache My Eye” and Green Jello’s “Three Little Pigs.”

     “I Don’t Have The Nerve” is a hysterical hidden track where the Diffuser boys cut loose and parody the cocksure arena rock stalwarts of their youth.

“I’m glad you got a kick out of it,” said Costanza, of “I Got What You Like.” “We hoped people would get a few laughs if they ever discovered it lurking there.” The singer claims the band hid the bonus track on their debut disc without the knowledge of their Disney-owned record company.

    “We really thought it was funny and we thought that if we told them about
it, they wouldn’t want it on there. So...ummmmm... we ‘forgot’ to tell them. I guess we’re still just a bunch rebels,” he laughed. “Most of them (at the label) still don’t know it’s on there.”

      “We all grew up with older brothers who listened to bands like Kiss and then later in the ‘80s we were listening to Dokken and all those other hair bands,” mused Costanza. “We’re just having some good natured fun with ‘I Got What You Like,’ We wanted to make it as authentic as we could, so we simulated that live arena sound with all that awful echo and we added that cheesy quote in the beginning that introduces the song,” he laughed.

     Now that “Injury Loves Melody” has finally been released, Diffuser is itching to get back to the part of the music business they love – touring!

    “We’ll be on the road for a long time now and that’s fine with us,” concluded Costanza. “We’re all about playing live. We have a real energetic show and we’re really looking forward to playing (House of Blues) so we can say ‘thank you’ to Chicago for putting ‘Karma’ and us on the charts!”