Attending a Franc Moody show, it’d be hard to imagine that the London-based music collective has only been officially touring since 2019. With an eclectic, timeless sound and an infectious energy that feels live wired straight into the crowd, the house music group led by duo John Moody and Ned Franc has quickly made a stir throughout their European and North American shows.

But what is most surprising is that outside of the more obvious influences they’ve name dropped in the past, there’s a much more specific and culturally resonant core to their music: the Chicago house scene.

That scene is deeply rooted in local communities, as John Moody puts it: “The early Chicago house records, hearing that sound first coming in, in this warehouse culture – this counterculture thing – black communities, gay communities coming through [in] this very special, unique turn of events to conjure up this thing that we now know and love as Chicago house… it’s important to the DNA of us as musicians.”

To more deeply explore that influence and the “DNA of Franc Moody,” the duo leading the collective caught up with Rolling Stone and Marriott Bonvoy during a brief stopover in Chicago before their recent trip to Las Vegas for the Life is Beautiful music festival. Starting at The Blackstone, Autograph Collection, a historic luxury hotel formerly known as “The Hotel of Presidents,” we traced a path through the city’s most iconic musical locales, including The Warehouse, The Powerplant, and Gramaphone Records.

Check out that journey through the Chi-Town music scene below.

The Road to Beautiful is a series of stories on how travel inspires Life is Beautiful artists, presented by Marriott Bonvoy and Rolling Stone.

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