A Sitdown with Des Rocs: An Interview
solo artist des rocs is blazing the path for a new wave of rock and roll with his ep “let the vultures in” and recent single “outta my mind.” for this nyc based rocker it is about so much more than the music, it’s about a revolution. we got to talk to him about his art and the revolution.
can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about how des rocs came to be?
i am a rock and roll artist from new york city. des rocs never really came to be in a traditional sense. rather, it is an energy that has always existed inside myself. that energy only recently was unleashed.
what or who inspired you to start rocking in the first place?
i remember driving in the car with my father as a young child. my father exposed me to a lot of led zeppelin, queen, and ac/dc. artists like them formed the backbone of the way i thought about melody and rhythm.
rock and roll has changed a lot over the years, some even think that rock is ‘dead.’ you’re doing an amazing job of proving them wrong. what would you want to say to these critics?
rock is dead. compared to other genres, it has evolved little over the last decade or so. no one pushes. rock records for the large part sound the same as they did when i was in elementary school. to those who criticize the genre, i say right on. let’s challenge the boundaries of rock. join me in expanding the legacies of the greatest songwriters, musicians and movers of culture the world has ever known. let us not simply mimic what they have already done.
what is your writing process like?
my writing process is an endless pursuit of trying to figure out what my writing process is. ideas come on the subway and are finished in moments. others come in the middle of the night and take years to finish or produce. one constant is loneliness and isolation. i am almost always alone, toiling in solitude. observing others. walking in new york city. thinking to myself. dreaming.
you’ve said that there are a lot of wrong notes and mistakes that have made it into your records. can you tell us a little about your thought process behind keeping those in the records?
i keep anything that adds character and soul. it is easy to copy and paste songs into existence. i am more concerned with creating things, things that themselves have personalities, like people.
you tweet a lot about your wanderings in nyc, how does life in the city influence your writing?
new york city is embodied in every note i sing and every fibre of my being. for me, there is a certain electricity that i find madly irresistible. there is intensity, drama, flavor, and diversity - the same words one could use to describe a des rocs record.
for me your work has been about more than the music. there are quite a few art pieces, photos, and films that you’ve created with your first ep “let the vultures in,” some of which were only available for fans to watch on instagram stories for a limited time. what plans do you have for incorporating multiple art forms as you continue to create music?
sound is just like one of many art mediums. hearing, just one of many senses. i believe there is so much more to music and art than the song alone. des rocs is a multi-artistic platform, and there are plans to expand in ways no rock artist ever has before.
you’ve said that you’d put on the same performance for 10 people as you would for 10,000, what is your favorite part of performing?
live performance is extremely important to me. my favorite part of performing is getting to watch people listen to my songs for the first time in the exact way i intended for you to hear them.
you’ve recently performed in ny, and are about to play a show in la, are there plans in the works for a larger tour?
yes, we are currently working on much larger live plans at the moment.
what can fans expect to hear when “outta my mind” releases on january 18th?
this song is going to knock you off your ass. expect brutality.