March 21, 2024 • 40 mins
Danny Rocco, AKA Des Rocs, is a New Yorker down to his marrow. In this episode, Des opens up about his self-made path in the rock and roll universe, highlighted by his latest electrifying album, "Dream Machine." It's a tale of passion, artistry, and unwavering determination to carve out his own legacy.
Des also gives us the origin story of his latest single, "I Am the Lightning," and explains the deep-seated source of the band's transformative live energy. Des and Matt also go back and forth on some hilarious hypotheticals: tattoos vs. no tattoos, homeless riffs, squatter songs, and a frozen embryo bank of music. As always, brought to you by Sailor Jerry!
https://www.instagram.com/iamdesrocs/
https://sailorjerry.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Desperox.
What's up, man?
How are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
Brother, how are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
Thank you so much for being aguest today on the Sailor Jerry
podcast.
I'm stoked to get theopportunity to talk music with
you, my man.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thanks for having me, brother.
Where are you at right now inCalifornia?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm in California.
I'm in Orange County.
I grew up in Los Angeles, butI've been out in California my
whole life.
What about you?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
New York, right, new York brother, new York, born and
raised, and I'm the only wayI'm leaving is in a body bag,
really.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
From the womb to the tomb.
I like that.
That's 100% 100%.
People are constantly talkingshit on California and how much
it sucks California still rules.
To me, I feel like New Yorkgets a lot of that same talk.
People are always talking abouthow New York has gone to shit
and it sucks.
Now, from what is that?
(00:58):
You third, fourth generationNew Yorker?
I was reading.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Fourth yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So that go back to what Early 1900s?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, my great grandparents came in here like
1908 or something.
Yeah, dude, that's so rad,that's so rad.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, what's New York ?
What does New York mean to you?
What's modern day New York like?
Is it still number one city inthe US?
Has it changed for you?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Without a doubt, number one.
It always will be.
But with regards to what otherpeople say about New York, no
one in New York is a ship.
No one's paying attention, noone cares With regards to what
New Yorkers think about New Yorkitself.
I think New Yorkers were alwayscomplained about the city, but
it's important to remember thatyeah, the city's changing a lot
and the city always has changedand everything will change and
(01:46):
nothing will be like it was whenyou were 12 years old and have
this golden era of somethingcemented in your mind.
So it's a place in constantflux.
It's definitely become a lotless affordable for middle class
and blue collar people.
It's become a lot morecorporate and that, to me, is
very unfortunate.
But neighborhoods change andplaces change and that's kind of
how things work historically.
(02:06):
But yeah, the city has a lot ofproblems, but it's also the
greatest place on earth and itnever won't be.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Hell yeah, hell yeah.
Before we kind of dive intoyour latest album, dream Machine
, and, of course, the upcomingFinal Leg of the Dream Machine
tour you got, I kind of justwant to go back a little bit,
because a lot of our listenersmight be new to your music and I
kind of want to give them thewhole spectrum, because I think
(02:33):
when you listen to your music,one thing that you can tell is
that you're in it all the way.
I mean, you can hear theconviction in your voice, you
can hear the love and theintensity that you have for
music and for art and it feelslike that's something that's
(02:54):
been inside you for a long time.
So let's take it back a littlebit.
What was it like for yougrowing up?
Was there any musical influencein the family or artistry in
the family, anything like that?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, there wasn't a ton of music in my family.
I was exposed early on to a lotof rock and roll just with a
handful of cassette tapes thatwere in my dad's car at the time
and that was like ACDC, andthen some kind of obscure Led
Zeppelin concert.
And I remember at a very youngage seeing on TV Queen at
Wembley Stadium and just beingso transfixed by what was
(03:30):
happening musically, visually.
All of the above.
And then from a very early ageI was also just obsessed with
instruments.
I was wanting to play them, Iwas wanting to hear what they
sounded like.
So I kind of got into music onmy own and in a way that was a
blessing and a curse, because Ididn't have a lot of people in
my family who were like oh,here's how you start a band,
here's how you do this.
(03:50):
I had to figure out a lot ofstuff on my own and I had to
learn a lot of lessons the hardway and in a way that journey
and that marathon kind ofdefines everything that is Des
Rocks.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
What was the first instrument was guitar piano.
What was it?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Oh, it was violin at a very young age.
Nice, I remember just seeingthe kids in elementary school
walking with the little casesand they would pop open these
cases and there would be like alittle velvet cloth and you lift
that velvet cloth up and therewould be this beautiful wooden
instrument and I was like I justwant to be one of the kids
carrying the little cases toschool.
And that's how it started.
(04:26):
And then, like in eighth grade,I found a guitar in my attic
that had just been sitting therefor like 40 years and it was
like a real aha moment.
It was like some Indiana JonesRaiders of the Lost Ark, like
pop up in that case and it glowsin your face.
And then I was hooked eversince.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
How long was it like you said, it was kind of an
instant love.
How long till you were writingsongs?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Oh, almost immediately Day one.
The two really went hand inhand.
For me, one of the very firstthings I wanted to do was start
playing and singing at the sametime, and really I never really
got that good at guitar.
I got just good enough to useit as a tool of expression, and
that's how I think of it.
(05:09):
It's just like an axis of whichI emote, and a lot of times I
don't even know what note I'mplaying.
I'll just kind of like put myfingers down and squeeze and
emote and just have the energyflow through and I'll be like,
oh, that sounds kind of cool.
What if I paste that with thisand then paste this with that?
And then a guitar solo was born.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Going solo wasn't your kind of first venture into
music.
You were in a band before,right.
How did things kind of stepinto the first level of like,
okay, I got a guitar, I loveplaying instruments, I love
singing, you know I'm writingsongs.
Now what, you know what I mean.
Like, what was the kind of nextstep for you?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, well, I just think they remember going to a
show in a mini Ola Long Islandin maybe ninth grade and there
was like this little punk showin the back of a restaurant,
like a billiards hall kind ofthing.
There's maybe like 40 kids inthere and the band just killed
it and the energy was crazy.
And then he hops off stage andhe runs to the merch table and
he's slinging t-shirts and itwas just such an ecosystem.
(06:09):
And then the next day I said tothis guy I was like you're
going to run bass, I'm going tostart a band, and I was always
just kind of like in thesupporting roles and bands.
I was always just the rhythmguitarist, but I was always the
guy who had like the vision andwanted to go someplace and
really do it for real andeverybody else just kind of
playing in a band for fun.
And one of me verse four ofthose.
It's just never going to workout.
(06:30):
But again, like I was saying,it's all about like learning
those lessons and going througha lot of versions of yourself
and what you want to say to theworld musically before you find
your truest self and then you'rethe most creatively free you
could possibly be Right on man.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
That's dope you drop.
Let the Vultures in EP 2018.
What was that feeling like foryou, kind of the first solo EP
stepping out.
It's an incredible EP, a lot ofawesome songs on it.
What was that moment like foryou, kind of realizing yourself
as a solo artist?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Well, it was definitely scary because it was
born out of a really dark periodof my life where I had a lot of
bands that I was so excitedabout and they all just kind of
fell apart.
And it was the first time I wasreally stepping out of my own
and doing my own thing andtaking all those lessons that I
had learned and just finallybeing able, free, to just do
(07:24):
exactly what I wanted to do.
So it was tough man, because Iremember being in a band having
little success and then I haveto take this deep tour in life
when I'm doing my own thing forthe first time and I put out a
song and I've been working onthis music for months and months
and months.
I put up the song and the nextday I go on Spotify and it has
that little less than math signlike the less than a thousand
(07:45):
sign when the streams are so lowthat they won't even tell you
how low they are.
And I remember just being like,yeah, like I got a lot of work
to do.
So it was a real like roll upthe sleeves moment, sitting on
my couch in my underwear, likeguessing every single email
address of every single playlistthere at Spotify, every manager
(08:07):
, every record label, everyagent, every, everything, and
just send that hundreds of thosea day while playing shows at
night.
And it was many, many, many,many months of that before
things started to pick up andpeople started to pay attention.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, man, that's the grind sometimes, and it's cool
for people out there to hearthings like that, because
sometimes that's what it takes.
In all of that, it seems likeyour love for music has only
grown where there are times inthat process where you were just
(08:42):
kind of like fuck.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Like I don't know For sure, man, it's all like the
financial worries you have ofreally trying to make it work
and make it happen.
And you're talking about thegrind, man.
Yeah, and the grind is not justa one or done.
You know, the grind it'sperpetual.
And I'm thankful enough thatthere's something in my head, 50
(09:05):
years from now, of Des Rocksand it's like this crazy
spectacle and I'm just an oldman and that's the vision I'm
thinking about all day long.
That makes the grind worth it,it makes it worth fighting for,
because I don't wanna leave thisearth not having realized that
vision and it really is in manyways my life's work.
(09:26):
You know, it's such a struggle,it's such a journey, but that
struggle and that journeyactually end up defining the
music itself in the moment andkind of become the inspiration
for the music.
So it's this weird likesymbiotic chart of pain and art.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man, absolutely.
It all feeds into each otherand it's rad to see, you know,
how deep you are in it.
You know, and how like it'scool to talk to artists about
their vision and their goals,because a lot of times that
(10:03):
might not be, you know, thecoolest thing or the thing they
wanna talk about or put on frontstreet.
You know, but having that driveto see yourself, as you know,
the old artists that you wannabe, with a discography, a
lifetime of work that you'vecreated and you can look back on
and be in a spot that youenvisioned you know you're gonna
be in right now, it's just,it's a cool thing and it's so
(10:25):
important to like keep thathealthy.
You know creative, fun, drivein yourself, you know, to do all
the things you wanna do, toaccomplish all the things you
wanna accomplish.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Amen, brother.
Yeah, it's definitely.
It's not easy, you know it's,but like it's that rare moment
when you get to write music andit just like or that rare moment
when you're on stage, it justmakes everything worth it.
You know, like the 90 minuteson stage make the 22 and a half
hours of tour during the daythat are hell.
Like it makes it all worth itand like that moment you're
(10:59):
sitting there alone and you'reworking on an idea and the
heavens open up and down beamsthis song into your soul that
you think is the greatest thingthat you've ever heard in your
entire life.
Like it makes it all worth itand like that's just enough
spark to keep the relentlessforward movement of all things.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
That's rocks you know Hell, yeah, man, hell yeah.
So you know three EPs.
Then you say enough, it's timefor the full length.
Real good person in a real badplace.
Awesome album, by the way.
Awesome album.
What was you know?
How did it feel stepping into afull length?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, you know it's funny, like you say three P's in
an album, like it was kind ofall part of the vision.
Like even before I startedmaking the first music of Des
Rocks, I went away upstate.
I had like $500 in my bankaccount, probably, and I went
away with a typewriter, a guitarand a big muff pedal and just
for a couple of days I sat downand I was like what do I want to
(11:56):
say to the world musically, youknow?
And I planned it all out.
I kind of just typed out inthis cabin exactly all things
Des Rocks, like what I want itto look like, feel like five
years from now, 10 years fromnow.
So I said, okay, I want to dothree EPs and I want each one of
those EPs to have like a verykind of distinct sonic identity.
And then I want to do threefull length albums.
So the first full length albumwas like a real departure
(12:20):
musically for me.
But it's important for me alsoto like for that first record to
build in flexibility where Ican adapt to the time I'm in.
Like I always think it's NinaSimone Quote where it's like art
should reflect the time.
So I made that record in thedepths of COVID, and that record
is very much the sound of mesitting alone in a room kind of
(12:42):
losing my mind.
It's like one long innermonologue so leaping into a full
album.
It was like kind of halfplanned, where I always knew
after the three pieces was analbum and then the other half of
it the time I found myself in.
That I couldn't have preparedfor.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, that's, that's the, you know, the COVID era of
music, creatively speaking, andso many people that I know had,
you know, so many differentexperiences.
You know there were so manypeople that you know wanted and
expected to make the record oftheir lives and then, you know,
had the hardest time likechanneling any sort of like
(13:20):
creative flow.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
COVID, to me, was such an uninspirational time.
I feel like you had everysingle manager in the music
industry saying to every singleartist, well, what should I do?
And they're going to say, well,you should write.
You got to write right now.
And I think anytime you tellsomebody that they have to write
, they're going to do theirabsolute worst work they've ever
done their entire life.
You know what I mean.
Say, oh, right now, all of asudden we're going to pivot,
(13:42):
you're going to start writingright now, and then you're not
going to get anything good.
When you're like consciouslytrying to write, as in my
experience, I'm going to speakfor myself.
But like, even like my saddestsongs in a strange way come from
a place of like happiness andenthusiasm, where I'm like
really excited about the art I'mmaking.
But when you got to kind ofjust like go into an empty room
every day all alone, like itwasn't the depth of COVID, and
(14:04):
then I was in New York City.
So I'm like literally walkingby multiple outdoor makeshift
moorings on the way there, likeit is really a dark, dark,
fucking time and like the musicreflected that.
Like the music on that album isnot the sound of me being like
really pumped about making music.
You know what I mean.
It's a much weirder shade ofDes Rocks.
(14:25):
It doesn't really come out thatoften.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, man, right on.
And then 2023, dream Machinecomes out.
You worked with Alan Johannes,queens of the Stone Age, on this
album and Alan is he's just anawesome guy.
He's an incredibly talentedmusician.
This album is so good, man, andit's so there's so much
attention to detail without itsounding overproduced you know
(14:51):
what I mean.
Like it just sounds really,really good.
It sounds good on speakers, itsounds good on headphones.
There's there's layers you canget into if you, if you want to
listen to the intricacies ofeach song.
You know what was it likeworking with Al.
What was it like making thatrecord?
I've seen a couple things youtalking about.
You know what a big record thiswas for you and I know that
(15:13):
you've expressed concern in thepast with working with producers
and how kind of sometimes thatcan be limiting if they're
trying to like, force their typeof song on you, or you know
that type of thing.
So how was you know, how wasmaking Dream Machine for you?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Oh it was.
It was amazing.
Like I feel like this record isthe record that I was born to
make.
Aljohannis is fucking amazing.
He was such an incrediblecheerleader every step of the
way.
Historically speaking, I've goneon with some of the biggest
producers in the world and I'vereally blown it not consciously
blown it, but like I just am not.
I just don't play well withothers that well.
(15:49):
You know what I mean.
Like I'm very opinionated andmaybe it's a New York thing, but
I don't really pull puncheslike if I don't like something,
I don't like it.
I'm just gonna gotta say that.
And I feel like there's acertain amount of game playing
that these people are used toWith regards to creative process
.
But for me it's like my lifeand it's my art and I can't be
anything but absolutely bluntall the time.
(16:09):
So you know, it was great tohave a team of people around me
making this album who just kindof like all understood where I
wanted to go and could challengeme and and subvert my
expectations, but at the end ofthe day, we were all on the same
page and heading towards thesame place and Everybody like
really played a role and a part,and now that was really cool
(16:31):
for me.
You know, I love that.
I love that process that theend of the day there wasn't
anybody trying to like Likesteer the ship, you know I mean,
and like be like you gotta goin this direction, you gotta go
pop on, because that's, you know, there was none of that, you
know, because I very much dothink that a lot of art kind of
needs to be a creativedictatorship.
(16:52):
You gotta surround yourself withthe right cheerleaders and the
right people.
They have, like like AndrewHannes has this infinite wisdom
of studio techniques, guitars,instruments, and Matt Wallace,
who I made the record with aswell, that I wouldn't get in a
thousand lifetimes.
So it was really beautifulprocess made.
It was.
It was a.
It was a challenging processmaking that record.
I remember like falling asleepin the studio a few times just
(17:15):
because I was there so much andI was just so in it and we had a
small budget and a limitedamount of time to make it.
But I couldn't be more proud ofthat album.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, man, it's great and it came out August last
year.
But I know you're still, youknow, still doing a lot of
touring on it.
You know, the latest single,I'm the lightning I, you know
it's kicking ass all over rockradio as we speak.
I think it's.
It's moved from 15 to 12, youknow, in in the charts so
congrats on that, man, becausethat's you know, thank you.
(17:46):
That's a great feeling, man.
That's really cool and I wantedto kind of focus in on that
track just a little bit, if wecould.
You know, usually when you'rewriting an album there's songs
that come right away, there'ssongs that require a little bit
of effort and there's songs thatare, just, you know, the bane
of your existence.
And you know, sometimes theydon't make the record, sometimes
(18:07):
they come at the last fuckingminute.
Where, where did I'm thelightning?
Kind of fit on that scale.
And if you could just kind ofmaybe expand on writing that
song a little bit yeah, thatsong we just took a riff I had
for a really long time.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And I just tried like copying and pasting this riff
into other songs and it wasdisastrous and I struck out so
many times.
But we had just gotten backfrom tour and, as you know,
often when you ship drums acrossthe country, you'll often like
take the heads and tune them allthe way down yeah.
So the difference is that youknow the heads and tune them all
the way down yeah.
So the drums show up in mystudio, they get set up and I
(18:41):
just sit behind the kit and Ijust start like laying down this
beat and I was like, oh, thissounds kind of cool with the
heads all fucked up like this.
Um.
And then I just like stuck thes m 57 in the room and I just
recorded it real fast and I waslike, let me try that riff over
this.
And I put that riff over thereand I was like done, and you
know, when you like find a vein,like you finally find a vein
and it all opens up, yeah, andthen just immediately it all the
(19:04):
whole song opened up.
I was like, ah, there you are.
Like that's where you've beenhiding.
Like um, you're like like theclassic renaissance sculptors
used to envision theirsculptures as already in the
marble Right.
You just had to free it fromthis cube of marble and like
that was that song.
Like that song was like buriedin the musical marble and I was
just like, oh, I, you're inthere, I've got chills of you
(19:25):
out right now.
Um, so that was.
It was cool how that one came.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's awesome man, that's really cool.
I love, I love when thathappens and I love the story of
just having, you know the, the,the homeless riff.
You know the riff with that'sgot nowhere to go, the riff on
the streets.
You know that, just it, just youjust want, you just want to to
live a good life.
You know, and, uh, and, and youfound it and it came together.
(19:51):
And that's always cool, man,because I know, like when you
you know, when you're writing analbum or you, you got parts
that are in like the boneyardand you're trying to squeeze
them into all these differentsongs, and especially when it's
a riff or a lyric that youreally love, and you know it's
special and you just want it.
You know, you just want it tohappen, and there's no greater
feeling than when it all comestogether.
(20:11):
So that's really fucking cool.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, and I don't know how it is with you also,
but like homeless riffs, butalso I think of them as like
squatting riffs, like they'llstay in my brain and and I wish
they could just go.
Um, but I can't stop thinkingof them.
They're like kind of likeex-girlfriends and you just like
you kind of have them there andthey don't really go away
permanently.
And in making an album, you'retrying to build this big jigsaw
(20:37):
puzzle but you keep just addingpieces to the puzzle that have
no place to go and you're goingto drive yourself insane.
Um, like you still think aboutmusical parts that you haven't
yet used, or are you able toforget them easily?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
No, I don't like.
Okay.
So like, for example, we'rejust starting to write a new
album right now and I, lyricallyspeaking, I go through like
I'll go all the way back to like, you know, along with stuff
that I'm writing now, I'll gothrough all old stuff that I've
written, that I've always loved,that I haven't found a home for
(21:12):
yet, and I I'm still liketrying to like the cool things
that that I wrote you know to methat are cool.
You know, 10 years ago, that Ihaven't found a home for yet.
Wow, that I know I could writea song around, or even just like
whole ideas that I had forsongs that just kind of turned
into a poem because I neverfound the right Way to put it
(21:33):
into music.
Like I'll always be searchingfor for those, for homes, for
those things you know Likebecause you know they're good
and you know I mean that's likeif you're looking at your career
as not just this album but it'sA, it's your life, is a whole
body of work.
You know you got a lot of songsto write, man.
You know you got a lot.
(21:53):
You got a lot of songs to write.
You got a lot of lyrics right,you got a lot work to do.
So you know, I hold on toeverything, everything that
feels good.
You know, most times if I, if I, if I'm writing something and
then I look back on it and I'mlike, eh, I'll hold on to it for
a little bit and then if I lookback on it again and I'm still
not feeling it, I'm not gonnasay I delete it, but I'll move
on.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, but isn't that such an interesting process?
Because you're simultaneouslywriting and looking towards the
future while also kind of beinglike a musical historian
curating the museum of yourself,and you're like let me be the
archivist for my own ideas andthen also marry that with the
future, and that's such aninteresting idea.
(22:36):
It's like the musicalequivalent of like when you
freeze an embryo and like 1992,and then that kid gets born like
30 years later and technicallyexactly 30 the day he's born.
I don't know, it's like it's amusical version of that and
that's interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, it is Well, because then another thing too
is I think, at least for me andI think for most artists when
you start writing for an album,it takes a while to kind of get
to the good stuff, especially ifyou're on album 234.
It takes a while to kind of yougo through kind of your same
tones or your comfort notes orcomfort lyrics or you kind of go
(23:11):
through that kind of familiarterritory first, and sometimes,
as a way to kind of get to thegood stuff faster, I can go back
to lyrics that I wrote in aprocess where I know I was in a
zone where I was already in thatplace and I can go back and
like read those and try to likeapply that to you know a demo or
(23:33):
something like that.
And then it also kind of helpsspark like just you know new,
like a new process of writing ornew ideas, or maybe I can
expand on an old idea.
But if I was like, if you wrotesomething that you feel is like
you were inspired when youwrote it, like maybe you come up
with a riff at the end ofwriting an album and there's
just no way to make it intosomething in time that's going
(23:54):
to make the record.
I mean, you're going to hold onto that thing and it's going to
happen Eventually.
You're going to put it, you'regoing to take it to the frozen
embryo riff bank.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
You're going to find a surrogate and you're going to
implant that and you're going tohave that little baby is going
to be born.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, man, yeah, awesome, well, okay, so you've
got a massive tour headlining.
Okay, april 15 starts inJacksonville, florida.
What?
Okay, this is.
This is like the worst questionever.
But what can people expect?
Okay, who haven't seen you live?
What's it all about?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I would say a tremendous amount of passion and
chaos and intensity and alsogratitude.
You know, we're just so happyfor every single second that we
get to be on stage because we'veall individually spent a
lifetime just like really tryingto make it.
You know, like in a realclassical sense, like just like
(24:51):
flinging some awful day job inNew York City during the day,
taking the Q train downtown,unbuttoning your shirt like some
Clark Kent Superman shit, andthen running into a little punk
dive basement and playing a showto 30 kids, and not just doing
that for a couple of weeks likesome cosplay shit, like living
that life for years and yearsand years and years.
So all of that just poursthrough every single member on
(25:14):
stage and each and every one ofus would live and breathe for
every single lyric and everysingle note that's up there.
So it's really important andspiritual experience for us and
the show very much feels likeyou're taking part of the sacred
ritual of rock and roll, andthat's that's a very long word
(25:35):
way of answering your questionof definitely check out the show
, Hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Rumor has it, dana White's going to be at every
show.
Is that true?
Do you know about that?
No, just 90, just 90% of them.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, I mean Dana drops into a ton of shows in a
lot of markets where you mightnot expect someone of that
stature to drop into.
So he's an amazing fan andchampion of the music and it's
been unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, that's cool man .
Shout out Dana White for thosewho don't know if there was a
bottle clip going around thathe's a big fan, a big fan of the
band, and he's seen you guys abunch of times and he had
nothing but big words to sayabout you on the Theo Vaughn
podcast.
So any sort of outlets outthere that are artist friendly.
(26:22):
There's so many people outthere that are doing cool stuff
and that are making money andthat might not go the extra mile
to really bring people up withthem along the way, and it's
always super cool to see peoplechampion artists and doing what
they can to help out everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, man, it's unparalleled.
I feel like there's been somany institutions over the years
that have been like we're goingto partner with bands and we're
going to help break bands.
Dana and UFC have just likecommunicated what I do to the
world in a way that very fewpeople ever could, and just been
(27:04):
ride or die homies with theexpectation of nothing in
exchange.
It's simply just for thepassion of the music, and for
that I am constantly humbled andprofoundly grateful.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Hell yeah, man.
Alright, I don't want to takeup too much more of your time
here, danny.
By the way, danny Rocco.
Ultimate New York name,ultimate.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, it was a little too on the nose for an artist
project name so I had to go withan alt.
There you go, but thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Alright, here we go.
We're going to pick one here.
Alright, you got Lover orFighter, lover Van Halen or Led
Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin, muse or Queens ofthe Stone Age.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Muse, that's a tough question for me.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
ACDC or Kiss, acdc, nirvana or Oasis.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Nirvana.
I know three Oasis songs.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Metallica or Guns N' Roses yeah, Guns N' Roses
Strokes.
Or.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
White Stripes.
You didn't say Jack White, yousaid White Stripes.
I'm going to go with Strokes.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Alright alright, fair enough, you found a loophole.
Bob Dylan or Elvis, elvis,alright alright.
Let's see Roy Orbison or JohnnyCash, oh shit.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Roy Orbison.
Just not like a technicality,yeah, roy Orbison.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Bo Diddley or Brian Setzer.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Bo Diddley.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Nice.
Okay, let's go, brian Adams orJohn Cougar Mellon Camp.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Oh man, that's such a .
The way that people arecomparing is funny to me,
because I'm seeing where yourinsight is coming from.
Let's go with John Cougar.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
John Cougar, alright, chuck Berry or Little Richard.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Little Richard.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Guitar or vocals.
Vocals oh yeah, that's what I'mtalking about.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Vocals make me cry more than guitar.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Awesome man, alright.
A couple hypotheticals here.
So if you got, okay, you're inNew York, manhattan, okay, you
got a budget.
You got $50,000 cash, okay, youcan spend the night partying
with the devil, or you can spendthe night partying with Jesus.
Who do you pick Devil?
Definitely that's a rock androll test.
(29:20):
No rock and roll person wouldever say Jesus.
So good, you passed the test.
Good job Partying with Jesus.
I was boring, yeah, yeah, itcan't be good.
Alright, so you get into sometrouble with the law, alright.
Hypothetical number two yourmanager says hey, you know,
danny, you got to lay low for awhile.
You can either go to Canada orMexico.
(29:41):
Where do you go?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Mexico, definitely.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
No question in my mind.
Yeah, no question in my mind.
Now we're going to Manitoba?
No way, ha, ha.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Ha.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
No thanks, Manitoba.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah, mexico City is like the coolest fucking place
in the planet.
Dude, it's awesome.
You're going to compare that tofucking Calgary, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
No way, no, no way.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
No way.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Alright, last one here, bill and Ted, come down
Time machine.
They got the phone booth.
Anywhere you want to go inhistory, where are you going
first and why?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Man, I probably go to like 1958 New York City and
walk around the West Village andsee some crazy beatnik shit and
the beginnings of just anunimaginably cool period in
music and music history and it'snot the 70s or 80s yet, so New
York is a bit safer.
Yeah, I like that a lot, flowand the shit.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah.
What do you love about being amusician?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I love always holding myself to my own standards.
You know I have goals formyself, things I want to achieve
musically, and I'm not beingcompared to like the other guy
down the hall in legal.
I'm being compared to myselfand I'm always accountable to
myself.
And it forces you to kind ofimpose this own sort of like
(31:12):
moral code and a professionalcode.
You have to wake up everysingle day and create your own
destiny, and that, to me, issuch an inspiring way to live
life.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Awesome man.
What do you hate about being amusician?
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Sometimes you can feel like a lone wolf just kind
of going through life whileeverybody else has a tremendous
amount of structure.
You at times might crave and itcan be lonely and isolating and
you can spend a lot of timeinside your own head and that
can be a tough place to be Damn.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Coming through with the real answers Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
I just tell like it is, like I told you the
beginning.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Unbelievable man.
All right, so this is theSailor Jerry podcast.
Norman Collins, one of theGodfathers of traditional
tattoos.
I've been looking online.
I don't think you got anytattoos.
Do you have any tattoos?
Zero, no.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
No plans, don't tell you anti tattoo or just not for
you?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Oh, not at all.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Teach their own.
My drummer is fully tatted neckto toe, literally.
There's not one inch of blankreal estate on this guy's body
other than his eyeballs at thispoint.
And you know, for me I'll saythat, like the idols I have
growing up were like FreddieMercury, bruce Springsteen,
elvis Presley none of them hadtattoos.
(32:34):
So I never, I never had thatpart of rock and roll culture
sinking into me at that veryimpressionable sponge age, you
know.
And then the other thing withme in tattoos is that my tastes
change a lot and that scares me.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, yeah, you don't want to be like a lot of these
artists.
Now, like you know, machine gunKelly or, or Davey Havoc, may,
if I.
They have all these terribletattoos and their only choice is
just Does like black out theirwhole arm, you know, and they
just got to do that becausethey're just so overseeing, like
a bunch of pumpkins orsomething.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Right.
Have a question, though onceyou go to the very end, right,
once you've now effectivelybecome black armed yeah, can you
.
Then is that a redo?
Do you get to start over?
And then could you put a whitetattoo on top of the black like
a Chop board?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I feel like at that point, I think the black is, I
think it's the spinal tap, Ithink it's.
I think it's no more black, Ithink that's it.
I think that's, once you goblack, it's over.
Yeah Well, you know, I mean,I'm just imagining that's, you
know.
I just feel it feels like, youknow, if you go on top of that,
it can't, it can't be good.
All right, all right, all right, danny.
(33:46):
Last question here does rocksDanny Rocco?
What to you is the meaning oflife?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I think the meaning life is is a constant search for
the meaning of life, a constantsearch for your own meaning
within it.
You know, yeah, the ultimatepursuit of One individual's
perception of what life is youknow, it's the Easter on its for
you to define, and I thinkthat's the meaning of it is for
you to make your own sense of it.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Awesome man, appreciate your time here on the
sailor Jerry podcast.
Des rocks incredible albumdream machine out now.
Go check out.
I'm the lightning, you know.
Check them out on Spotify,instagram.
Get tickets for the upcomingtour.
You got jigsaw youth supportingKicks off April 15th in
Jacksonville, right?
(34:37):
Hell yeah, thanks a lot.
There's thank you.
Desperox.
What's up, man?
How are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
Brother, how are you?
I'm good, I'm good.
Thank you so much for being aguest today on the Sailor Jerry
podcast.
I'm stoked to get theopportunity to talk music with
you, my man.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thanks for having me, brother.
Where are you at right now inCalifornia?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm in California.
I'm in Orange County.
I grew up in Los Angeles, butI've been out in California my
whole life.
What about you?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
New York, right, new York brother, new York, born and
raised, and I'm the only wayI'm leaving is in a body bag,
really.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
From the womb to the tomb.
I like that.
That's 100% 100%.
People are constantly talkingshit on California and how much
it sucks California still rules.
To me, I feel like New Yorkgets a lot of that same talk.
People are always talking abouthow New York has gone to shit
and it sucks.
Now, from what is that?
(00:58):
You third, fourth generationNew Yorker?
I was reading.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Fourth yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So that go back to what Early 1900s?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, my great grandparents came in here like
1908 or something.
Yeah, dude, that's so rad,that's so rad.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, what's New York ?
What does New York mean to you?
What's modern day New York like?
Is it still number one city inthe US?
Has it changed for you?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Without a doubt, number one.
It always will be.
But with regards to what otherpeople say about New York, no
one in New York is a ship.
No one's paying attention, noone cares With regards to what
New Yorkers think about New Yorkitself.
I think New Yorkers were alwayscomplained about the city, but
it's important to remember thatyeah, the city's changing a lot
and the city always has changedand everything will change and
(01:46):
nothing will be like it was whenyou were 12 years old and have
this golden era of somethingcemented in your mind.
So it's a place in constantflux.
It's definitely become a lotless affordable for middle class
and blue collar people.
It's become a lot morecorporate and that, to me, is
very unfortunate.
But neighborhoods change andplaces change and that's kind of
how things work historically.
(02:06):
But yeah, the city has a lot ofproblems, but it's also the
greatest place on earth and itnever won't be.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Hell yeah, hell yeah.
Before we kind of dive intoyour latest album, dream Machine
, and, of course, the upcomingFinal Leg of the Dream Machine
tour you got, I kind of justwant to go back a little bit,
because a lot of our listenersmight be new to your music and I
kind of want to give them thewhole spectrum, because I think
(02:33):
when you listen to your music,one thing that you can tell is
that you're in it all the way.
I mean, you can hear theconviction in your voice, you
can hear the love and theintensity that you have for
music and for art and it feelslike that's something that's
(02:54):
been inside you for a long time.
So let's take it back a littlebit.
What was it like for yougrowing up?
Was there any musical influencein the family or artistry in
the family, anything like that?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, there wasn't a ton of music in my family.
I was exposed early on to a lotof rock and roll just with a
handful of cassette tapes thatwere in my dad's car at the time
and that was like ACDC, andthen some kind of obscure Led
Zeppelin concert.
And I remember at a very youngage seeing on TV Queen at
Wembley Stadium and just beingso transfixed by what was
(03:30):
happening musically, visually.
All of the above.
And then from a very early ageI was also just obsessed with
instruments.
I was wanting to play them, Iwas wanting to hear what they
sounded like.
So I kind of got into music onmy own and in a way that was a
blessing and a curse, because Ididn't have a lot of people in
my family who were like oh,here's how you start a band,
here's how you do this.
(03:50):
I had to figure out a lot ofstuff on my own and I had to
learn a lot of lessons the hardway and in a way that journey
and that marathon kind ofdefines everything that is Des
Rocks.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
What was the first instrument was guitar piano.
What was it?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Oh, it was violin at a very young age.
Nice, I remember just seeingthe kids in elementary school
walking with the little casesand they would pop open these
cases and there would be like alittle velvet cloth and you lift
that velvet cloth up and therewould be this beautiful wooden
instrument and I was like I justwant to be one of the kids
carrying the little cases toschool.
And that's how it started.
(04:26):
And then, like in eighth grade,I found a guitar in my attic
that had just been sitting therefor like 40 years and it was
like a real aha moment.
It was like some Indiana JonesRaiders of the Lost Ark, like
pop up in that case and it glowsin your face.
And then I was hooked eversince.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
How long was it like you said, it was kind of an
instant love.
How long till you were writingsongs?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Oh, almost immediately Day one.
The two really went hand inhand.
For me, one of the very firstthings I wanted to do was start
playing and singing at the sametime, and really I never really
got that good at guitar.
I got just good enough to useit as a tool of expression, and
that's how I think of it.
(05:09):
It's just like an axis of whichI emote, and a lot of times I
don't even know what note I'mplaying.
I'll just kind of like put myfingers down and squeeze and
emote and just have the energyflow through and I'll be like,
oh, that sounds kind of cool.
What if I paste that with thisand then paste this with that?
And then a guitar solo was born.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Going solo wasn't your kind of first venture into
music.
You were in a band before,right.
How did things kind of stepinto the first level of like,
okay, I got a guitar, I loveplaying instruments, I love
singing, you know I'm writingsongs.
Now what, you know what I mean.
Like, what was the kind of nextstep for you?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, well, I just think they remember going to a
show in a mini Ola Long Islandin maybe ninth grade and there
was like this little punk showin the back of a restaurant,
like a billiards hall kind ofthing.
There's maybe like 40 kids inthere and the band just killed
it and the energy was crazy.
And then he hops off stage andhe runs to the merch table and
he's slinging t-shirts and itwas just such an ecosystem.
(06:09):
And then the next day I said tothis guy I was like you're
going to run bass, I'm going tostart a band, and I was always
just kind of like in thesupporting roles and bands.
I was always just the rhythmguitarist, but I was always the
guy who had like the vision andwanted to go someplace and
really do it for real andeverybody else just kind of
playing in a band for fun.
And one of me verse four ofthose.
It's just never going to workout.
(06:30):
But again, like I was saying,it's all about like learning
those lessons and going througha lot of versions of yourself
and what you want to say to theworld musically before you find
your truest self and then you'rethe most creatively free you
could possibly be Right on man.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
That's dope you drop.
Let the Vultures in EP 2018.
What was that feeling like foryou, kind of the first solo EP
stepping out.
It's an incredible EP, a lot ofawesome songs on it.
What was that moment like foryou, kind of realizing yourself
as a solo artist?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Well, it was definitely scary because it was
born out of a really dark periodof my life where I had a lot of
bands that I was so excitedabout and they all just kind of
fell apart.
And it was the first time I wasreally stepping out of my own
and doing my own thing andtaking all those lessons that I
had learned and just finallybeing able, free, to just do
(07:24):
exactly what I wanted to do.
So it was tough man, because Iremember being in a band having
little success and then I haveto take this deep tour in life
when I'm doing my own thing forthe first time and I put out a
song and I've been working onthis music for months and months
and months.
I put up the song and the nextday I go on Spotify and it has
that little less than math signlike the less than a thousand
(07:45):
sign when the streams are so lowthat they won't even tell you
how low they are.
And I remember just being like,yeah, like I got a lot of work
to do.
So it was a real like roll upthe sleeves moment, sitting on
my couch in my underwear, likeguessing every single email
address of every single playlistthere at Spotify, every manager
(08:07):
, every record label, everyagent, every, everything, and
just send that hundreds of thosea day while playing shows at
night.
And it was many, many, many,many months of that before
things started to pick up andpeople started to pay attention.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, man, that's the grind sometimes, and it's cool
for people out there to hearthings like that, because
sometimes that's what it takes.
In all of that, it seems likeyour love for music has only
grown where there are times inthat process where you were just
(08:42):
kind of like fuck.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Like I don't know For sure, man, it's all like the
financial worries you have ofreally trying to make it work
and make it happen.
And you're talking about thegrind, man.
Yeah, and the grind is not justa one or done.
You know, the grind it'sperpetual.
And I'm thankful enough thatthere's something in my head, 50
(09:05):
years from now, of Des Rocksand it's like this crazy
spectacle and I'm just an oldman and that's the vision I'm
thinking about all day long.
That makes the grind worth it,it makes it worth fighting for,
because I don't wanna leave thisearth not having realized that
vision and it really is in manyways my life's work.
(09:26):
You know, it's such a struggle,it's such a journey, but that
struggle and that journeyactually end up defining the
music itself in the moment andkind of become the inspiration
for the music.
So it's this weird likesymbiotic chart of pain and art.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man, absolutely.
It all feeds into each otherand it's rad to see, you know,
how deep you are in it.
You know, and how like it'scool to talk to artists about
their vision and their goals,because a lot of times that
(10:03):
might not be, you know, thecoolest thing or the thing they
wanna talk about or put on frontstreet.
You know, but having that driveto see yourself, as you know,
the old artists that you wannabe, with a discography, a
lifetime of work that you'vecreated and you can look back on
and be in a spot that youenvisioned you know you're gonna
be in right now, it's just,it's a cool thing and it's so
(10:25):
important to like keep thathealthy.
You know creative, fun, drivein yourself, you know, to do all
the things you wanna do, toaccomplish all the things you
wanna accomplish.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Amen, brother.
Yeah, it's definitely.
It's not easy, you know it's,but like it's that rare moment
when you get to write music andit just like or that rare moment
when you're on stage, it justmakes everything worth it.
You know, like the 90 minuteson stage make the 22 and a half
hours of tour during the daythat are hell.
Like it makes it all worth itand like that moment you're
(10:59):
sitting there alone and you'reworking on an idea and the
heavens open up and down beamsthis song into your soul that
you think is the greatest thingthat you've ever heard in your
entire life.
Like it makes it all worth itand like that's just enough
spark to keep the relentlessforward movement of all things.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
That's rocks you know Hell, yeah, man, hell yeah.
So you know three EPs.
Then you say enough, it's timefor the full length.
Real good person in a real badplace.
Awesome album, by the way.
Awesome album.
What was you know?
How did it feel stepping into afull length?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, you know it's funny, like you say three P's in
an album, like it was kind ofall part of the vision.
Like even before I startedmaking the first music of Des
Rocks, I went away upstate.
I had like $500 in my bankaccount, probably, and I went
away with a typewriter, a guitarand a big muff pedal and just
for a couple of days I sat downand I was like what do I want to
(11:56):
say to the world musically, youknow?
And I planned it all out.
I kind of just typed out inthis cabin exactly all things
Des Rocks, like what I want itto look like, feel like five
years from now, 10 years fromnow.
So I said, okay, I want to dothree EPs and I want each one of
those EPs to have like a verykind of distinct sonic identity.
And then I want to do threefull length albums.
So the first full length albumwas like a real departure
(12:20):
musically for me.
But it's important for me alsoto like for that first record to
build in flexibility where Ican adapt to the time I'm in.
Like I always think it's NinaSimone Quote where it's like art
should reflect the time.
So I made that record in thedepths of COVID, and that record
is very much the sound of mesitting alone in a room kind of
(12:42):
losing my mind.
It's like one long innermonologue so leaping into a full
album.
It was like kind of halfplanned, where I always knew
after the three pieces was analbum and then the other half of
it the time I found myself in.
That I couldn't have preparedfor.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, that's, that's the, you know, the COVID era of
music, creatively speaking, andso many people that I know had,
you know, so many differentexperiences.
You know there were so manypeople that you know wanted and
expected to make the record oftheir lives and then, you know,
had the hardest time likechanneling any sort of like
(13:20):
creative flow.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
COVID, to me, was such an uninspirational time.
I feel like you had everysingle manager in the music
industry saying to every singleartist, well, what should I do?
And they're going to say, well,you should write.
You got to write right now.
And I think anytime you tellsomebody that they have to write
, they're going to do theirabsolute worst work they've ever
done their entire life.
You know what I mean.
Say, oh, right now, all of asudden we're going to pivot,
(13:42):
you're going to start writingright now, and then you're not
going to get anything good.
When you're like consciouslytrying to write, as in my
experience, I'm going to speakfor myself.
But like, even like my saddestsongs in a strange way come from
a place of like happiness andenthusiasm, where I'm like
really excited about the art I'mmaking.
But when you got to kind ofjust like go into an empty room
every day all alone, like itwasn't the depth of COVID, and
(14:04):
then I was in New York City.
So I'm like literally walkingby multiple outdoor makeshift
moorings on the way there, likeit is really a dark, dark,
fucking time and like the musicreflected that.
Like the music on that album isnot the sound of me being like
really pumped about making music.
You know what I mean.
It's a much weirder shade ofDes Rocks.
(14:25):
It doesn't really come out thatoften.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, man, right on.
And then 2023, dream Machinecomes out.
You worked with Alan Johannes,queens of the Stone Age, on this
album and Alan is he's just anawesome guy.
He's an incredibly talentedmusician.
This album is so good, man, andit's so there's so much
attention to detail without itsounding overproduced you know
(14:51):
what I mean.
Like it just sounds really,really good.
It sounds good on speakers, itsounds good on headphones.
There's there's layers you canget into if you, if you want to
listen to the intricacies ofeach song.
You know what was it likeworking with Al.
What was it like making thatrecord?
I've seen a couple things youtalking about.
You know what a big record thiswas for you and I know that
(15:13):
you've expressed concern in thepast with working with producers
and how kind of sometimes thatcan be limiting if they're
trying to like, force their typeof song on you, or you know
that type of thing.
So how was you know, how wasmaking Dream Machine for you?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Oh it was.
It was amazing.
Like I feel like this record isthe record that I was born to
make.
Aljohannis is fucking amazing.
He was such an incrediblecheerleader every step of the
way.
Historically speaking, I've goneon with some of the biggest
producers in the world and I'vereally blown it not consciously
blown it, but like I just am not.
I just don't play well withothers that well.
(15:49):
You know what I mean.
Like I'm very opinionated andmaybe it's a New York thing, but
I don't really pull puncheslike if I don't like something,
I don't like it.
I'm just gonna gotta say that.
And I feel like there's acertain amount of game playing
that these people are used toWith regards to creative process
.
But for me it's like my lifeand it's my art and I can't be
anything but absolutely bluntall the time.
(16:09):
So you know, it was great tohave a team of people around me
making this album who just kindof like all understood where I
wanted to go and could challengeme and and subvert my
expectations, but at the end ofthe day, we were all on the same
page and heading towards thesame place and Everybody like
really played a role and a part,and now that was really cool
(16:31):
for me.
You know, I love that.
I love that process that theend of the day there wasn't
anybody trying to like Likesteer the ship, you know I mean,
and like be like you gotta goin this direction, you gotta go
pop on, because that's, you know, there was none of that, you
know, because I very much dothink that a lot of art kind of
needs to be a creativedictatorship.
(16:52):
You gotta surround yourself withthe right cheerleaders and the
right people.
They have, like like AndrewHannes has this infinite wisdom
of studio techniques, guitars,instruments, and Matt Wallace,
who I made the record with aswell, that I wouldn't get in a
thousand lifetimes.
So it was really beautifulprocess made.
It was.
It was a.
It was a challenging processmaking that record.
I remember like falling asleepin the studio a few times just
(17:15):
because I was there so much andI was just so in it and we had a
small budget and a limitedamount of time to make it.
But I couldn't be more proud ofthat album.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, man, it's great and it came out August last
year.
But I know you're still, youknow, still doing a lot of
touring on it.
You know, the latest single,I'm the lightning I, you know
it's kicking ass all over rockradio as we speak.
I think it's.
It's moved from 15 to 12, youknow, in in the charts so
congrats on that, man, becausethat's you know, thank you.
(17:46):
That's a great feeling, man.
That's really cool and I wantedto kind of focus in on that
track just a little bit, if wecould.
You know, usually when you'rewriting an album there's songs
that come right away, there'ssongs that require a little bit
of effort and there's songs thatare, just, you know, the bane
of your existence.
And you know, sometimes theydon't make the record, sometimes
(18:07):
they come at the last fuckingminute.
Where, where did I'm thelightning?
Kind of fit on that scale.
And if you could just kind ofmaybe expand on writing that
song a little bit yeah, thatsong we just took a riff I had
for a really long time.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And I just tried like copying and pasting this riff
into other songs and it wasdisastrous and I struck out so
many times.
But we had just gotten backfrom tour and, as you know,
often when you ship drums acrossthe country, you'll often like
take the heads and tune them allthe way down yeah.
So the difference is that youknow the heads and tune them all
the way down yeah.
So the drums show up in mystudio, they get set up and I
(18:41):
just sit behind the kit and Ijust start like laying down this
beat and I was like, oh, thissounds kind of cool with the
heads all fucked up like this.
Um.
And then I just like stuck thes m 57 in the room and I just
recorded it real fast and I waslike, let me try that riff over
this.
And I put that riff over thereand I was like done, and you
know, when you like find a vein,like you finally find a vein
and it all opens up, yeah, andthen just immediately it all the
(19:04):
whole song opened up.
I was like, ah, there you are.
Like that's where you've beenhiding.
Like um, you're like like theclassic renaissance sculptors
used to envision theirsculptures as already in the
marble Right.
You just had to free it fromthis cube of marble and like
that was that song.
Like that song was like buriedin the musical marble and I was
just like, oh, I, you're inthere, I've got chills of you
(19:25):
out right now.
Um, so that was.
It was cool how that one came.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's awesome man, that's really cool.
I love, I love when thathappens and I love the story of
just having, you know the, the,the homeless riff.
You know the riff with that'sgot nowhere to go, the riff on
the streets.
You know that, just it, just youjust want, you just want to to
live a good life.
You know, and, uh, and, and youfound it and it came together.
(19:51):
And that's always cool, man,because I know, like when you
you know, when you're writing analbum or you, you got parts
that are in like the boneyardand you're trying to squeeze
them into all these differentsongs, and especially when it's
a riff or a lyric that youreally love, and you know it's
special and you just want it.
You know, you just want it tohappen, and there's no greater
feeling than when it all comestogether.
(20:11):
So that's really fucking cool.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, and I don't know how it is with you also,
but like homeless riffs, butalso I think of them as like
squatting riffs, like they'llstay in my brain and and I wish
they could just go.
Um, but I can't stop thinkingof them.
They're like kind of likeex-girlfriends and you just like
you kind of have them there andthey don't really go away
permanently.
And in making an album, you'retrying to build this big jigsaw
(20:37):
puzzle but you keep just addingpieces to the puzzle that have
no place to go and you're goingto drive yourself insane.
Um, like you still think aboutmusical parts that you haven't
yet used, or are you able toforget them easily?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
No, I don't like.
Okay.
So like, for example, we'rejust starting to write a new
album right now and I, lyricallyspeaking, I go through like
I'll go all the way back to like, you know, along with stuff
that I'm writing now, I'll gothrough all old stuff that I've
written, that I've always loved,that I haven't found a home for
(21:12):
yet, and I I'm still liketrying to like the cool things
that that I wrote you know to methat are cool.
You know, 10 years ago, that Ihaven't found a home for yet.
Wow, that I know I could writea song around, or even just like
whole ideas that I had forsongs that just kind of turned
into a poem because I neverfound the right Way to put it
(21:33):
into music.
Like I'll always be searchingfor for those, for homes, for
those things you know Likebecause you know they're good
and you know I mean that's likeif you're looking at your career
as not just this album but it'sA, it's your life, is a whole
body of work.
You know you got a lot of songsto write, man.
You know you got a lot.
(21:53):
You got a lot of songs to write.
You got a lot of lyrics right,you got a lot work to do.
So you know, I hold on toeverything, everything that
feels good.
You know, most times if I, if I, if I'm writing something and
then I look back on it and I'mlike, eh, I'll hold on to it for
a little bit and then if I lookback on it again and I'm still
not feeling it, I'm not gonnasay I delete it, but I'll move
on.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, but isn't that such an interesting process?
Because you're simultaneouslywriting and looking towards the
future while also kind of beinglike a musical historian
curating the museum of yourself,and you're like let me be the
archivist for my own ideas andthen also marry that with the
future, and that's such aninteresting idea.
(22:36):
It's like the musicalequivalent of like when you
freeze an embryo and like 1992,and then that kid gets born like
30 years later and technicallyexactly 30 the day he's born.
I don't know, it's like it's amusical version of that and
that's interesting to me.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, it is Well, because then another thing too
is I think, at least for me andI think for most artists when
you start writing for an album,it takes a while to kind of get
to the good stuff, especially ifyou're on album 234.
It takes a while to kind of yougo through kind of your same
tones or your comfort notes orcomfort lyrics or you kind of go
(23:11):
through that kind of familiarterritory first, and sometimes,
as a way to kind of get to thegood stuff faster, I can go back
to lyrics that I wrote in aprocess where I know I was in a
zone where I was already in thatplace and I can go back and
like read those and try to likeapply that to you know a demo or
(23:33):
something like that.
And then it also kind of helpsspark like just you know new,
like a new process of writing ornew ideas, or maybe I can
expand on an old idea.
But if I was like, if you wrotesomething that you feel is like
you were inspired when youwrote it, like maybe you come up
with a riff at the end ofwriting an album and there's
just no way to make it intosomething in time that's going
(23:54):
to make the record.
I mean, you're going to hold onto that thing and it's going to
happen Eventually.
You're going to put it, you'regoing to take it to the frozen
embryo riff bank.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
You're going to find a surrogate and you're going to
implant that and you're going tohave that little baby is going
to be born.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, man, yeah, awesome, well, okay, so you've
got a massive tour headlining.
Okay, april 15 starts inJacksonville, florida.
What?
Okay, this is.
This is like the worst questionever.
But what can people expect?
Okay, who haven't seen you live?
What's it all about?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I would say a tremendous amount of passion and
chaos and intensity and alsogratitude.
You know, we're just so happyfor every single second that we
get to be on stage because we'veall individually spent a
lifetime just like really tryingto make it.
You know, like in a realclassical sense, like just like
(24:51):
flinging some awful day job inNew York City during the day,
taking the Q train downtown,unbuttoning your shirt like some
Clark Kent Superman shit, andthen running into a little punk
dive basement and playing a showto 30 kids, and not just doing
that for a couple of weeks likesome cosplay shit, like living
that life for years and yearsand years and years.
So all of that just poursthrough every single member on
(25:14):
stage and each and every one ofus would live and breathe for
every single lyric and everysingle note that's up there.
So it's really important andspiritual experience for us and
the show very much feels likeyou're taking part of the sacred
ritual of rock and roll, andthat's that's a very long word
(25:35):
way of answering your questionof definitely check out the show
, Hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Rumor has it, dana White's going to be at every
show.
Is that true?
Do you know about that?
No, just 90, just 90% of them.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, I mean Dana drops into a ton of shows in a
lot of markets where you mightnot expect someone of that
stature to drop into.
So he's an amazing fan andchampion of the music and it's
been unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, that's cool man .
Shout out Dana White for thosewho don't know if there was a
bottle clip going around thathe's a big fan, a big fan of the
band, and he's seen you guys abunch of times and he had
nothing but big words to sayabout you on the Theo Vaughn
podcast.
So any sort of outlets outthere that are artist friendly.
(26:22):
There's so many people outthere that are doing cool stuff
and that are making money andthat might not go the extra mile
to really bring people up withthem along the way, and it's
always super cool to see peoplechampion artists and doing what
they can to help out everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, man, it's unparalleled.
I feel like there's been somany institutions over the years
that have been like we're goingto partner with bands and we're
going to help break bands.
Dana and UFC have just likecommunicated what I do to the
world in a way that very fewpeople ever could, and just been
(27:04):
ride or die homies with theexpectation of nothing in
exchange.
It's simply just for thepassion of the music, and for
that I am constantly humbled andprofoundly grateful.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Hell yeah, man.
Alright, I don't want to takeup too much more of your time
here, danny.
By the way, danny Rocco.
Ultimate New York name,ultimate.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, it was a little too on the nose for an artist
project name so I had to go withan alt.
There you go, but thank you.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Alright, here we go.
We're going to pick one here.
Alright, you got Lover orFighter, lover Van Halen or Led
Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin, muse or Queens ofthe Stone Age.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Muse, that's a tough question for me.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
ACDC or Kiss, acdc, nirvana or Oasis.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Nirvana.
I know three Oasis songs.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Metallica or Guns N' Roses yeah, Guns N' Roses
Strokes.
Or.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
White Stripes.
You didn't say Jack White, yousaid White Stripes.
I'm going to go with Strokes.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Alright alright, fair enough, you found a loophole.
Bob Dylan or Elvis, elvis,alright alright.
Let's see Roy Orbison or JohnnyCash, oh shit.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Roy Orbison.
Just not like a technicality,yeah, roy Orbison.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Bo Diddley or Brian Setzer.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Bo Diddley.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Nice.
Okay, let's go, brian Adams orJohn Cougar Mellon Camp.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Oh man, that's such a .
The way that people arecomparing is funny to me,
because I'm seeing where yourinsight is coming from.
Let's go with John Cougar.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
John Cougar, alright, chuck Berry or Little Richard.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Little Richard.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Guitar or vocals.
Vocals oh yeah, that's what I'mtalking about.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Vocals make me cry more than guitar.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Awesome man, alright.
A couple hypotheticals here.
So if you got, okay, you're inNew York, manhattan, okay, you
got a budget.
You got $50,000 cash, okay, youcan spend the night partying
with the devil, or you can spendthe night partying with Jesus.
Who do you pick Devil?
Definitely that's a rock androll test.
(29:20):
No rock and roll person wouldever say Jesus.
So good, you passed the test.
Good job Partying with Jesus.
I was boring, yeah, yeah, itcan't be good.
Alright, so you get into sometrouble with the law, alright.
Hypothetical number two yourmanager says hey, you know,
danny, you got to lay low for awhile.
You can either go to Canada orMexico.
(29:41):
Where do you go?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Mexico, definitely.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Hell yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
No question in my mind.
Yeah, no question in my mind.
Now we're going to Manitoba?
No way, ha, ha.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Ha.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
No thanks, Manitoba.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah, mexico City is like the coolest fucking place
in the planet.
Dude, it's awesome.
You're going to compare that tofucking Calgary, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
No way, no, no way.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
No way.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Alright, last one here, bill and Ted, come down
Time machine.
They got the phone booth.
Anywhere you want to go inhistory, where are you going
first and why?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Man, I probably go to like 1958 New York City and
walk around the West Village andsee some crazy beatnik shit and
the beginnings of just anunimaginably cool period in
music and music history and it'snot the 70s or 80s yet, so New
York is a bit safer.
Yeah, I like that a lot, flowand the shit.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah.
What do you love about being amusician?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I love always holding myself to my own standards.
You know I have goals formyself, things I want to achieve
musically, and I'm not beingcompared to like the other guy
down the hall in legal.
I'm being compared to myselfand I'm always accountable to
myself.
And it forces you to kind ofimpose this own sort of like
(31:12):
moral code and a professionalcode.
You have to wake up everysingle day and create your own
destiny, and that, to me, issuch an inspiring way to live
life.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Awesome man.
What do you hate about being amusician?
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Sometimes you can feel like a lone wolf just kind
of going through life whileeverybody else has a tremendous
amount of structure.
You at times might crave and itcan be lonely and isolating and
you can spend a lot of timeinside your own head and that
can be a tough place to be Damn.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Coming through with the real answers Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
I just tell like it is, like I told you the
beginning.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Unbelievable man.
All right, so this is theSailor Jerry podcast.
Norman Collins, one of theGodfathers of traditional
tattoos.
I've been looking online.
I don't think you got anytattoos.
Do you have any tattoos?
Zero, no.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
No plans, don't tell you anti tattoo or just not for
you?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Oh, not at all.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Teach their own.
My drummer is fully tatted neckto toe, literally.
There's not one inch of blankreal estate on this guy's body
other than his eyeballs at thispoint.
And you know, for me I'll saythat, like the idols I have
growing up were like FreddieMercury, bruce Springsteen,
elvis Presley none of them hadtattoos.
(32:34):
So I never, I never had thatpart of rock and roll culture
sinking into me at that veryimpressionable sponge age, you
know.
And then the other thing withme in tattoos is that my tastes
change a lot and that scares me.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, yeah, you don't want to be like a lot of these
artists.
Now, like you know, machine gunKelly or, or Davey Havoc, may,
if I.
They have all these terribletattoos and their only choice is
just Does like black out theirwhole arm, you know, and they
just got to do that becausethey're just so overseeing, like
a bunch of pumpkins orsomething.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Right.
Have a question, though onceyou go to the very end, right,
once you've now effectivelybecome black armed yeah, can you
.
Then is that a redo?
Do you get to start over?
And then could you put a whitetattoo on top of the black like
a Chop board?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I feel like at that point, I think the black is, I
think it's the spinal tap, Ithink it's.
I think it's no more black, Ithink that's it.
I think that's, once you goblack, it's over.
Yeah Well, you know, I mean,I'm just imagining that's, you
know.
I just feel it feels like, youknow, if you go on top of that,
it can't, it can't be good.
All right, all right, all right, danny.
(33:46):
Last question here does rocksDanny Rocco?
What to you is the meaning oflife?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I think the meaning life is is a constant search for
the meaning of life, a constantsearch for your own meaning
within it.
You know, yeah, the ultimatepursuit of One individual's
perception of what life is youknow, it's the Easter on its for
you to define, and I thinkthat's the meaning of it is for
you to make your own sense of it.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Awesome man, appreciate your time here on the
sailor Jerry podcast.
Des rocks incredible albumdream machine out now.
Go check out.
I'm the lightning, you know.
Check them out on Spotify,instagram.
Get tickets for the upcomingtour.
You got jigsaw youth supportingKicks off April 15th in
Jacksonville, right?
(34:37):
Hell yeah, thanks a lot.
There's thank you.
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