“Pour another round of whatever you like
Here’s to the end, here’s to the fight”
From “Suicide Romantics” by Des Rocs
At various points in my life, I have been asked the question, “What’s your favorite kind of music?” I always struggled with the answer, because I assumed that question referred to my favorite genre of music and I never really had a favorite type of music per se. I just knew what I loved when I heard it.
But then I saw a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. I believe it was in either 2002 or 2003 for The Rising tour at Giants Stadium. And there was Bruce – around 50 years old, already inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with countless hit records and probably millions of dollars to his name playing to his adoring hometown crowd. He could have coasted – comfortably chilled out from his Godfather of American Rock perch. But he didn’t coast. He played the show like he was 17 years old and if he didn’t get it right he would never make it out of his family’s basement in New Jersey.
And that’s when I knew the kind of music I liked. Scratch that – the kind of music I needed. I need musicians who understood in the depth of their bones the sacred nature of music and the importance of the bond between musician and fan. I need the people who know that a live show is a critical moment in time that can change someone’s life in an instant.
During my conversation with Des Rocs for The Hardcore Humanism Podcast, I knew he understood the sanctity of music. For Des, the best vehicle for the power of music is big reach-for-the stars stadium rock. “I feel like just constantly possessed by dreams of grandeur. And I always wanted to make the biggest, baddest music for as many people as possible,” Des told me. “…just getting up there and making an absolute fool of myself trying to play this club to 20 people like it’s Madison Square Garden, and everybody being usually mortified … And I’m just this kind of odd man out on the bill thinking that I’m Bruce Springsteen playing to 80,000 people.”
For Des, like many artists, this power has to come from within. There must be something inside that needs to be expressed emotionally through music. And anything less than milking the moment to embrace this expression is an abject disappointment. “If you watch a Queen concert, like you just see how much fun Freddie is having. And they don’t need to do it for the money. They have lots of money. And I think it’s that same principle of people who go for so long for so many years without making any money and keep doing it and just kind of live on the edge,” he explained. “Those are the people who you know are in it for the right reasons, because there’s something that they want to express to you every night. And they want to create this incredible show. And it’s their passion and their livelihood. There’s nothing worse than seeing an artist you love, just get up there and phone it in. It’s clear, they don’t give a sh*t.”
To be sure, these moments are not just plucked out of the sky. Long gone is the old school rock star stereotype that successful musicians are simply talented, good-looking people who bypass the tedious nature of everyday life to casually pursue their rock star dreams. On the contrary, the energy in the music and on stage is an expression of a more holistic approach to one’s life based on a full throttle effort. And Des knew right from the get go that he needed to push himself to achieve his goals.
“I never really had too many means available to me, other than just doing everything myself from really early age. I didn’t really come from an extended network of people in the music industry or anything like that. And I kind of set this precedent early on of just kind of figuring out everything on my own, and just kind of doing my own DIY hustle,” Des recalled. “And then I recently teamed up with an amazing, independent label. And I’ve been putting out all the records through them. So it just kind of was instilled in me from an early age to just do things on your own. And if you want anything to get done, you’ve got to do it yourself.”
Des laid out how his “hustle nature” manifests in his day-to-day routine. “I wake up at a pretty normal time and like, have breakfast and I’ll often just go straight to my studio spot in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and I’ll just work on music all day, every day … And usually in the evening, pre COVID, then my band would come to my spot and join me and we rehearse for the rest of night. So it’s really like an all-day all-night sort of thing,” he said. “I spent so much time in the early days just trying to hit people up and be like, ‘Yo, Yo, check this out. Check this out. Check this out.’ Even when I was like a little kid standing in front of Roseland Ballroom handing out CDs after shows and taking the train home. That really is just kind of like my hustle nature. It’s like a very New York kind of vibe and attitude. I would just hit up tons of people on email, DM, text. Anything like, ‘Hey, here’s what I’m about. Here’s what I want to do. Here’s what I want to say to the world. Here’s my music.’”
Part of accepting the hustle is accepting failure. In fact, the willingness to experience failure is a direct reflection of the passion for the music. And Des explains how the willingness to fail is the only path to success, “I would say that if you feel passionate about needing to express something to the world creatively, musically — in any other format — go down it, pursue it, foster it,” Des described. “And understand that it takes a lot of time and a lot of failure. And that’s part of the process. But you just need to keep moving forward and it’s those failures that are going to really define the end result.”
Interestingly, despite his preference for a bigger rock sound, Des’ approach to his music and career as pure New York punk rock. “I think punk long ago stopped being a genre of music that was defined by certain musical elements or production choices and has morphed into much more of simply a cultural mindset … It’s really just an ethos and a mindset and attitude that you’re going to do whatever the f*ck you want creatively with no regards to anyone or anything and whatever happens happens,” he explained. “I think if 10 years now I put out a polka record, like that’s the most punk sh*t ever.”
Des encourages artists to commit to their work for the long haul, and think of balancing their creativity and financial concerns as part of that commitment. “You gotta just also be in it for the long haul and keep going, after all the adversity. I think that really defines being independent artists. You know, many years of looking at the bank account and being like, ‘Am I gonna over-withdraw this today?” Des described. “Really living and breathing the struggle and never giving in in the sense of like, ‘Man, I just got to give this whole music thing up’ … because there are just so many incredible artists out there who like, if they could have just held on another 12 months, another18 months, who knows what would have happened.”
Des has every reason to be optimistic. After touring with bands such as The Struts and Muse, and opening for the Rolling Stones in 2019, Des has a new EP out called This Is Our Life released on the 300 Entertainment record label. And his big rock dreams will keep him rolling through. “Now I’m always gonna create art and music and make things and build things. And I’ve just been blessed and fortunate enough where I was able to survive some of the cold years and the hunger years and be able to make a living making music and making art,” Des said. “I love big music and big sounds so much. And I love big gestures and big swings creatively, so much. That is why I spend 23 and a half hours a day, living through pretty much objective hell so that those 30 minutes on stage are the greatest 30 minutes of my entire life.”
Photo credit: Rory Barnes
