Des Rocs Interview with Steve Black at Riff Fest 2023
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00:00Backstage on a beautiful day with Des Rocks.
00:03Hello.
00:04How are you doing?
00:05I'm doing great.
00:06Have you been to Detroit before?
00:07I have been to Detroit, yes.
00:08Never to the Pine Knob, though.
00:09No.
00:10Well, it's kind of a cool place.
00:11I don't know if you had a chance to walk around.
00:12It's beautiful.
00:13Not only did I have a chance to walk around, I walked around harder than any artist has
00:17ever walked around this place.
00:18We went to the top of a ski hill, we climbed a gondola, then we walked down to a lake, came
00:23back around.
00:24This place is like summer camp.
00:25It's gorgeous.
00:26That's awesome.
00:27Cool.
00:28I hope you take this for the compliment it's meant to be, but I was trying to take
00:32in a lot of the music from some of the bands that are playing today, and what stood out
00:36to me about Des Rocks is unpredictability.
00:41I was like, I don't even know how to describe the band.
00:44That is the best compliment you could give me, and Steve, I really appreciate that because
00:49you could say, the music sucks.
00:51I hate your music, but it just doesn't sound like anybody else, and I would say thank you.
00:56I like that more than you're great, but it sounds like X or Y.
01:00Well, I'm going to go with, I like it.
01:03I'm just not entirely sure why.
01:05Good.
01:06Good.
01:07That was the hook for me.
01:09I enjoyed it.
01:10I'm kind of a guitar first guy.
01:12And so, you know, looked up some of the live videos where you really kind of spread out
01:17a little bit more, play a little extra guitar.
01:19A lot of extra.
01:20I'm pretty extra.
01:20Yeah.
01:21So...
01:22Yeah, man.
01:23No, I really appreciate that.
01:24You know, for me, maybe the thing that hooks you, I don't know, I hope this is what hooks
01:29you, is that I draw from a lot of different places.
01:33It kind of gets filtered through whatever Des Rocks cheesecloth this is, you know, and it
01:37kind of gets pushed through, but I hope that no matter what, there's a kind of underlying
01:42emotional intensity and authenticity that connects everything together.
01:47So, I hope that's maybe what hooks you in.
01:49Yeah.
01:50That's my goal.
01:51My artistic intent.
01:52Yeah.
01:53Well, I also noticed a lot of energy.
01:55High energy.
01:56Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:57High energy.
01:58Yeah.
01:59And the show, I don't think you've had a chance to see us before.
02:01I have not.
02:02Just watch a handful of things on YouTube to kind of get familiar.
02:05I'm definitely going to try and take it as far as I can.
02:08And when I get off stage, you know, like on stage, it'll be kind of godlike and then
02:13I'll be like completely disabled after the show.
02:15There's nothing left.
02:16I need to be like propped up.
02:17Yeah.
02:18That means you've done your job.
02:19Yes.
02:20Yeah.
02:21I leave it all on the stage, man, every time.
02:22I play each show like it's my last.
02:23I truly believe that.
02:24Whether it's 80 kids in a basement in Alabama or 80,000 people opening up for some big artists,
02:29it's the same show.
02:30Right.
02:31And it's always somebody's first show.
02:35100%.
02:36It is always somebody's first show.
02:38Somebody in the audience has never been to a show before.
02:40I could be having the worst day of my life.
02:42I could have every single member of my family horribly die in some sort of freak accident.
02:47But if I'm on that stage, it all goes out the window and it's a very sacred 40 minutes
02:51to an hour and a half, whatever we have today.
02:53Right.
02:54Yeah.
02:55Where did your music start?
02:58Do you even know?
02:59Was there a starting point?
03:00Was there a spark?
03:02You know, there is no like aha moment.
03:05Right.
03:06I think a lot of artists and people who are doing things they love, they kind of find themselves born into a river that is perhaps already moving.
03:15Mm-hmm.
03:16And then at some point, you just kind of become, oh, I'm floating down this river.
03:19You know what I mean?
03:20Like, oh my God, I am a musician.
03:22I've been doing this for a couple of months or a couple of years.
03:24This is me.
03:25And there's just been nothing else.
03:26Right.
03:27You know, there wasn't any other river you were born into.
03:29It was just this one.
03:30And that's how I very much think of it.
03:31But there were a couple moments where I knew what kind of artist I wanted to be.
03:35And for me, that was like seeing Queen at Wembley Stadium as a young kid on TV.
03:40Right.
03:41And just being awed by the awesome dictionary definition, awesome, power of large rock music and seeing the uniting factor of 80,000 people who don't even speak English singing a bass line.
03:57You know what I mean?
03:58Right.
03:59Just live for that.
04:01Yeah.
04:02Very interesting example to pick out with Queen because you're talking about all four of them, not just capable musicians, but master level musicians.
04:12And you have the show.
04:14Do you think there's any current artist tapping into that energy?
04:16Say again?
04:17Do you think there's any current artist tapping into that vein of energy?
04:22Not like that, no.
04:25Great.
04:26I can't wait for you to see my show.
04:27Yeah.
04:28Yeah.
04:29There's a handful of artists I really like, and I think they put just phenomenal stuff into their show.
04:36But, you know, I mean, to me, Queen's just that unique thing, just like Iron Maiden's that unique thing.
04:42And some of the current bands are their own unique thing.
04:44Right.
04:45You know?
04:46So, yeah, I mean, I think it's great, but I think the key is be yourself.
04:50Always, always, always, always.
04:52You don't have to be the next Metallica.
04:53We already have one.
04:55I like that.
04:56Right.
04:57And there was no Metallica before Metallica.
04:58Exactly.
04:59That's important.
05:00Yeah.
05:01Yeah, that's cool.
05:02Yeah, man.
05:03There is a certain singularity that rock music has always possessed, which I think has made it unique from any other genre that I think is kind of lost today.
05:12And the antithesis of that is kind of the Desrocks mission.
05:16You know, to, for better or for worse, double down on the things that make you you, because your chances of success are the same if you do or don't.
05:25So you might as well just do you.
05:26We already have an Imagine Dragons.
05:28You know what I mean?
05:29Don't chase things that exist.
05:30Don't chase things that exist.
05:31Just go for it.
05:32And either you die trying or you get there.
05:33You know?
05:34Yeah.
05:35I always say whenever somebody says, well, we're trying to do this.
05:37Well, you lost me at trying.
05:38Right.
05:39Or somebody gives you an elevator pitch.
05:40Just be yourself.
05:41Right.
05:42Yeah.
05:43It's like Black Keys meets Avenged Sevenfold, which actually sounds crazy now that I think about it.
05:47That kind of sounds good.
05:48Yeah.
05:49I kind of like it.
05:50But if you can simplify it to an elevator pitch, then I'm not as interested, you know?
05:55Right.
05:56Yeah.
05:57My overall, I tend to rant on things like this, but I get very passionate when I speak about rock music and things of that sort.
06:03Now, my curse, if I'm willing to admit to it, which I am, I kind of don't go outside the circle of rock.
06:11Like that's, I'm, my entire career has been rock and roll.
06:15So we get into other genres that kind of don't really impact me and it's just, I don't connect.
06:20But I feel like you draw from more than one genre.
06:23Yeah.
06:24I mean, first of all, to each their own.
06:25You like what you like and you know what you know.
06:26Yeah.
06:27So I think that's awesome.
06:28But I draw, I do draw from a lot of things.
06:30But again, I think going back to Queen is an interesting example.
06:33Yeah.
06:34Because that's a band that played in many different places.
06:37Yep.
06:38But at the end of the day, it was all Queen.
06:39Yes.
06:40So like Bohemian Rhapsody, opera, another one bites the dust, disco, crazy little thing called love, rockabilly.
06:45Yep.
06:46But at the end of the day, it's all Queen.
06:48And you know that sound and that flavor.
06:51So, you know, it's like, it can be rock, but it can be so many other things.
06:55That's the beautiful thing about rock music.
06:56Right.
06:57But it has to have guitar.
06:58Yeah.
06:59It has, I mean, it can, it's just like, I think of it, do you agree with this?
07:03I think of rock more as an energy than a production choice.
07:06You know what I mean?
07:07Like, is the beginning of We Will Rock You still rock to you when there's no guitar yet?
07:13Yes.
07:14Okay.
07:15Yes.
07:16Right.
07:17But if it stayed that and guitar never entered the picture, I would have a hard time classifying
07:20it as such.
07:21Interesting.
07:22Very interesting.
07:23Yes.
07:24I think at some point it needs to be there.
07:25Right.
07:26There's no exceptions to everything.
07:27Mm-hmm.
07:28But a painting with a broad brush, I think that that's what differentiates rock from country,
07:33from pop, is not necessarily that a guitar exists, but what that guitarist is playing.
07:38That's where the attitude shines through in my perception of it.
07:42Right.
07:43Interesting.
07:44In a unique role, a guitar serves as an expression of emotion in a way a piano, you can't bend
07:50a piano.
07:51Right.
07:52You can't throw a piano on the floor.
07:53You know, you can't manipulate it the same way.
07:55Right.
07:56Yeah.
07:57Very cool.
07:58Thanks for your time.
07:59I appreciate it, man.
08:00Thanks for having me, yeah.
08:01Welcome to Pie Knob.
08:02I'm happy to be here.
08:03Woo-hoo!