Origins is back, with hard rocker Des Rocs sharing the influences behind his latest single, “The Juice”
Des Rocs has always strived to recapture the sort of slicked-back, sweaty grit that made parents scared of rock music in the first place. His songs — which have soundtracked UFC bouts and the new Borderlands 4 video game (“This Land”) — want to spark collective superconscious memories of drag races and beer bottles shattering on chickenwire. New single “The Juice” captures that rebellious spirit better than ever.
“‘The Juice” is like my rock ‘n roll fantasy land,” Des Rocs tells Consequence. “This song is really representative of a kinda duality that defines Des Rocs. There’s the entertainer versus the fella battling something underneath it all. On an album, I love to balance intensely personal songs with the over-the-top fastballs.”
This particular fastball gets pitched right into your gut with muscular guitar riffs and stomping drums charging towards a promise to keep things raucous and rolling. We’ll see how it fits into Des Rocs’ new album when it drops early next year on Sumerian Records.
For now, take a bite into the lyrics visualizer below and let Des Rocs’ “The Juice” fill your ears with unfiltered rock ‘n’ roll. Then, read on for the Origins of the single.
Tina Turner Live in Barcelona, 1990
For my entire life, I’ve been completely obsessed with Tina Turner. Specifically this concert from a stadium in Barcelona in 1990. She is 51 years old. She descends onto the stage from a 30-foot staircase in high heels and proceeds to burn the place to the fuckin’ ground. The way she moves to songs that are essentially blues or rock ‘n’ roll songs gives me goosebumps every time. Think about it: we have pop stars who dance today to pop music, but who is on stage DANCING to rock music??? And like this?! I wanna make rock music that you can move to like Tina in Barcelona. There’s a long-lost magic to it all.
The Motha Effin’ Fly Over
Photo by Benjamin Chambon/Unsplash
People often ask me what my dream live production is. The ultimate dream is to have three F-15 fighter jets fly over a stadium emitting smoke, and to have it all perfectly timed to the downbeat of a final chorus. I always wanna create songs that could be a candidate for that moment. “The Juice” is an ultimate fly-over song.
Americana
Photo by Reinhart Julian/Unsplash
I’m obsessed with the lore of the “American Rock Band.” I worship at the altar of it’s imagery and sonic palette. Yet the most Des Rocs thing of all is this sort of grand contradiction. Sometimes I wanna create music that you could drag race to, but at the same time I’m from New York and drive a used 2016 Hyundai Sonata. So there’s this fetishization of something that I intrinsically am not and will never be. In many ways my music carries this immense grandiosity while underneath it all is something far stranger.
New York City
Photo by Luca Bravo/Unsplash
Every ounce of my musical DNA is infused with New York City. There is no Des Rocs without the city in which I create. There’s an electricity to this place that powers every note. I could not write “The Juice” in Nashville. I cannot exist in a place like that for more than 24 hours before I begin to melt and fall into a deep depression. I have to nearly die three times before I even make it to my studio before I can write a Des Rocs record.
Songwriting
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash
This might be a weird one to end on, but I think it’s appropriate given how open-ended the nature of this is. With all the impending AI slop, I think it’s important to examine where my writing comes from. It’s born from two distinct places. The first is the creation of art in its most reductive from — as a simple tool of self-expression. I’m working through something. I’m pouring out something. I don’t even need to know what “something” is — I usually don’t — but the tap is on and that’s what we’re doin’ today. I have no idea what’s going to come out of it. 99.9% of it is nonsense. .1% becomes a song. The other bucket is way more child-like. I’ve managed to get away from my phone and I’m truly lost in imagination. I’m pretending to be on stage playing a song and then wondering, what song would be fun to play? What song would I want to hear? I’m daydreaming the same way I did in middle school and pretending I’m playing to 80,000 people. But usually I’m in a small room in Queens and alone. “The Juice” was definitely born outta this dream-like mindset.
