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Transcript

Hitman talks to Des Rocs · Classic Hitz with Hitman

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on?
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: It is hit Man with you and I've actually got
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: on zoom and I'm still trying to learn zoom.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Here it's Des Rocks, dude. How are you, buddy?
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: I'm good. How are you?
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm doing good now.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I was talking to somebody the other day about describing
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Des Rocks, and I said, this is what it is.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: He's he looks like James Dean, He's a storyteller like
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen and rocks out like Paul Stanley of Kiss.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Is that the best?
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Man?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Is that a good description of you?
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: I love that you want to be my publicist. That's fantastic. Yeah, man,
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: I think I think you really hit the nail on
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: the head there. You know, I really try and draw
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: from many different places and I'm I'm pretty shameless about
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: my influences, and I try to create this weird version
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: of what I consider Bedroom Marena Rock, you know, but
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: also with the heart of somebody like Bruce.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: So I really appreciate that. Yeah.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So you have a new single out called this Land.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: It's going to be on the new Borderlands for game show,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: which Borderlands, I hear is a huge video game.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Here's my question for you. This is different to.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Me because I'm so used to you know, people releasing
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: singles and CDs and albums, but this is actually being
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: released on a video game.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: How did this come about?
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, it's crazy.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: You know, Borderlands the game itself is just this like
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: insane vibe. You know, it takes itself not too seriously,
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: but also it's a very intense shoot them up game.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: At the same time, and they were really looking for
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: an artist to collaborate with on the intro that didn't
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: fit the traditional rock and roll mold and wanted something
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: that was electric and pretty wild. So they reached out
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: to me, and I happened to be working on my
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: album at the exact same time, so it was really
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: love it first sight in creating a song in that
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: book would be the first single from my album, but
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: that could also live in the intro of their game.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And you've been doing a lot of stuff lately.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I've read also that you've got it like a partnership
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: with UFC.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Also, well, we do a lot of music. We have
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: a lot of music that's placed in the UFC.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and Dana White and that whole family are just
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: such amazing people and incredible supporters of What I Do.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: So the single of this Land when Tyson called me
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: to tell me to take a listen to your single
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: and I listened to it. It's a great single, he
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: asked me. He asked me, he goes, okay, what he
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: always likes when I try to describe what I think
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: of the single as and I told him, I was like, Okay,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: this single sounds perfect for Borderlands, but I can also
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: picture you playing this full blazing in a packed crowd
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: at CBGB's.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent, we're not. I can literally almost
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: see it right here. There's little rooftop I'm on in
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Queen's right now. Yeah.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not too far away.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: I mean, the spirit of New York City is completely
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: infused into every single ounce of my music.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Wow, we're talking with Des Rocks concerning his new single
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the new album. You're still working on the on the
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: rest of the album right now.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: It is officially finished.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Aw, so when can we expect it to be out?
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: And about top of next year. I'm working on the
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: next next album already, you know.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Really you're that far ahead. Wow, that's that's actually kind
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: of cool. What goes into the process of writing your
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: songs and producing them.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: Well, the process of writing the music is really just
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: like the process of figuring out my process. You know,
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: I have no idea what it is. There's no rhyme
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: or reason to it. I wish I didn't though. However,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: for this album, once everything was written, it made the
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: conscious decision to record the whole album live as a
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: rock band. You know, in the past, I've done it
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: playing a lot of the instance myself, and we really
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: wanted to capture a special kind of energy that a
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: lot of bands leave on the table today.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: So okay, so, and I remember that from your last
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: singles that we've played here see one on one, and
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: they've done very very well here. Touring wise, how how's
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: it going when you're when you're out with the crowd
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: and arenas and and and other great locations.
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we love it, man. Touring is the absolute lifeblood
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: of what I do. It was what I was good
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: on this earth to do. And if you told me
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: you have one choice. You can write and report music
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: for the rest of your life, or you could tour
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: for the rest of your life, there would be no
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: question about it, Absolutely no question about it. We love
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: to perform and I love having that connection with other
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: human beings.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: It's it's so spiritual and so important to me.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: I remember you blowing the crowd away in Las Vegas.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: You were playing in front of a bunch of radio
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: people like myself and just blew everybody away.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: How was that playing there in Vegas doing that?
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Thanks? Man.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: You know, it's always interesting when you have a room
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: full of industry people. You know, it's like a different
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: shade to what a show normally is normally, and it's
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: always I like any circumstance where I kind of have
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: one arm tied behind my back, you know what I mean.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: They go, Okay, walk into.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: This pool hall in Las Vegas near Fremont Street, the crowd,
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: no fans, only industry people, and I kind of like,
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: I almost like get off on that. I think it's
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: I think it's fun. I like I like the challenge
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: of trying to make some heads turned, you know.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: So with the with the new singles this Land, could
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: we expect this type of this type of sound for
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: the rest of your album.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: Now, there's a lot of different flavors that are experimented with,
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: and importantly to me, I hate things that are one note,
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: you know, So for me, the album needs to be
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: like a film. It needs to have all these different
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: beats that the summation of which is an incredible piece
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: of art. So I want you to rock out, I
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: want you to laugh, I want you to cry, you know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: and then I want to end it all with a
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: bow by track ten. You know, So this album is
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: the gateway. So this song is the gateway to the album.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Wow, you make it sound like you want to do
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: a rock opera.
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: At some point, I think I have to, you know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: I don't have a choice.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: So okay, let's get let's go off the side for
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: a little bit. And so what do you like to
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: do in your free time?
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Dude?
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: I know you love to play music. I know you
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: love to perform, But what do you do on your
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: free time?
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: What is free time?
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I wish I had a lot
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: of hobbies and interest but I don't.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: I just love music.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: And even now we're not we're not we're not touring
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: for months, and right now I'm here rehearsing with the
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: band and we're just going over one twelve second chunk
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: of the show for the last three hours really and
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: just tinker, Yeah, just tinkering with it endlessly, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: And but if.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: I had to choose some hobbies, man, I love I
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: love old things, I really do.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: I love vintage clothing.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: I love diving in various different places in New York
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: City and finding a tea that's one hundred years old
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: and has twelve holes in it. And I love I
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: just love old things, I really do. I love walking
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: around New York City, and I love food. Those are
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: the things that make me tick.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you would love.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I would love to set you up with my morning show,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: my Morning Guy, because one of his one of his
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: biggest treasures that he has is he has this leather
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: jacket that somehow he actually got it autographed by Stevie
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Ray Vaughn. Wow, and it's it's one of his treasures
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and he literally has it mounted inside your studio and
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: he sees it every single day. Who is your inspiration
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: concerning you know, if you could look back, who is
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: your inspiration to who you are today?
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: I think it's a tremendous amount of different ingredients that
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: kind of go into the des rock stew. You know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: I'm obsessed with Queen, I'm obsessed with Prince I'm obsessed
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: with Ruis Springsteen.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: I'm obsessed with Elvis Pros.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: I'm even obsessed with like Tom Jones and Barber streisand
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: and lefting center things. And I also love like much
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: heavier music as well. You know, it's a humongous spectrum
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: of artists. But not just musical, you know, it's also
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: places like I'm again tremendously inspired by the electricity of
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: the place in which I live.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's great.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Now, of course, the new single this Land is going
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: to be on the Borderlands four game as an intro,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: and then it's going to be released. It's released out
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: to radio right now. In fact, I think you're going
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: for ads right now. And if one last question, I
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: wanted to ask you if if you ever wanted to
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: do a let's duets? Doing duets is your dream? Who's
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: your dream duet?
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: Well, anything I do that's a collaboration, it would have
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: to be unexpected, you know what I mean. I hate
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: the idea of something that, oh, yeah, that makes sense,
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: they should get together. I don't like that. Yeah, And
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: it would need to just be absolutely insane. So I
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: think I would do a duet with Barber streisand you know,
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: I really would, you know.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I it's that I could literally see that I could
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: see you doing something like that or or believe it
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: or not, And I mean it's he's already passed.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: But why do I picture you with Tony Bennett?
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: I mean it'd be so cool, like the way in
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: which Lady Gaga did a bunch of stuff with Tony Bennett.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: I want Barbar Schreisen to be my Tony Bennett.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate you taking the time, you know, out
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of your schedule, to out of practice too, to spend
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: some time with me. And of course, like I said,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: this Land is out now on all streaming and then
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: you can actually follow him on his website, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify. Yeah,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: and you've got millions of streams on Spotify. Looking forward
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: to seeing even more of that. Is there anything you'd
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: like to pass on to any of your fans.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, if you're listening, just buckle up, that's all I'll say.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: Buckle up because there's a lot of really intense and hypercharged,
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: emotional rock and roll music heading your way.