Rocco DeLuca is launching a new tour with a new album, Drugs ‘N Hymns, which came out on Tuesday. On Friday at 7 PM, he’ll be appearing at Fingerprints Music, located at 420 East 4th Street, to sing songs and reconnect with old friends. If you can’t wait ’til Friday, you can drive up to the Hotel Cafe tonight for his official Record Release Party.
I met Rocco nine years ago when he was working on a demo with Michael Rich, then the owner of Karma Studios in San Pedro. Rich had donated studio time, and his skills behind the desk, to produce tracks for Songs For Bethune, a holiday themed fundraising CD. He asked me if Rocco could contribute a track, and I said “Sure!”
Not too long after that, the demo tracks found their way to Ironworks, a new record company started by Kiefer Sutherland and Jude Cole. DeLuca was their first artist, and the resulting CD, I Trust You To Kill Me, led to a tour documentary of the same name.
“I was so out of my zone on that trip,” Rocco confessed, “and the film documented the whole thing. When I finally got home after all the touring and television, I decided that, from now on, I’m on my own.”
Upon his return from that tour, he did a show that connected him with Daniel Lanois, the legendary producer, and a great musician in his own right.
“I performed at Spaceland,” said Rocco, “in Silverlake, on the evening I returned from Iceland. I performed as a favor for a friend, and tried out a few pieces that I had been woodshedding in my hotel rooms. Dan just stood right in front of me for the entire performance, and we’ve been thick as thieves since.” This led to Lanois producing DeLuca’s second album.
He described working with Lanois as “a case study in listening, then getting out of the way, always waiting for the chills. I have a vague notion of how I want a thing expressed but, usually, something happens that tells me how things should truly be expressed, so I follow.”
Rocco’s been touring as a solo act for years now.
“I love traveling and having time to myself,” he said. “Going alone allows for every piece of sonic information to generate from a single source. If done well, it can be a very centered experience. Imagine a busker who has the capability to have both sound pressure and harmonics. Still, all this means nothing without the story, which has to be strong before generating.”
I compared Rocco’s lyrics to miniature novels.
“I’ve noticed,” he said, “that no matter how many pages are written, there seems to be a line or two that sum things up. I guess I just cherry pick those lines.” He said that, over the years, “my experience has grown. A thousand failures, and someone might have something to say.”
As a child, Rocco often traveled with his father, a professional touring musician who performed with a variety of R&B greats. I asked him how those early experiences have impacted his work.
“I learned that the masters are timeless,” he said, “and that fashion is an effect. The cause, the source is what counts, and the source is trying to do what every living thing on the planet is trying to do: Be loved, be healed.”
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For more information about Rocco, visit RoccoDeLuca.com
Drugs ‘N Hymns is released through 429 Records.
Learn about Fingerprints.