During the month of November and into December, Rocco DeLuca will perform on three more occasions during his residency in Long Beach, at a series of intimate living room shows at a private residence. Full details on the location are provided to attendees once their ticket has been purchased.
Rocco DeLuca’s self-titled second album with 429 Records, Rocco DeLuca, was released on August 19. His fourth overall LP, produced by seven-time Grammy winner Daniel Lanois, Rocco DeLuca takes a solemn, drawn out tone, mimicking what it must feel like to be on the open road with no one but yourself.
A California-based indie rock solo artist, DeLuca’s bluesy melodies strike close to home and heart. His voice warbles as a fragile instrument, bouncing off of boulder-built mountains like an echo on your weekend getaway to Joshua Tree. Rocco DeLuca is the background music to your road trip, as you lay staring at the stars, thinking about empty space and sacred ground.
“Colors of the Cold,” a featured song on the album, was born from DeLuca’s motocycle ventures into the hills near East Hollywood, Los Angeles Crest Highway being one of them. “I would go riding when my bike was running,” he said. “I felt really lucky to be up there. The color of the sky recently… When I was up in the hills they were even more exaggerated. I felt privy to some information that I was just lucky enough to drop in on, as if I was lurking around something really sacred. Motion often inspires the imagination…”
Friday, November 7, marked the first show of the residency. DeLuca was able to reach his audience in a way not possible through a traditional stage performance. “Sometimes playing music through a PA system gets in the way,” he explained, “and being in a living room seems more like a concrete art form than a show.”
In a small room of twenty, mayby thirty five people, the artist is able to interact and connect with their audience more effectively and spontaneously, of which there is no truer sentiment. DeLuca uses a similar method when he’s working, making lists in a kind of casual, free-spirited manner. In discussing how he works, DeLuca said, “I definitely let it come. Everything I try to force I destroy immediately.
I’ll make a list of things, notes on roads I want to take, or a list on something I want to remember or a letter to a friend. I try to pull all the things that happen in real life and the more concrete and real the sentiment the more I try to turn that into music. Things that are said immediately, memories that come to me immediately, are always at the heart of each piece.”
On why DeLuca’s residency is in Long Beach, the artist was invited to grace willing residents with his sound by a fellow music lover, but he also harbors fond memories of spending time here with his uncle and his grandmother. “I spent time in Long Beach with my grandma. My uncle had a house in Long Beach so I was always in and out. It was nice to get to reflect on some of those moments.”
The names of the event hosts and the performance location cannot be disclosed without the purchase of a ticket, however DeLuca had several kind and compelling words to say about them and the importance of live music.
“The people throwing this event are so rad,” he said. “I just wanted to lift them up and say they’re doing a great thing. Live music is a last, really great American art form, where things can be spontaneous and for them to host that in their home and curate it so perfectly… the hosts of these residencies are second to none.
“It just felt like a really nice way to do something. If there was an artist that I wanted to see that would be a great way to check them out. You can get a lot more dimension out of a show like that.”
DeLuca’s remaining three shows are scheduled for November 15, 22 and December 6 (all Saturdays). You can purchase a ticket here. Guests are asked to arrive between 7:00PM and 7:30PM, with the show starting at 8:30PM.