'It's What I Felt I Was Hardwired to Do Since the Day I First Existed' — Des Rocs Interview

On Thursday (March 5), Des Rocs was the special guest on Loudwire's nationally-syndicated radio show, Loudwire Nights. From his lifelong dream of being a rock star to his brand-new album, Des Rocs covered a lot of ground with host Chuck Armstrong.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

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"You know, there wasn't really any kind of aha moment," Des Rocs shared about when he realized he wanted to make music for the rest of his life.

"It's more just like what I felt I was hardwired to do since the day I first existed. I remember wanting to be in bands in kindergarten. I remember in 2nd grade, we had to do a project, a life-size cutout of who you wanted to be when you got older and all the other kids picked vet, doctor, cop, firefighter, astronaut. I just had a guy in a black T-shirt holding a microphone and it said, 'Rock.'"

That lifelong passion still drives Des Rocs today — and he said that poster from 2nd grade still hangs proudly in his childhood bedroom to this day.

"Just like the way in which birds know how to fly south for the winter, I was always just really singularly possessed and focused by this vision from a very young age."

Though he's been in "101 horrible bands that aren't worth mentioning," Des Rocs has carved out a unique place in rock and roll today, fueled by his guitar skills and his energetic, inimitable stage presence.

In 2021, he released his debut full-length album, A Real Good Person In a Real Bad Place, followed by Dream Machine in 2023.

Now, he's prepping his third studio album.

"It's coming probably early spring-ish," he said about the release of the next LP.

"I'm not positive yet, but it's done. It's fully done and dusted. It's been a minute, which is bad for me because I want to change everything now ... It's out of my hands. It's coming soon."

What Else Did Des Rocs Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

How he ended up releasing "This Land" for the video game Borderlands 4: "They reached out to me and they were looking for something that really matched the kind of eccentricity of their universe. And when they described to me what exactly they were looking for in an opening track, I was like, man, this is love at first sight. They were looking for an otherworldly looter, shooter alien extravaganza filled with distortion and chaos. I was like, you're just speaking to my soul here. It was really a match made in heaven."
Why he doesn't concern himself with viral moments: "A lot of the incentives for artists today are to go viral, right? And it's like, alright, you have a viral video? And then what's next? Might be another viral video. For me, I enjoy working on projects that are complete in their artistic intent. So, I have this thing in this video game that's for this and it's going to live there forever. I finish it an it's this sort of really interesting, collaborative art piece — and then I put that away and I move on to the next thing. And I love that. A lot of artists don't have that incentive today."
What fans can expect on his headlining tour that kicks off on March 17 in Atlanta: "A show that is very unique in the level of pathos and emotion that it brings to the table. We truly are standing on that stage every night with two distinct things going through our bodies. One is that we're unbelievably grateful to be there onstage. We've all had crazy lives and there's been so many times where it felt like the dream of just being able to play music every night was out of reach. And the second is that we play every show like it truly is our last, and I guess that piggybacks of the first one. Whether or not it's thousand of people in an arena or 200 kids in a basement in Tuscaloosa, Ala., we truly are prepared to have that be our last show."