Today, NYC native DES ROCS releases ‘I Am The Lightning’, the third song to be pulled from his forthcoming sophomore album Dream Machine out 25th August via Sumerian Records. Produced by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, PJ Harvey), Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Maroon 5) and DES ROCS mastermind Danny Rocco, Dream Machine plays like a bolt of energy coursing through the glory days of rock, metal, and grunge, united within his signature “bedroom arena rock” sound.
Stream ‘I Am The Lightning’ on YouTube here.
Pre-order Dream Machinehere.
On the new single, Danny Rocco explains:
“‘I Am The Lightning’ was born from a desire to perform music that is both bone-shattering & instilled with a deeper message. I live on tour driving from one city to another, and I’ve come to view the journey of life as one long road trip – a series of winding roads connected by important events. ‘I Am The Lightning’ is the soundtrack to this chaotic journey down the highway of life.”
Last week, DES ROCS released the official video for ‘Nowhere Kid‘, which followed the release of his “thrilling new single” (Consequence of Sound) ‘Never Ending Moment‘, which has been streamed more than 1.5 million times on Spotify alone and just hit #27 at Active Rock Radio and #35 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Guitar World called the song an “essential rock anthem” and raved, “Windmilling acoustic guitars and wailing Flying V solos are the order of the day, and they sound colossal”.
About Dream Machine, Rocco adds:
“I grew up worshiping the enormous scale of rock n roll. I was obsessed with the awesome spectrum of people it could unite. Soon the guitar became my ultimate escape. When I played I could pour years of bottled-up feelings through my fingers and express myself in a way I never thought possible. I’d imagine myself on the stages of my heroes, and soon became singularly-focused on how I could one day stand on the shoulders of giants.
“I wanted to make an album that captured the same magic that changed my life. But it was important to push the genre. To filter larger-than-life emotions through the lens of my own experiences. Dream Machine is an album that embodies the dreams of that little kid standing in front of the TV watching Queen at Wembley. Dream Machine is a vessel.”
After wrapping a national tour with Badflower earlier this year, DES ROCS is currently in the midst of a headline tour that wraps tomorrow night in Omaha, NE. Reviewing his performance at Sonic Temple festival earlier this year, Metal Injection proclaimed, “Des Rocs opened the main stage with the same energy and zeal as a headliner…This is the kind of music that is meant to be played live in an arena, and vocalist/guitarist Daniel Rocco is the kind of person who is meant to do it.”
Dream Machine follows DES ROCS‘ 2021 debut full length album A Real Good Person In A Real Bad Place. The album received wide-ranging praise from outlets like Loudwire (“addictive”), Guitar World (“fierce”), Rolling Stone, SPIN, American Songwriter and Alternative Press, who describes DES ROCS‘ sound as “a whirlwind of classic-rock-influenced alternative rock that will leave your heart racing”. Currently, DES ROCS boasts more than 1.25 million monthly listeners on Spotify, with more than 227 million global streams to date.