Roger Rocks
Audio By Carbonatix
Many musicians dream of a solo record. Considering they first started appearing in the 1940s, these are nothing new to the music world. They are often celebrated, reviled, mocked, and in some cases, they are even better than the musician’s previous work with a band.
On a local level, there is typically not a lot of fanfare for solo albums because there really aren’t a lot of examples. Most famously, Alice Cooper stepped away from the Alice Cooper band and did Welcome to My Nightmare in 1975. All it did was go platinum, so the bar for success was set pretty high. Maybe this is why a lot of prominent local musicians steer clear of the challenge.
And it really is a challenge. One of the things Damon Deluca talked about the most when we spoke about his new ROCKINSOUL CD was the sheer number of hours he spent making the music.
“Every hour I spent on this record is an hour I took away from sleeping, essentially,” says Deluca with a laugh over the phone.
Deluca has been a member of several prominent local acts, including the now legendary industrial metal heroes N17, and more recently, Southern rock rippers Hogjaw. With a career that spans five decades now, the bass-playing songwriter has been stocking up on riffs that didn’t quite fit whichever band he was playing with at the time.
ROCKINSOUL is kind of a COVID record, in a way, but only because it dates to near the beginning of the global pandemic.
“I did most of the writing and jamming during lockdown. I had a job where I would be required to work overnight and into the evening sometimes, so I would stay up late at night and record things,” Deluca says.
Hence the trade: sleep for music. Deluca recorded the majority of the record himself, but did have help with drum tracks and some mixing from his friend, Joe Mackie, who played drums on multiple tracks. In addition to Mackie, there are a number of guest appearances on the record as well.
At first, to be quite honest, I wasn’t sure what to make of ROCKINSOUL.
The CD starts off with a progressive metal song called “Gifts of Life,” which features guest vocals from Patrick Flannery, better known as “Prophet” from local metal band St. Madness. Flannery’s take on the song is interesting, to say the least, and will probably be confounding to those not familiar with the prog-metal sound. The main riff starts off with an acoustic, almost melancholy sound and builds to something heavy and appealing. There are solos from former Valley resident and now Nashville-based Thor Reichle that push the song over the top.
“I consider [‘Gifts of Life’] the flagship track,” Deluca says. “I really love the riffing and the progressive metal, ballad-style. I knew if I was going to finish this, it had to be the first song. Patrick did a fantastic job and he has his own style. I knew I wanted to get a great vocalist for that song and one day I ran across one of the St. Madness songs on YouTube called ‘Arizona’ and it is fucking amazing. It inspired me to reach out to Patrick to sing ‘Gifts of Life.'”
Track two, “Told You So” is a straight-ahead rocker featuring Rob Kistler on vocals. Kistler lives down in Tucson and is Deluca’s new bandmate in a project called Freight. Former Soothsayer bassist Shane Christenson provides lead vocals on “Can’t Lose You,” which is up next and is a mid-tempo ballad that also features music industry veteran Brian McDonald on lead guitar.
“Brian was in my guitar class at Peoria High School [in the late ’80s]. He’s now a VP of product engineering at Seymour Duncan [who makes, among other things, wonderful pickups for guitars and basses]. He’s the one who convinced Eddie Van Halen to leave Peavey and move over to Fender,” Deluca says.
While the first few tracks are on the heavier side, the album takes an abrupt turn into a new direction with “Since We Met.” The almost dance-sounding track really brings the soul part of the CD. Deluca uses some highly affected vocals in a very cool way, creating a breath of fresh air for the middle part of his effort and changes the mood without sacrificing an ounce of quality. If anything, the CD improves at this point.
“Happy Day” is track number five and it continues the change in mood quite skillfully. Damien Griffor of local band Neighbor Kids is on the mic here and he brings a really nice style to this song about Deluca’s relationship with his fiancée, Michelle Aigner.
“I’m in my 50s and I figured that my days of having a meaningful relationship were over. Michelle and I have been friends for a long time and after my brother passed away, she sent me a note about how losing a sibling is hard. We decided to meet up at the Blooze Bar and I asked her to go on a date after that. We are going to get married next year,” Deluca says.
Mood-wise, ROCKINSOUL shifts again at track six, “Shifting Sands,” which is all Deluca. The song has a very Middle Eastern vibe and is a nice palate cleanser before taking an almost Godwads-esque heavy, prog-punk turn. “Back in the Day” sees McDonald back on rhythm guitar and features both Aigner, who sings in a couple of local acts, and her bandmate Shawna McGuire on backing vocals. This song is a bit dreamy and easily the poppiest song on the CD. Peter Neilsen’s saxophone at the end of “Back in the Day” is a real treat, as well.
Ending on a heavy note, ROCKINSOUL’s last three tracks are pretty fantastic. “Devil’s Book” brings an air of doom metal replete with some super technical guitar riffage, creating yet another shift in mood that ends up working really well. Deluca shows that well-crafted songs can fit together, regardless of the genre they may represent.
“I set out consciously to create something that is multi-genre or, really, not bound by genre. If you listen to an old Steve Vai or Joe Satriani album, they put whatever they wanted on there and they didn’t care. The only genres I really didn’t touch were jazz and country. I can’t write country and I can play country. If I would have put a country song on there, anybody who knew real country music would say it was shitty,” Deluca says.
Self-deprecation aside, from the strength of ROCKINSOUL, it’s safe to assume Deluca could write a pretty darn good country song if he really wanted to do so. Tracks nine and 10 are both heavy and great. “Fugue State” flows really well into “SBass Jam” bringing a killer first solo effort to an end. The touching “Fugue State” is a tribute to the late Nancy Sullins, the mother of one of Deluca’s good friends as well as fellow collaborator Rich Sullins who handles the bass on the track.
Deluca shared that he wrote the song after learning of Sullins’ death.
“I sat down with my guitar and, this is the truth, all the melodies, guitar parts, the heavy part, and even the solo in the break came to me in 10, maybe 15, minutes. It took me a couple of weeks to arrange the parts into a song. The song title comes from the psychology term ‘fugue state,’ which is where you are in a dissociative state, and you may or may not be responsible for your actions. [Nancy Sullins] was like a second mother to me,” Deluca says.
Fans of bass guitar will appreciate the “SBass Jam” song that ends the disc, but on ROCKINSOUL, Deluca shows that he is way more than a gifted bassist known for nimble, yet heavy bass lines. He’s also a more than capable songwriter, engineer, and creative talent.
Interested parties can find the extremely limited edition disc here. There will only be 100 numbered and signed copies and they are available for $30. Deluca says that he did this to make sure he stayed “old school” and if people had opinions about the music, he would know they had to work a little bit to get them.
At present, there are no plans for a live performance, but Deluca would not rule it out. He can be seen gigging, though, with Freight at local venues. ROCKINSOUL is definitely worth the time and effort, if you so choose, and let’s all hope for a live show one day.
