Formed in 2013, ROCKET has honed their live act for years, sharing the stage with Bow Wow Wow, Alien Ant Farm and Puddle of Mudd. They’ve recently committed to releasing their official debut single “Giants” by working with Grammy Award Nominated Producer Mark Needham (Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Pink, Neon Trees) and recording engineer Doug Grean (Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver, Sheryl Crow).
Reflecting on the thematic nature of the single, the band says, “Giants” is about the feeling you get when you accomplish something as a team or with a community. Sure, you’re a bad arse on your own, but sometimes it can be more empowering to recognize that you’re even mightier as a collective.”
LA-based quintet ROCKET produce high energy pop punk that falls somewhere between Social Distortion and Paramore. They’ve been acclaimed as one of the “BEST BANDS TO CATCH” by CBS Los Angeles with subsequent spins on KROQ 106.7, KLOS 95.5, Indie 103.1, and features in Music Connection. ROCKET have recently been featured on the “The Frosty, Heidi & Frank” KLOS morning show segment ‘Stay or Go’ garnering the band a big “Stay.”
Check out their new single “Giants” HERE.
We recently sat down with the band to throw some questions their way and learn a little bit more about them.
I’m a music nerd and love to know what’s in a band name. Sometimes it’s something cool with a story behind it and sometimes it’s just something random. What about Rocket?
ROCKET: We love Music Nerds, because we are too! We had a newly formed band and needed a new name. As most bands do, we were to all come in with some ideas to put on the table. Janelle came into rehearsal early one night and said she had two cool band name ideas, and one of them was ROCKET! It just seemed to fit our vision, mindset, and the feeling we aim to transmit with our music perfectly. It happened very organically, it didn’t take long, and there were no big debates or discussions about it. We all pretty much knew on the spot that it was the name.
Every super hero or villain has an origin and so does a band minus the radioactive spiders and government experiments……..well, sometimes. What’s the origin of Rocket?
Eric Wibbelsmann (Guitar) and Paul DePatie (Drums) had been playing together since 1993 in several Los Angeles based bands such as Stem, Super Model Citizens and The Pills. ROCKET formed in early 2013 when Eric and Paul were searching for a new vocalist on Craigslist, Janelle Barreto answered the call and ROCKET was born! Janelle had fronted the SoCal band Exploiting Eve for several years prior to this. Then later in 2017, ROCKET added Jordan Lawson on Bass and Steve Killcullen on Guitar. We predominantly knew that we were a perfect match when we realized our favorite bands were the same like Green Day, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Incubus, Jane’s Addiction, Rage Against The Machine, The Killers and more. We knew for sure we were all heading in the same direction and super excited to get going!
What do you struggle with most while chasing your dream? (Support? Money? Time? etc.)
There are a few challenges we have discovered. First that the industry is so saturated and so homogenized. It seems like the industry finds only a few sounds in any given era that they’re willing to push through and then they sign and release a ton of other artists or bands that sound exactly the same. It feels like the music industry underestimates the vast pallet of music consumers. We also have a female lead singer. There have been very few if any Alternative/Pop-Punk Rock Bands with Female Lead Singers who have broken through to commercial success in the last 20 years. So sometimes it can feel like climbing the Himalayan Mountains. Possibly we could say that things have improved since the Me Too movement goes as far as more acceptance, openness and opportunity. Our sound is very organic, raw, edgy, melodic, quirky, and like a quick one-two punch. New and current Alternative Rock Music currently sounds like electronic dance music meets disco. So we are paving the way in a male dominated/computerized music era; working to stay true to our sound. But being different and outside the box is the very essence of what Punk Rock is about; daring to not fit in. From there we would say that when you’re first starting out the biggest challenge is money and contacts. Later it’s still money and then time.
One place in the entire world that’s on your bucketlist to play live.
We want to Go Big in JAPAN! We know they love American Rock n Roll, so add Pop-Punk, quirky Punk Rock fashion, Tattoos, a female Lead Singer….we’re going BIG. 😉
Favorite cartoon growing up or current?
Growing up were Looney Tunes. Also diggin some Ren & Stimpy. But right now we’re all about Teen Titans Go!! It’s the one show on TV that has infectious songs (“Booty Scooty” is a Bonafide HIT Single! 😉) , bathroom humor, and Batman & Commissioner Gordon having sleepovers together.
By I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
Connect with ROCKET online:
Website: thebandrocket.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebandrocket/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebandrocket/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebandrocket
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thebandROCKET
