Posted: by The Editor
Rocket’s debut EP is a standout take on the gazey alt rock that’s en vogue lately. Versions of You is catchier, crunchier, and at times more incendiary than most of Rocket’s contemporaries. The LA band’s been dripping out singles for over a year, beginning late summer last year before going quiet for six months; when they burst back to life with “Normal to Me” in May, I knew they were onto something special.
I had the chance to speak with the band about the EP, which drops tomorrow, as well as dig a bit into the band’s history. Check that out below.
You released “Normal to Me” well before the EP was even announced. What was it about this song that made you decide it was the one you had to get out first?
Technically, it was the third song we had put out that would be on the EP, but we really didn’t have much of a release plan since we were doing things totally on our own. That song holds a lot of significance to us as it was actually written after we had recorded what we thought would be the entire EP. To us, it feels like it is a cohesive summary of the entire EP.
As I understand it, you’ve been working on what would become Versions of You for a couple of years. What was the writing process like?
The writing process for these songs was very comfortable because we took a lot of time writing and finding the songs that felt right for our first release. Since it was casually written over a couple of years by chipping away at songs in our free time, there were many ideas that we thought would have made the final cut but over time they didn’t feel right to be on the first body of work we released.
What would you say was the moment when you decided that the band (or the EP, if that’s easier) really clicked into place?
The day everything clicked into place for us was when we chose our name. We had been trying to decide on something we didn’t hate for awhile and once we all agreed it felt like it all became real. Also the day we played our first show really made things feel real, we had practiced for months before we ever played a show to make sure we were as tight as we could be.
“Future Memory” is probably my favorite Rocket song so far. I love how it’s got such a wide dynamic range. What was the process like for writing that one?
Thank you! “Future Memory” was a demo that Desi had written about a year before we started recording. While going through some demo’s we re-envisioned it and decided we needed to include it on the EP. It can be really refreshing to dig through old demos to find something that you actually really like.
What’s the significance of the title Versions of You?
A lot of the songs on this EP are referential to different versions of myself and other people close to me. Some of these songs were written when we were younger, so we also feel like we’ve been many different versions of ourselves throughout the process.
If you could tour with any three bands—active or not—who would they be?
Sonic Youth, Radiohead and Pavement. There’s so many more but those were the first that came to mind!
Versions of You is out tomorrow.
––
Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
The Alternative is ad-free and 100% supported by our readers. If you’d like to help us produce more content and promote more great new music, please consider donating to our Patreon page, which also allows you to receive sweet perks like free albums and The Alternative merch.