Des Rocs talks a lot about uncertainty. About chasing ideas that take years to fully emerge. About learning through trial and error. About feeling, at times, like he's sprinting towards a train that's never coming. Those tensions sit at the heart of To Hell and Back, released today after a creative process shaped by reinvention, physical setbacks and a refusal to compromise on instinct.
We spoke with him a few days before the album's arrival and ahead of another stretch of touring. “Nothing is ever scrapped,” he says at one point. “There are so many places to explore.” It’s a simple statement, but one that says a lot about both the record and the artist behind it. In an era increasingly defined by immediacy, Des Rocs remains committed to the slower, messier process of figuring things out as he goes.
How does it feel talking about To Hell and Back now that it's finally about to come out?
It's always a complicated bag of emotions. This one has been a long while in the making. I know it's going to be meaningful; I just don't know in which way.
The title itself feels very loaded. Beyond the obvious reading, what does To Hell and Back represent for you emotionally or psychologically?
It represents the last many years of trying to bring a dream to life that's been stuck in my head since I was a little kid. All the ups and downs. Riding this wild roller coaster that's experienced with a profound sense of isolation. Sometimes I feel like I'm sprinting to catch a train that's never coming. I guess stuck is the artistic headspace.
You scrapped multiple versions of the record before arriving at this one. Was there a specific moment where you realised you had been moving too far away from yourself creatively?
Everything I write comes from the same ember that fuels all my work. Whether I've written something that sonically feels different from the past doesn't matter. I write a ton, then I meditate on which kind of record I want to release at that time. Nothing is ever scrapped. There are so many places to explore. Figuring out the destination I want to go to is what takes me a minute.
A lot of this album feels raw in a very physical way. Did recording live with the band completely change the energy of the songs?
Absolutely. I listen back to the initial demos, and they feel so digital, flat and so ‘in the box’. It's crazy that I remember thinking those demos could be the final product. The process of recording live opened up the skies. You can feel air moving across the microphones, into your ears and right on down to your soul. There is an intangible difference that's crucial.
Midway through the process, you were suddenly dealing with a serious spinal issue and questioning whether you'd even perform again. Did music start feeling different after that?
After that injury, everything felt like it might be my last work. There was a sense of fatalism injected into all of it. I was carrying a bit of that with me when I wrote, but it really got taken to another level with the amount of physical pain I was in at any given time.
“Sometimes I feel like I'm sprinting to catch a train that's never coming. I guess stuck is the artistic headspace.”
After touring with bands like The Rolling Stones and Muse, what have you learnt about how to hold a crowd's attention at that scale?
I've only learnt by trial and error, not really by watching much. There's also a certain art to reading a room that I think you either have or don't. It's hard to learn any other way than by doing it.
This Land becoming part of Borderlands 4 feels massive. Did seeing the song enter that universe change your relationship with it at all?
Each song means something specific to me, regardless of where it ends up. It's always wild to see how they get used by other creatives, but it never changes my relationship with the original work.
What were you listening to while making this album?
I listen to very little music when writing. I'll binge records in the months leading up to something, but rarely during the process itself. I want to remain free from immediate influence because I'll get too excited about something I'm listening to and try to incorporate it right away.
Right now, are there any artists, inside or outside rock music, that genuinely excite you because they still feel unpredictable or impossible to fully pin down?
Calva Louise.
You've been doing this for years now, but this record still sounds hungry, almost confrontational at times. Where does that energy come from today?
I always write and perform with a whole lot of desperation. I'm a really dramatic fella. Since day one, I was born with this sense that it can all end at any minute. So I pour every ounce of my being into the records as if they could be my last.
Rock music keeps getting declared dead every few years, yet artists like you continue proving otherwise. What do you think people still misunderstand about rock 'n' roll in 2026?
I don't believe it's an issue of ‘misunderstanding’. I think rock is so uniquely powerful and universal. The main problem rock faces today is that the methods of marketing, like ultra-short-form content, do it a tremendous disservice. I fell in love with bands through their live concerts, their full-length albums and their music videos. Those items are consumed less, and the genre is forced onto its back legs in that landscape.
“I always write and perform with a whole lot of desperation. I'm a really dramatic fella.”
Your US tour wrapped up at the end of April, but it feels like you barely stopped moving before jumping straight into the To Hell and Back release cycle. How different does this moment feel compared to being inside the chaos of touring every night?
I love the idea of releasing the album while I am home. I'm most grounded in NY, and giving a proper album release show for this body of work in the city where it was made seems right. Touring is like one of the scenes from Interstellar, where you age rapidly and miss all of life on Earth. Who wants to release their album in that environment?
You're also celebrating the album with this intimate release party in New York City. What can people expect from it?
Sword swallowers, a rare acoustic performance, magicians and an Elvis impersonator. So on.
I was reading some of the comments fans left after the tour — people talking about bringing their kids or nephews to see you for the first time, meeting you briefly at the merch table, or saying these shows became memories they'll keep forever. How does it feel reading things like that?
It brings a smile to my face because these moments are as special to me as they are to them. I am honoured that anyone is even listening to my music.
You're heading back to Europe in October with shows in cities like Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and Milan. Do you feel like these shows will change the way people understand To Hell and Back once they experience the songs live?
Definitely. We really expand upon the recorded material at our shows. The tour is like a massive deluxe version of the album. Songs are reimagined for a stage in a way that is incredibly exciting for us.
What would you say is your life motto or personal mantra right now, at this point in everything?
Memento mori.
