Editor’s Note: It was a great time conversing with Danny De La Rosa for Madness To Creation. This year alone, Danny De La Rosa has released music videos for “Third Wheel Man” and “Acid Flame”. He writes catchy alternative rock songs that have a classic rock vibe to them. Danny has auditioned and performed with KISS and has worked with the legendary Clive Davis on his music. Danny will be releasing the album entitled “12 Weekends” sometime soon. Fans can find Danny De La Rosa at the following locations:
www.facebook.com/DannyDeLaRosaOfficial
Madness To Creation: Danny, it’s great to talk with you for Madness To Creation. You have recently released the music video for “Acid Flame”. Take us into that song and video.
Danny: “Acid Flame” is one of the first ones that I made a demo of, it made me think about the fever dreams that I had when I got sick with the flu, when you try to sleep, you get these weird dreams, and even though you took something to sleep, you’re still kind of in and out of reality, so that’s what the lyrics are about, it’s trying to sleep when all of these dreams are psychedelic, you know sometimes that happens with hangovers too, but that’s what the song is about, it’s one of the older songs that I wrote. It’s also the song that I first sung where I felt comfortable in my vocal range when I was making these demos and recording this album, it was a really liberating song for me too.
Madness To Creation: What was so liberating about it?
Danny: Because I never sung and I actually had written lyrics either, I always wrote music with Babylon A.D., I would write music and come up with melodies, I would hum the melodies and either come up with a word or a phrase with the singer Derek, and then he would take it from there, where starting with “Acid Flame”, I just did everything on my own. The lyric writing came to me really easy for some reason and the singing, being that I could do that on my own and do a line at a time, it was manageable.
Madness To Creation: It’s coming off of the upcoming album “12 Weekends”. I’m a little bit confused with the press release, is it out now or is it set for release?
Danny: We are shooting for February for release date. We put out “Third Wheel Man”, they we will release the album.
Madness To Creation: What’s another song you want to highlight?
Danny: Fans will really like the song “It’s Alright It’s OK”. The lyrics are really tongue-in-cheek maybe without even knowing it, so growing up when I would listen to songs and I love music so much, I never really listened to lyrics, I might catch a phrase and remember that in my head when I was humming it, but I never really listened to the lyrics. “It’s Alright It’s OK” is about having a girlfriend that drinks too much and then trying to handle that, it’s pretty funny and I think it’s a really catchy song, I can see that being another single after the album comes out.
Madness To Creation: Is that your goal as a songwriter is about having a good time, laugh a little and have the listener forget about their troubles and stuff?
Danny: I’m more into that than about meeting a girl or partying, partying’s fun but I’ve already done that, that type of scene, so these songs to me are like little movies in my head and whatever comes up, comes up, but I try not to be too serious about it.
Madness To Creation: Speaking of movies in your head, do you foresee any of these songs being on movie soundtracks or anything like that?
Danny: Yeah, I would love to do that! With Babylon A.D., we did the song for Robocop II, and when that song came out, we really saw the difference of how it boosted the band in popularity cause it went out to the masses and not just the metalheads, but when I go to a movie and hear the music, I just love how it sounds while I’m watching the movie, especially now with the technology that they have with the audio in the theaters. The seats are now really huge and comfortable, so to hear one of my songs in a movie that would be a goal for me, I would love for that to happen.
Madness To Creation: Fun question for you, describe your music using a movie title.
Danny: *laughs* Goodfellas, cause that’s my favorite movie, cause I’m a good fella. *laughs*
Madness To Creation: You definitely are a good fellow cause you’re taking the time for us. You got to jam and audition for KISS. What was that experience like?
Danny: It was great! Back then, they were the band that everyone was in to, when I was growing up in the Bay Area, and to think that I saw them at the Oakland Coliseum in either 1977 or 1978 and then just a few years later to jam with them and no one knew what they looked like. When Gene Simmons called me, I didn’t believe it was him, but it turned out it was him, they hooked me up to come out to L.A. and to stay with them and play with them for a day, and it was really surreal to meet them because I didn’t know what they looked like without their makeup. I had to get over that and I had to learn the songs, so it was really cool, it was really loud, it was really fun, I didn’t really expect to get it but it was a great experience.
Madness To Creation: I have a fan question from Vincent Otero, he asks, “did you ever really look up to KISS before playing with them”?
Danny: Oh yeah! I totally looked up to them, when I got that KISS “Alive” album, that was amazing to me although we learned later on in the years that live albums aren’t really live albums, but it didn’t matter, it still took me to a place and I loved Ace Frehley’s playing and I loved how fun the songs were, so yeah they were a big influence on me, it’s like everything revolved around KISS back then.
Madness To Creation: Vincent Otero also asks, “would you ever like to work with KISS again”?
Danny: Yeah, but they’re supposedly retiring, but I would love to work with any one of those guys and collaborate, yeah absolutely, whether it’s with Paul Stanley or Gene Simmons, I think that would be a dream.
Madness To Creation: If that happened, what would you name the band or project?
Danny: I don’t think that I would have a choice! *laughs* Those are pretty strong willed people, I actually got to talk to Gene Simmons years later when I was in Babylon A.D. and he congratulated me and said, “hey you made it”, which was kind of cool, I was also in a band before Babylon A.D. when Gene Simmons had his own record label back then, and I actually quit that band and joined Babylon A.D.
Madness To Creation: Jadyn Geiger asks, “what was your favorite memory when you were performing”?
Danny: One thing that sticks out to me is playing a Sam Kennison charity down in L.A., that was pretty cool, I was playing the Montrose song “Rock Candy”, which is one of my favorites, and Montrose is one of my favorite guitar players, and I think it was James Kottak from Scorpions playing drums, and I think it was one of the guys from Sex Pistols, so that was the only thing that I could think of, and I remember when we first started touring after the first Babylon A.D. album came out, being in Ohio somewhere, and someone had magazines with our pictures on it, and I couldn’t believe it, it was the first time that I saw and experienced that kind of thing where I had magazines with my picture in it. Those are two things that stick out to me.
Madness To Creation: Jadyn Geiger also asks, when Gene Simmons sticks out his tongue and it goes side to side, does he really do that?
Danny: *laughs* I think so!
Madness To Creation: Airika Starbuck states, “I like how your songs are relatable and when you write your lyrics, how do you find your inspiration for that”?
Danny: It just comes to me, when I have a riff on the guitar, it sometimes dictates what it’s going to be about, it just kind of happens naturally, and I’m always hearing melodies in my head, it’s a constant thing and anytime I pick up my guitar just to play around, I always have my phone with me because I have to record these ideas, so I don’t forget them, and it really turns into a little movie in my head, and that’s how I come up with the rest of the song and the lyrics.
Madness To Creation: Airika Starbuck also asks, “what would be your biggest goal for your career”?
Danny: Well, this is my second chapter in my music, and after Babylon A.D. broke up, I played in night softball leagues, I pitched in hardball leagues and I had kids and now my goals are different. I’m not trying to be a rockstar or anything, I’m just trying to have fun in my life and enjoy creating music and if other people like it too that’s great, if not, I’m still having fun and it’s something that us musicians have in them. My goals are really just to have fun with it.
Madness To Creation: What else would you like to add?
Danny: I can’t wait for people to hear the whole album, I think listening to the singles is fine but it’s not in context with the theme of a whole body of work, and I just hope that you like the rest of the songs and I have another album, I already have all the songs ready, I hope that you like the rest of it.
And there you have it! Fans can pick up “12 Weekends” on February 28th via The Label Group!
