5 Rounds With DL Rossi

With a new site layout comes new features! We all love learning more about our favorite artists, but we don’t all love listening to 30 – 60-minute interviews! So with 5 Rounds, we’re gonna keep things quick and dirty. (I couldn’t think of anything teardrop-related that didn’t sound gross. “5 Tissues?” No thanks.

Photo by Rachel Hurley

First up to the plate is DL Rossi, who’s prepping the release of his album The Lonesome Kind. Fear not — I’ll feature that album on the 4/23 episode of the podcast, the album’s release date, so point your podcast subscriptions that way if you haven’t already. In the meantime, DL tells us about his favorite songs and his philosophy around keeping things loose on the stage and in the writer’s room. I don’t mean to be That Guy, but I’ve been covering DL’s music since he first went solo in 2017 following his recovery from testicular cancer and a devastating divorce. He’s always had a kind of cool, poppy feel to his music but on The Lonesome Kind, we get to see his creative efforts in full bloom. Can’t wait for you to listen, but in the meantime, here’s DL in his own words.

Name a perfect song and tell us why you feel that way.

I’ve always felt like “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel was a perfect song. It moves musically in such interesting ways, and speaks to you without using words.  At the same time the lyrics are speaking to something that is familiar and distant.  It just makes me feel something every time I listen to it.  

Recent release you cannot stop listening to?

My buddy, Reuben Bidez, released a new song “Birdies” that I am really enjoying.  It’s a perfect spring/summer tune that really moves well.  

What have you missed about touring?

Everything.  I love being on the road, meeting new people, seeing new towns or towns I love again. The energy of being in a room with people who want to hear music and the shared experience.  It’s just something that’s been terribly missed.  

Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?

Write a lot, and don’t get bogged down early in the process with details.  Let yourself have fun and engage your creative side.  Once you have a whole song out there that’s when I put on my editor hat and get to work refining. But it’s unfair to refine something if it isn’t a whole first. 

Do you play covers at your shows? Why or Why not?

Yeah, it I feel like it’ll help people have a good time and get us all loose.  Covers are great ways to make people feel like you care about their experience as an audience. The more they feel a part of what you are doing on stage the better the experiences for everyone.

Listen to DL Rossi’s single “Tumbling” below.

DL Rossi — Official, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes