Rocket: The Valley’s Coolest Kids

Photos & words by Elena Saviano.

LA’s shiny new band Rocket debuted their first EP ‘Versions of You’ today, bringing sparkles of Southern California sweetness to a bustlin New York City.

Their charm takes the shape of seven undeniably infectious tracks, all washed in bright and intoxicating shades of youth. Glittery guitar lines dance with textured, sugary vocals, but underneath are the very real, very present growing pains of young adulthood. Rocket are stepping into the light unflinchingly honest and with a loose-limbed confidence not at all indicative of their freshman status. Four childhood friends with an unsurprisingly contagious connection, they’re offering fuzzy choruses and magnetic melodies that are contoured by a distinctive and generous sincerity. It’s not a record brimming with projections of the ideal, despite its lively blend of sound and color. It’s real, it’s bittersweet. It’s facing head-on the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. And what better way to grapple with the inexplicable and inescapable anxieties of living than to have a really good time?

Buckle up: Rocket are in the game now. They’re here to remind you that absolutely no one has it all figured out, but you can sound pretty damn good trying to get there. ‘Versions of You’ is out to play, and that’s exactly what it is: pretty damn good. 

How are you guys doing today? 

Alithea: We’re good, we’re good. It’s only noon. 

Are you guys all from LA? 

Desi: Yeah! Where in LA are you from? 

I grew up in Studio City.

Desi: We’re in Studio City right now! 

Guys, this was meant to be.

Alithea: It really is. Right now we’re literally on Laurel Canyon and Riverside.

Okay so you’re all from LA, how long have you known each other? How did Rocket come to fruition? 

Desi: [Cooper and Alithea] have known each other forever. 

Cooper: I’ve known Alithea for about twenty years. 

Alithea: We went to preschool together which is funny because from where we are right now, literally the next building behind us is our preschool where we met. 

That is so awesome!

Alithea: So we’ve known each other since we were three or two and we’re both 23 now, so yeah it’s been about twenty years. 

Desi: I met Cooper and Alithea freshman year, and I met Baron sophomore year. We all graduated the same year, but Baron graduated one or two years ahead of us. But we all became super tight in high school but didn’t play music together until 2021. 

So this is pretty much a lifelong project you have going here. 

Desi: Yeah, we were friends for a long time before we ever even talked about playing music together. 

Alithea: Yeah, we never talked about it. Desi was in a band and toured a bunch and Baron was in a band and went to school for music and Cooper just always played and I never really played anything. It just never really came up that we would do this together but during the pandemic, Desi and I started writing some songs together and felt like there was no one better than these two to get involved. I was very nervous going into it because I didn’t play anything and I had never sung before. I mean, I did plays as a kid and had really tiny roles, but that was my only singing experience. I was so nervous to get anybody involved, because I was kind of embarrassed because I was like, what if I’m just the worst and nobody will be honest with me. So when we got them involved, it was so easy to be creative and not worry that you would be judged. But actually, it was harder as well, because these people are so close to you and you’re like, Okay I’m going to sing for you guys. I literally couldn’t do it, Baron had to get in there and started singing and was like, Look it’s this easy! And I was like, it’s just not that easy, but now we’re here. 

I can imagine, I don’t even want to sing for my friends in the car. 

Alithea: That’s the most terrifying thing in the entire world. And then to be like, I’m serious about this. 

Yeah, to say you think you sound good adds another layer of intimidation almost. 

Alithea: I want you to think I’m good. No. It was so scary. We did it, we practiced for about six months leading up to our first show, and I didn’t sing a single day until we got to right around the time of the first show. Then I started singing and I guess here we are. 

Desi: Here we are. 

Alithea: Now I just won’t stop singing. They can’t get me to shut up.

What was it like starting to make music together during the pandemic? 

Baron: Desi and Alithea lived together during Covid. 

Alithea: So Desi was always cooking up beats and one day he was like, You should try putting something down on this. And I was like, I would never do that. But enough time went by and I let myself get vulnerable enough to try. One of the songs we have out right now is called Sugarcoated and that was the second song we ever tried to do anything on. I remember I recorded the demo version in my closet, trying to be really quiet because I didn’t want my mom to hear. That’s how it kind of started, and now we just get together and write our little hearts out. 

And you’re about to leave in two days for tour! 

Alithea: Early Saturday morning, yeah. 

How are you feeling? Are you going to any cities that you’ve never been to that you’re particularly excited to visit?

Baron: We’re going to a lot of cities that I think most of us have never been to. I’m the most excited for Texas, I want to see some real Southern people. I want to see cowboy boots and cowboy hats. 

Alithea: I think Atlanta will be really cool. Same with Washington D.C. I really want to at least drive by the White House. 

Desi: Can you even do that? 

Alithea: Well it’s on a street, you can at least drive by it. 

Baron: Pennsylvania too. 

Alithea: Yeah, yeah. Montreal will be really cool. 

Baron: I love Montreal. Philly will also be cool. 

Alithea: It’s definitely a new thing for us, but we’re just over the moon about it. Especially because the band we’re going out with, Milly, are some of our best friends. So we’ll just be able to hang and play songs. It’ll be awesome. 

That is definitely awesome. I have no advice since I haven’t been to a single one of the cities you just mentioned, but I’m sure it’s going to be great. 

Alithea: We haven’t either so it’s like, see something good, stop and try it, I don’t know. 

Baron: A lot of different foods. 

When you guys are on tour, do you bring any routines with you to maintain your sanity? 

Desi: This is actually the three of their first tour. We did a ten day stretch with another band in LA called Alms, but it was a West Coast thing. We stayed at home some of the days, it was Phoenix all the way up to the Bay. And this is the first time you guys will have done that, and I haven’t done it in four years. We’re going to learn a lot of new routines.

Wow, congratulations guys. 

Alithea: Cooper and I have never been outside of literally Studio City for more than probably 14 days maximum, so it’ll be so new. The thing that is keeping us not too nervous is that we’ll be together, you know. We’re so comfortable together that if one of us is like, I’m losing it, it’ll be good. 

That is so exciting. I’m excited for you guys. And you just put out a single and have a few others you’ve released in the past year or two. What have the reactions been like to ‘Portrait Show?’

Cooper: We’ve definitely received a lot of positive feedback. We have really supportive friends and family. 

Desi: Thankfully, our friends love it. 

Cooper: We got a lot of positive reactions from the things we’ve put out so far, which is always very encouraging, especially because this one has gotten a better reaction than the other ones. All of them got great reactions but with this one, there was a lot more commentary and feedback that was from people we don’t know, strangers. We had some articles and stuff like that, so it’s all been really positive and uplifting. 

Alithea: Yeah, it’s gotten a really good response. We love the songs and are really happy to just be able to put them out. And if people like them, then that’s a total plus and especially with this song, we’ve been stoked. Even getting to be able to do this interview, we’re just so excited. We’re grateful that people even take the time to listen to and don’t just skip it. 

Totally! To a certain degree, it feels weird to write and have an opinion about the things other people do, and I imagine it feels weird to read about yourselves. 

Alithea: Oh yeah. 

And with the EP coming out, do you feel any kind of anxiety or pressure? Is it mostly excitement? 

Desi: It’s definitely exciting. This is the first body of music we will have released as a band, these are the first pieces of music you guys will have released in general. It’s the first music made with me in my own band. So it’s definitely nerve wracking, obviously you want people to like your music. But at the end of the day, you have to remember that you should only really be doing it for yourself. If you like it, that’s all that matters and if people like it after that, that’s a plus. But definitely exciting and nervous for the same reasons. 

Alithea: We have gotten such a great reaction, especially from friends we really trust. Obviously our parents are always going to love it and play it all the time and think it’s the greatest thing ever, it’s the sweetest thing. But especially friends you really trust or people in the music scene out here, people in bands that we think are really awesome coming up to us and telling us our band is really awesome. That is such a good feeling, and I think we’ve received a lot of that. It’s so nice that there is this little community of people being like, you're awesome, and we’re like, right back at ya. 

Oh yeah, and I think a lot of that excitement probably translates to you guys performing live. I love when you can feel even more energy from a band than you can from the recording, so I’m wondering what aspects of the shows themselves are the most exciting to you guys? 

Cooper: I think when we have played with bands in the past, it’s really cool when at first you don’t know the other band and they don’t know you, but after the fact they’re like, holy shit, that was unreal. Those kinds of reactions are always the best. We played at this one bar, what was the name of the place in San Diego? 

Baron: Soda Club, Soda Bar

Cooper: No the other one, the little one. Tower Bar? 

Desi: Tower Bar! 

Cooper: This little tiny place in San Diego. 

Alithea: Yeah, where the car went through the back of it before, right where the drummer sits. We were just like, oh my god. 

Cooper: It was this little bar, and it seemed like a lot of regulars would go there who didn’t care for the music. But playing at a place like that and having people turn their heads and actually care about what you’re doing is so cool. 

Alithea: Or bartenders being like, you guys are so good! They get paid to be there, so that’s really nice. 

Desi: That is a really good point, when somebody who works at a venue is like, that was dope, that is a good feeling. They see so much shit every day, so it feels good to know we got their attention. 

Yeah I bet that feels good. You’re probably like the 10th band they’ve seen that day, but they chose to tell you guys that you’re awesome. And listening to your EP is so much fun, but it’s also obvious that you’re tackling more complex feelings. This is a big question, so I’m sorry for asking this, but is there a specific way you’re trying to enter the conversation here? 

Alithea: Musically there’s an answer, and lyrically there’s an answer. I love hearing music where sometimes the lyrics mean absolutely nothing and it’s just fun and they’re just saying stuff, and I also really love music where people are conveying something and it has such a deeper meaning that you could take as meaning a million different things. I think that was really intimidating when we first started writing music and I had to write lyrics, because that is so difficult. To try to make it something that’s not cringey or something that’s not stupid but still feels true to whatever it is you might be going through at that time. The way I calm myself down about it is by just letting it come out. Whatever I’m feeling in that moment is what I’m going to write and if somebody thinks it’s cringey or stupid, I’ll never hear that they do. So that’s great. And musically or lyrically, I just want it to come across as genuine as possible. This is what was happening in the moment and this is where we were at. I try not to edit things down too hard, I try to be more like, this is genuinely how I feel, and this is what came out when I heard the song. This is just what it is. I really feel like authenticity is important, rather than being like, is somebody not going to like this or think this part is stupid. You can get so caught up in that and up feeling like you don’t know what to say. 

It’s so hard to not do that. It’s much easier to just worry what everyone is going to think of you all the time. 

Alithea: Naturally, and I think that’s how so many people feel about writing music. If somebody thinks something is stupid, they’re so entitled to that opinion, and it’s just as valid as somebody loving it. Like Desi was saying, making something truly and solely for yourself and getting all of that out there. And like you said, there are definitely some songs on the EP that could be taken in a serious way or you couldn’t. Our intentions with that were to really show what feelings we were grappling with at the time we wrote it and maybe somebody can relate and if they can’t, it was still real for me. 

And when we talk about writing, does that tend to happen collaboratively for the most part?

Desi: It depends. I think really early on, with a lot of the songs on the EP, one of us would come up with an idea that was mostly done and we’d present it to the band. But as we’ve been together, we try as much as we can to get together and work on music as much as possible. There’s always songs or ideas that are brought in by one of us. It always starts with somebody coming out with something. 

Sure, of course.

Desi: Sometimes it’s mostly done by the time it comes in, or sometimes we come in with an idea and there’s only one part. 

Alithea: I think that was a product of the pandemic as well, not being able to get together and sit together and write together. Now, we do that as much as we can and get to put our foreheads together and really make something that feels honest. 

It definitely comes off that way. Honest. 

Alithea: That was definitely what we were going for. 

And I’m curious, I’m sure you have a lot of other things that you’re good at or like to do. Why this, why music? 

Baron: I don’t have any other skills. 

I’m sure that’s not true. 

Desi: Baron’s really good at driving and playing guitar.

Baron: Really good at driving. I wouldn’t even say that. 

I’m not that good at driving, so I’d consider that a skill. 

Alithea: This is a total side note, but Baron has been the unlucky person that, totally not his fault, has gotten his car crashed into on three separate occasions and it has totaled three cars. 

Baron: While I was parked! I’ve also completely run out of gas in my car, but that was my fault.

I’ve been on the other end where I was the one that hit the parked car. So I hope it wasn’t yours. 

Baron: Maybe it was you! 

Yeah, not good at parallel parking. 

Baron: Yeah, it was crazy. But I mean, I’ve just been playing guitar for the majority of my life at this point, since I was 12. It was always something I knew I loved and wanted to do, it really stuck with me throughout the years. I went to school for music, and it really burnt me out. It was so much theory and technical stuff, and I felt like I didn’t really know my place in all of that. So I took a break and all of a sudden, we started playing together, and I found a new love for it again. It completely changed my mind on it, I was like, no, this is actually all I’m going to do. It just happened to be with these people in a setting that feels super comfortable and exactly what I want to be doing. 

Desi: It’s funny, I feel like any hobby we have outside of playing music is adjacent to music. 

Baron: For you, especially.

Desi: For me especially. I mean, we all listen to music. 

Alithea: Desi builds guitar pedals and fixes amps and all that stuff. Anything you’d ever need. Anytime anything goes out, you just grab Desi. 

That must be so convenient. 

Desi: It’s definitely convenient, and I got into all of that during the pandemic as a way to do something music-related because we couldn’t play music. If I wasn’t making money making music, I thought maybe I could make money somewhere adjacent to music. I wish I did something else though. Played a sport. Well, we play tennis. 

Alithea: Yeah, we like to play tennis. We’re not good at it. I don’t even think we can claim that we play it. 

Baron: Yeah, no. We like to make dinner together. 

Alithea: Make dinner, hang out together

Would you consider yourselves to be good cooks? 

All: Yes!

Alithea: I’m sure everybody says that but genuinely yeah. 

Last question, why do you think this dynamic works the way it does? You touched on it earlier, but I’m curious why at the end of the day you guys make such a good team? 

Cooper: I think it works because we’re so comfortable with each other that we can just tell each other how it is, it’s not awkward. We know each other so well. When there’s an issue, we fucking address it. We don’t get nervous to tell each other things, we just know each other so well. If we were working together and had differences when we were writing or with whatever we’re doing, I’m sure there would be some hesitation to speak up.

Alithea: Absolutely.

Cooper: We just tell each other how it is when we need to. We’ve had problems in the past and we just got together and squashed it. Get that shit sorted out. It just ends up working out because we solve issues very quickly. 

Desi: Being in a band is not easy, and being in a band with your best friends is also not easy. But I think we have a deep understanding of each other, like Cooper was just saying, so we all understand each other and know how to talk to each other and be respectful. I think for anybody in a band, if there’s more than one cook in the kitchen, you have to not have an ego when it comes to certain things. You have to understand that not everybody is perfect. 

Alithea: I think we all have the same goal with what we want the music to be and turn into. We all like mostly the same music, with our own little subsections, but overall we like the same stuff. So when we hear an idea, we all have the same thought of what it should become. That’s so helpful. If we had really opposing interests and influences, I feel like that could be harder to make everything sound the same. We’re fortunately pretty in tune with our opinions and what not. 

Baron: We’re friends first, a band second. 

Desi: Which makes it very easy. 

Actually one more question, and it’s kind of hard. What are you listening to right now? 

Baron: I’ve been listening to the Smiths a lot for some reason. 

Alithea: Do you know your answer? 

Cooper: Yeah, I think so.

Alithea: You go first, I have to think.

Cooper: I’ve been listening to a lot of The Colour and the Shape, the Foo Fighters

Alithea: Oh, that’s a good one.

Baron: And the Posies

Desi: The other day, I was working, and I listened to all of the Bedhead albums, which was really fun. It’s really good focus music. 

Alithea: At least recently, Deerhunter

I love Deerhunter! 

Alithea: Good! Deerhunter is so good. Have you seen the Pitchfork documentary? 

Yes, so good!

Alithea: I was watching it at the gym and there’s that one moment where the penis is on the screen and I was on the stairmaster hiding my phone screen.