Q&A: Rocket Launch Their Debut Album ‘R is for Rocket’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Tanner Deutsch
ROCKET HAVE FINALLY BLASTED OFF WITH THEIR DEBUT ALBUM R IS FOR ROCKET — a record that delivers on every ounce of promise the band have been building toward over the past few years. Lead single “Wide Awake” serves as the perfect entry point: a jagged, fuzz-drenched anthem that pairs the band’s wall-of-sound guitar attack with Alithea Tuttle’s sweetly hypnotic vocals.
“R is for Rocket is about relationships, the most important part of life; relationships with your friends, your parents, your girlfriend or boyfriend, and most importantly your relationship with yourself,” the band shares. “‘Wide Awake’ is the perfect balance of all the elements of this record. After years in the making and countless versions, we’re excited to finally share it.”
That core sentiment sits at the heart of their highly anticipated debut album.
Comprised of Tuttle (vocals, bass), Baron Rinzler (guitar), Cooper Ladomade (drums) and Desi Scaglione (guitar), Rocket have created a sound that feels both timeless and vital. The album is a joyride through sonic terrain that’s gloriously loud, anthemic and beautifully chaotic. It manages to feel instantly nostalgic — evoking the raw power of 90s guitar titans like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine — while honing a sound that’s uniquely their own.
R is for Rocket also marks a clear evolution from their critically acclaimed Versions of You EP. Where that release hinted at Rocket’s potential, their debut album fully realizes it — elevating their craft with bolder songwriting, sharper production and a confidence earned from the road. By the time recording began in early 2024, the band had been on a near-constant touring cycle, sharing stages with heroes Ride, Sunny Day Real Estate and Silversun Pickups. In between tours, they retreated to a modest back house studio in drummer Ladomade’s parents’ yard, where they experimented, refined and pushed their sound further than ever before.
The result is a debut that feels both intimate and expansive, reflecting Rocket’s hard-earned growth while capturing the energy of a band at the height of their creative ignition. At its core, R is for Rocket is a celebration of relationships, of community, of self-discovery and of the bonds that fuel life and art alike. And with this record, Rocket have not only found their voice, but they’ve created one worth following.
Photo Credit: Tanner Deutsch
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
ALITHEA: That's a great question. A safe one, one where every sort of person feels like they could connect to our music and find something for them in it. It’s inclusive, even if it's not a genre you may listen to. We don't want anyone to feel like they can't listen to us. We want everyone to feel like they can be a listener and come to a show and be in a safe space and know that everyone is accepted.
LUNA: R is for Rocket marks your debut album release and huge congratulations are in order! Can you talk about the inspiration behind the album and what themes or emotions you explore?
BARON: I think we set out to originally make an EP. We didn't really know it was going to be an album yet, and then it just kept blossoming into an album. We were like, it's time to release our first album. The themes came almost secondary, but I think overall, the theme is people in our lives are so important to us and relationships in our lives are important. We draw inspiration from a lot of bands that we love and individually we all have our own inspirations. People and relationships are probably the biggest overarching theme.
ALITHEA: It was something that came totally subconsciously, like I didn't realize till I looked back at all the lyrics after writing them all out and submitting them and realizing I am talking about relationships in your life, and how obviously difficult things like that can be, and that's really all that there is. You can live anywhere in the world, but if you have the people around you that matter and that's what makes it feel like home, or that's what makes it feel like a place worth being. I think it was totally subconscious, but it ended up just being about relationships of all sorts, growing up with relationships and new relationships.
LUNA: R is for Rocket feels like both a culmination and a new beginning for the band. What was the biggest shift in your songwriting or recording approach compared to your Versions of You EP?
COOPER: I feel like maybe this is just for me. I think just like growing as an artist, I think you learn so much more when you play together for a longer period of time. I feel like I was so new to recording when we first did the EP, and I wasn't experimenting as much as I could with different things on the drums. Once you play a shit ton of shows and play together so much, you inspire each other. You hear what they have to do and you build off of that. I feel like it just changes over time and you learn so many new things. I think it really benefited us for the record, because I feel like it sounds so different from the EP. There's a lot more going on, and there's a lot more little things that we just didn't do before, which I think is nice.
ALITHEA: I definitely agree. I feel like we got more comfortable in the studio and comfortable playing shows. Like what Cooper was saying, because for both of us, it's sort of a similar situation, of we didn't really do this before. When we first recorded our EP, that was our first time recording, which was super comfortable and super easy because it was in her parents’ house. Moving up and going into a studio and this being completely new to both of us. I think it really helped that we had had all that touring under our belt, and we had all those experiences because we were confident. I think that really informed the way that the songs ended up sounding. We wrote different songs in that time period, like we split up the recording process into two. It was in January and then also in August, because of what Baron was saying, we initially thought we're going to do an EP. In that interim period, we wrote a couple extra songs and those ended up being on the record. I think for most of us, it ended up being some of our favorite songs. I think that's what changed a lot about our process, was we just had so much more time to make this record and really feel like a record rather than an EP, which was great. I feel like you can hear that.
BARON: I think one of the biggest differences is that we recorded an actual studio this time around, like two actual studios. That was a big shift for everybody, because we had never done that. It was like we did it still on our own. We didn't have an outside producer or anything. It still felt very true to ourselves, comfortable. In that sense, the recording process was really smooth and it was really fun. We had so much at our disposal to play with and try new things and get better sounds and use better equipment. The whole process of going into those specific studios was really amazing.
LUNA: “The Choice” is a bold single. What made you choose this track as the doorway into the album?
ALITHEA: That was the first song that Desi and I ever wrote together, and then we all worked on it as a band and it's pretty much the same as it was when we first wrote it, but it's been so long that we've sort of had that song. I think that's also why it feels right to be the first song. This is just a really cool way to start the album off. I think it feels cohesive with the record, but I also think that it's a song that people will be not shocked by, but maybe wouldn't have been expecting. I feel like that's also why we wanted to start the record off with it and hopefully throw you for a loop and then reel you back in.
LUNA: After years in the making, what did you learn about yourselves as a band in the process of creating R is for Rocket? Did you have any lessons or breakthroughs while bringing this project to fruition?
ALITHEA: What I feel like I learned, and maybe I didn't even really fully realize it till you asked us this question, but I had never done anything like this before. I'm sure Cooper would agree and feel the same way, but I think that it's really easy to feel discouraged, or I'm not good enough. We just started playing in a band, then we just started playing shows, and then we just started touring. It all happened really quickly, which we're so grateful for. When we were in the studio and getting ready, like, I think the lesson that I learned was not to sound cliche, but you can literally do anything and anything is possible. We wanted to be in bands, and Desi had played in bands, but all of us were in our own band, recording in a studio that is so cool. Using professional equipment felt like a dream. Doing all those things, is that moment of being like, oh shit, I actually did work to get myself here.
Anything is possible. You can work to get yourself anywhere. I think just knowing that it's never too late to learn something. It's never too late to completely redirect your life. And obviously we're really young, and when we started this band, we were all 20 but even then, you feel like I've got to have it all figured out and I have my trajectory and I have my life and I'm never going to change it. Everyone always tells you that's not true, and then it happens, and you're like, that wasn't true. If you were to tell any of us 15 years ago that that's what we would be doing now, I think we would be so shocked and so excited. I feel like that's what I've learned about myself and just about all of us, just that there's nothing that you can't make happen — learning a new instrument or starting an entirely new project, it's literally never too late.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on the album — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Rocket is right now?
COOPER: Mine is “Wide Awake” for sure. I think that's just really fun for me to play.
ALITHEA: I think the closest to my heart and then where we are as a band would almost be two different answers. I feel like closest to my heart would be “Number One Fan,” just because I feel like it's so different from the rest of our music, obviously, but it's also a song that’s more revealing instrumentally and lyrically. We played that once live, and it was really fun. I think we'll continue to play that. It's also nice to take a break from just going so hard the entire time. Where it feels like we are as a band at the moment would be more in the vein of “Wide Awake,” because those songs are both so different. I think that both of those are where we are as a band at the moment and opening the door to our next record, whatever that may look like. I think that dynamic and having it touch on both of those things, I think that's what we enjoy doing as a band, is having those moments where it can be really soft and stripped back and vulnerable, but then also being super comfortable in this lane.
BARON: I think the next single is definitely up there for me. The outro part was really fun to come up with. It's me and Desi going next to each other on guitar. Same in a similar vein is “The Choice,” the guitar parts came really last minute after we recorded it. Me and Desi got together and we needed to put something at the very last part and we came up with this dueling guitar solo.
LUNA: What excites you most about this new era and what are you hoping listeners can take away from this new era?
ALITHEA: I think I think everything is exciting. I think every time we get to talk to somebody or do an interview or a photoshoot or play a show feels super exciting, and we feel really grateful that we're being given the time of day, so to speak. I hope that people can just take whatever. I truly do hope that people take whatever feels right to them from every song. I hope that it can mean something different to all different types of people.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
BARON: We have a headline tour starting in late October. We go around the country and we play most major cities, and we're very excited about it. We have little expectation, because we've never done a headline tour, but we are excited and hope it does very well.
Photo Credit: Tanner Deutsch
