Chris LaRocca Welcomes Explorative EP dog years
Chris LaRocca’s deep admiration for 70s era folk and Americana music may come as a surprise when looking at his career as an awarded songwriter and producer. Working with artists like Bryson Tiller, Kali Uchis, and Russ – the world of Americana music feels very far away. Although it lives in a new lane from his previous projects, there is a certainty to the way each song came together. It feels spontaneous but also planned, as if LaRocca had always known he was going to create something like this but hadn’t found the right time or reason. dog years is Chris LaRocca’s homage to the sounds of such an iconic era in music history, while still being undeniably his own – affectionately referring to his journey through the genres as “Canadiana” music.
The first new single off the EP is the funk-infused “preaching to the choir” – an anthem for overthinkers in love. Punctuated by a thumping indie-folk production, “preaching to the choir” gets real about all the irrational questions you wish you could ask your partner over and over again.
On the single, LaRocca shares:
“It’s said that being in a relationship is like looking into a mirror, and that is the concept behind ‘preaching to the choir’. it’s an ode to anxiety and what it must feel like to be intimately close with someone like myself. The lyrics present themselves as a rambling train of thought, highlighting all the quirks in my character that I felt my partner at the time was noticing in me. I wrote this song at a turning point in my life and a moment of self-discovery, and for better or for worse, I truly feel that this song memorializes a past version of myself at a very poignant time in my life.”
This has been a busy year for Chris LaRocca, releasing five singles leading up to the EP’s release. Starting the year off with “ladybug” and “laundry day”, followed shortly by “slow dance in the diner”, “normal guy”, and “last pair of boots in town”.
The second new track from dog years is the aptly titled “fed up!!”. Listeners hear a more echoed vocal from LaRocca as he lets his guitar lead. It feels regretful and a little bitter, but not truly angry. The title track, “dog years” rounds out the collection of new music arriving with the EP. The song reveals more clearly the message behind the project – time can feel like it’s passing exponentially quickly and painfully slowly at the same time. Growth is not linear, and neither is healing, but there is an assuredness to LaRocca in this track – as if the “dog year” that inspired the EP was not his first.
On the process of creating the EP, LaRocca shares:
“I started working on this project on January 1st, 2024, and finished it in November of that year. There was a lot of creative discovery within the boundaries of this project, from collaborators, to sounds, to songwriting style – all reaching new territories that I’ve been wanting to explore for quite some time. It chronicled a calendar year of love and heartbreak, wins and losses, growth and pain in real time – anytime something meaningful happened within that timeframe, I put it into a song.”
As he reflects on the final moments polishing the project, LaRocca continues:
“By the end of it all I realized how much can really happen in a year, and how much you can change in that time – especially the older you get, the days go slow and the years go fast. Sometimes, even moreso in a life of creativity, it can really feel like you are living dog years at a time – experiencing the growth of several years in one. I felt as if I were living out this sentiment in my own life, and when listening back to ‘dog years’ start to finish, it felt as it the project named itself.”
This project was built upon a shared appreciation for music that moves people. Chris LaRocca worked with incredible musicians and producers to create dog years, from Canadian producer Daniel Lanois (Bob Dylan, Neil Young) and Alex “Ace G” Erenwein (Drake, Jack Harlow, Daniel Caesar) to “Dirty” Dave Marcus (Blxst, Rico Nasty, Offset) and Herag Sanbalian (Alessia Cara, Nelly Furtado), and more.
From the year that felt like seven, Chris LaRocca has put together a 360-degree exploration of a brand-new sound. dog years showcases his personal relationship with the songwriting styles made famous by Americana and folk musicians, and the layered sonic landscapes from these genres that have always inspired him to dig deeper.
dog years is pensive, patient; it feels like pain but also like healing. With each single, Chris LaRocca leans into the best and the worst moments with the same attention to detail. The personal growth from this formative “dog year” shines so clearly in this project, as LaRocca continues evolve.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Chris. I grew up in a small city outside of Toronto called Kleinburg, and moved to the city about 8 years ago. I started this artist project in 2017, but I’ve been making music for a long time and plan to make much more.
You’ve said making dog years felt like living seven years in one. What were the biggest challenges or lessons that shaped this project?
It was really just a stream of consciousness type of process – anything that happened in my personal life that felt important enough to write about, I put into a song. I think the challenge in that was facing things head on in a very real way as soon as they happened – putting words those experiences and making them very real. But it helped me navigate through it all at the same time, and I think that was the lesson – to not push things down and suppress any emotion whether good or bad.
You’ve described dog years as both a time-lapse of relationships and a love letter to yourself. Can you expand on how those two ideas connect?
In a full circle way, the album really documents the height and ending of a relationship. I think the concept of a time lapse and love letter to myself connect through the journey of that experience. I laid it all out and distilled the experience over 8 songs to capture the moments, but when I listen back, I see how openly I wore my heart on my sleeve through it all, and it’s a reminder that everything that happened was meant to happen, and to not be so hard on myself when I reflect.
You’ve worked with Daniel Lanois, Matt DeLong, Ben Cook, Jahson Paynter, and Dave Marcus on this EP. What did each collaborator bring out in you?
This was the band of the project. It felt like a living breathing thing in itself. Lanois brought the confidence in myself – the fact he believed in me enough to collaborate is something I will hold in my heart forever. Matty, Ben, Jay, Dave – the spirit of these guys is forever solidified in the music. Dave and Jay were a light in the fog that helped me find my way back to myself whenever I got too far, and Ben and Matty were solid examples of the type of songwriter I aspire to be in the future and gave me ideas that fit me like a tailored suit, which turned into songs that feel like the backbone of this project.
As both a producer and an artist, how do you balance building soundscapes for yourself vs. when you’re working for someone else?
For myself, it’s a much longer process. I only create for myself when my heart and my mind are aligned, which isn’t too often. Creating the musical backdrop for my music comes sporadically when inspiration is highest, whereas for other artists, you really have to capitalize on their inspiration when it’s there, which is a much more touch and go experience. I really do need both styles of writing to thrive as a creative as a whole – both processes feed into each other and make me a better creative overall.
Let’s do a rapid fire:
What’s the strangest place you’ve ever written or recorded a lyric?
I love to write in the car while I’m driving. Things come to me much more naturally when I’m focused on something else.
You relocated to the wilderness for this EP. Be honest: how good are your survival skills?
I wasn’t relocated in Jackson’s Point until after the project was released. I lived in a beautiful home more well equipped than what I had in Toronto, so survival was quite easy considering I had a massive kitchen and two bathrooms.
You called your latest single “last pair of boots in town” — so… how many pairs of boots do you actually own?
10000000000000000000000000000000
If you could only listen to one album for seven “dog years” straight, which would it be?
That sounds like hell no matter what I pick
If you could teleport anywhere for one night to perform, where would you go?
Someone’s porch in the Midwest of America. And I’d have a washtub bass player
Last, but not least, if a new fan could listen to only one of the songs from dog years, which would you recommend?
I think I’d recommend the title track “dog years”. It is every song in the album in one and the entire spirit of the project lives in that song – thematically, musically and lyrically.