Rocstrong Interview – And the Winner is...

The  ‘Big Break’ competition run by Hot Press in association with 
ALCATEL ONETOUCH is aptly named. Being chosen as the winner really is a huge boost to your music career prospects. Just ask JP Bangala – aka Rocstrong.

 “Winning this is the biggest and most exciting thing that’s happened to me in my music career,” declares the popular Dublin funk-rocker. “It feels like a great achievement. I’ve been reading Hot Press for years and it’s a magazine where you always see all these celebrities and big musicians. I never thought that I’d be on the cover myself!”
The 26-year-old was born in Congo, but raised in Ireland, growing up and coming of age in Tallaght . “Yeah I’m originally from Congo, but I consider myself Irish,” he explains. “Straight after I was born we moved and I started school here. I went to school at St Aengus in Balrothery and then I went to secondary school in Tallaght Community School.”
His parents were big music fans and he grew up in a house where albums by the likes of Prince, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Pharrell Williams were always in constant rotation on the stereo.
“When I was that age, I could hardly buy CDs of my own, or anything like that, so I just listened to whatever CDs or records my dad had – so they were the ones.”
Now that he can presumably buy his own CDs, who would be his favourite Irish act?
“I’d say The Script, because when they came out it was like something completely different. I think The Script are more cool versions of musicians that came out in Ireland. They showed that we still have great, cool artists coming out that do great music. I really enjoyed their first album.”
His father, in particular, always encouraged his musical talents. “My dad started doing music with my older sister – she used to go to music schools and was always doing dancing stuff. And then I joined the music schools – so their focus turned to me. I started singing songs my dad was writing for me and soon after that I started writing my own music.”
He wrote his first song when he was just 12 years old. “It was about an old woman who fell on her backside and she needed help and I had to run to the neighbourhood nurse,” he recalls, laughing.  “Like, it was a well-known nurse in the neighbourhood that people knew to go to when they had their problems. I was talking about running – the chorus on the song was like,‘Run, run, run’. It was a funny song when I think about it now.”
Although he’s been gigging and recording sporadically since leaving school, Rocstrong does have a day job. “Yeah, I work in retail,” he explains. “Like, we are not funded, so we have to fund ourselves. All of us are working.”
Thankfully, his boss is fully supportive. “My boss, every time there is an opportunity for me musically, is always understanding. He does the shift himself if he has to, because he knows how popular that I’m getting and he really believes in me. There is not one bad thing I could say about my boss."
"My colleagues are so supportive too. They are not just people that I work with anymore they are like my family as well.  Every time I have a gig on or something to do with music, like this competition for Hot Press, they were the guys that voted and inspired me and pushed me on. Like, when you have that many people believing in you, you really push yourself  because people are now depending on you.”
Performing live, Rocstrong is joined by a band called The Funk Elements. A truly international bunch, Rocstrong and The Funk Elements originate from Ireland, Congo, Poland and Italy.
“Matt is my bass player,” he explains. “He’s from Poland, and his brother Ariel plays with us as well. Matt is 27 and Ariel will be 24 this year. I met Ariel on my way into town: I saw him from the bus I was on. He looked like a musician – he was just walking down the street bopping his head to his earphones. I got off the bus quickly and I chased him down and then
asked him was he a musician and he told me that he played guitar.
“I showed him some of the music I was doing on my album – some older stuff. He really liked it,  and we started rehearsing together and he mentioned, ‘Oh by the way, I have a brother, he can come and play with us’. His brother was equally good. They are very good at what they do. They play both the guitar and bass.
“We have a new drummer now,” he continues. “He played with us last night at a show in Whelan’s. His name is Rio and he’s from Ohio. Ariel found him. I think he was performing on the street and Ariel just asked him to come to one of our rehearsals. He’s gotten very up to date with just two rehearsals and he’s really good. It’s an important time for us, so the musicians we take on now, we really need them to be able to catch on quickly. We have a keyboard player,  Daniel: I rate him highly too." 
Rocstrong’s ridiculously catchy debut release, ‘Go’Head’, got a huge radio reaction when it was independently released earlier this year.
“The songs that I try to create are happy songs,” he says. “They are not so much about love stories or girls or hard times – because this country is already going through hard times and we are getting out of them. ‘Go'Head’ is a very happy song,  for all the people that are driving to work. They hear my song on the radio, it’s a song that will get them bopping their heads in their car – and it'll still be playing in their heads as they are working. You couldn’t hear ‘Go ‘Head’ once and not be thinking about it over and over in your head. They are the songs that I want to do: swing, funky, happy songs like that are not about
specific things.”
He has nothing but praise for the Irish music scene. “Before Rocstrong broke out, I had no idea that the music scene was so advanced here," he reflects. "My manager is called Lia Leighio and she showed me some stuff. Like I knew and read Hot Press, but I didn’t know how big it was until I got popular as Rocstrong. Then offers started coming in and I got to hear about all these other acts. I’ve become a fan of bands like Audio Fires. I'd never heard of them, but I met them through a gig that we did at 4 Dame Lame. There are so many good bands and artists here that aren’t signed.”
Where would you like to see yourself in a year’s time?
“In a year’s time, I would like to be touring – doing concerts, doing festivals. I’d like the whole of Ireland to know who I am, and then the UK and the States. But the focus is here at the moment. Just for everyone in Ireland to know who I am. That's the first goal.”
With his victory in The Big Break, in association with ALCATEL ONETOUCH, Rocstrong is already well on his way. Go head!