A DJ for 20 years, Rocco’s career started in small underground Techno influenced clubs in Lyons, France, where he learned his trade alongside DJs like Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox, Louie Vega and DJ Deep.
After a stint in Portugal, Rocco teamed up with Alex Santos and Manoo in 2001 to form Rodamaal. The group quickly got a lot of attention and caught the ear of Ben Watt (from Everything But The Girl) who was starting his Buzzin’ Fly label at the time. Various EPs and singles for Buzzin’ Fly followed but it is the ‘Insomnia’ single – remixed by Âme – that is definitively the biggest single for Rodamaal, and it remains a Deep House classic
While still working with his friends from Rodamaal Rocco started to release solo projects on various prestigious labels like Freerange, Defected, MN2S, Real Tone, and it is his single ‘Someday’, released on Real Tone – Franck Roger’s label – that propelled him as a major player status in the Deep House scene. Following the success of these releases Rocco went traveling extensively all over the world spreading a unique sound combining Deep House, Minimal, Techno and Classic House.
Over the years Rocco has developed a huge following in South Africa, where it is not rare to see him perform in stadiums in front of 30,000-strong crowds. And it was on a South African label that Rocco released in 2013 his ‘The Bridge’ album, bridging indeed the gap between Europe, South Africa and the US and featuring collaborations between the French producer and artists and vocalists from South Africa and the US.
Rocco has been collaborating for a couple of years now with Klement Bonelli on productions and/or remixes and it is on Klement Bonelli’s own label Krome Records that Rocco released his vastly influential ‘TBT3’ track. Laurent Garnier, who had been supporting Rocco’s productions for many years, included it on his recent DJ Mag compilation. ‘TBT3’ is a milestone in Rocco’s career as it points toward the new musical direction Rocco and his soon to be launched label is exploring.
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