For the past two decades, Daniel “DELA” Delacruz has been a familiar face on stage with Slightly Stoopid, sax in hand and part of a band that has taken him around the world. But his music with DELA & Steady Rock Easy has always given him a little more room to explore where his own influences can take him.
That started with Opening Night, DELA’s debut solo album, released on Stoopid Records in 2017. Recorded with longtime friend and mentor Karl Denson and The Aggrolites, the album brought together the reggae music DELA had been playing since he was a teenager with his background in jazz.
After leaving California and moving back to the Northeast, DELA reconnected with musicians in the Boston scene and DELA & Steady Rock Easy began to take shape. Since then, they’ve continued building their own catalog with songs like “Til the Dancing’s Through” and “Livin’ Life This Way.”
Their newest single, “Give Me,” takes things in another direction.
This time around, DELA reached beyond the reggae sound at the center of Steady Rock Easy and pulled from his own Dominican roots.
“Sonically it is a bit of a departure from the reggae sound we love so much,” DELA tells The Pier. “It’s a nod to my Dominican roots with a sort of reggaeton/soca feel.”
And honestly, it works.
The rhythm is what really pulls you into “Give Me.” The song has a bounce that immediately separates it from some of Steady Rock Easy’s more straight-ahead reggae material, and DELA still finds plenty of room for the sax without letting it take over. Nothing is fighting to be the center of attention. It all just moves.
The reggaeton and soca influence changes the feel without making it sound like Steady Rock Easy suddenly decided to become something else. It’s still them, just coming at it from a new angle.
It’s also the kind of song that gets better after a few listens. For a track that feels this good, though, the idea behind it came from a much more serious place.
“To be honest, I was feeling like a lot of people close to me feel sort of helpless to affect the change they want to see in the world,” DELA explains. “This song is about being the change, leading by example. Everyone wants to be seen/heard but we as individuals have to be willing to take on someone else’s burdens if we want them to hear ours…sort of a do unto others as you would have done to you.”
That’s what makes the feel of the song a little deceptive. You can put “Give Me” on, get caught up in it and never think much further than that. Pay attention to what DELA is actually saying, though, and there’s a lot more behind it.
Even with “Give Me” taking the band somewhere new, DELA says there are certain things about the way Steady Rock Easy makes music that haven’t changed.
“Steady Rock Easy records everything live, with minimal overdubs so the sound is real and very easily reproduced in our live shows,” DELA says. “Also, having James Wisner on board doing the mixing really takes everything up a notch. We have such a familiarity working together in Slightly Stoopid the last 15 plus years that I know I can trust his artistic vision.”
After more than 15 years of working together through Slightly Stoopid, DELA and Wisner already know each other well musically. There isn’t much explaining that needs to happen, and DELA trusts what Wisner brings to the finished track.
Then there’s Kenny Bongos.
The SOJA percussionist’s appearance on “Give Me” wasn’t something DELA had planned. The two found themselves hanging out at Kenny’s studio after Reggae Rise Up St. Pete earlier this year, and DELA decided to play him the track he’d been working on. Kenny was into it immediately.
“He was like, ‘Oh man I’m all over this!’ I was like, ‘For real??’” DELA recalls. “Couple weeks later he wove this great tapestry of grooviness all over the tune. Really brought it all together.”
And that “tapestry of grooviness” is actually a pretty accurate description. Kenny’s part fits so naturally with what the band was already doing that it never screams featured guest. With DELA already leaning into reggaeton and soca, it sounds like Kenny was supposed to be there all along.
Maybe that’s why “Give Me” works as well as it does. Nobody sounds like they’re trying too hard to make the song something it isn’t. DELA brings a piece of his Dominican background into Steady Rock Easy, Kenny adds his own touch, and the band lets the song go where it wants to go.
Mostly, it just sounds like they’re having a really good time playing a really good song. But DELA hopes people hear something more in it, too.
“I really hope that people embrace the message of this song and give each other the same kind of empathy and love that they are seeking.”
By: Kelly Graham
