Interviews

Detroit's Rocksteady Disco and has been going for 10+ years and it is an undeniably consistent imprint with a solid reputation for putting out tunes that stand the test of time. For their next release Razor-N-Tape head honcho JKriv steps up to the RSD plate with his `Adaptation EP`. On the week of the next release we had a chimseyside chat with the label founder, head of A&R, and all things Rocksteady Disco, Peter Croce.

Thanks for talking to us today. Where are you this moment and how are you spending the rest of the day?

Thanks for having me! I'm currently at my kitchen table, surrounded by packing materials and boxes of records as we get ready to move to a new house a few blocks away. Much more room for records and a much better music studio… I'm very stoked.

Where are you based?

The east side of Detroit near Belle Isle, one of America's best kept secrets.

What is it you love most about the city in which you live?

In Detroit it's all about the people. That Detroit grit is no joke. Generally, people move to cities to get something from them, usually a job. People stay in or move to Detroit to give to the city. It's community at its best. And on a more boring level, coming out of bankruptcy, the city is just getting better every day in terms of parks, crime, and public services. And you can own a nice home for a fair price.

Going out to see world class DJs every weekend for free or cheap doesn’t hurt either.

How long has Rocksteady Disco been going?

I started it in 2014, originally as a Friday sunset jam on MotorCity Wine’s patio, which quickly evolved into a vinyl focused record label.

What made you start the label?

It was partially that I was DJ’ing out a lot and people kept sending me tracks to test out, but mostly that I wanted to blend Detroit art and Detroit manufacturing— our records are pressed just a few miles from my house at a family-owned record plant that’s been in business since 1965. Art and manufacturing is what Detroit does!

What was the musical vision of the label in the beginning?

It’s always been eclectic, but the vision has always been to focus on musicality, whimsy, and unexpected fusions of genres in our releases. I want the records to make you dance, bliss out, or both.

Does that vision remain the same today?

For sure, except now I feel more comfortable talking about what we do. When I started the label I was 23, and I didn’t know about David Mancuso and The Loft, or Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage, or Jose Padilla at Cafe Del Mar. Using genres, especially for our releases, is always tough. I’m grateful for Tim Lawrence’s books, and various podcasts / zines / oral histories for helping to give me language to describe what traditions we’re a part of.

How do you go about A&R for the label?

At first it was just my friends, who are all very talented producers. After we got a few releases under our belt I started getting a few cold calls, like Igor B and G2S. Blair French got me in touch with Eddie Logix, who has become my right-hand man. I was also able to reach out to some folks I was fans of first before putting out their music and becoming buds, like Sol Power All-Stars, JKriv, Aroop Roy, and Kiko Navarro. Chris Coco asked us if he could do a remix, which was a huge honor. And traveling to DJ has been really instrumental in meeting folks who have the sound I love— that’s how I met Rafael Cancian, Dennis Liber, Lex, Heidy P, and Tommaso. At the end of the day our sound is pretty unique— it’s not straight up dusty Detroit House, it’s not just chillout Balearic downtempo, and it’s not -Afro House” (whatever that means in 2025). So finding folks that thread the needle on those sounds is challenging, but very rewarding.

What does a release need to possess to make it to release with RSD?

There’s a joke among our community that the actual Rocksteady Disco genres are “Man/Woman Yelling”, “Tons Of Drums”, “Big Dumb Basslines”, “Too Much Echo”, “Flute Gang”, “Too Much Echo”, and “B3, Rhodes, 303: pick two”. I also have come up with the genre “Deadpan European Man/Woman Talking” (think Pino D’Angio)— we finally got that one with Dennis Liber and Lex’s “Una Sera D’estate” earlier this year. That just about covers it all.

What is the most notable release you’ve had on the label?

It’s pretty hard to pick just one. At risk of self-aggrandizement “Revival” from yours truly has continued to be the biggest anthem on the label. The message is timeless, and it always turns out a dance floor. And we just sold out of it again yesterday. Might be time for another repress?

Blair French’s and Eddie Logix’s releases continue to be what I consider the platonic ideal of the Rocksteady Disco sound. And Blair’s LP The Art Of Us was such an enormous undertaking, right during the Apollo Masters Fire and then COVID. It’s a mind-blowing LP that I think will be talked about in the Detroit canon for decades to come methinks.

Lastly, being able to work with folks that I’ve looked up to has been a gift. JKriv blessed us with Aguaxirê back in 2019, which really brought us to a wider audience. I’m so excited to have him back with Adaptation this year!

What are some of the challenges you face in putting out music in 2025?

It is an enormous challenge putting out music in 2025, especially if you focus on vinyl records like we do. Fewer and fewer DJs are playing records, and American distribution is not doing so hot. You really need to figure out how to play the streaming game, or do something so undeniably hot that people will pay whatever for it. A lot of it is a branding exercise— people are so inundated with noise and distraction that you have to transcend that noise.

Who are some of the artists that have released on RSD?

JKriv, Kiko Navarro, Eddie Logix, Blair French, David A-P, Sol Power All-Stars, Pontchartrain, Dennis Liber & Lex, Tommaso, Heidy P, and much more!

How long have you known JKriv how did you get connected on this new release?

I first met JKriv when I booked him at MotorCity Wine back in, I think, 2015. It turned out that we had a lot in common— we’re both bass players who became DJs later, we have similar taste in all sorts of music, and a very similar sense of humor.

In the case of Adaptation, J reached out to me with almost complete versions of the title track and “Total Pleasure”, thinking they’d be a good fit for the label. He’s been on a tear the last couple years, releasing on some seriously heavy labels, so I was super stoked to do another record with him. We were originally thinking a 7” cut at 33.3 RPM (which I really like to do on the label, they’re loud and cute!) But they’re such incredible songs that it seemed like a bigger project was necessary to do them justice. Those projects date back to 2012, so he dug up some more jams that he made on his MPC3000 back then, which rounded out the rest of the release. Rocksteady Disco always focuses on timeless music… this release is literally no exception!

Adaptation is the sound I think we could use as a culture right no and is a perfect encapsulation of the Rocksteady Disco format. The title track (and dub) are so affective and transcendent— every time we play it out it gets trainspotted, and people typically say something along the lines of “This is a really uplifting tune!” “Total Pleasure” encapsulates that Big Dumb Bassline sound— that track is such a lowkey banger. And both “Green St Lament” and “Vibetown” are so lush. My hope with Rocksteady Disco records are that DJs will play them out and punters will listen to them start to finish at home, without it feeling like they’re listening to a dance 12”. J nailed it with this one.

What other artists do you have your sights on for the label?

I just sent a crazy 7” from Glenn Echo & Daniel Meinecke in for production. The A-side is a brilliant cover of Sylvester & Patrick Cowley’s “I Need Somebody To Love Tonight” with vocals from Mark-Anthony Thomas. It’s backed with an original track called “Lucky 7s”, a bugged out midtempo cosmic chugger that kind of sounds like if Maurice Fulton, Daniele Baldelli, and Keith Emerson got locked in a studio together. They’ve both already niced up my dance floors this summer.

We like to do a special white label for folks that come to Detroit on Memorial Day Weekend for Movement Festival and our party Viva La Resistance too. Eddie Logix and I are going to have a split 12” for that one.

What else are you releasing in the coming months?

After JKriv’s Adaptation is the 10 Year Remaster of Topher Horn’s The Detroit Jazz Sessions Vol. 1. To this day I still find that release so extraordinary, and DMA Audio nailed it out of the park with the remaster. It simultaneously reminds me of Todd Terje, Lars Bartkuhn, and Ricardo Villalobos, except that Topher wasn’t listening to any of those artists when he made the record back in 2015. That one will be digital only on all DSPs and streaming, although you can still find the original pressing on Discogs for a reasonable price

What should we look out for on RSD in 2026?

Eddie Logix and I will be keeping busy with releases, much better merch, and parties! Save the date for Viva La Resistance XII 5/23 at MotorCity Wine.

Anything else you would like to tell us about RSD?

Just a big thank you to everyone who has copped our records, playlisted our tunes, come to our parties, and sent our music to friends. Rocksteady Disco is all about community and embodiment— getting off our phones to be around people in real life. We need that more and more.

Check out the latest release from Rocksteady Disco.