Rob (Robert De Leon) Grew up in the small town of Texas City, Tx. He was influenced vocally by Robert Plant, Lou Gramm, Steve Perry, and Paul Stanley. Rob also loved to sing as a very young man. Joining the school choir and the local church choirs simultaneously for many years, he enjoyed the instruction and singing in group settings. He has a very wide range of vocals and said he could sing the soprano parts and all of the transitions down to the bass. He attributes his talents to his mother and father. His mother had a prominent and well pitched voice and his father played the trumpet as well as his grandfather played the guitar.
Rob went to college at ITT Technical Institute in Phoenix Arizona and moved back to Texas to begin his career in IT for 20 years becoming a Wide Area Network Engineer. Rob taught himself the acoustic guitar in 6 months and then learned the bass in a few months (His first acoustic song was Plush by Stone Temple Pilots on guitar) and formed a band (Slap Jessi) and was out playing live performances within a year in Bay City, Tx. Slap Jessi played covers in the early 90s grunge era like Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and many others. Slap Jessi was an instant success due to song selection, age of the crowd, and party atmosphere in a country dominated town. “These people were starved of Rock N Roll” says Rob.
Rob got into writing original music in 1995 when he moved back to Phoenix, Az. with his Brother Felix De Leon. Felix gave him his first electric guitar a Charvel by Jackson. The first song written by Rob was a song called “Smile”. It was a pop/rock song that Felix later recorded on an album with a band called Counsel out of Texas, and it got radio play for a while. Rob wrote a hand full of songs and they played the local scene in Phoenix as Adams Walk. The main venue they played was The Mason Jar on Indian School rd. They opened for bands like Flock of Seagulls, Sacred Reich, and Rob Halford.
In late 2019 now married and living in Colorado, Rob and Felix went into the Audio Alive Studios in 2020 with Mike BBQ in Spring, Texas and recorded a 10 song album called Criticize. The title track Criticize displays not only his influences but his writing and vocal abilities. Rob wrote all of the music and lyrics, recorded rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar, lead vocals, backup vocals, and Felix played drums on all of the tracks. Felix also had a vocal part in the song The Enemy.
The Criticize album was released January 31st 2021. Rob says this album has something for everyone. It’s a very diverse album in tempo, topic, and mood. Rob is not sure what to expect but he is excited to finally get his music out to the world. He already has the songs lined up for the next album (Broken) and believes it will be comparable to Criticize.