Cave Creek resident Darryl Scotti believes that if you’ve been successful — especially in an often cutthroat industry like the music business — it’s up to you to pay that success forward and help others rise through the ranks.
With five decades of experience in the music industry as a musician, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, business owner and more, he and his team are setting the stage for other talented artists to rise through the ranks and have their music heard through Big Yard Nation, a new collaborative and record label based out of Cave Creek.
Scotti explained that Big Yard Nation was founded in partnership with local talents Alex Chacon and Aaron Howard as a collaborative and record label to empower musicians, singers, songwriters, recording artists and record producers.
“Our mission is to amplify a community dedicated to creating original music by offering a platform they may otherwise not have,” he said. “To be able to help artists develop their own music from the ground up and provide the support they need is our passion.”
With an artist-first mentality, Big Yard Nation goes on the journey with emerging artists from the first creative idea and professionally produced track to the marketing, publishing, playlisting, radio, press and social media needed to get artists heard, according to Scotti.
“When the pandemic shut down and grounded everything to a halt, I started writing songs as a way to deal with what was thrown at society. I started getting together with a friend of mine and we started recording with no sense of trying to write for radio, TV or film — just create,” Scotti said.
“Soon we had 12 to 15 new songs and we decided to find the other players to complete the sounds we were hearing in our heads and writing. We wanted a unit of working musicians that feel the need to carve out a portion of their busy performance schedules to express themselves toward original music — players that have a passion for creating compositions and saying, ‘I did this.’”
From this collaboration, Big Yard Nation was born. The record label represents multiple artists including Big Yard (not to be confused with Big Yard Nation) that features Darryl Scotti with musicians and producers Alex Chacon and Aaron Howard who will debut their new EP “54th St.” early this year.
In addition to Scotti, Howard and Chacon are also represented by the label as individual artists. Other emerging artists under the Big Yard Nation umbrella include Bill Dutcher and Chuck Hall. Musician and songwriter Stephanie Chacon has also collaborated with the growing lists of songwriters, musicians and producers as well.
“We’ve used a lot of the talented musicians we have met locally on this journey and are looking forward to continued collaborations in 2024 as we launch both Big Yard Nation the music label and Big Yard’s record ‘54th St.,’” Scotti said.
Scotti describes “54th St.” as “a highly diverse EP that brings a refreshing blend of pleasing ear candy with driving beats, catchy melodies and stylized lyrical phrasing.” The music is reminiscent of classic rock, pop and country, and the first track “Proof” debuts soon with more tracks to come after that.
To help spread the word, Big Yard Nation signed with major marketing and public relations company Liberty Music PR. The collaboration is also active on social media and YouTube with regular interviews and insights from the artists.
While he launches Big Yard Nation off the ground, Scotti noted that the label and the band are labors of love meant to push other artists forward.
“We want to build an audience here in Arizona, nationally and around the world for all key players involved in this project,” he said. “There are so many talented artists here and we want to help them rise through the ranks because today’s music industry is tough — it’s a mix of talent, luck and opportunity.”
Reflecting on what he hopes the future brings for Big Yard Nation, Scotti said he hopes the collaborative is a successful gateway for artists to have their music heard.
“Songwriters need to be taken care of, musicians need to learn and grow and collaborate,” he said. “I’ve had an amazing career and through Big Yard Nation I want to create something for others to have the same chance that I’ve had. We hope locals join us on this amazing journey in 2024.”
To learn more about Big Yard Nation and their musicians and projects, visit bigyardnation.com.