.jpg?w=94&crop=1:1)
In the Book of Rock, “No Regrets Only Greatness” is written in guitar with vocals that make a statement of intent, and it announces the second coming of Darryn Yates.
“It is just driving guitars,” said Darryn. “I love driving guitars and big, melodic choruses.”
“No Regrets” has plenty of both to hammer home its message:
I’ve got the soul, I’ve got to roll with the punches
Like I once read
I gotta give it all I got, it’s in my heart ’til the end
…
Let’s give that dream a chance
The first coming came when a young GenX Darryn formed a pop rock band called On Tracy Lane. The band opened for some national stars (Avril Lavigne, American Hi-Fi, Local H, Phantom Planet, and others) and got a rising Hallmark actress, Lacey Chabert (“Mean Girls” and “Party of 5”) to be in one of their videos.
“No Regrets Only Greatness” also got its start back then, when it was titled “Metal Edge Magazine.”
“I would sit at Walgreens, open up Metal Edge magazine and read all about my rock heroes. I tweaked the melodies, tweaked the lyrics and changed it into ‘No Regrets Only Greatness.’”
The dream of music began by accident, when he blew out his knee playing basketball as a high school sophomore. Before that, he says, he was “a total jock.”
Then there was this day: “I was at the lunch table with a bunch of musicians — I was always hanging out with the crazy artists — and they said, ‘Hey, Darryn. Since you’re not playing sports, you want to sing in our band?’”
And he thought, “A band? That’s crazy.”
But in his room that night: “It’s wallpapered in Kiss and Poison posters and all those ’80s rockers. And I couldn’t sleep. I kept staring at the posters. I’m like, ‘Maybe I should try it. Why not?’ So, the next day, I said, ‘Hey. I’m in, let’s go.’”
That first week with the band, they learned “a Dokken song, or a Poison song, or whatever.” Because’80s music is his music. Retro.
“As soon as we played our first show in that band in 10th grade, that was it. The music bug bit me, and I knew I had to go for it.”
Music has been his dream ever since. Except, OTL never got the big break.
He moved back to the St. Louis area, started a show on morning radio and another on local TV, got married and started a family. But when radio and TV didn’t go anywhere, he got into the corporate world. That turned out not to be his dream. He kept getting fired, ten times in two years, he says, and entered a dark place of depression, “borderline suicidal.”
Out of that, he pulled himself together, became a motivational speaker, podcaster and author, and started a one-on-one personal development program to help people recognize their dreams and go for them.
“The first time a client asked me, ‘Darryn, what’s your dream?’ it stopped me in my tracks. I’m like, ‘My dream is music! What am I doing?’ So, I kind of coached myself back to the music.”
He has three songs out, all three this year, and recently finished vocals on his next two.
Darryn said he and his producer, Kevin W. Gates, will keep recording new retro rockers until he has enough for an EP and, eventually, a full-length album.
“That’s the goal,” he said. “Build up a bunch of songs and release a full-length album.”
He spent months looking for the right producer, found him, and, once the next two songs are ready, he’s going to put a band together.
“I’m excited to take it to the stage. I’ve been offered a lot of acoustic things, but no acoustic. I want the full-on rock show, and once I can afford it, I want the explosions. I want a jacuzzi on the stage. I want the crazy back-up singers. I want people to come to a Darryn Yates show and think, ‘We’re not sure what's going to happen, but we got to see it.’ And it’s going to be rock, and it’s going to be a wall of guitars. Oh, man! I’m ready!”
He has adopted — or re-adopted — the mindset he coached.
“For so long,” he said, “I tried to play it safe and in the middle — I didn’t want to disrupt.”
But Darryn of the second coming says, “Man! Go disrupt. Make those waves. Figure out what your potential is and go for it. I feel like this is my destiny. How far it goes, we’ll see. But being in the game to take it as far as I can and help as many people as I can is a good feeling.
He says he is an ’80s rock guy, and he calls his genre retro rock/alt rock, but he doesn’t try to write any particular kind of music. What he feels is what he puts out.
“Most of the people I’ve heard back from are like, ‘Dude, it’s retro rock’ or ‘It’s alt rock.’ Well, I guess I had to wait years for my break until it became retro. So, I’m just riding with it.”
Ride with him, wherever it goes. Connect to Darryn Yates on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
