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ON THE RISE
From the opening electric guitar strum of “No Regrets Only Greatness,” one thing is clear: this song is here to motivate. With big upbeat drums and major key pop punk chords, the new single by Darryn Yates will get your body moving, while its message will have you nodding your head.
“No Regrets Only Greatness” is an anthem for everyone who knows it isn’t too late to follow your dreams. As Yates sings, with a tone reminiscent of gen-X icons like Bon Jovi or the Gin Blossoms, “I didn’t come this far just to give up now… There’s no regrets, only greatness.”
Yates’s optimism has been hard won. Two decades ago, he was a young rocker hustling to make it in the LA and Nashville music scenes. The big break didn’t come, and soon Yates moved on. A relocation to St. Louis, marriage, and three kids, and a music career was all but behind him.
But the rebellious spirit of rock & roll lived on in Darryn Yates — so much that he kept on getting fired from job after job. He hit rock bottom, struggling with depression and a feeling that there was no way forward.
Yates didn’t give up. Instead, he rebuilt his life through coaching others. In helping people with personal growth, he applied those lessons to himself, leading him back to music.
“I realized I could either stay on the dark path or fight my way back. Once I chose the fight, the music came rushing back like it had been waiting for me all along,” Yates says.
Now Yates is making up for lost time. Three singles in 2025 have quickly led to more than 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. With more ideas flowing, Yates is just getting started.
Yates’s chief collaborator on these tracks is producer Kevin W. Gates of Reach Audio in Springfield, Missouri. Gates, a specialist in the sound of 90s bands like Gin Blossoms and Barenaked Ladies, has proved an ideal partner for Yates’s retro rock vision. Together they are crafting song after song of anthemic hooks, driving guitars, and, of course, choruses ready for concertgoing crowds to scream at the top of their lungs.
As a Generation X father of three rebooting a music dream after so many years, Yates has his doubters. But he sees them as fuel. He says, “Every time someone doubts me or writes me off, that’s when I do my best work. The hate and the doubt are fuel. I want to see their jaws drop when they realize I’m not stopping. That’s what ‘No Regrets Only Greatness’ is all about.”
“No Regrets Only Greatness” is available now on all streaming platforms. More music will follow soon. Upcoming releases include a baseball-inspired rocker, “Swing for the Fences,” and an ode to all “the ones counted out,” titled “Freaks Rebels Weirdos.”
Follow Darryn Yates at the links below. Get motivated to give your dream a chance:
Official Website
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
YouTube
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
ON THE RISE
As they prepare to unveil their fourth album, ‘Joy In Short Moments’, The Snuts have spoken with NME about how stepping away from touring gave them the chance to reflect on some of life’s biggest challenges and bring greater attention to mental health.
Their first album since 2024’s upbeat ‘Millenials’ follows a rare break from the road over the past year. During that time, frontman Jack Cochrane also experienced a major change in his personal life as he welcomed his first child.
Along with getting used to fatherhood, the singer began thinking about deeper questions that the demanding touring lifestyle had previously left little room to consider. His reflections on growing up, dealing with loss and understanding what success really means gradually found their way into his writing, eventually shaping the direction of the band's more personal new album.
Fans were first introduced to the album earlier this year through ‘Summer Rain’, an emotional track exploring postnatal depression and the “fear of the future”. They later returned during the summer with the more hopeful ‘Defibrillator’, encouraging listeners to move beyond negative thoughts about themselves and find comfort in connecting with other people.
Speaking to NME about the creative shift behind their fourth record, Cochrane explained: “By taking a conscious break from life on the road and making records, my world opened up to let so much more of the real world in,” he said. “For the first time I was living then writing, not writing while trying to live.”
He also described how the change helped the band approach recording differently, adding: “It unlocked a new process that the band had been crying out for,” he continued. “The studio sessions were set up to allow us to be friends and not colleagues. Distraction and external pressures were completely eradicated from the recording environment, allowing us to trust our gut and have the conversations we needed to as humans.”
In the remainder of the interview, Cochrane also discusses his new role as an ambassador for mental health charity CALM and talks about starting a podcast designed to encourage more artists to speak honestly about their personal struggles.
NME: Hi Jack, congratulations on the new album. You’ve said that this record was about addressing the topics that you previously tried to hide from. What kinds of questions did you find yourself confronting?
Jack Cochrane: “I would say mainly, ‘What do I need to be happy?’… Eeek! It’s a big one I know, but having set out with the title ‘Joy In Short Moments’, I was able to spend my time searching for them and allow joy to do what joy does: compound and relieve the stresses of the modern world.”
That’s not the easiest question to find yourself confronting. Did you manage to find any answers along the way?
“Ultimately yes. With the completion of this record I was able to find a much happier healthier version of myself I had been so long yearning for.”
The album sees you deal with new themes, but musically we also see you return to the guitar-led sound from your early days. Did revisiting those roots make you notice how much has changed since you were starting out?
“For sure. We were able to remove any snobbery from the process. We’re no longer new kids on the block and with that came a new found ability to be really honest about the kind of noises we wanted to make and the type of artists that had originally inspired us.”
This album goes hand in hand with you becoming an ambassador for CALM and launching your own podcast dedicated to checking in with fellow artists. Why was it important for you to get involved in the conversation about mental health?
“I think conversations and role models are absolutely essential for young people. I wanted to have more and do my best to be one. Every song on this record was born out of unfiltered, open and honest conversation.”
From talking to people on your podcast, including Louis Tomlinson, and using your platform to open up this dialogue, is there anything interesting that you’ve noticed?
“I think that more often than not, young men are finding it difficult to combat the struggles they are facing in this modern world. To me it feels like there are less and less spaces and opportunities to have meaningful, healing conversations…”
Having had those conversations yourself and explored them on the album, it must be somewhat daunting to now put it out into the world. Is there something that you hope people take from it?
“I’d like people to feel less alone after hearing the record and the themes intertwined with it. I think music is more than just heartbreak and I hoped in the writing of this record I would be able to highlight some more universally relevant topics.”
You have your headline tour coming up next month. What can we expect from the shows?
“Big smiles and big sound all round! It will be the most self assured Snuts tour to date.”
‘Life In Short Moments’ is out now Happy Artist Records in partnership with Virgin Music Group. Their UK and Ireland tour kicks off next month with an opening night in Dundee. Visit here for tickets and check out a list of tour dates below.
NOVEMBER 2026
19 – Dundee, Livehouse
20 – Aberdeen, Beach Ballroom
21 – Edinburgh, Corn Exchange
23 – Dunfermline, Alhambra Theatre
24 – Newcastle, O2 City Hall
26 – Sheffield, Octagon Centre
27 – Nottingham, Rock City
29 – Norwich, UEA
30 – Hull, City Hall
DECEMBER 2026
1 – Bristol, Prospect Hall
3 – Leeds, O2 Academy
4 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
8 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
9 – Portsmouth, Guildhall
10 – London, O2 Academy Brixton
JANUARY 2027
26 – Belfast, Limelight
27 – Galway, Róisín Dubh
28 – Dublin, Academy
