Meet Big Yard: an energetic trio of seasoned and versatile musicians. Consisting of two producers, one songwriter, and a plethora of creative ideas, Big Yard has cooked up something new for us recently.
One part blues-jam band, another part Buble, and maybe even a pinch of gospel, the group’s single “Happy Day” is a veritable ray of jazzy-poppy-sonic-sunshine. The tune will transport you to a time once-passed with its peppy, vintage-vibing feel.
The release is self-described as being an “Uptempo dance song with a positive vibe, big band horn, and catchy vocals”- and we’d certainly have to agree!
It all begins with velvety ooo’s, a bold bari sax statement, and bright snare hits. As the song swells into existence, it becomes catchier and catchier. The tasteful percussion accents on the second beat give rise to a soulful groove.
“Happy Day” has lyrics that are as contagious as the melding collection of sounds, with the first line beginning with playful curiosity “A new day, another mystery, yesterday goes down in history”.
From the synced vocal harmonies and their contrasting timbres to the way horns call and respond, the song continually spreads out like roots… It’s a plant growing vigorously in the sunshine, enmeshed in the richest of peat mosses.
Eventually, the counter-melodies and moving lines combine with the horn hits to create an impenetrable wall. We’re reminded a bit of Phil Spector because of the seamlessness of the mix.
The song ends with the mi, the third note of the scale front and center, which leaves us feeling a bit unresolved-but we’re all still smiling about it.
Big Yard knows better than most- you don’t wait to have a good day, you make one.
Check out our other features with Big Yard HERE.
Q&A
What inspired you guys to write such a positive tune?
Great to hear back from all of you at Jammerzine. Many thanks for your support.
I love this question because it’s what I try to live by. Why not think my way into a Happy Day when the chips are down or enjoy a Happy Day when it’s all going well. Either way it’s just a state of mind, isn’t it.
Why is the featured female vocalist in this one? What was it like working with her?
You may be referring to Nancy ‘WoohHoohHooh’ Bagley, as I like to call her. ButHappy Day actually features a female ensemble of BG vocalists and it was blast working with them all.
Happy Day was the first track we started with for the BGV and this ensemble actually became the ensemble we used for all the female BGV tracks on the 54th St EP. Arron Howard did a brilliant job producing all the BG vocals.
It started with a call to Rhonda Street, a local Phoenix artist who introduced us to Victoria Noreide, both excellent vocalists. I also reached out to Stephanie Chacon (sister of Alex Chacon, our main producer for the EP), who sings like an angel and is featured on the track ‘Give it Away’ coming out later the summer.
To blend out the voices we brought in Nancy (aka WoohHoohHooh), a popular local artist/vocalist and musician with a very sweet vocal sound. She actually was the one who came up with the idea to add the ‘WoohHoohHooh’ on the outro that we all loved and that vibe truly set in motion the rest of the BGV tracking we did on the other songs.
A music video of doing random acts of kindness would be so awesome to do with this track! Did you partake in any RAOK while in the writing or recording process?
Random Acts of Kindness, I love that question in regard to the recording process. My philosophy is to surround myself with the most talented people I can find with my songs, empower them to do what they do best and stay out of their way. I find humility in this process and by being grateful it’s easy to find random acts of kindness along the way to share. Creating, recording, releasing and marketing music are arduous tasks and take a team of people. I need to trust them and make sure they are appreciated, not just paid..
To the video, when we decided to use a lyric video for Happy Day, the original idea was to have an animated Stick Man with a giant Happy Face head walking around following the story of the lyrics, blowing kisses, throwing out flowers and peace signs… you know all that fun and campy stuff you can pull off in an animated video but we ran into some technical impasses with being able to generate the animation with the time we had. However our lyric video creator Alfie Whales, with Liberty Music/Aberration Media who produced the State Of Mind video for us did a brilliant job with Happy Day by capturing the vibe of the song. I think it flows well and puts a smile on faces, at least it did mine.
What is the key to getting that vintage wall-of-sound type feeling in music production?
Great question. For Big Yard and the 54th St EP this is what Arron Howard, (a pop producer) who mixed all of our tracks and me, a classic (vintage is fair to say) songwriter, set out to do. It’s a process that involves multi tracking instruments and vocals, finding points in the song where we can take the listener out of what they might expect to hear to a larger wider place sonically without it being so over saturated you can’t hear the instrument tracks in the song. It’s a tricky process and takes time but worth it.
Guys like Jeff Lynn with Electric Light Orchestra, Phil Spector who actually invented the so-called Wall of Sound technique of multi tracking, Mutt Lang, David Foster, George Martin all do this masterfully well. If you are an inspired songwriter or producer, study these guys.
What do you mean by blessing somebody in your way?
To be honest it was a way to get a rhyme in for the word ‘Day’ (just saying) but in terms of what it means to me we all, (at least for me) try to find a way to bless others in one way way or another. For me it starts in the morning with my wife, Yvonne. Maybe it’s a simple good morning, or a smile with a gentle kiss on her shoulder as she lays asleep or coming home with a surprise like dinner plans, flowers or good news. To friends and family it’s just checking in with a text or a call. To a stranger standing in line or someone stuck at a job they hate, it can be as mundane as a heartfelt ‘Hello’ or having a ‘Great Day’. It’s the little things I’ve found that make a huge difference to people. Love is a gift we receive and without giving it away it’s impossible to keep. Right?
What genre will your next single incorporate?
Thanks. So excited about this next release. It’s a song I titled ‘Melody’. I co-wrote it with the great Chuck Hall, a renowned blues legend living here in Carefree, Arizona. It’s a ‘songwriters love song to a song’. It has a classic eight bar rhythm and blues progression that takes the classic 1-4-5 turn around and puts a twist on it with a minor progression in the bridge. It has a driving beat, a smoking horn section arrangement with a world class slide guitar solo by Chuck that, in my opinion, knocks it out of the park and…. by the way he did it in one take. Melody drops July 11. We hope you enjoy it.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/bigyardlive
https://www.instagram.com/bigyardnation/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4FKPTZotGinVRRRehiYQhe
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEdYYK8lX89cqbzNfVJQ1pw
