Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Scartocci.
Hi Brian, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I started singing the second I was born – sounded like screaming, but is there a difference? It was the sound of my experience. It still is. Sometimes it still sounds like screaming, but my experience has dipped and risen a whole lot in the intervening years and so there’s a little bit more to work with.
I was a kid, maybe three or four years old, and all I’d look forward to was listening to the Drifters or Elvis, Sam Cooke, the Righteous Brothers – all of those voices, all of those sounds. I grew up right outside of Trenton in New Jersey so we got the best stations out of Philly and everything they played, I was into. The feeling never left. I knew this was what I wanted for myself by the time I hit middle school. I don’t know that I was any good, but I know how it felt and that was good enough for me.
All that’s happened since then is a testament to the human spirit because this gig isn’t for the weak of heart. You’ve either got to be born with money or want it awfully bad. Where I’m at now, post-shutdown is as good as I’ve ever been. I work with the absolute finest musicians I ever have, I’m singing my songs and songs that I want to sing, and it’s making people happy.
There have been so many ups and downs, but like I’ve sung 1,000 times, “I’ve found my way, I know I’ll lose it again – life is that way, I’ll wear my crown by the end.” I’ve yet to be crowned, so it ain’t the end.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I almost hate to think about the road right now since it took so long to find myself back on it. It has not been smooth, not at all, but I do believe that all the tumbling around eventually smooths out an artist’s ego and resolve. I don’t think I’d be very good had the road been smooth, to be honest.
If a singer does it right, their audience can feel the truth in them. I’m having the time of my life onstage, performing..in the studio, recording, but it’s an exorcism of all the trouble it took to get up there and I think people can feel that. I can list off struggles one by one, but they’re not exclusive to me.
All of us have our own. A lot of them I’ve made for myself. If you still see me, if I’m still around if my presence is still felt then know that struggles weren’t enough to hold me down. I’m still getting mine in spite of all of them.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The thing that might be most beautiful about making music is that – no matter where a song comes from or what it means to me – it may bring somebody joy for a completely different reason.
It may save somebody who’s lost. It can motivate and inspire people, and change the whole course of their lives. It did for me. I love knowing that something I’ve helped create is out there and able to make somebody feel. I want that to get stronger. I want my songs to reach further and wider.
I want them to have a power that could someday make my great, great, great grandkids proud of where they came from. I’ll strive for that the rest of my days.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I don’t know how I feel about the concept of luck today. It feels like you make your own, good or bad. The wind will definitely blow you where it wants to, true, but perseverance beats luck almost every time.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate in a lot of ways in my life and in my career, but it always strikes when I’ve put myself in a position to be lucky. Bad luck? Maybe, it feels that way sometimes, but when the bad times are over and I’m back in my stride it doesn’t matter much.
I feel lucky every Monday at 10:30, but then it took a whole lot of playing to hit that jackpot. I think my best bet is to ignore luck altogether and keep on moving.
Contact Info:
- Email: booking@brianscartocci.com
- Website: brianscartocci.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/brianscartocci
- Facebook: facebook.com/brianscartocci
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrianScartocci
Image Credits
Kay Lavelle, Erica Grifaldo, Sean Mathis, Jack Mitchell, and Kim Yarbrough
