Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Gates.
Hi Dan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Canton. I went to Glen Oak high school and graduated in 1989. During my senior year, I bought my first guitar and fell in love with playing. I was a fan of 80’s thrash metal, and that along with a friend of mine showing me his guitar made me want to play. After graduating, my plan was to go to college. That ended up not happening. I was working at a grocery store, and when I was 19 got a job doing various things. We did some landscaping, parking lot striping, parking lot sweeping just to mention a few. During this time, I was playing music and doing some traveling around the country playing. In 1998 my boss helped me to start my own lawn care business. I still have the business, and it’s still my job today. The business started with myself and one employee. Over time I got more work and hired more people. After being in business for around ten years I had more work and more employees than I had in the past. Over the next few years, I decided that I enjoyed running the business more with fewer people involved. Good help can be hard to find. So, I scaled things back a bit, and I definitely enjoyed it more with less stress. I played music and played in bands during those years, and I continue to play today. Lawn care and Landscaping provides an income but music is what I really love. I am still playing music and hope to do even more traveling to play music over the next several years.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Business can be very difficult at times. Finding good help can be very difficult. Managing money, making sure the bills, employees, and equipment costs are paid. Also making sure there is enough work to make money is an ongoing thing. But being my own boss can definitely have its advantages also. Musically I have always just pushed forward. Finding like-minded people is definitely a challenge, but I’ve been very lucky to always have people to play with. I’ve played some amazing shows, and I’ve also played for almost no one. So, it’s a bit of a rollercoaster at times. But I love it, and I’m not stopping anytime soon.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a heavy metal musician. I discovered heavy metal in the mid-’80s and fell in love with it. I love the energy of Metal. I have been playing guitar for about 33 years. I have traveled the country playing and also recorded and released a bunch of music. Music has taken me to places I’ve never been and given me some really great experiences. I love playing with other people and playing live, but I also put a lot of time and energy into making music and making it available on YouTube and social media. In recent years I have put more time into promoting my guitar playing and my own music. I’m trying to create a larger audience for myself and promote my bands to that audience.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I think most of my customers would be surprised to learn about my music. I play extreme metal. They see me doing work but most probably have no idea about this other thing I have going on. Although I have had a few people tell me they’ve seen me on Facebook. So, they got a taste of my metal!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dangatesmetal.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/dangatesguitar?igshid=YzAyZWRlMzg=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dangatesmetal
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dangatesmetal?s=21&t=i9RuZYzUQ2QVKkTiV9FD4w
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/DanGatesMetal
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Dangates
