Matthew Gates

Bio:

Matt was born 07/07/77 in a town in rural Indiana. Growing up, he would constantly see his mother's dusty old guitar sitting in the corner, but nobody ever played it. Apparently, Matt's mom had just started taking lessons when she got pregnant with him and soon lost her lap and ability to keep practicing and never picked up the guitar again, even after he was born. At the age of 17 Matt decided he wanted to learn guitar...so he could meet girls. Well, he got it half right anyway. He started taking lessons, but after a year or so, he stopped taking them as he wasn't learning what he wanted to learn (Bleh, who would want to learn how to play Beatles tunes and Ventures surf guitar solos?) and so he struck out on his own, picking up bits and pieces of "bitchin'" music from the likes of Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Bush and Creed. After a few years he started playing for some of his friends and they thought he was really good although truth be told, they thought he was good because none of them could play any instruments at all and wouldn't know good playing from mediocre if it slapped them in the face with a giant fish. After about 5 years of playing mediocre guitar, Matt decided to try his hand at songwriting. He took to it right away and wrote a ton of god awful songs that he thought were the bomb diggity...until he actually started playing open mics around his home town of Fort Wayne, Indiana, on a dare, in 2000 and heard what real songwriters were doing. Suitably chastened, Matt worked to hone his songwriting and eventually his songs started getting better and better until one day even he (who became his own worst critic after hearing his early songs in comparison with other's tunage) could admit that hey, maybe he had some talent after all. During all of this, Matt was discovering that he had a pretty decent singing voice as well, which was a complete shock to him as the only singing he had done up until he broke out as a songwriter (he wasn't even seriously thinking of putting the words "singer" with a "/" following it in front of the word "songwriter" at this point) was in a couple of church and school choirs and of course belting out Elvis Presley songs in the shower every morning. Apparently, all that practice, unbeknownst to him, paid off and once he discovered the actual confidence to sing solo in front of people, he was off to the races...to feed his addiction to "playing the ponies" with the extra money he was making as a "professional" musician. In 2002, Matt won a Whatzup Whammy for the Best New Solo Performer 2001. Whatzup is a regional Northeast Indiana entertainment weekly, ie., nobody outside of the Fort Wayne area has ever heard of it. It was still a good win though as the fans voted on the winner. Also in 2002, Matt formed a band called Edmund's Folly. After a rough start EF finally got off the ground and started performing in early 2003. After a year of performing EF was starting to make a name for itself and had even recorded an EP when circumstances dictated that Edmund's Folly break up in early 2004. (The triangle player [trianglist?] was bogarting all of the hookers and blow and leaving none for the rest of the band.) After everyone parted ways on mostly amicable terms (except for the triangle player who OD-d, oddly enough, on Cialis and Mentos), Matt took a year long hiatus from playing out to work on his songwriting (AKA drink heavily) and then re-entered the performance arena...as a circus geek. Not the kind of geek that bites the heads off of live chickens mind you, but the kind that programs dirty pictures into your TI-82 Graphing Calculator. Matt has since relocated to Nashville, TN in an attempt to further his music career (he just wasn't cut out to be a carny)...and to meet all those girls that are into singer/songwriters that he keeps hearing about, but has yet to see in person. ..
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Member Since:

March 18, 2006

Members:

Matthew Gates on vocals and rhythm guitars along with a host of people on the various recordings too numerous to mention.

Influences:

Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Caedmon's Call, Ryan Adams, early Counting Crows, etc.

Sounds Like:

That song that you really like, but can't remember who it's by. Here are some videos for your visual and auditory pleasure... First up we have my song "Long Goodbyes" which a love song for my friends and family back home that I wrote when I moved down to Nashville a year and a half ago. Featuring my good friend and fellow Nashvillain Michael Deppisch on backing guitar and vocals. "All That I Know", is about the emptiness that comes to a person when one replaces substance with excess. Featuring Michael Deppisch on backing guitar and vocals. Lastly, we have a cover of the song "Somewhere North" by one of the main inspirations I had to become a songwriter, Derek Webb. Featuring Sunny Taylor on backing vocals.