1980s

Yates interest in music began with him studying clarinet and saxophone. He eventually made a switch to guitar, focusing on classical/steel string acoustic styles, and then recording his first album, guitar-centric "Hexstrings", a collection of traditional and modern instrumentals in 1984. Following "Hexstrings" Yates co-founded The Ibanez Brothers, a collaboration with vocalist/guitarist Jose Hernandez-Juviel.

1990s

Switching to bass guitar, Yates and Hernandez-Juviel were joined by violinist Carvel Bass forming the group Body Acoustic. (Bass was later replaced by John Blum on electric guitar.) He then joined Sawtooth Canyon (Jennifer Mandel: vocals, David Zableckis: vocals and acoustic guitar).

Both Body Acoustic and Sawtooth Canyon played a mixture of folk and acoustic rock. A highlight of his time in Sawtooth was when they headlined the Watermelon Works Music Festival in Pasadena, California.

During this same period, he also led the jazz adjacent trio, Pale Fire (Bob Margulies: Clarinet, Helen Margulies: Piano). Yates wrote all the arrangements for the group which played jazz standards as well as jazz adaptations of classic and progressive rock.

Following these projects Yates relocated from Los Angeles to Southern Oregon where he formed a folk duo with singer Kate Marshall. He also produced and co-wrote the single "Blue Lights" with singer-songwriter Nyah in 1998.

2000s

In 2005 after moving back to L.A. he produced and co-wrote the single "What's The Story On This Guy?" with singer-songwriter/guitarist Tom Zachary.

In 2007 Yates engineered a cover of the Lane & Wood song "Ooh La La" as performed by G. DaPonte. This track was used in the ABC series "Men In Trees".

Also in 2007 he formed the group Smooth Citizen with singer Marriah Iobst. They released an album, "Shadows of the Fading Light" with ten tracks ranging from folk to blues to jazz, jazz-rock, and prog-rock. Yates played all the instruments on the album with the exception of a clarinet solo by Bob Margulies (of Pale Fire).

The next year Yates put a band together to play the material live. In addition to Iobst on vocals and Yates on guitar the band featured Chris Swanson on violin, Andy Allen on string bass, and Matt Price on drums. This lineup played gigs in various venues in the L.A. area including an enthusiastic audience of several hundred at Passive Arts Studio.

2010s

In 2012 Yates released his second solo project, "Do Your Thing - A Tribute to the Film Music of Isaac Hayes". Yates played guitar, electric piano, bass guitar, drums, melodica, and vocals.

The rest of the decade was taken up with the writing and recording of "Dragonfly Odyssey".