For years, Danny Kanetop has woken up every morning, gotten dressed, had a bite to eat, kissed his wife and kids and headed off to a garage in LA, often not coming out until long after the sun had set.
For Danny, though, this garage isn't just a garage.
It's a bit of a creative temple.
An innovative workshop where he spends his days handcrafting some of the most breathtakingly beautiful and sought after arch top jazz, hollow body electric guitars on the planet.
He literally just loses time there.
But it hasn't always been this way.
Danny grew up in Chicago, started taking guitar lessons when he was seven, and fell in love with everything about the instrument.
But it was an experience with his dad, an architect, that changed everything.
When he was 14, Danny went to the library, found books on guitar building, ran home and turned the basement closet into a small workshop.
That was where, with the help of his dad, he made his first guitar tragically.
And suddenly, Danny's dad passed shortly after.
But this shared experience led to a passion that became Danny's life work, and over time, also became a way for Danny to keep spending time with his dad a little bit every day in that garage together.
In today's conversation, we explore Danny's moving journey.
The struggles, the awakenings, failures, innovations and relentless commitment to artistry, to expression, to service and growth that has fueled his story.
So excited to share it with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is a good life project.
I want to paint the scene a little bit.
This is a little bit different than our normal conversations, which generally happen in our studio in New York City.
This is part of what we're calling the LA sessions.
So to our friendly listeners, we are right now in the guitar building workshop of Danny Kaintop.