David Daw was born in Bracebridge, ON - the first of the 4 children of Rev. William and Joyce Daw, pastors in the Free Methodist Church.
As a pastor's son, Dave moved from Bracebridege to Holt, then to Napanee and on to Shawville Quebec. From Quebec Dave's family moved to Warkworth ON before finally settling in Westport, ON in the fall of 1966 - the same year Dave entered grade 8. This was also the first year that Dave and his brother Frank, along with their cousin Ken began to make regular personal appearances as a gospel singing group; naming their group the Proverbs the following year.
Following elementary school, Dave attended Rideau District High School in Elgin, ON and upon graduation entered Loyalist College in Belleville, ON to study Communications Studio Techniques, graduating with honours in 1975.
Throughout high school and college, the Proverbs toured up to 200 dates per year on weekends and school breaks and Dave got his drivers license within a few days of turning 16 and drove over 70,000 miles before his 17th birthday as the Proverbs first driver (since Frank and Ken were younger and didn't get licenses until about 2 years later)
As a child, Dave took both piano and vocal lessons while living in Quebec, then joined a marching band and played trombone in grade 6 and 7 when his family moved to Warkworth, ON. Although there was no official music program in Dave's high school, his grade 9 home-room teacher started an informal after-school guitar class and Dave quickly became obsessed with playing guitar.
In the earliest years of the Proverbs, Dave sang and played guitar, but switched to drums in his last year of high school and remained group drummer until 1979 when he switched to bass guitar (at the time his brother Frank left the group)
Dave graduated from Loyalist College in 1973 and met his future wife Kathy Johnston at a concert the next year when both the Proverbs and Kathy's group, the Johnston Singers performed in a concert together in Pembroke, ON.
In 1974 Dave began Summit Sound with a friend and partner Alan McEwen. Alan was also a strong supporter of the Proverbs and loaned the group the funds to record their first 2 albums as well as serving as chairman of the Proverbs board for many years.
Dave and Kathy Daw were married in 1979 and have 4 children: Jeremy, Justin, Angela and Natasha. They operate their recording and custom music production company summitsound.com during the week and work in the music ministry of the Proverbs on weekends.
Dave enjoys all kinds of music and singing with the Proverbs, as well as the opportunity to assist hundreds of artists with their recording and album production through Summit Sound. With his family business and music ministry there is really very little time for hobbies, but Dave is a Apple/Mac computer devotee with more than a dozen Mac computers in his business and home (and no PC's).
Dave also enjoys building things and designed and built his own home and recording studio as well as 2 Proverbs motor homes and the Proverbs current tour bus interior.
Dave enjoys working everyday alongside his wife Kathy in their business Summit Sound Inc., as well as singing together in the Proverbs with Kathy and their youngest daughter Natasha.
Dave is the only original member of the Proverbs still involved in the group, and he celebrated 50 years as it's leader in 2017.
You can find Dave on Facebook, so feel free to contact him there, or by email via our contact page.