This is a short profile I wrote on David Barbe while I was at the University of Georgia.  There are a few gaps in the story; I could’ve done a better job explaining what goes into mastering an album and detailing his experiences in the band Sugar (as one of my professors pointed out).  Generally wish the story had less of a learning curve.  Would’ve been nice to dig a little deeper into lo-fi and “bedroom producers.”  Qualifiers aside, I was pleased with how it turned out at the time.

An ornate black grand piano sits inside the front door of Chase Park Transduction.  It is packed into the back left corner of a poorly lit space smaller than a dorm room.

The front door itself is inauspicious.  Rod-iron bars caked with black paint protect a glass window almost opaque with smudges and grime.  Sandwiched in the middle of a rectangular brick office building in south Athens, it does not stand out above the eight or nine surrounding doors.  The door is so average in size that it is a small miracle a piano so large came through it.

Once David Barbe (last name pronounced like every little girl’s plastic best friend) finishes teaching classes and holding office hours on campus, he drives ten minutes to this door in his black Toyota Tacoma.  His office at the studio is adjacent to the cramped front room.  Today, he is mastering an album from Bo Bedingfield, lead singer of a band called the Wydelles.

“The studio business is interesting because studios are going out of business,” says Barbe.  “People make records at home now.  Everybody thinks they’re a record producer.  But we always stay busy.”

It has been a long week; Barbe has been bothered by a cold for most of it.  He joked about being sick in one of his classes.  “Right now is my second favorite time of the day,” he said as the Caldwell Hall classroom quieted, ready for lecture to begin.  “My favorite time is when the Nyquil kicks in.”

Barbe became the permanent Director of the Music Business Program at the University of Georgia in April.  The program got started in 2006, and he was named the interim director in summer 2010.

“At first it seemed like the craziest thing in the world,” he says of the opportunity, one eye still fixed on an Apple computer monitor.  “But the more and more I thought about it, the more attractive it became.  Lots of business is done today in a way that reflects how only indie rock business used to be done.  That kind of business is something I know all about.”

The job should not have seemed so foreign.  Virtually everyone who knows Barbe says that his patience and listening skills are his greatest assets.  Drew Vandenberg, the new Studio Manager at Chase Park since Barbe took his new job, has worked under him for ten years.  Vandenberg decided when he was 14 years old that he wanted to be a recording engineer.  By age 16, he was an intern at the studio.

“He can really relate to all types of people,” he said.  “Barbe taught me how not to get frustrated.  He also taught me etiquette and practicality in the studio.”

Wyatt Pless is a student in Barbe’s class on the fundamentals of music business, as well as the local music director at WUOG and a member of the band Figboots.  Thanks to Barbe, he is interning with the head sound engineer at the 40-Watt Club this semester.

“He’s pretty engaging,” said Pless of Barbe in the WUOG studio after class.  “He’s really interested in what he’s talking about.  I think he really wants us to learn and be successful.”

But before he became the co-owner of a recording studio and director of a burgeoning business program, Barbe was in a few acclaimed bands of his own.  After graduating from UGA with a journalism degree, he focused on Mercyland.  The band played together from 1985-1991, with Barbe acting as bassist, co-lead singer and main songwriter.  Shortly after they disbanded, another opportunity presented itself.  Bob Mould, leader of the legendary alternative punk trio Husker Du, formed a band called Sugar.  He asked Barbe to be a part of it.

“It was unusual because we were a big deal the moment we played our first show,” says Barbe.  That show was at the 40-Watt on February 20, 1992.  Copper Blue, the band’s first record, was named album of the year by England’s New Musical Express.  “It was one sold out house after another the whole time we were in a band together,” he says.

Barbe went from making hit records to producing them.  In 1997, he paired with Andy LeMaster, another local music legend, to build Chase Park.  It is more than a tiny room cramped with a grand piano now: there are two studios, two high-ceilinged, garage-like open spaces, and close to fifteen employees, interns included.

He has been a part of every Drive-By Truckers record, and not just as a producer and engineer.  Barbe played on many of their albums and performed with the band on The Late Show with David Letterman.

“When I say he saved our band during the completion of Southern Rock Opera in the spring of 2001, it is not an overstatement,” said lead singer Patterson Hood in an email interview.  “He has probably saved our band several times since then.  He is a true friend, trusted confident and excellent coach.  I honestly feel like Drive-by Truckers has completed each album as a better band.  I give Barbe much credit for that.”

Barbe will celebrate his 48^th birthday on September 30^th.  He has three children and a wife of almost 23 years.  His days start at 6:30 a.m. and usually end around midnight, depending on if he sees a show.  The sickness has kept him away from those lately.  His last one was at Farm 255, where he watched his son’s band, Velocirapture, open for one of Pless’s unnamed side projects.

The long hours do not bother him.  They are necessary.  “It’s really a people business,” he says.

After he reaches a stopping point in his work, Barbe walks over to the piano and sits at the wooden bench.  The setting sun spills through the bars outside the window, creating a checkerboard silhouette across his face and the back wall.  Barbe plays a few soft chords and waits for his next client.