David Barbe

Athens, GA-based musician David Barbe—whose surname is pronounced exactly like the toy—had already compiled an extensive and eclectic resume by the time he issued his first solo album, Comet of the Season, during November 2001. His most prominent earlier affiliation was as a member of Bob Mould’s group Sugar throughout the middle of the 1990s. Before that association he had fronted the seminal Athens punk outfit Mercyland and also led the band Buzz Hungry. Beginning in 1997, however, Barbe shifted focus to the production side of the studio, eventually working as engineer and producer for Son Volt, Kelly Hogan, Harvey Milk, and Indigo Girl Amy Ray inside his own Chase Park Transduction facility.

Raised in Atlanta, Barbe absorbed his earliest musical ideas from parents who performed as big-band musicians and session players. During his teenage years he relocated to Athens to enroll at the University of Georgia, and it was there that he joined Mercyland in 1985. When the band dissolved in 1991, Barbe was delivering goods for a living while caring for his wife and infant child. Two offers soon altered his trajectory: local producer and engineer John Keane proposed to train him in recording techniques, and Bob Mould invited him into Sugar. Barbe exited Sugar in 1995 so he could devote more attention to his family, after which engineering became his central occupation. His 2001 debut, Comet of the Season, was assembled piecemeal across three years and featured an assortment of Athens players. The resulting record moves freely among psychedelia, indie pop, twang, and blues-inflected passages.