Meet David Barrington-Brown | Artisan

We had the good fortune of connecting with David Barrington-Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I started working with wood at my father’s workshop, when I was 8 years old. He was a designer and inventor, as well as being an internationally renowned photographer. (Google Antony Barrington-Brown) He found it quicker to make prototypes for his inventions, than try to explain to a more skilled craftsman why he wanted it to be built in a manner that was counterintuitive, yet solved a design element. He was a skilled exponent of Ergonomics, before the science had entered the mainstream. After 4 years of butting heads with his stubborn belief that his solution was obviously better than any idea somebody else might come up with, I moved up to London, from our South West of England of my upbringing.
I had aspired to be a rock star for 8 years and London was where it was at. After 2 more years pubbing gigs for beer, I accepted that I was probably better at carpentry than singing. I started my own business utilizing space in London flats. I built ergonomic environments around raised platform beds. Every space was different. It allowed my 3 dimensional vision, practical engineering, design aesthetic, and woodworking skills to blend together to produce a custom life space.
And then in 1988 the economy collapsed and I lost everything.
Bankrupt and homeless, owing the bank, taxman and mortgage company money, I left the country.
In 1991, I was offered a job in LA, by an ex-pat mate. I had to make a choice: a small island in the English Channel in November, or LA. Tough decision….

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I built my first studio in the spare garage at our family home in Salisbury in 1982. It wasn’t soundproof. After entering the LA studio business in 2000, I set up my own Corporation, with Licensing and Liability. I used the conventional methods of studio building and built bespoke pieces of furniture in the evenings and at the weekends. This was my Artistic expression.
Then the Recession hit in 2008.
Again, I lost my house, my Corporation, my marriage and I ended up living in a 1+1 in The Crenshaw District. I took a job as lead carpenter at one of the top studio builders in LA. I got to build some really beautiful pieces, from high quality materials, with expensive tools.
But we were still building “the same studio” over and over again. I was starting to see sound in a wholly new way. I decided to start from scratch and reverse engineer sound from light. I created a whole new philosophy on how a studio should be built and how sound could be controlled and manipulated.
I wanted the studio to stop looking like a studio. If I could reduce the pressure of “time is money” that traditional studios emanate constantly, I could change the experience. It is anathema to freedom of creation.
And then I invented the Bazlat.
It was a piece of theoretical acoustics, that allowed for the creation of Acoustics as Art.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My favorite drive in LA has always been Mulholland Drive, from the 405, east to the 101. After the recent storm washed out the hillside above Studio City, it will be years before that route will be fully open.
For the first 4 years here I had only motorcycles as my transport. The LA Crest up to the Newcombe Ranch diner for lunch, was a spectacular ride. Followed by PCH to the Ventura County line, with a brief detour up Latigo Canyon to Kanan and back to PCH at Zuma, where dinner at the Sunset Grill has competition from the Hideaway Cafe or Spruttzos on opposite sides of the road.
I don’t think of LA metropolis as a tourist attraction. I’m more inclined to go to Ojai, Santa Barbara, Solvang, San Luis Obispo or even San Francisco or Napa. LA is pretty from far, but far from pretty.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to acknowledge Vincent Van Haaf. He was considered to be one of the foremost Acoustic Architect and Studio Designers in the world, 2 decades. Many of the most famous studios in LA were designed by him. He took me under his wing in 2000, and mentored me patiently until 2008.

Instagram: barringtondesigns/Acoustics as Art

Other: barringtondesigns@yahoo.com

Image Credits
All photos by David Barrington-Brown