About Me

As a child, I learned music by playing video games with one hand and playing the music with the other on a hand-me-down synthesizer. 

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I quickly jumped from banging on pots and pans to drumming in regional bands with my brother Dustin Barber (longtime guitarist for Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Al Green).

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At age 13, I wrote a song that was released on Prince’s record label NPG Records for Prince's child prodigy drummer Jacob Armen. I was also performing regional festivals with a well-respected jazz band called Surge.

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In my teens, I worked at Jazzmin Studios in Jacksonville, FL which recorded bands such as Limp Bizkit and Cold.

 

Later, I ran a rap and hip-hop recording studio owned by a Jacksonville Jaguars player.

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For many years, I performed on hundreds of independent artist's songs as a house session musician at Cypress Studios, playing drums, keyboards, and bass tracks.

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In the 2000s, I regularly performed at major venues such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida, including on steel drums dressed as a faux military dictator named General Steel.

I have shared the stage with dozens of major label artists as an opener and have performed in all major Southeastern jazz, blues, Celtic, and Island music festivals (and the occasional Parrot Head convention).

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In 2005, I toured South Korea as part of the US Army MWR program. During this time, I wrote music from my hotel room for the television show Project Runway.

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Back in the US, I created film scores for independent films and documentaries, working with international film directors including my most recent short directed by visual effects legend Alec Gillis (Aliens, Predator).

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My primary influences are 80s and 90s film, television, and video games scores (especially 8-bit and 16-bit consoles like the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive).

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I can create any style of music but I'm most fond of making 1980s horror scores, Danny Elfman style horror comedy scores, and horror soundscapes made popular by recent A24 films.

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I'd love to collaborate on your projects and have a catalog of stock music that can be licensed for commercial use or used free by independent filmmakers (if I can ever get it categorized and posted). My mixing and mastering services start at $50 per song and full production starts at $100 per song.

 

I also perform solo R & B and Jazz piano for discerning audiences in the Portland area for $125 per hour, bringing decades of experience at the highest-end hotels, country clubs, and events such as the Ritz-Carlton, The Amelia Island Plantation, the PGA Tour, and the Concours d'Elegance.

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I bring my own compact, high-end PA system and bring at least two of every piece of equipment so that my performances are failsafe. And you can be sure I'll be there early, well-groomed, wearing clothing that blends in with the event's clientele.

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Please contact me at shane@shanebarber.com for more information.