My Biz: It took 20 years, but Dave Paris finally got his studio

MARION — Growing up in southeast Iowa, Dave Paris was a specific kind of band kid.

“When I was a kid, all the other kids wanted their parents to buy them amplifiers and effects pedals,” Paris said one afternoon this month. “I wanted them to buy me four-track recorders and sequencers. My parents had no idea what those were.”

Paris, 53, earned two degrees at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, then a bachelor’s degree in arts entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa.

“I was required to volunteer with an arts nonprofit for a certain number of hours, and they had a recording studio. They said, ‘We never use this, so would you like to take it over?’ ” he said.

Paris and his wife, Barbe, moved to Cedar Rapids in 1999. He worked in IT and taught guitar for about 20 years, never losing sight of his goal.

“This has been my dream all my life,” he said. “Whether it was me or sessions I was recording with people, I’d be sitting behind the sound man, the engineer, asking questions and learning things.”

Launched in 2021

Paris found affordable space in Marion’s Uptown neighborhood and launched Wall of Sound Productions, quietly, about two years ago, more or less.

“I started looking at this place about this time in 2021,” he said. “I’m not sure when I officially moved in because I was in here doing stuff and paying rent. Then I started getting clients so I never had a grand opening or anything like that.”

Paris outfitted the space with state-of-the art equipment for pre- and postproduction recording, mixing and editing, and video.

“I wanted to have a very versatile environment,” he said. “I wanted a place where people were going to be comfortable and they weren’t going to be nervous about coming in.”

Teaching others

When not recording, Paris performs with his own Dave Paris Group — Barbe Paris contributes bass and vocals — and continues to teach, his lessons designed to clients’ musical interests.

“Right now, the most popular guitarist in America is Taylor Swift, so I teach a lot of lessons to girls,” he said. And New Country is very popular, so I’ve done a lot of acts that are doing New Country. I’ve done a lot of gospel and praise-and-worship and all different types of styles.”

Paris’ teaching philosophy is built on experience and his own enthusiasm for learning.

“I had guitar instructors that were kind of stoners, so they weren’t very good,” he said. “I found out that if I just showed up, that was a good thing. I really started to like being on that creative end with the students. I’m always trying to learn things I can teach to other students.”

The music business

Paris also can advise his studio clients on the business end of their careers.

“We look at what kind of target audience are you going to hit, what kind of radio stations are you going to look at?” he said.

The confluence of technology and media offer new career paths for musicians.

“Nowadays, the record company isn’t as valid as it used to be,” he said. “You have to decide whether you want 1 percent of a million (dollars), or 100 percent of $100,000. Are you going to do it on your own with a smaller fan base, or are you going to go with a major label?”

Answering those questions for himself helped Paris, who for now maintains his IT job, chart his own life in music.

“I’m keeping rock-star hours,” he said. “I do lessons and sessions evenings and weekends, which mostly works out for the clientele I have.”

Know a business that should be considered for a “My Biz” feature? Let us know by emailing mary.sharp@thegazette.com.

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