Barry Sage is a British sound engineer and producer, currently living in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile. Sage has worked with a variety of British and Latin American acts, including the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

Boy George George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ who rose to fame as the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club. He began his solo career in 1987. Boy George grew up in Eltham a ...

Pet Shop Boys Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...

, Nicole and

Charly García Carlos Alberto García Moreno (born October 23, 1951), better known by his stage name Charly García, is an Argentine singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and record producer, considered one of the most important rock musicians in ...

Career

Sage began his career as a tea boy at

Trident Studios Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry ...

in London, later going on to be a tape operator assisting

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

and

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

, among others.

Rolling Stones

Initially as the assistant to

Chris Kimsey Christopher Kenneth Kimsey (born 3 December 1951) is an English musician, engineer, and record producer, best known for his work with the Rolling Stones. Career Born in Battersea, London, England, Kimsey began his career in 1967 at Olympic Stu ...

, Sage worked with the

twice, in 1978 (on '' Some Girls'') and 1981 (''

Tattoo You ''Tattoo You'' is the sixteenth U.K. and eighteenth U.S. studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 24 August 1981 by Rolling Stones Records. The album is mostly composed of studio outtakes recorded during the 1970 ...

''). Particularly given the drug-use scandal hanging over

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership wi ...

at the time, the period was frenetic. In a 2014 interview, Sage described long days in the studio and a prolific output of 40 tracks and 80 reels. During the production of ''Tattoo You'',

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

and Sage were working alone one night when Jagger asked Sage to record himself clapping for a song. That song, "

Start Me Up "Start Me Up" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones from their 1981 album '' Tattoo You''. Released as the album's lead single, it reached number one on Australian Kent Music Report, number two in Canada, number two on the ''B ...

", would go on to international success, with Sage estimating in a 2017 interview that the lifetime royalties he received for his work on the track totalled some 15 million

Chilean peso The peso is the currency of Chile. The current peso has circulated since 1975, with a Chilean peso (1817–1960), previous version circulating between 1817 and 1960. Its symbol is defined as a letter S with either one or two vertical bars super ...

s (roughly

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

22,000).

Post-Stones and shift to Spanish pop

After the Stones, Sage went on to assist on a considerable number of songs for major musicians, including " Blue Monday" by New Order and the soundtrack for '' Under the Cherry Moon'' by Prince, whom Sage described as "very demanding of his musicians". By the late 1980s Sage shifted to Spanish pop amid changes in the British music industry, working with

La Oreja de Van Gogh La Oreja de Van Gogh (; English: "Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh's Ear") is a Pop music, pop band from San Sebastián, Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, Spain. The lyrical themes of their songs typically include love, friendship ...

and

Sergio Dalma Josep Sergi Capdevila Querol (born 28 September 1964), professionally known as Sergio Dalma, is a Spanish singer. He is one of Spain's best-selling recording artists, having topped Spain's official Productores de Música de España national albu ...

, among others. By 2000, he was searching for a house in

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

Move to Chile

Sage's first involvement with Chilean music came in 1994. He was selected to mix '' Esperando nada'' by Nicole. for BMG. Two years later, he would make his first visit to the country, to record the album ''Play'' for local rock group . His relationship with Solar frontman Alejandro Gómez proved fruitful when Gómez started a new group, , with which Sage also worked. Sage returned to Chile in 2010 for a panel discussion sponsored by the

Duoc UC Duoc UC is an accredited, non-profit private institute of higher education in Chile. It was founded under the umbrella of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1968, which provides technical and professional degrees through practical a ...

. In 2012, after labour issues arose in Spain, Sage moved to

. Two years later, he bought a plot of land in

Isla Negra Isla Negra (Spanish: ''Black Island'') is a coastal area in El Quisco commune in central Chile, some 45 km (70 km by road) south of Valparaiso and 96 km (110 km by road) west of Santiago. Pablo Neruda Isla Negra was the re ...

to build a recording studio; however, he sold the studio in order to resolve financial matters in England. Sage also cited a better work-life balance in Chile as a reason to relocate, as well as that major artists in the UK increasingly make money from their back catalogue and produce few new recordings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sage, Barry Living people English audio engineers Year of birth missing (living people) Audio production engineers Chilean music people Place of birth missing (living people)