Cutting Hair, Cutting Tracks

In the Sunday edition of the Atlanta Journal today reports a local business playing double duty. Welcome to Suite 415-D. It's here that David Waehner makes it all happen under one roof: cutting hair and making music. "This is the shampoo room, which doubles as my vocals room," said Weahner, who runs a one-man, one-chair studio out of the same 510 square-foot, four-room suite on Piedmont Road. "The acoustics are fantastic for vocals-as long as I turn my refrerator off."

By his own assessment, the 57-year-old balding hairstylist is not what most people imagine when they think of hip-hop producer. And his studio is anything but typical. But he's earned a reputation of being a versatile musician. a man with a golden ear who can coach the best from performers in the recording studio. Last year, Waehner co-wrote, produces and engineered "Top Notch Diva" for Quiarre Lee, an R&B artist. The recording, which also featured rapper Trina and Hip-Hop star Trick Daddy, hit no. 3 on the Billboards magazine R&B/Hip-Hop sales chart.

"I love working with Dave," said Amarra Ellis, who has renited with Waehner to begin recording her solo CD, "Soul Sexy." "I've sent two or three people to work with him, and I don't know anybody who records with him who's not happy. He knows how to be a chameleon, how to change a little bit to make you comfortable." And said Ellis, "his ear is crystal clear."

At David Salon, he also has a well-earned reputation. "David is more than a guy who cuts my hair," Jim Flynn said last week while getting his pre-60th birthday cut. "He's my friend. Not because he cuts hair, because he's a good friend. Growing up in Milwaukee, Waehner wanted to be an electrical engineer. At least that's what he studied for two years in college. But he was playing in cover bands in high school and college, and, when asked to join Underground Sunshine as a keyboardist and begin toring, he found himself at a crossroads. The band's 1970 version of "Birthday" hit by the Beatles had already hit no. 3 nationally. What's an engineering major to do? "Do I want to stay in school, or do i want sex, drugs and rock-n-roll and be in a band that has a no. 3 hit? Waehner said. "That's every teenager's dream!"

Waehner went with his dream. he spent a year and a half with the band before deciding to start another group, Eden Stone. The group toured relentlessly, opening for such headliners as the Doors, Cheap Trick and REO Speedwagon on their Midwest stop. The road got old, and Waehner and his wife, Christy, high school sweethearts who married in 71, and moved to Atlanta in '74. Where he joined yet another band, Explosion, that toured 50 weeks year, got sick of it, hated disco and decided to go to cosmetology school. Waehner had been cutting his band members hair for years and got rave reviews. Becoming a hairstylist, he thought, was a temporary job ange. t becamperemanen. And a steady income, to. In both professions Waehner is constantly searching for a connection.

"With music creation, I write with my heart, then edit with my head later. If I feel stress or drama in the studio, I just back away from everything. Working at several Atlanta recording studios, including ATM Records, Waehner honed his skills as a producer and engineer who also performs when needed. "I'm a swiss army knife of music production. In thirty seconds," he said, "I can go from finishing a haircut, collect the money and go right in to do vocals." Few sound booths and hair stylists are equipped quite like Waehner's.

Sources:
The Atlanta Journal / Constitution