Our Story

2011: Eric begins posting free MainStage patches on a personal blog. In less than three years his patches are downloaded over 100,000 times.

2013: Eric launches a small web store on his blog, selling custom-built commercial MainStage patches for the first time.

2015: Eric relocates from St. Louis, MO to Nashville, TN to continue pursuing work as a session and touring keyboard player.

2017: Seeing demand growing for patches, Eric launches a standalone website dedicated to providing patch design services. www.patchfoundry.com is born.

2019: While on tour, Eric notices that there’s a lack of quality patches available for hardware keyboards and particularly The Nord Stage 3, and begins working on his first hardware patch design project, the NS3 Worship Collection.

2020: The pandemic hits and the touring industry effectively shuts down. Eric spends the time he usually spends touring going all-out on a line of patches for The Nord Stage 3, launching the NS3 Cover Band Collection and other packs.

2021: as demand explodes for patches, Eric begins designing for The Nord Electro 6 and Nord Stage 2, building dedicated collections for each keyboard.

2022: Patch Foundry diversifies its pack collection to include Nord Piano 5, Nord Grand, and the Nord Wave 2, allowing users to have access to high quality samples across a wider range of Nord products.

2023: As demand continues to increase, Eric hires his brother and long-time musical collaborator Micajah to handle operations so that Eric can focus more attention on patch design.

Meet The Team

Eric Barfield- Founder/Lead Patch Designer

Eric splits his time between Patch Foundry and working full time as a touring and session musician. He’s worked with a range of performers including Grammy-winning/nominated Contemporary Christian Music artists Matthew West, Francesca Battistelli, Rebecca St. James, and Mac Powell, as well as artists Apollo LTD, Katy Nichole, Nate Moore Of Housefires, Sidewalk Prophets, Meredith Andrews, NewSong, Rachel Lampa, Stars Go Dim, and others.

Eric’s work in country music has included playing with artists Tracy Lawrence, John Berry, Rhonda Vincent, Bryan White, Pam Tillis, Terri Clark, and more.

Eric’s patch design work has been used in hundreds of houses of worship, corporate bands, universities, studios and stages around the world, and with the U.S. Army Band, the pop/rock group Twenty One Pilots, the Traveling Salvation Neil Diamond Tribute Band, and the Downtown Band (listed in the top 10 wedding bands in the US in 2021).

Born in St. Louis, MO, Eric currently lives in Nashville, TN with his wife Sarah, his two children Jackson (6) and Kendra (2) and their two Siberian Huskies, Willow and Coda. Hobbies include hiking, basketball, reading, and rough housing with his kids.

Micajah Barfield- Assistant Director of Operations

Micajah is a keyboardist, singer, worship leader, world traveler, and brother to Eric. His role with Patch Foundry is speeding up the creative patch design process, coordinating product launch details, and streamlining complicated processes with patch design.

Micajah and Eric first began collaborating when both were in diapers, but didn’t work together musically until 18 when they formed a pop rock group together, playing shows and releasing music for 7 years. When the band broke up, Micajah took a job working full time as a worship leader at a church near Yellowstone National Park in Montana.

At the beginning of 2022, Micajah stepped down from his role as worship leader and relocated with his wife to St. Louis, MO, using it as a base for travel around the world. In 2023, Micajah joined Patch Foundry as an operations expert, bringing a deep understanding of worship culture and the needs of musicians in a live setting.

Micajah’s hobbies include hiking, woodworking, and travel.