These bards are driving me insane. Is there a way to make their bard package invalid during certain stages of my quest. I've tried making an alias for the bard in question and giving him a simple sandbox package for the stages I need him to shut the hell up, but he seems to ignore my alias, or it is being overwritten by the bard alias. I'd like to have a conversation in peace and quiet with my NPC without having to hear Ragnar The Friggin Red 1000 times in a row...

There is a script on the bards, or perhaps the bard alias that makes them randomly play. You might have to alter that script to make it invalid when you want.