Fab Dupont was in the nominee area of the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles when he heard Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” won album of the year. Within minutes, Dupont’s phone blew up with hundreds of congratulations texts.
Someone whose work already contributed to a handful of Grammys, he mixed the song “WELTiTA” on the winning album at his Flux Studios in the East Village.
“You work on something, it’s recognized as being the best that year,” he said at Flux on 2nd Street. “It’s wonderful.”
A musician who plays numerous instruments, sound mixing engineer, music producer, songwriter and owner and operator of Flux Studios, Dupont has worked with (and for) many of the world’s biggest, best-known musicians.
He and his team have done work for Bad Bunny, David Crosby, Isaac Hayes, Snarky Puppy, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Toots And The Maytals, Bon Jovi, Marc Anthony, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Queen Latifah and Residente as part of a long list.
Lorde recorded a lot of her last album in the Fabulous room (designed by Luca Medus) where Dupont mixed the Bad Bunny song along with many other performers.
The Jonas Brothers recently blocked out an entire floor for 10 days in the eight-room,10,00-square-foot studio for a writing camp and music marathon.
“They recorded 37 songs,” Dupont said, noting his team worked with them. “They’ll refine the songs, weed out the ones not as good as they want, take the best ones and release them over time.”
While some watched Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show out of curiosity, he watched with some of the satisfaction of working on the record that helped win that gig.
“Bad Bunny is a very important artist and his album is a very important album,” Dupont said. “It’s really a cultural phenomenon.”
In the mix
Fab Dupont produces music, but often as with Bad Bunny mixes the music, combining and balancing dozens of tracks to create the final sound.
“It’s someone who takes a vast array of recorded instruments and mixes it down to two channels, so you can play it on your headphones,” Dupont said of mixing. “I’m basically a chef. I take all the ingredients that the producer made, the recipe, I put it all together.”
Dupont mixed and co-produced Parlour Magic’s latest work, led by Producer, composer and media artist Luc Bokor-Smith, including a single titled “Embassy” debuting February 20 and an album titled “The Embassy” debuting June 5.
“I’ve always thought a good analogy is a film editor. The mixer is the editor,” said Bokor-Smith, a Flux resident as well as performer who plans to tour in a four-piece band this year. “I get to experience Fab the producer in addition to fab the mixer.”
Dupont co-produced three David Crosby albums with Michael League of Snarky Puppy (Lighthouse, Here If You Listen and Hello Moon, not yet released).
“I made plenty of suggestions on the Crosby albums, because I was a co-producer,” he said. “There was a lot of back and forth.”
He wants to satisfy himself and artists whose work he is collaborating on. “The labels hire me, but I work for the artist. My mission is to make the artist happy,” he said. “The labels want the artist to be happy.”
Training and taste
Dupont and Flux have attracted musicians worldwide from Canada, Brazil, Spain, France, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia and elsewhere to a 2nd Street music Mecca hidden behind a nondescript door.
“Some people come here because they want to work with me personally,” Dupont said. “Some come here because the equipment is unbelievable. Some come here because it feels good, it feels creative. Some come here for all three reasons.”
The four-story building blends into the block: A service elevator carries performers up and down. “It’s discrete,” Dupont said. “That allows them not to have to dash out to their Uber because fans are waiting outside.”
The building had its place in music history before Flux from punk to classic rock and roll. “The Strokes recorded their first album in this building. That studio was called Transporter Realm at the time,” Dupont said. ‘“The Rolling Stones recorded demos to Bridges to Babylon in this building. The studio was called Dangerous Music.”
If you can make it here….
Fabrice Dupont grew up near Paris, studying saxophone (his father picked the instrument and then other instruments). He, in his teens, decided to mix records, making one for a friend and for his piano instructor, Emmanuel Bex.
“I proved myself, went to my piano teacher and made that record,” he said. “It came out pretty good. It got distributed and helped his career take off.”
He won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, coming to New York City 25 years ago.
“I came here knowing no one,” he said. “I was generous with my time and skill. I made records for free for a couple of years. I helped people. They were grateful and they helped me grow with them.”
In 2009, he opened Flux at its current location, named for printing music on tape and change. “It would always be changing,” he said. “I thought it would be a good name for that.”
He named its studios such as Dangerous, Magic and Fabulous. “I don’t like to call studios numbers and letters,” he said. “It involves a hierarchy.”
He likes being in the East Village, which he calls “the epicenter of music in New York” near the Mercury Lounge, Arlene’s Grocery, Pianos, Night Club 101 (formerly the Pyramid Club) and formerly Rockwood, Max Fish.
Bokor-Smith said Dupont worked with local and global performers to create his own epicenter.
“Fab has built a community around Flux that extends beyond the people who are here,” Bokor-Smith said. “Flux is different because of how hands-on Fab is.”
Dupont seems at home at the studio (he actually lives in the building) as he goes in and out of studios near stacks of speakers, synthesizers and artwork.
“The reason this is fun is because there is no rule. There is no answer. Sometimes the band comes in and they do it in one take,” he said. “Sometimes somebody comes in with one lyric idea. They don’t even know the chords. And you put everything together.”
Dupont isn’t fluent in Spanish, but had Bad Bunny’s lyrics translated to better mix to match meaning and mood.
“I speak music Spanish. I know how to go louder, brighter, softer, darker. More drums. Less drums,” he said. “It feels good. It feels bad.”
He has worked with Bad Bunny since, mixing “Alambre Púa,” (nearly 7 million YouTube views) which the performer used to open his residency at the (José Miguel Agrelot) Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico. WELTiTA on YouTube has gone through the roof, racking up 66 million views.
“I was really happy that this record got recognition. It made me genuinely feel joy,” Dupont said. “Because it’s an important record. It’s nice when the universe is balanced.”
While Dupont is known in the industry, most music fans familiar with the music he worked on don’t know his name, but there are benefits.
“I get to go buy my cheese and nobody bothers me,” he said. “I have absolute freedom, except if I go to a music conference.”
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