Fab Dupont: analogue heart, digital mind From one of the last remaining multi-room studios in Manhattan, Fab Dupont has lent his talents to a dazzling array of projects. “I am able to make music every day, which is all I have ever wanted to do,” he tells David Davies...
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eflecting on the team of creative musicians and technicians who have gravitated towards his Flux studios complex over the past 15 years, Fab Dupont is in no doubt that he has been extremely fortunate. “I did not get into this business to make money – I got into it to make music, and I am lucky that all the people I work with have the same spirit,” he says. “They are also determined to make the music as great as possible and won’t ever let anything that is ‘good enough’ go out the door. Of course, that can sometimes mean the projects take forever…” The fragmented nature of modern recording – in which many artists have small bursts of studio activity interspersed by longer bouts of touring or other activities to balance the books – means that Dupont invariably has “half-a-dozen or more projects on the go at any one time. That’s just the nature of the business these days.” A closer inspection of his current workload underlines the eclectic approach to music-making that Dupont has pursued throughout his career to date. Following on from his mixing and additional arrangement of the acclaimed High Highs to Low Lows album by R&B/pop musician Lolo Zouaï, he is now collaborating with Zouaï producer Stelios Phili on the next album by alt-pop band Cruel Youth, who are led by “unbelievable” singer and writer Teddy Sinclair. Dupont is also mixing material for French electronic act Terrenoire and producing an album for Canadian singer/keyboardist and David Crosby band member Michelle Willis, which he says has “been in the works for a long time but is now nearing completion. She is an
incredible singer and I am really proud of this record, which is sounding fantastic.” This heady mix of styles is business as usual for Dupont, who has been happily exploring different genres since he started making “very nerdy” music as a teenager. “You do find that a lot of producers these days tend to specialise,” he says. “It might be that they just work on hip hop or glossy pop records, or maybe they are the person to go to if you want to make something that sounds like an old Paul Simon album. Whereas I have always wanted to try to work across [the musical spectrum] – it’s much more interesting for me.” State of Flux Dupont has also been fortunate in having a studio base that has developed as organically as his own career. Starting off in the mid 2000s with a single room, Flux has gradually taken on more space at its 2nd Street location. Today it houses distinctively designed and equipped ‘Rooms’ – Dangerous, Dungeon, Inspiration, Revolution and Dupont’s own space, Fabulous – that combine classic outboard gear with the latest digital recording technology. “We call it music-making with a vintage heart and a modern mind,” says Dupont. Neither analogue loyalist or digital obsessive, he says the studios have been developed “to allow people to work the way they want to work.” Dupont cites two recent clients – Frank Ocean and Norah Jones – by way of example: “Frank Ocean came down here with his ‘trash-can’ Mac, plugged into Thunderbolt and did not use any hardware except the vintage synths. Whereas Norah Jones’ engineer, Jamie
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Landry, came to mix her new album [Pick Me Up Off the Floor, to be released in May] and summed 32 channels as well as using every single piece of hardware in the studio.” It would appear that Dupont himself resides somewhere between these two polarities. He tends to use Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ summing units or mix in the box depending on the project. He has a Pro Tools | HDX rig and countless plugins, as well as a lengthy roll-call of physical outboard that includes API 512c preamps, Manley Pultec EQ, George Massenburg Labs 9500 Mastering EQ, and multiple Chandler compressors and limiters. A keen aficionado of classic gear, Dupont has also had the benefit of long and productive associations with a number of leading manufacturers. His work as a consultant has its origins in mid-2000s conversations with Bob Muller and Chris Muth of Dangerous Music, who once occupied an entire floor in the Flux building in whose honour the Dangerous Room is named. “I remember meeting them in the corridor one day and they said they were having trouble getting Pro Tools to sound as they wished,” he says. “Bob and Chris are amazing people and at the time they were developing a product that turned into the Dangerous 2-Bus summing device. They loaned me a box and I gave them my feedback – and also suggested the name. That was the start of a relationship that has continued on through many different products.” Since then Dupont has provided feedback and design input into an array of products from companies including Sonnox, Universal Audio and George