Today we’d like to introduce you to Janos Fulop.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Janos. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I began playing music an early age. My parents put me in music school in Kindergarten and kept musical instruments around the house, so I was fortunate to always have music around me in some form or fashion. I went to grade school and high school in the Waldorf school system, which takes an alternative, arts-based approach, and further supported my musical training throughout my childhood.
I took piano lessons for a number of years as a kid and even dabbled in clarinet for a little while as well. In middle school, I took up playing guitar and formed my first band with some friends, which carried us into high school. When the time came for the band to do our first recording, I was exposed to the recording studio experience for the first time, and immediately was drawn to it and fell in love with the recording process. I began to acquire some basic studio equipment and started recording at home. Through that process, I began to experiment with all the different genres of music I was listening to, and eventually, that led me to make Hip Hop beats.
I was approached by a local emcee from my hometown about using some of my beats for his album, which was something I honestly hadn’t even imagined could happen, and before I knew it I was producing and recording his entire new album. After high school, I left my small town in western MA to attend Emerson College in Boston. I majored in Audio/Radio production with a minor in Music. It was there that I met my professor Owen Curtin, who would eventually become my business partner at The Bridge Sound & Stage years later.
At the tail end of college, I began to engineering at a local studio, Waltz Audio (now closed) which is where I began to meet a lot of the Boston Hip Hop Community, artists and producers and began to build my reputation as a good engineer in the city.
Simultaneously, I had been building up a roster of artists I was developing, producing and recording them regularly. It came to a point where I realized I was basically unofficially running a record label, so in 2008 I formalized the company as AR Classic Records. Later that same year, I partnered with my former professor, Owen and moved into a space in North Cambridge which formally opened in February 2009 at The Bridge Sound & Stage.
Over the course of the last 10 years, and with an immense amount of work, both the studio and label have both grown as well as my reputation as a music producer. I had the honor of winning consecutive Boston Music Awards for ‘Producer of The Year’ in 2016 & 2017. The label has signed artists who tour the world, play on some of the largest festivals both nationally and internationally, and took home the Boston Music Award for ‘Album of The Year’ in 2017. The Bridge works around the clock with a wide variety of local and national acts that have included artists like Macklemore, Sheryl Crow, Gucci Mane, David Gray, and many more.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nothing about the music industry is a smooth road, haha.
It’s taken almost a decade for the label to turn a real profit. For years I was sinking my own money into the label just to keep it alive because I believe in the artists we represent and know that the talent was developing and that it can also sometimes take time for people to come around to artists.
There were a few years in the early-mid portion of the studio’s history, where we had our backs against the wall, and our future was not looking bright for the company. There was two years where my partner and I took no salary from the studio and put all the money we earned back into the company just to keep it afloat because we knew if we could weather the storm, we had something could really work. It again, sometimes just takes time for people to find out about you. I racked up credit card debt in those 2 years that I’m STILL dealing with years later.
The life of a music producer is pretty much exactly like a roller coaster. So much time spent slowly climbing uphill, putting in crazy long hours of work, and continually pushing. All the time, anticipation and tension is building. Then you catch a break, and things move so fast and effortlessly….. for a little while. Then it’s “start all over” again. To be honest, it can get really scary at times. You don’t know where your next paycheck is coming from, or how much it will be; you don’t know what kind of work you’ll need to do (or miracles you’ll need to pull off) to get it; and you don’t have the regular job benefits as a safety net in case, worst case scenario, something happens to your health.
However, the bottom line is: I can’t imagine doing anything else. I’ve learned over the years to have faith in what lies around the next turn. I don’t know what it will be, but I’ll find a way to work with it and keep it moving, all the while gathering some pretty great life experiences along the way.
The Bridge Sound & Stage & AR Classic Records – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I’m a music producer, best known for my work in the field of Urban Music (Hip Hop, R&B, Pop), but I take pride in my ability to work across genres comfortably and effectively.
My label, AR Classic Records is an independent record label with a focus (up to this point) on Urban Music. We are beginning to expand that a little this year, and we’re pretty excited about what we have in store. I think AR Classic is probably best known for representing a variety of different Urban artists who all have a different musical approach to their craft. The mission statement of the label is that “AR Classic Records was founded on the principles of making quality music that stands the test of time.” I’m proud to say that I think our catalog stands by that statement.
The Bridge Sound & Stage in a full-scale recording facility based in North Cambridge, with multiple recording spaces and control rooms. We record all genres of music, do post-sound work for TV and Film, and work with a number of publishing houses for books on tape as well. We probably specialize most in Hip Hop and Rock in terms of genre, but the large flexible studio space really lends itself to a wide variety of applications. We aim to provide a creative, comfortable and highly professional space for the local music scene based in and around the Boston area, while also accommodating the needs of some of the biggest national acts when they come thru town.
What makes me happy are the times when our studio serves as a networking hub for talented creatives. I’m a huge believer in the need for creating opportunity, and connections do that. The Bridge has become a space where many connections are made and relationships are built on a weekly basis. Watching those connections then spawn into bigger and better projects is the most rewarding thing ever. I think we do a good job of making our studio accessible to the entire music community in this city, and that helps to build connections where you might not necessarily expect them. Also our staff rocks.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I would have to say, winning Boston Music Awards for ‘Producer of The Year’ the second year in a row along with ‘Album of The Year’ in 2017. To be recognized by such a large community of incredibly talented artists, producers, creatives, music critics, etc. for not just one year, but two years consecutively means a whole lot to me. It’s pretty hard to put into words what that feels like.
Contact Info:
- Address: 18 Edmunds Street Cambridge, MA 02140
- Website: www.TheArcitype.com | www.TheBridgeSoundStage.com | www.ARClassicRecords.com
- Phone: 617-714-5413
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/thearcitype
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thearcitype
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/thearcitype
Image Credit:
Harrison Searle, Nik Weikert, Derek Palmer, Chris Rocco, Yazi Ferrufino
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
