Meet Lu Garibay | Music Producer / Vocal Producer / Rec and Mix Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lu Garibay and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lu, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I was born in Mexico, in the city of Guadalajara. Grew up surrounded by art, books, music, having the fortune of being the youngest of three sisters in a family that loves to learn new things. I started playing classical guitar around 6 or 7, and singing everything from classic rock to boleros. I get the love of singing from my father and my grandma, who would take our her songbooks every time I visited and would teach me her favorites. We would sing “Rancheras” with Mariachis at parties, “Boleros” with Trios, and then I’d go home and my mom would listen to classical music for me every morning. I took up piano lessons, singing lessons, and when I was a teenager I even tried Saxophone for a while, it was a lot of fun. Then, Jazz entered my life and took over all my time. I was obsessed, I wanted to study everything possible so that I could one day apply to Berklee College of Music. I had two wonderful teachers who became mentors and family, Yosvanny Estepe and Ileana Güeche. They gave me the tools to enter my dream college. Both being cuban, they also imprinted in me a passion for Salsa, Son, and many other things. I went to Berklee in 2012, and graduated five years later with a dual major in Jazz Composition and Music Production and Engineering. Music made it possible for me to travel a lot. With the vocal ensamble I was part of, I got to sing in places like Colombia, Spain, France; with a non profit I created with my friends to teach music to underprivileged communities I got to see Zambia, and with the knowledge from college I got to work in amazing studios Berlin and London. My upbringing was a maze of people and musical experiences that were so enriching that I couldn’t have chosen a different career path. They all made me fall in love with the process of making music, the process of capturing moments in time to be relived later, and without all those people and places, I can’t imagine being who and where I am now.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My partners, Cisco Achaval, Matias Acuña and I have a studio called Fabrica Estudio in Mexico City. Felipe Castro, a chilean engineer with an enormous heart introduced Ale Varela (my partner in life and producing) to Cisco and Matias so she would engineer some sessions with them. I started coming to their space to run some sessions as well, and pretty soon after, we became close friends and business partners. Fabrica Estudio is a place that fills me with hope, excitement, and pride. I love that our clients feel like our guests. I love the relationships we have built with many of them and how they come back because they like our work and they like how it feels to make music in our space. Before opening Fabrica Estudio with them, I worked at Panoram Studios in Mexico City, and before that at Moose Recording Studio in Guadalajara. When I left college I moved to Berlin for a year, to work at Funkhaus Studios, and while I was there I got the opportunity to engineer at Abbey Road in London at the invitation of my friend Nico Farias. While I was in Berlin I started a band called Dakota’s Magic with my Croatian brother Nino Samanic, and we moved together to Mexico at the end of 2017 to continue our project there. I think the biggest lesson throughout my career has been adaptation, and the hardest one has been accepting change when things don’t go as planned. It’s definitely been hard finding my place in the industry every time I’ve relocated, leaving relationships, friends and family multiple times has been heartbreaking at best, and recharging my drive and passion for I do has been challenging some days more than others. In the end, I’ve realized that what makes me wake up in the morning is the hunger and the curiosity to learn more about my craft and to try new things with my friends, with my clients, and with my partner. I’ve been learning to practice gratitude for my failures and to switch my perspective about them and view them as moments of learning or moments of building. I’ve also been learning to slow down a bit and look at my accomplishments with kindness instead of pressure, and to be able to make adjustments in myself so that my next goals become available and attainable through hard work and focus.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My favorite thing to do in a city, any city, is to go to museums, listen to live music, and walk around. I love getting lost and finding different places to eat, coffee shops, venues. If I was planning a trip for a friend in Mexico City, I’d go to Condesa and walk around till our feet get tired and then have a coffee at Saints. Next day we’d walk around Coyoacan, visit Frida Kahlo’s blue house and have some food at Los Danzantes. We’d go to Chapultepec to visit the castle, have a picnic with my dogs at the Chapultepec woods.. and the rest of the time, we’d hang at the studio with friends, walk around Roma Norte, have tacos at Paramo and see where life takes us.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There’s been a lot of people involved in making my journey through music a memorable one. My parents to begin with, since they’re the ones who paid for every lesson, drove me to every concert, planned family vacations around my touring when need be, and have supported me (and continue to do so) every single day. My sisters also, they’re my two closest friends and I can’t imagine daring to have big big dreams without them having my back constantly. Musically, I’ve had the joy of being mentored by Yosvanny Estepe and Ileana Güeche since I was a teenager, and finding in my time at Berklee mentors and friends in Enrique Gonzalez Müller and Susan Rogers. It’s hard to name just a few people. Alanity gave me the opportunity to work with people like Natalia Lafourcade and Sly 5thAve who I deeply admire, and incorporated me into his team for projects that I’ve enjoyed and learned from tremendously. Jason Carmer gave me my first job in Mexico City working in Panoram Studios for two years. Cisco Achaval and Matias Acuña gave me their trust to open Fabrica Studio together. And lastly but also firstly, my friends. Nino Samanic, Ines Velasco, Gio Fernandez, El Mukuka, Ale Varela… they bring me joy. They inspire me every day as they strive to do their best, be their best and grow in this tough industry. None of what I do would make sense if I didn’t have my chosen family to make the sweet and sour moments in making a living through music worth it.

Website: www.fabricaestudiomx.com

Instagram: @this.half @fabricaestudiomx

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZv6RzE5VCY&ab_channel=Dakota%27sMagic

Image Credits
Rafael Molina, Boris Brozovic, Ale Varela