BULBY

About BULBY

ollin “Bulby” York BIOGRAPHY
Producer and engineer Collin “Bulby” York has been making music sound better for more than thirty (30) years.
His list of credits reads like a who’s who of Pop music: No Doubt, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Madonna. It’s Reggae and Dancehall that the Kingston, Jamaica native is best known for, though. As one of Jamaica’s most in-demand studio men, he has put his touch on signature records by Sean Paul, Bounty Killer and Beenie Man, to name a few.
Bulby got his introduction to music making as a youth, when he started following his uncle, Firehouse Crew drummer George “Dusty” Miller, to the Waterhouse, Kingston studio of dubmaster King Tubby. Young Bulby was soon learning the ropes of recording from the Godfather of dub music, and one of the most influential audio engineers of all-time. “I didn't realize he was such a legend, I just knew he was way ahead of his time,” Bulby says of Tubby. “He was building a top-of-the-line studio with a drum booth in the ceiling — I was there helping soldering and rewire stuff.”
After graduating from Kingston’s Dunoon Technical High, he got a summer job at Jamaica’s then brand-new Mixing Lab Studio. His first session was with Junior Reid, the legendary singer of Black Uhuru and “One Blood” fame. “He was producing a rapper from London who was on the label he was signed to,” Bulby recalls of Reid. “We recorded a whole album and, from that session, my name started getting around and I started getting more producers requesting me.”
In 1992, he began producing his own records when his uncle Dusty formed C & G Music, working with Dancehall artists like Daddy Screw. In 1993, Bulby launched his own label, Fat Eyes, with Lynford “Fatta” Marshall. Fat Eyes struck instant musical gold with Bulby’s Hot Wax Riddim, an inventive Dancehall production which spawned Bounty Killer’s “Suspense" and Beenie Man’s "Memories.” Its influence can still be felt, as “Memories” was recently sampled by Kanye West for “I’m In It,” a standout track from 2013’s critically-acclaimed Yeezus album. Other key Fat Eyes releases produced by Bulby include “Want You Back” by Singing Melody, and Capleton’s “Pure Sodom.”
Meanwhile, Bulby continued to mix records for other top Jamaican producers like Winston Riley and Steely and Clevie, as well as Sly and Robbie, who tapped him to engineer their original Reggae productions as well as remixes for international artists like Chaka Khan, Cyndi Lauper and Sinead O’Connor. As Dancehall sounds went mainstream in the early 2000s, Bulby was right in the mix, engineering tracks for No Doubt’s double-platinum Rocksteady album, as well as Sean Paul’s era- defining Dancehall classic, Dutty Rock. As his reputation grew internationally, he also began to travel as a live engineer with the likes of Michael Franti and Spearhead, among others.