Lenny Fontana is a true New Yorker who learned his craft from Radio personality DJ Frankie Crocker, the program director of WBLS 107.5 In NYC. Inspired by DJ Larry Levan, Fontana went on to play at Studio 54 in the late 80’s and other NYC Clubs. Through the 1990’s he travelled the world and played at many famous nightclubs globally. NYC called The Hideaway Underground (black light parties).
His new single is Stay With Me All Night, a gospel-influenced house track featuring a soaring female lead vocal and electrifying church-choir harmonies.
On Stay With Me All Night, the vocal and choir arrangements carry a lot of weight. From a production point of view, where did you start the record? Rhythm, chords, or the vocal idea itself?
I have always begun at the basics, starting to prepare the rhythm section, even deciding what Kick Sound and drum sounds I want to hear on this new creation. Most of the time, this will set the course of the track. For example, how heavy do I want to swing the drum pattern so it is does not feel stiff and robotic and very straight sounding, or do I want to have a Latin flare maybe adding a conga pattern to the mix or going for a straight disco style with a hard four to the floor sound and sizzling open high hat. Earl Young, who is the drummer of all the Philadelphia International Records Sound and a founding member of the Disco group The Trammps, is a huge hero of mine, and he has made many legendary patterns in Disco and R&B that have lasted decades, and I always tried to follow him as a guide.
You can hear an example of his work playing on the song from CJ & CO, “We Got Our Own Thang.” Then I proceed to start dropping the chord progressions with a rhodes piano and then listen to how it fits with the groove. From there, usually the bassline will follow. This seems to be the basic recipe for getting the track on its way. Normally, I would hand off this basic demo writing instrumental to the writer or the artist and have them work on their bit on top with regard to the hook and melody line. Then get a rough singing guide track done and have it sent back or they come to the studio and we track it, and then decide if this is a keeper or more work needs to be done. It is most definitely a work in progress if you want this to become something.
Gospel-influenced house can easily tip into something overworked. What were the key production choices you made to keep the record direct and playable rather than overly ornate?
Great Question. Sometimes, if you overplay the musical parts, which real gospel music is known for, with its chord changes and elaborate Organ solos, it will be too much for a dancer or a DJ to play and totally accept. I use the approach less is more. It’s a fine balance, understanding that you need to make things refined and not overproduced or overwritten. Sometimes there are records that are so simple that come out, and they hook you right in, and a lot of times over the past years, I heard these wonderful elaborate productions that never get any play.
Rap Music in the beginning shaped a lot of that, taking snippets of records and looping the parts, which then became big street records and later commercial pop records. This changed the game in many ways. The art of sampling in the back end of the 1980s with grabbing loops from well-known records in jazz and disco became huge hits for its one section. One example of this is my friend Johnny D Demairo Record Label, Henry Street, where DJ Producer Kenny Dope created the Bucketheads track “The Bomb These Sounds Fall Into My Mind” using a 1979 disco track from the band Chicago “Street Player” This new song became a huge hit and set off the disco house scene around the world.
You learned your musical instincts in an era of hardware, tape, and live mixing desks. How much of that early discipline still shapes the way you work in the studio today?
Exactly the same way I approach the mixing desk and the computer back in the 80s and 90s is how I still work with my principles. Many of the plug-ins I use now emulate the real pieces, so I always seem to gravitate right back to them, and they work each and every time. Now with the tape and mixing desk since I am using everything on the digital side, it makes the workflow move 1000 times faster than having to set up an SSL Desk every time with a total recall. That in itself used to take hours to get the mix right, now you just dial up the track on the computer, and how you left it, you can pick right up and flip-flop back and forth in between records. The craziest part of the computer is even the mixing console, like a Neve or SSL, is right there in front of you, so now it’s a matter of knowing and making the combinations work for you.
Are there any specific tools, synths, or processing chains you lean on now when building warmth and movement, especially in records that sit in that classic house space?
I will let you in on a secret that a lot of the engineers in New York would do to make that beautiful low end, as they say, Bass In Your Face, Highs in Your Eyes. We would use a Urei 1176 Compressor with a Pultec EQP-1A on the kick and the bass guitar to get that saturated low end that throbs. It was and always for the standard when mixing a dance record with total regard for the low end, and from there you can take it your way.
Having played rooms like Studio 54 and countless clubs worldwide, how much does imagined sound system translation factor into your production decisions?
I am always in my mind mixing for a big sound system. I want the track to pound those bass bottoms with the bass end and have the best fidelity with everything spatially set. So that record sits right in your car, your AirPods, home system, and most importantly at the club.
You were heavily influenced by figures like Larry Levan, where feel often mattered more than polish. When you listen back to your own productions, what tells you a track is finished?
Let’s say, if you are mixing a vocal song most importantly that the artist is sitting perfectly sonically right in your new song, that to me is very important that it’s not buried in the background or too loud making them way in front. See, the instrumentation is quite important, so when you mute the vocalist, that should hold up on its own merit, and when you bring the vocal in, it should sit right in the mix, not overpowering or not too far back. Now, I am listening back and forth with mastering to see if something may be too loud in the mix or just not enough and needs to be adjusted. If you care about your music, you will take the extra time and step to make those corrections. It makes all the difference. Larry Levan was a perfectionist when it came to sound, and he would move speakers around in his club and rearrange things to just get that perfect sound.
Do you still test records in clubs before finalising them, or has your relationship with feedback and iteration changed as production technology has evolved?
I am very lucky to be able to still do this. Testing in a club not only with a large sound system, but also a crowd gives you an indication if you have something or not. Many times you will test it and the record will just not sit right and it will make you take it back to the mixing desk and fiddle with the mix till you get it right. So the answer is yes lol…
As someone who’s been making and playing records for decades, what’s driving your creative focus heading into 2026, and what do you still feel curious about exploring in the studio?
AI has got my eye now. There are so many ways to use it from Production, writing, Mixing and mastering. So I am embracing all of it as in the sense of having additional help from musicians or specialists in that field. See, I been in the trenches where we had no way of doing these things that we take for granted now and having to create workarounds in order to get over the line. Just remember kids this technology is just starting.. I seen so much happen in the last few years like a quantum leap.
Stay With Me All Night is out now on Karmic Power Records
Follow Lenny Fontana on Instagram: https://instagram.com/lennyfontana