The day that the Eaton hearth started, Jake Viator had simply completed some work reworking his midcentury Altadena dwelling. Viator, a mastering engineer for the native document label Stones Throw, moved into the country foothill neighborhood along with his spouse in 2022, one filled with middle-class artists and century-old houses. He had a storage studio in a neighborhood filled with buddies making music.
“We scraped everything we had to afford it,” Viator mentioned. “The day we signed our mortgage, my wife found out she was pregnant. It was the most serendipitous day.”
On the night time of Jan. 6, Viator had deliberate to seize sushi along with his neighbor, Jimmy Tamborello of indie group the Postal Service, when his spouse texted that Eaton Canyon was on hearth. Exterior, it was “like seeing a bomb had been dropped,” he mentioned. “A wall of orange spinning and whipping and exploding like nothing I’d ever seen before. It looked like hell on earth.”
He drove round honking and screaming at neighbors to evacuate. After he turned downhill to flee, Viator drove straight to Scottsdale, Ariz., the place his spouse and 2-year-old daughter have been staying. They would by no means see the house the place their little one was born once more.
Jake Viator, proper, with spouse Melissa Viator and his household of their Altadena dwelling.
(Melissa Viator.)
“I loved Altadena and the dream of Altadena,” Viator mentioned, tearing up. “I just had never been so at peace in a place.”
In a merciless coincidence, the Palisades and Eaton fires worn out two neighborhoods with distinctive significance in L.A.’s music trade. The Palisades hearth claimed ocean-view studios in Malibu, the place Grammy winners lived and recorded platinum albums steps from the sand. Fifty miles away, the Eaton hearth demolished a neighborhood adored by working artists and trade professionals looking for house to work amid nature.
“Every single musician I know in Altadena lost everything,” Viator mentioned. “I kept waiting to hear somebody be like, ‘I’m cool,’ but no, the list is just unfathomable. Everyone I know, every single person, every business is gone. I can’t understand it.”
The Palisades hearth claimed the houses and recording studios of many L.A. musicians.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Instances)
The fires ripped a path of destruction, one so whole and instantaneous that it was concussive for L.A. The infernos have claimed at the very least 25 lives and greater than 12,000 buildings that included architectural landmarks and generations of household houses, and 1000’s of acres of nature. Life financial savings, reminiscences and livelihoods: all cinders inside hours.
Within the days after, Los Angeles-area musicians and trade professionals started to flow into a spreadsheet noting who had misplaced a house or office. The record stretched over 200 entries.
Lorely Rodriguez, recognized professionally as Empress Of, misplaced the Altadena dwelling she shared together with her mom. DIIV band member Zachary Cole Smith’s household misplaced their dwelling whereas his spouse is anticipating a child. Hip-hop artists Fats Tony and Madlib misplaced their dwelling bases. So did “Bandsplain” podcaster Yasi Salek and Bennie Maupin, a member of Herbie Hancock’s elite Headhunters funk band. “70 years of history, family photographs, instruments, car and other family heirlooms completely gone,” Maupin’s son wrote on a GoFundMe.
The record cuts throughout class divides. Songwriting legend Diane Warren misplaced her beachfront dwelling, as did the Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett and Grammy-winning Adele and “Wicked” producer Greg Wells. So did scores of lesser-known session musicians, publicists, tour crew, membership promoters and radio DJs.
A lot of them, like Viator, had congregated in Altadena.
Stately and pure, within the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley simply north of Pasadena, the neighborhood turned a haven for musicians and artists who may now not afford studio house in neighborhoods reminiscent of Echo Park and Highland Park. You possibly can have a yard turkey coop subsequent to your vocal sales space, all inside a 30-minute drive to downtown L.A.
Taylor Goldsmith, frontman of the folk-rock band Dawes, misplaced his dwelling studio to the Eaton hearth. His household, together with his spouse, actor and singer Mandy Moore, and their three kids, have been lucky that their important home survived, but Goldsmith is shell-shocked by the Eaton hearth’s toll.
“I’d thought we were snug in our neighborhood, but we were so wrong,” he mentioned. “It feels surreal. This is horrific, and a lot of people are hurting way worse than we are. My brother [Griffin, his Dawes bandmate] lost his house and all his drums. He loves this town, he loves California, but he’s like ‘I don’t know if I can submit to risk of this happening again.’”
Goldsmith misplaced all his gear within the Eaton hearth — “vintage guitars that were irreplaceable, ones my hands learned to play on that meant so much to me.” He worries that this can traumatize his group in perpetuity.
“You can’t go around thinking everything can be ripped away from you in three hours at any time,” Goldsmith mentioned. “It f— you up. But I don’t want to let this be what turns me away from living there. I don’t want to give up and move on and make pain permanent.”
Houses and autos burned within the Eaton hearth in Altadena.
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Instances)
Fifty miles away, in Pacific Palisades, one of many wealthiest neighborhoods within the nation famed for ocean views and a tight-knit, small-town really feel, virtually no dwelling was spared.
Whereas social media was stuffed with plaintive notes from celebrities (together with Anthony Hopkins, Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton and Jamie Lee Curtis) lamenting the misplaced of their multimillion-dollar houses within the inferno, numerous acclaimed recording studios succumbed as properly.
These studios have been a part of the glamorous archetype of L.A. music lore. Recording in an attractive room overlooking the Pacific meant you’d reached a pinnacle of the document enterprise.
The legendary producer and mixer Bob Clearmountain had labored on albums by Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones in his Palisades dwelling studio, Combine This! Taking part in Clearmountain’s Bösendorfer grand piano by his SSL mixing console related an artist to music historical past — David Bowie, Roxy Music and Nile Rodgers sought out his mastery and his gear.
Final Tuesday, Clearmountain misplaced his dwelling of 30-plus years within the Palisades hearth. They have been capable of save just a few mementos, reminiscent of a doodle Springsteen drew as a present for Clearmountain’s spouse’s fiftieth birthday. However many of the gear he’d spent a life accumulating and refining is gone, as is his cherished Palisades dwelling.
“Devastating is an understatement,” Clearmountain mentioned. “But I’m lucky. My wife and I are safe, our pets are safe, our family is safe. I really thought I’d spend the rest of my days there; it was such a beautiful place to live. There’s just so much loss in this fire.”
Jeffrey Paradise, founding father of the L.A. digital act Poolside, had moved his dwelling and recording studio into the Malibu hills three years in the past. His home was a favourite hangout of the Grateful Useless within the ’70s, constructed with wooden salvaged from the Venice Seashore pier. He cherished internet hosting musician buddies from Highland Park for weekendlong writing periods.
“We’ve been on tour for years, so this was our sanctuary whenever we got back,” Paradise mentioned. “Bob Dylan had a place nearby. I’d run into Anthony Kiedis at cafes. Gene Simmons and Seal were my neighbors. We absolutely loved this house.”
However now his avenue is “a war zone, I’ve never seen anything like it, just an acid-trip nightmare hellscape,” Paradise mentioned. “Everything is gone. The enormity of it all is hard to comprehend. I can’t even feel it yet. This is going to be our reality for years.”
A Torrance firefighter watches as a home burns from the Palisades hearth on Shoreheights Drive.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Instances)
Rick Rubin’s acclaimed Shangri-La studio in Malibu survived the hearth, however the home on Alma Actual Drive the place Doorways’ guitarist Robby Krieger wrote the band’s best-known single, “Light My Fire,” went up in ashes, and R&B singer Jhené Aiko additionally misplaced her dwelling within the blaze.
Up the hill in Malibu, Zach Brandon owned Harbor Studios, a luxe recording compound that had turn into a favourite for modern pop and hip-hop acts like Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj, who reduce tracks on their respective albums “Scarlet” and “Pink Friday 2” there. It was first constructed as the house base for jazz-fusion group Climate Report.
Reached by textual content, Brandon mentioned that “We’re devastated by the loss of our studio — a beloved space that was deeply special to all those who had the opportunity to experience the inspiration it provided. Our hearts go out to all who have been impacted, and we will continue to do whatever we can to help our neighbors in this trying time. As we continue to grieve, we remain encouraged by the resilience of our community.”
Even music venues that survived the hearth are going through the fallout of a depopulated seaside group.
“Fifty percent of all the business I have is corporate events and private events, and they’re all canceled now,” mentioned Lance Sterling, who owns the Canyon membership in close by Agoura Hills, which shut down for the week of the fires. “I’m probably down $650,000 in revenue right now, and there’s 100,000 people dislocated who are not my customers anymore.”
Already, the music trade is fundraising for the 1000’s of displaced Angelenos. A serious profit live performance is deliberate for Intuit Dome on Jan. 30. Beyoncé’s basis introduced a $2.5-million donation, and Warner Music promised one other million.
Inside the affected communities, so many blue-collar music professionals and working-class artists face years of restoration.
For Willie “Prophet” Stiggers of the Black Music Motion Coalition, the fires have been “like been watching a horror film. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he mentioned. “L.A. is a town where music comes from, so many people come here to draw inspiration. This is a gut blow like we’ve never experienced before.”
The group is fundraising for Black artists, companies and incarcerated firefighters affected by the disasters. “Music is such a unifier after people have lost communities. We’re seeing humanity show up in a very divisive time,” Prophet mentioned. “That part gives me hope.”
But after the COVID-19 pandemic’s results on the live-music trade, coupled with skyrocketing prices of dwelling in Los Angeles, the fires carry a painful new impediment.
“It’s unfathomable,” mentioned Laura Segura, the manager director of MusiCares, the charitable associate of the Recording Academy. “All the music companies we think of as behemoths have staff who lost homes. So did tour crew, musicians, bus drivers, electricians. This is a different kind of disaster than the pandemic, but it does feel that daunting.”
A firefighter turns his head away from the extreme warmth from an condo blaze fueled by excessive winds from the Eaton hearth in Altadena.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Instances)
Segura mentioned MusiCares has already acquired greater than 2,000 requests for support from affected music professionals, and whereas the wants will fluctuate — from speedy shelter and meals support to long-term housing and psychological well being help — this tragedy will contact each nook of the music trade in L.A.
“Disasters each have a long story to them,” Segura mentioned. “I certainly fear that it’s already so hard to find affordable housing in L.A., given [that] the average salary for a musician in the United States is under $50,000 per year. We know how hard it is to support a family and have security to stay here.
“I wish I understood why there is so much suffering here,” Segura added, choking up. “Please keep making music if you can, that’s my hope and prayer, and let us help if you can’t.”
The Recording Academy introduced that the 67th Grammy Awards, deliberate for Feb. 2 in Los Angeles, will go ahead with a concentrate on aid efforts. “We understand how devastating this past week has been on this city and its people,” Recording Academy and MusiCares Chief Govt Harvey Mason Jr. mentioned in a press release. “This is our home, it’s home to thousands of music professionals, and many of us have been negatively impacted.”
What sort of group might be in a position return to the fire-affected neighborhoods is unsure. For some musicians, this might be a remaining breaking level to hunt shelter and a livelihood elsewhere. For others, they’ll start the costly and isolating work of reestablishing in a desiccated group.
“My kid’s school was across the street, and it’s still there,” Goldsmith mentioned. “He adorably said he’s going to get an excavator and fix his school. That’s what we want for him — to create that same connection with his community.”
For individuals like Viator, middle-class music professionals who thought they’d discovered a foothold to dwell and work in Los Angeles, the hearth incinerated way more than a house or a recording studio. It took away a beautiful dream of what a life in music might be right here.
“It’s all going to have to rise from scratch,” Viator mentioned. “I’m not deluding myself, but I hope the spirit can be same. Maybe it can be a real haven for artists again, but will investment bankers snatch up all the property and ruin the neighborhood? What we had was so beautiful. It’d be a shame to just give up. So we’re going to try.”
