Singer-songwriters Lisa Simmons-Santa Cruz and her husband Francisco Carroll Santa Cruz had been going by way of a difficult time final March after they labored on Snoop Dogg’s 2025 gospel album, “Altar Call.”
“We were actually writing all those songs in a hotel, displaced,” Carroll Santa Cruz mentioned.
The couple, who’ve labored within the leisure business for greater than 29 years writing and producing music for artists like Kelly Rowland and tv exhibits reminiscent of “Desperate Housewives,” had misplaced their Altadena residence within the Eaton fireplace just a few months earlier.
Nonetheless, the platinum singer-songwriters didn’t wish to move up the chance, which got here up in the course of the ultimate week of their resort keep when Simmons-Santa Cruz and Carroll Santa Cruz had been launched to Snoop Dogg by way of artists Charlie Bereal and Level 5ve. Though Snoop Dogg had additionally arrange a donation middle for fireplace victims, the couple selected to not share their very own displacement with him or anybody else within the music business.
“We needed something the fire couldn’t burn and that was our music,” Simmons-Santa Cruz mentioned. “At that time, we needed something separate from the fire — something that the fire couldn’t touch, it was too traumatic to keep revisiting what we’d lost, so our work became our peace and our escape.”
Regardless of the lack of their residence studio and the restrictions of working from a resort room, they efficiently accomplished the mission in a brief period of time. Simmons-Santa Cruz later described the expertise as “divine intervention in the midst of tragedy,” saying the music gave them house to heal by way of religion whereas doing what they liked most.
“It was comforting, we didn’t have to focus on the fire or what was lost, the music gave us a moment to reflect on life, and it became a saving grace,” she mentioned.
The couple had initially resided within the Altadena residence with Simmons-Santa Cruz’s 77-year-old mom, who first purchased the home in 1974. Within the aftermath of the fires, the couple was compelled to determine the place they had been going to dwell as in addition they grappled with the immense paperwork, payments and insurance coverage claims that got here with the lack of their residence.
MusiCares, a well being and welfare charity for musicians based by the Recording Academy in 1989, provided them help.
“They were like, the FEMA of the music industry,” Simmons-Santa Cruz mentioned.
In keeping with Theresa Wolters, govt director of MusiCares, the group helps the music group by way of direct monetary help for primary dwelling, medical, psychological well being and substance use wants, in addition to free preventive healthcare. One 12 months after the Los Angeles wildfires, MusiCares has directed greater than $15 million towards aid and restoration, reaching over 3,200 music professionals affected by the catastrophe.
When MusiCares stepped in to offer emergency funds for Simmons-Santa Cruz and her husband, it additionally provided to exchange an necessary instrument for her. Her father, who died seven years in the past, helped her choose her first guitar, however the guitar was left behind when the fireplace broke out.
“That guitar was very sentimental for me,” she mentioned.
Nothing can ever substitute the non-public reminiscence tied to the guitar, however Simmons-Santa Cruz says that MusiCares provided her hope by way of this deed, and the brand new guitar represents that.
“I just broke down, I just started crying, because I’m like, who replaces a guitar? … The last thing that was on my mind was replacing our equipment because we’re still in survival mode,” she mentioned.
Drummer Darryl “JMD” Moore” getting fitted for custom ear molds for his live performances at MusiCares Altadena Health and Wellness Clinic at Grammy Museum L.A. Live
(Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
The couple is living in a rental and continuing to deal with the fallout of the fires, still unable to rebuild their house because of the financial costs. Since the fires, many other music professionals have faced similar hardships, like music producer and drummer Darryl “JMD” Moore, who still has to pay the mortgage on the home he lost while rebuilding another one “like for like” as mandated by the mortgage bank.
“I wanted to build a home for my children, and my grandchildren, my descendants, that would serve them financially and in every other way it could, because I know this property is valuable, my house doubled in value, it was worth twice what I paid for,” Moore said. “But our insurance is not paying us enough money to build the same house, it’s like hundreds of thousands of dollars short, so everybody like us, we’re in a scramble to get the money to fill in the gaps.”
After years of renting in Altadena, Moore finally bought his first home there in 2011, a purchase made possible thanks to his success in the music industry. Moore is known in both the jazz and hip-hop music scenes, having produced acts like the Pharcyde and Freestyle Fellowship while also drumming for jazz greats like Horace Tapscott. Moore originally grew up in South L.A., where he started playing drums at 13, focusing on R&B and funk before eventually being mentored by the renowned jazz saxophonist and singer Elvira “Vi” Redd.
When the Eaton fire began to crawl toward Moore’s house, he said he quickly packed his most important possessions. He took an archival hard drive which contained his music from 2004 to the present, but everything else burned: his recording studio, archival tapes and reels, and his favorite drum set, a vintage 1965 Rogers Holiday kit he bought in the ‘80s.
“I played on albums and records with that Rogers kit, when I moved to New York in ’89, I took that Rogers kit with me, and I pushed that kit down the street every night from the East Village to the West Village to work,” Moore said. “I can get one that looks just like it if I was willing to spend the $4,000, but was it in the back of the subway, did I play it on Bleecker Street?” the jazz drummer said.
Immediately after the fire took his home, Moore needed to work, but he no longer possessed the peripherals and equipment he required to record. MusiCares donated thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment he needed, including a drum set, and it also provided grants to help him pay both his mortgage and the rent where he’s currently staying. Moore has a long way to go before he completely recovers financially, but he says the organization made a significant impact in his life this past year, and he’s grateful.
“My studio’s back online, I’m able to practice, I’m able to work and do some gigs … it gave me my voice back, really, that was the beginning of everything,” the hip-hop producer said.
For Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay, a married couple raising a 16-year-old and a 9-year-old, the emotional weight has been just as significant as the financial burden that followed. The couple said they’ve been proactive in prioritizing the mental well-being and happiness of their children since losing their Altadena home.
“It was harder for them early on, when we were moving so frequently, we didn’t have any control over it, we were just trying to get somewhere stable to be, and I think they were processing the loss when they were sad that we didn’t have our home,” Sanford said.
Sanford and her husband are singer-songwriters and have scored music for television shows like “Weeds” and “Orange Is the New Black.” The couple is also in a children’s music band called Gwendolyn and the Good Time Gang, and they recently composed music for the off-Broadway show “Romy and Michele the Musical.”
Like many others, the couple lost their personal recording studio, making work difficult. The stress has been immense for the couple, but they said MusiCares was able to ease some of the financial burden when the organization offered them grants to cover their mortgage, which they are still on the hook for.
Darryl “JMD” Moore in entrance of his residence that burned down within the wildfires, taken in 2023.
(Darryl “JMD” Moore)
“There’s all the red tape and hurdles and things we have to do just to rebuild our home, so that in itself is like a full-time job that we never wanted, on top of just our regular lives raising our kids and doing work,” Jay mentioned. “So, to have the support of someone like that and have them say you don’t have to worry about this one aspect for a while, is invaluable.”
Just lately, Sanford was requested to carry out at a groundbreaking ceremony her former Altadena neighbor was having for a brand new home being constructed there. Sanford’s daughter had not wished to return to the neighborhood, however she determined to accompany her mom anyway. The return was cathartic.
“She was able to walk around our lot and have a private moment, and I asked her how she felt, and she said, ‘I feel safe here, this is my home,’” Sanford mentioned.
On the occasion, Sanford sang a music she penned in 2011 known as, “Acorn,” which was impressed by the grandeur of oak timber and what they symbolize in nature. The music has taken on a distinct that means for her within the wake of the fires.
“The acorn is a metaphor, and I think that’s kind of where we all are right now, we have to start over, we have to start small, and eventually we’ll get back to where we were,” Sanford mentioned.
