The devastating wildfires that ripped through Los Angeles, particularly the Eaton and Palisades fires, have left a trail of destruction across the music industry. These fires, which claimed homes and studios, have impacted a diverse range of musicians, from Grammy winners to emerging artists, and have shaken the foundations of vibrant music communities in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
The day the Eaton fire began, Jake Viator had just finished remodeling his midcentury Altadena home. Viator, a mastering engineer for the local record label Stones Throw, moved into the rustic foothill neighborhood with his wife in 2022, a place full of middle-class artists and century-old homes. He had a garage studio in a neighborhood full of friends making music. 'We scraped everything we had to afford it,' Viator said. 'The day we signed our mortgage, my wife found out she was pregnant.
It was the most serendipitous day.' On the night of January 6th, Viator had planned to grab sushi with his neighbor, Jimmy Tamborello of indie group the Postal Service, when his wife texted that Eaton Canyon was on fire. Outside, it was 'like seeing a bomb had been dropped,' he said. 'A wall of orange spinning and whipping and exploding like nothing I’d ever seen before. It looked like hell on earth.' He drove around honking and screaming at neighbors to evacuate. After he turned downhill to flee, Viator drove straight to Scottsdale, Arizona, where his wife and 2-year-old daughter were staying. They would never see the home where their child was born again. 'I loved Altadena and the dream of Altadena,' Viator said, tearing up. 'I just had never been so at peace in a place.' In a cruel coincidence, the Palisades and Eaton fires wiped out two neighborhoods with unique significance in L.A.’s music industry. The Palisades fire claimed ocean-view studios in Malibu, where Grammy winners lived and recorded platinum albums steps from the sand. Fifty miles away, the Eaton fire demolished a neighborhood adored by working artists and industry pros seeking space to work amid nature. 'Every single musician I know in Altadena lost everything,' Viator said. '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 fires ripped a path of destruction, one so total and instantaneous that it was concussive for L.A. The infernos have claimed at least 25 lives and more than 12,000 structures that included architectural landmarks and generations of family homes, and thousands of acres of nature. Life savings, memories and livelihoods: all cinders within hours. In the days after, Los Angeles-area musicians and industry pros began to circulate a spreadsheet noting who had lost a home or workplace. The list stretched over 200 entries. Lorely Rodriguez, known professionally as Empress Of, lost the Altadena home she shared with her mother. DIIV band member Zachary Cole Smith’s family lost their home while his wife is expecting a baby. Hip-hop artists Fat Tony and Madlib lost their home 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 list cuts across class divides. Songwriting legend Diane Warren lost her beachfront home, 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, club promoters and radio DJs. Many of them, like Viator, had congregated in Altadena. Stately and natural, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley just north of Pasadena, the neighborhood became a haven for musicians and artists who could no longer afford studio space in neighborhoods such as Echo Park and Highland Park. You could have a backyard turkey coop next to your vocal booth, all within a 30-minute drive to downtown L.A. Taylor Goldsmith, frontman of the folk-rock band Dawes, lost his home studio to the Eaton fire. His family, including his wife, actor and singer Mandy Moore, and their three children, were fortunate that their main house survived, yet Goldsmith is shell-shocked by the Eaton fire’s toll. 'I’d thought we were snug in our neighborhood, but we were so wrong,' he said. 'It feels surreal. This is horrific, and a lot of people are hurting way worse than we are. My brother 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 lost all his equipment in the Eaton fire — 'vintage guitars that were irreplaceable, ones my hands learned to play on that meant so much to me.' He worries that this will traumatize his community in perpetuity. 'You can’t go around thinking everything can be ripped away from you in three hours at any time,' Goldsmith said. '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.' Fifty miles away, in Pacific Palisades, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country famed for ocean views and a tight-knit, small-town feel, almost no home was spared
Wildfires Los Angeles Music Industry Altadena Pacific Palisades Eaton Fire Palisades Fire Musicians Studios Damage Community
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