Helping Los Angeles Musicians inside Wildfire Charity

w
In January, the Eaton Fire first swept Altadena, California, reducing the entire community to rubble and ashes, and Brandon Jay figured out his house, which his house (a few blocks south of Altadena Drive) could survive. He is more concerned with the damage of violence than fire. “We're used to firing in the mountains,” said music composer and drummer Jay. Orange is new black and Weed. “It just happened.”

So Jay, while evacuating with his wife and two children in the middle of the night, grabbed only a few pieces of essential gear to keep him wet until he could return, plus his home studio laptop and hard drive. “Basically, I grabbed my wife's Martin acoustic guitar and my TV broadcaster, and that's all,” Jay recalls. “In the fire, everything else was almost wiped out. We lost hundreds of instruments, a whole recording space.”

They owned the house for 13 years and were destroyed along with Jay's studio and everything in it. The family and a friend of Ventura crashed temporarily. But life and music continue. About two weeks after the fire, he and Sanford performed with their respective bands at a local community event in Pasadena, called Pasadena Neighbor Day. Jay is using a percussion instrument donated by his friend Pierre de Reeder. People keep showing up – acquaintances, friends, Jay has never seen him since before the disaster began. Some have gifts. Specifically, they brought the instruments.

“A lot of the instruments are instruments we lost in the fire,” Jay said. “Once people start bringing me instruments, I said, ‘Okay, I just have to do the same thing.’”

Jay draws inspiration from that experience, and his local “nothing” group, over the years, trades family objects with countless weird neighbors. In January, he posted on a Facebook group asking if anyone lost the instrument. “All of these people started chatting and let me know what they lost,” he said. “I started connecting them to the people who donated (the instrument). Basically, if you have something to pay, or if you need a model of something, you just let it know, someone pops up and can pop it…it's like “nothing to buy”, but let's do it on a massive scale – a city-wide scale.”

After thinking about Jay's thoughts, he moved quickly. At the end of January, he launched the Altadena Musician, a DIY instrument registry designed to help Los Angeles-area musicians lose their beloved gear in the wildfires. (The name is a nod to Altadena Girls, a group that a teenage girl began this year to help others who lost homes and belongings.) Launched with a fiscal sponsorship from the Creative Visions Foundation — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which means donations are tax-deductible — the registry serves to connect musicians who lost instruments or gear in the wildfires with people who have instruments to donate.

Anyone who loses the instrument can apply. You don’t have to be a professional musician, or even a talented musician. Meanwhile, those who can donate extra equipment can search through the instruments they want to give (such as the Gibson SG) and the database will show people the lost people. They can read the profile of these people and if it is a game, send a direct message to meet and hand over the goods without exchanging money.

“It works like a wedding registry,” Jay explained. “You set up an account. You proved that you were affected. Then you listed everything from the smallest shaker to the largest grand piano, and you listed everything missing.” In March, the organization launched a mobile app to simplify the process.

Need rare instruments that are not easy to find in stores? no problem. “It's a diverse music industry and people are stepping up their efforts,” Jay said. “A friend of mine reached out to me, 'Hey, I have an extra Max tube. I know you have one of them.' I was like, “Oh, my god.” “They are rare.”

Jay's advocacy force impressed his friends, if not surprised. “He was just a little tornado of energy and compassion,” said Everclear lead singer Artman Artman, who met Jay after his respective daughters became friends in school. “That's how I describe him. He can't stop. He's one of the people that everyone likes because he always does good things for people.”

“This just changed the dynamics of our family”

The instruments seem to be not the most urgent casualties of wildfires. But they are key tools for working musicians to visit or make ends meet, and they often have deep emotional value for players who have been with them for years or even decades.

Just ask Justin Smith, the drummer of the psychedelic rock band Howlin Rain, who lost four old-fashioned drummer kits, a side-talk bass, a guitar and a piano, when his Altadena home was burned. Smith said when he returned nearby after the fire, it was “like someone threw a bomb on it.” He could see the garage that once had a drum drum, and it was “just gray. Everything was destroyed.”

Those drums provide memories and stories for Smith. The 1960s Gretsch kit was paired with white ocean pearls, which he used while touring with Howlin Rain and reunite the seeds. “That's the kit I've always loved to play with,” Smith said. “It's like wearing your favorite coat.” With his beloved late 60s Camco kit, he also went through several tours, the 1967 Ludwig kit, and the mid-60s sunbathing he found before the pandemic.

“They are drum sets that I really and really love, and to me, that means a lot to me,” Smith said. “But at the same time,” More Lost. ”

Although Smith's exact rig may never be replicated, the Altardner musician helped him start the reconstruction process. “After the fire, there were gigs in my book,” Smith said. “When I pieced together a kit, I needed to fill in the gaps. The Altadena musician helped do this by donating snare drums.” (Smith used it for a while until he was able to source and buy a copy of his Ludwig kit.)

The registry also brings relief to more casual music lovers, such as Sogol Moshfegh as its first recipient. Until the fire, Moshfegh loved to live in Altadena with her husband (guitarist), two young sons and various instruments: guitar, Hawaiian quadrilateral, Chinese flute, Djembe, Djembe, some Orba Sound Machines. “We are working to make them musicians,” Moshfegh said of her children. “It’s part of our plan – before our house burns down.”

After the fire, Moshfegh connects with Jay through the “Nothing Nothing” group. She listed some of the instruments lost by her family, and in early February, Jay offered some donated alternatives to the family, including Martin of Martin for Moshfegh’s husband, electrical guitars for the kids, travel AMPs and regular amplifiers. He also gave home-free vinyl from artists affected by the fire, such as postal service (Jimmy Tamborello lost his home) and gave amniotic fluid music gift cards to amoeba music.

To Moshfegh's surprise, the instrument changed the dynamics in their new rental.

“We didn't realize that bringing these instruments back into our lives would make as meaningful as before, and it was actually really amazing and healing,” Moshfegh said. “It just changed the dynamics in our home. It didn't seem like the most necessary thing because we lost a lot of other things. But in reality, it's an integral part of our spirit.”

I'll buy you a new bass…yes, I'll

Since launching Altadena musicians a few months ago, Brandon Jay has been working on the seemingly uninterrupted cell phone, calling celebrity friends and contacts in the music industry to get instrument donations and improve the organization’s profile. He recruited Fender as a sponsor – providing a stable guitar donation process – and recruited industry veterans such as talent buyer Elizabeth Garo and artist manager Laurel Stearns to serve on the foundation’s loosely defined board of directors to help everything work.

Jay buzzed, and the famous musician's name involved one way or another. He convinced Weezer to remind their fans (he was a partner of their “fifth member” Karl Koch), who convinced Everclear's Alexakis to hand over some instruments from his studio himself, and convinced the producers to cut chemists to donate some gear as well.

“I’m part of the community and I just told 'em,' I got a bunch of stuff down and pick some (musical instruments),” said Alexander, whose home in Northern Pasadena survived the North Fire in Eaton (he and his family lived in the hotel in their home). “I have friends who lost their homes in Palisade and Malibu. The entire music industry has indeed come to help a lot of people.”

Altadena musicians also started hosting events. On April 27, the organization will work with Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner on the local Zebulon venue, with a DJ suit from band Automatic. Zinner is approaching friends to solicit donations for guitar pedals and recording gear (as Jay put it, “all we lack”).

“For me, there's a big difference between buying something new and getting something with a story and a certain spirit,” Zinner said.

Coincidentally, Zinner started planning his own activities before getting to know Jay's organization. “I was thinking at the time that I couldn't be the only musician in Los Angeles, they didn't use what they used, or I might meet people who need it,” he said. “Altadena musicians are basically doing the same thing in the connection. Working together is a effortless thing.”

Meanwhile, he walks around and Jay meets Angelenos whose instruments disappear. He is like a music matchmaker who burns down a metropolis. In February, he met a new neighbor in his family’s new monthly apartment in Duarte, California, and a 62-year-old man also lost his home. Jay asked if he had lost any instruments and the man said, “Yes, I lost some guitar!”

That same month, Jay said from Luxxtone Guitars, a custom store in Arcadia, that a batch of guitars have been donated recently. One of the guitars formerly belonged to Elliot Ingber, an early member of Frank Zappa's invention mother.

“He played (1966) Frightened!He died recently and gave some guitars. This is really extraordinary. ”