Legendary producer and mix engineer Bob Clearmountain has lost his home and studio in the Los Angeles wildfires.
Speaking to the LA Times, Clearmountain revealed that his Mix This! studio, located in the basement of his Palisades home, has been completely destroyed. The producer made the decision to evacuate on January 7th, packing up several cars full of belongings before retreating to Santa Monica.
"We grabbed everything we could think of," he said. "I had some some things that Bruce Springsteen had given us; he had done a little one of his little stick-figure doodles for my wife’s 50th birthday, which I thought, ‘Well, that’s something pretty special.’
"We just figured we’d be back in a few days," Clearmountain continued. "That once the evacuation order was lifted, we’d just be loading everything back into the house. It really didn’t occur to us that this could be the end of our world."
Bob Clearmountain, the brilliant engineer & producer who helped define the sound of the 80s, has lost his home & home studio to the fires. 😞 pic.twitter.com/di6jlg2wJqJanuary 11, 2025
Home to a vast collection of instruments and gear, Mix This! is a custom-built, Atmos-equipped studio that's been used to mix music by an array of artists that includes The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen.
Though Clearmountain managed to save some of his equipment from the blaze, the majority had to be left behind, including a 72-channel SSL 4072 G+ console and Bösendorfer grand piano.
Clearmountain says he's determined to continue working, despite the loss of his home and studio. “I look at it as a challenge, the next chapter," he said. "I can’t really look back. I can’t spend too much time being bummed out about it. I’ve got to say, ‘OK, what can I do?’
"I’m going to change the style of what I do. I’m gonna do what I do, but do it differently, and hopefully it’ll be good, maybe better than what I was doing. That’s all I can think right now."
In a natural disaster that governor Gavin Newsom is calling one of the "worst in US history", over 180,000 residents have been evacuated and 24 are confirmed to have died. Thousands of residents have lost their homes to the wildfires, including large numbers of musicians and producers whose studios, instruments and gear have also fallen victim to the disaster.
"I just have to remind myself, it’s really down to the people and to the ideas, and none of that stuff makes a song better"
Speaking to Variety yesterday (12 January) producer Greg Wells revealed that his family home and home studio had been destroyed in the Palisades blaze, including a "state-of-the-art, immersive, 7.1 Atmos room" designed by acclaimed studio architect Peter Grueneisen. Known for working with Elton John, Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa, among others, Wells was also the producer for the recently released musical fantasy film Wicked.
“I had such a collection of incredible recording equipment," Wells told Variety, "like a custom-made, 48-channel analog console made by Paul Wolff, who used to own API [...] There were these 1950s RCA tube compressors from the Little Richard/Elvis era, really unique pieces that had always just made me salivate.
“But I just have to remind myself, it’s really down to the people and to the ideas, and none of that stuff makes a song better. So I’m not gonna let it define me.”
Others in the music world that have lost homes to the wildfires include Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith, Chris Shifflet of the Foo Fighters, and DIIV's Zachary Smith.
Today, retailer Guitar Center announced the launch of a charitable initiative to help musicians affected by the disaster by replacing lost instruments and gear.
