Malibu's Harbor Studios, a residential recording studio that's played host to Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat and Jack Harlow, has been destroyed by the wildfires currently raging through Los Angeles.
In a post shared to its Instagram account on January 8th, studio owner Zach Brandon shared a photograph of Harbor Studio's remains. "I am profoundly sad to announce that Harbor Studios has been lost to the Palisades Fire," Brandon said, before going on to recount the history of the studio, which has been a "staple in the music community" since the '90s.
Founded as a recording space for jazz keyboardist Joe Zawinul and his band The Weather Report, the studio later became a home studio for film composer Paul Dinletir, known for his work on Avatar and The Avengers. In 2021, the studio was rebranded as Harbor Studios, and has since been visited by stars such as Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj, who used it to record her 2023 album Pink Friday 2.
"I cried this morning, but not because Harbor burned down," Brandon continued. "I cried because it settled in with me that Harbor was taken from so many artists who cared so deeply about Harbor. It was a place of musical freedom… a sanctuary in the most literal sense of the word. I loved it."
Brandon has stated that he intends to rebuild Harbor Studios in another location, and has already begun the process of planning its new incarnation. "This is not the end of Harbor," he said. "We are restarting from scratch (again)… nothing we haven’t done before. Not only that, but I have gained so much knowledge and experience from Harbor 1 that I will be implementing into the rebuild.
"I’ve taken the initial steps forward - the original studio builder and I have already begun planning what the new Harbor Studios is going to look like. Thankfully, the magic that has been bestowed upon us by our clients is something that can never leave. It’s in the soil, it’s in the air, and it’s in our souls. We will come back stronger from this."
Described on its website as a "luxury, world-class recording studio and lodging experience", Harbor Studios was designed by studio builders and acoustic designers Steven Klein and Hanson Hsu.
Made up of a wood-panelled A room and three additional recording spaces, the studio was connected to a four-bedroom home and zen garden with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. Among the gear destroyed in the blaze was a collection of vintage synths that included a Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 and Roland Juno-106.
