Right now, I want to shine a light on some people making a powerful difference after the January wildfires. We're turning up the volume, so to speak, on a story that has hit all the right notes. Man, I love a good pun. We're joined by Brandon j the founder of Altadena Musicians and the Instrumental Giving app. It's a grassroots organization that not only amplifies local talent, but is putting real instruments back into the hands of people who
lost them during the January wildfires. Brandon, tell me how did this all begin?
So, my wife and I are music composition names Gwendolyn Sandford. Most notably we scored Orange is a New Black, and we lived in Dana for thirteen years and our home and studio burned in the fire. About a week afterwards, we were both playing a show and people came and started bringing us instruments and did a lot of them were exact names that we lost in the fire, which gave me the idea to like, just do that on a big scale and ask people that had extra instruments
to connect with people that lost theirs. And the special thing about instruments are the stories behind them and how they're passed down from generation to generation, or they're used on particular recordings, or someone saved that bought a guitar when they were young, and so I've found it it's really healing in the process for the people that are
donating to meet the musicians that lost stuff. So that's the legacy of the instrument is carried on with the person getting it, and the person that lost something gets the story behind what they're getting, so they can mourn what they lost, but it's replaced by something that already has a story to it and you can continue that.
And what has the response been like from the community.
It's extraordinary. The you know, I grew up in Los Angeles and so I've been playing music since i was nine. Both my parents are musicians, so I've been in the
Los Angeles music scene for most of my life. And incredible tight knit community and far reaching and the devastation of these particular wildfires is so broad because so many people are affected and all walks of life have you know, it's just incredible the connections that people have made with each other in the community when they reach out and like help each other, and it's been it's been incredible.
How many instruments have you had donated and then how many have you passed out so far?
It's hard to tell because the numbers are they're like skyrocketing every day, but well over four hundred and counting. We just about a week ago mister Holland's Opus Foundation, the wonderful organization that provides instruments to schools when they need and they like buy them like new instruments and you know, get them sorted out. They took care of like all the schools that were ready for them, because there's about six schools that burned and just in Altadena,
and so they were taking care of them. They also did an instrument drive and were collecting instruments from other people that were supposed to go to fire victims, and they had to give up their extra storage space where everything was, and so we got in contact with them and we said we'll take everything because we have the infrastructure to get it to individuals. So just about three days ago we took We're just cataloging everything to see
how much it is, because it was so much. It was like over eighty five guitars and like a whole room full of classical instruments. Somewhere in the neighborhood of like like six hundred instruments.
Wow.
So right now we're like cleaning them with We have about forty volunteers that are just coming from people that we got instruments too, and they're like running over there like testing out clarinets and clean things off. And we also connected with Bertrans Music in Pasadena very early on because it's important for people to know that, like there's instruments that need servicing if they've been sitting around for a long time, and we don't want to put instruments in people's hands that need work.
I think that's great. I mean it sounds like people are This is something that people are truly passionate about and they really want to help. You know, when it comes to your instruments. You know, my daughter plays the trombone, and I know she loves it and she enjoys it, and it's very special to her because it's the first
instrument she really learned how to play. And I know that even in some you know, even if it seems like such a small thing to give someone an instrument to start over, in that way, it means so much to the person who's playing because music is therapy and it can be very healing in many ways. So I think it's wonderful what you're doing. Can you tell everybody how they can help? If you still need instruments, are you still taking them? How can people help and support what you're doing?
So either going to Altadena Musicians dot org, make a donation, can read about us, come to upcoming events, or download our app Instrumental Giving.
That's such a great addition to the instruments and a way to help also make money for your organization and that sort of thing. So Brandon, thank you so much for your time. You can check out Instrumental Giving or Altadena Musicians to find out how you can help bring music back to Alta. Dina, I'm Heatherbrooker, thanks so much for listening. You can listen to any of our shows from KFI on the iHeartRadio app.