LA’s Highland Park a hub of young artists, labels and vinyl stores
Even to many long-time residents who earn a living in the music business, the bounty of independent work being created, swapped, bought and sold in and around Highland Park is notable.
When Alexis Rivera, a music manager who lives and works in the northeast Los Angeles enclave of Highland Park, leaves his little storefront office, he has on occasion witnessed a culture collision between a famous comedian and a reclusive hip-hop producer that to him typifies the thriving state of the neighbourhood.
“I will see Marc Maron and Madlib out in front of our office having coffee from next door, talking on their phones and waiting for people,” says Rivera on a recent afternoon at his office near the corner of York Boulevard and Avenue 50. “They don’t know each other. They probably haven’t even heard of each other. But it’s no greater symbol of the neighbourhood that these two super-talented people co-exist.”
Such is life in one of Los Angeles’ music centres, a hub whose redevelopment boom has prompted stories about an inflated housing market and another round of gentrification. Amid the activity to reimagine spaces and invigorate less profitable shopfronts, the area continues to offer a sense of boundless opportunity for young artists.
“I love this neighbourhood,” says Gimme Gimme Records owner Dan Cook, who relocated his New York shop after 18 years in the East Village. “It’s in this really sweet spot where it’s not all taken over and corporate. It’s such a great mix.”
Even to many long-time residents who earn a living in the music business, the bounty of independent work currently being created, swapped, bought and sold in northeast Los Angeles - Highland Park and neighbouring Eagle Rock, Glassell Park and Mount Washington - is notable.
Like the 1960s Laurel Canyon folk scene, the Sunset Strip’s 1980s hair metal heyday, Compton’s seminal early ’90s gangsta rap era and Silver Lake’s vibrant indie rock dominance in the ’90s and ’00s, Highland Park and environs are dense with genre-spanning musical creativity in 2015.