The Beginning

Institute of Groove

When I was 13, my family moved to Malibu and our house on PCH happened to sit next door to a recording studio called the Institute of Groove. I got my first job there washing cars for the clients. Then I started quietly sneaking inside to listen. Someone would eventually say "Master Bobby wants to get paid" and I'd slip back out — but not before sitting at the piano when the room was empty and playing songs I was starting to write.

I'd been playing piano since I was 6. One of my regular car wash clients was Roy Bittan from the E Street Band. After washing his car one day I sat down at his piano and played something I'd written. He listened, nodded, and said "keep writing." That was enough to keep me going for years.

The Band Years

New York, LA, and Lone Palm Studios

I eventually moved to New York, played in bands, came back to LA and formed a band called Fiction Company — we had a song on the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack. I played with bands in the LA indie scene including Frausdots and The Tyde.

Around 2006, friends from the band On The Speakers and I built a recording studio — on the second floor of a wood building, which turned the whole structure into a giant drum. The other tenants were not pleased. We found a house instead, bought it, and Lone Palm Studios was born. Real estate was already taking off for me by then, and I had little kids, so I handed the torch to my collaborator Dan Horne — who still carries it today, writing, playing, producing, and touring.

I will always play and write. But getting to work with musicians in real estate has felt like coming home. Studios are magic places. Hallowed ground. And I understand them — not just as commercial property, but as spaces where music and creativity happen.

Client Story

Glassell Park

Exterior entrance and backyard of the Glassell Park property

Joel Jerome had been renting a home in Glassell Park with a garage studio — Psychedelic Thriftstore, his recording studio and label — where he's worked with artists including LA Witch, La Sera, and Cherry Glazerr. When his landlords decided to sell, Joel and his partner Kelly faced losing both their home and his workspace to an investor sale.

Joel and I had actually first talked about homeownership years earlier, at a friend's birthday barbecue — back at Lone Palm, aka Liberty Hair Farm. So when this came up, I was glad to help however I could: connecting them with a lender, and working with the sellers off-market to land on a price that worked for everyone. Joel and Kelly bought the home they were already living in and recording in, keeping the studio intact. As Joel put it, "sometimes the little guy wins."

Instagram: @joeljeromemusic

Track Record

Recording Studios I've Sold and Leased

  • 2817 W Ave 34
    Glassell Park, Los Angeles · Psychedelic Thriftstore
    Sold
  • 5550 Melrose Ave
    Hollywood · Former Electro-Vox Studios · Office/Studio · 4,768 SF
    Sold
  • 2425 Glover Pl
    Los Angeles · Recording Studio
    Leased
  • 3021 W Temple St, Los Angeles
    Hotel Earth Studios
    Sold
  • 1490 Silverwood Ter
    Los Angeles
    Sold
  • 1322 Liberty St
    Los Angeles · Lone Palm Studios
    Sold
  • 761 N Gower St
    Hollywood
    Sold