In Their Own Words: How Music Manager Evan Winiker Is Coping With Losing Home To L.A. Fires

By Evan Winiker (As Told to Andy Gensler)

20202 Pacific Coast Highway was a special place. We had this little stairway that went down to the beach. You could walk 100 feet at low tide and be surrounded by clams, seashells and starfish. Hours later it would be underwater. It was a magical spot.

So many beautiful songs written there. Before I had it, Dolly Parton had it for years. Other great artists wrote songs there. It was a place of inspiration. In any direction you looked, you saw beauty.

It was built in the ’40s and one of a number of bungalows, Ultimately, Dolly made it perfect. There were purple Malibu sunsets on the ceilings, birds and clippings of surfers on the walls. Waking up to the sun rising over Palos Verdes and setting in the ocean by Point Dume was too beautiful for words.

It became a place of inspiration for me as I got back into painting and had hundreds of paintings that were all lost in the fire.

I was in Los Angeles and one of our neighbors, a volunteer firefighter, was texting. “We’re going to be OK, the house is on a beach. It’s just at Las Tunas Canyon. It won’t get across the highway.” Then sometime around 7 o’clock, he said embers flew across the highway. And then one of the houses about eight houses down was on fire. Then seven houses, six houses, five, four and so on. Our whole beach went and then a big chunk of Las Flores, La Costa, Dog Beach, which are some of the coolest beaches there. 

The dark side of it is the stuff that was lost was irreplaceable: hundreds of paintings, all my guitars, books, all my vinyl my mom handed down to me, photographs and other artifacts from my life. The upside is that my life goes on. And the memories I created there with Henry, Charles and my loved ones are some of the greatest possessions of my life that can never be taken from me. I just want to keep living my best life and helping people achieve in whatever way they can.

One thing that has felt really warm about this is the embrace from my community, both inside of music and outside — people I’ve worked with for years and people I’ve only met once or twice. Many, many people have reached out, all walks of life, and it’s been heartwarming.  

I’m fortunate to have started my career at such a young age. Jack (Antonoff) and I were 14 when we started playing music. By 17 we were touring. At that young age we started making relationships with festival buyers, radio programmers, late night bookers, etc. That’s more than 25 years ago, which is crazy.

This has given me great perspective on the things that are important in life. I feel really blessed and privileged because of what I do have. I’m trying my best to help those people who aren’t as fortunate and trying to affect change among our community leaders and to have an impact in this moment.

I’ve talked to L.A. City Council people. One of the most important things right now is the future infrastructure of L.A. We need to bury the power lines because the Santa Ana winds are always going to be here. We need to do everything in our power to make sure this never happens again. 

It was the best place ever. There’s a great quote from the late Robert Hunter, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, where he’s looking back fondly on memories saying, “Oh, how I wish those times would come again.” And then it’s almost like he tears up, and he goes, “But they will for someone else.” 

Someone else is going to have beautiful memories on those beaches. It’s OK if I don’t, because we have those memories, and those memories will stay with us forever. 

Evan Winiker is a Founding Partner and Managing Partner at Range Music and also a painter and musician. He formerly played in the band Steel Train.