By ELIZABETH MALLOY, The Daily Transcript
Monday, December 24, 2007
Music is the food of love, as Shakespeare once wrote, so when Jerry Lindahl, who's worked in the music industry for years, wanted to help his native San Diego after the October wildfires, he knew some tunes were a good place to start.
"My brother works with handicapped adults; I have friends who work at nonprofits. I was making artists rich," said Lindahl in a recent interview, recalling how the fires made him take stock of his life. "I wanted to do something worthy."
What Lindahl came up with is a compilation CD simply titled "San Diego Fire Relief," which features 18 artists, some with national fame, all with ties to San Diego. The CD was paid for with donated time and money, and with what Lindahl said was a rare level of cooperation from the record industry. He hopes to ultimately raise $100,000 for people who lost their homes in the fires.
"I was just worried truly about family and friends," said Lindahl, who couldn't reach his mother for a frightening few hours during the firestorm. Her house was nearly burned down during the 2003 Cedar Fires. "It was one of those moments when I was like, 'Just do something!'"
Lindahl was in a position to do something like this. A Poway native, he had lived in Los Angeles since 2000 and worked for a record company for several years before going into freelance work helping musicians get their songs on television and in movies. After getting the idea for a compilation CD, he talked to a friend at Sounden Recordings in San Clemente about pulling something together. Sounden agreed to help, ultimately donating $10,000 toward pressing the first 5,000 CDs, as well as studio time.
He then took the idea to NBC in San Diego, who also jumped on board. NBC donated its sales staff and free airtime to help promote the disc.
"I couldn't put a number on what NBC has done," Lindahl said. "It would be outrageous.--
Getting the artists on board was easy, Lindahl said. He knows many of them through his work, and some of them were directly affected by the fires as well. Tom DeLonge, the former guitarist for pop punk band Blink 182 and current front man of the Geffen Records band Angels & Airwaves was evacuated. So was Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Jason Mraz. Both agreed to add a song to the compilation. Also on the CD are Switchfoot, another San Diego band that's gained national attention, and local favorites like Steve Poltz, Gregory Paige, Anya Marina and A.J. Croce. Half of the songs are previously unreleased, including one by Mraz.
All the musicians worked for a reduced fee. Some volunteered to work for free, Lindahl said, but due to "legal mumbo jumbo" that wasn't entirely possible. That was largely due to the fact that some of the artists are under contract to major record labels, which require royalties. However, Lindahl said, even the record labels were helpful. For an artist to appear on a recording that's not on their label, they need to file a request. Usually it takes six to eight weeks to deny or approve a request, but all 18 songs for "San Diego Fire Relief" were approved in 20 days. According to Lindahl, that's "kind of unheard of."
The CD will be officially released Jan. 17 with a release party at the downtown club Anthology, which donated the space.
As of right now, the CD is available for $11.99 (plus shipping) at firereliefcd.com. Lindahl said he's hoping to get some local stores to carry the disc as well, and he's working on making it available on iTunes.
The majority of the proceeds will go to The San Diego Foundation's After the Fires fund, which is helping people who lost their homes. The rest of the proceeds will go to San Diego firefighters to help them buy new equipment or whatever else they may need.
"The music industry isn't really known for its deep pockets so it's nice to be able to offer some support through your art," said Julia Garlington of the San Diego band Married by Elvis, one of the groups on the record.
Garlington's family is from Valley Center, where wildfires are a way of life. This year's Witch Creek and Pumacha Fires came within less than a mile from her parents' home. Garlington lives in Solana Beach now, so she knows that for people who weren't directly affected by the fires, the recovery effort hasn't been a big part of their lives. She hopes the CD will remind people that there's still work going on as well as raise money for the relief effort.
"It seemed like a great opportunity to be involved with something to raise some money and help the cause," she said. "Hopefully it'll make a small dent."