{"id":389065,"date":"2026-01-05T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389065\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T12:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:02:11","slug":"john-mayer-and-mcg-on-their-plans-for-chaplin-studios-post-henson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/389065\/","title":{"rendered":"John Mayer and McG on Their Plans for Chaplin Studios, Post-Henson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJohn Mayer<\/a> and McG<\/a> have both spent a lot of time thinking about what is inherently special about the Chaplin Studios<\/a>, the lot that previously was home to A&M Records, Henson Studios and, in its earliest decades, Charlie Chaplin\u2019s production company. Between the two of them, Mayer may have spent the greatest amount of time thinking about the scents associated with the landmark Hollywood property, which they jointly purchased for a reported $44 million just over a year ago.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve asked a lot over the years about this: I don\u2019t know what makes an old California studio smell like an old California studio,\u201d Mayer says. \u201cYou cannot fake the smell. Ocean Way [the classic Hollywood recording studio] had it. The medical buildings in Beverly Hills, those green-carpet kind of medical buildings, have it. You walk in and you go, \u201cI don\u2019t know why Mickey Fine smells like that\u2019,\u201d he says, referring to the historic pharmacy. \u201cI don\u2019t know why the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge smells like it does. But if you have that classic California smell, keep it! Because you cannot buy it. There is no candle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn a deeper level, the musician says, \u201cHow do you thread the needle between that lived-in thing and looking forward and acknowledging modern-day? That\u2019s something I try to do all the time. What are the best of both worlds, and what is great and sturdy about the past? What can you interlace in a way that doesn\u2019t hold back the future and just gives it a little more strength and durability? And that\u2019s what we\u2019re having fun doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are $9 million in upgrades and renovations underway with the Chaplin Studios, but they know when to leave the elements that give the property personality alone. \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta lean into the Wabi-sabi funk of this place, or you\u2019re in the wrong place,\u201d McG says.<\/p>\n

\n\tSentiments like these will be music to the ears of the many Southern Californians who look to Chaplin \u2014 or to A&M, or Henson, or however they grew up knowing it best \u2014 as a hopefully immutable touchstone of both the city of Los Angeles and its entertainment community. Whether you\u2019re a historic preservationist or just a nostalgist, chances are you have some strong feelings about the lot, especially if you\u2019ve worked or frequently visited there. Mayer and McG have not talked openly about their plans until now, but they met with a small group of journalists last month to first tour the lot, then sit down in Studio B talk at length about the property\u2019s history and possibilities.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the things they are discussing for the first time publicly is how the sale came to be, and how they came to be in on it together, not having previously been buddies or even acquaintances up until this became a joint mission. They also addressed the widespread reports that Scientology was set to acquire the property, which did not sit entirely well with an entertainment community that had become accustomed to the lot being open for a wide variety of usages over the decades.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJohn and I strangely didn\u2019t know each other all that well prior to our arranged marriage,\u201d acknowledges McG. \u201cI was sort of trying to take a run at it. I\u2019d gotten to know Faryal (Ganjehei, the lot\u2019s president and studio manager since 2000], and John kicked the tires for his purposes and tried to figure it out. And I just didn\u2019t have enough dough, and I don\u2019t think he wanted to deal with the headache. Then we finally got together and I was like, \u2018I\u2019m equipped to deal with the headache\u2019 [of overseeing the entire lot]. He\u2019s like, \u2018Good. I want to tunnel into the [recording] studio and tunnel back out.\u2019 And I go, \u2018Perfect!\u2019 And Irving Azoff gave me my first record deal in the \u201890s\u201d \u2014 (McG was one of Sugar Ray\u2019s primary instigators and had his own imprint before becoming one of the top music video directors of that decade) \u2014 \u201cand we had a very good experience with that, and he obviously manages John. So Irving vouched for both of us: Chocolate, meet peanut butter. Reese\u2019s, knock yourself out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut McG approached the possibility of a deal first as a solo act. \u201cI even got it into escrow,\u201d he reveals, \u201cbut I couldn\u2019t close it; I didn\u2019t have enough dough \u2014 this is before John. And I don\u2019t know if we should talk about our competition\u2026,\u201d he wonders aloud. \u201cI think [Henson] got way downstream with a family with deep ties to the Church of Scientology, and then that got out in public, and people were concerned about the manner in which it was going to be deployed. I\u2019ll leave it at that. And then we got our foot back in the door and got our financial ducks in a row, and we were fortunate enough to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMcG and John Mayer at Chaplin Studios (Photo: Daniel Prakopcyk)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrecht Van\u2019t Hof<\/p>\n

\n\tMayer was coming from a place of having recorded at the A&M studios going back to 2005, and having locked in Studio C for his own purposes in 2018, getting to know the people who worked there. \u201cI\u2019ll piggyback off what McG said. It was in the press; it\u2019s known. But it wasn\u2019t necessarily about anyone else who was in the running. For me, this was about keeping the band together And all I really cared about was in my sort of near view, which is: This is a gang you can spend another 30 years working with. It would\u2019ve really upset me deeply if everyone who comes to work every day and sees one another \u2014 it\u2019s a very tightknit family \u2014 had to separate and dissipate, and I went and worked at one studio, and Faryal went and started somewhere in the middle of the ladder at another studio. I did not want to see all of us go different places. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis was not about outsmarting anybody. This is about caring about so many people who see each other every day \u2026. especially if you\u2019re me and you\u2019re an artist, and you don\u2019t have any semblance of routine in your life, and I found it, like other artists find it here. \u2026 This is one of those times in life where you throw down for what matters, not for what you can brag about you were able to corner someone on\u2026 At a certain point\u2026 I know I said to the previous owners, \u2018You have my attention, and I\u2019m not here to play games anymore. And what does it take?\u2019 And to have an emotional asset in your life is a really good thing. I think everyone\u2019s always looking at assets from a very objective, hardcore, empirical value level. This is something I wake up and go to sleep every day knowing in my heart that I have a piece of in some way, or I\u2019m responsible for other people\u2019s piece of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSays McG: \u201cI\u2019m old enough to have seen the exodus of aerospace out of Southern California \u2014 [it] broke my heart \u2014 and old enough to have seen the exodus of Hollywood out of Southern California. So if we could take a small step in the direction of planting a flag and saying, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re trying to do the right thing and protect the people of the city that we care about, trying to show that you can make a film or television show or record and do it here with extraordinary people and extraordinary facilities\u2019 \u2014 why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith an estimated $9 million going into renovating the property and its facilities, on top of the substantial purchase price, no one is expecting it to be a profitable investment soon. They\u2019re fine with that.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJohn makes a really good point about the dough,\u201d McG says, \u201cbecause I think a lot of financial people kicked us in the shins and said, \u2018Not such a hot financial idea.\u2019 And we just kind of shrugged because it was always emotional. It\u2019s well-known that John is a premiere watch collector and a giant voice in that community. And I kind of wrapped my head around, if John buys a very interesting watch, it doesn\u2019t pay a dividend; I\u2019m sure his business manager told him he overpaid for it, all those things\u2026 But he gets to live with the watch, enjoy the watch, take it out for a test spin, do the thing, enjoy it. And it\u2019s very likely to go from the value of one to the value of two over the course of time, even in the absence of making prudent financial sense. So I think that you\u2019ve gotta look at it like one of John\u2019s watches, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah, it would be one of my watches that I love wearing more than I care about the P&L or what the books say it is,\u201d agrees Mayer. \u201cYou don\u2019t hear, as you\u2019re scrolling through on line, about making a contribution in some way \u2014 having something in your name that is less about a portfolio and more about having a piece of something and having a part in preserving something. There are people in L.A. who have never needed a recording studio and will never need to come here, who are going to be very happy that a building in L.A. that was known as one thing has changed hands and will continue to be known as the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tChaplin Studios, formerly A&M and Henson Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrecht Van\u2019t Hof<\/p>\n

\n\tAre there other major investors that McG and Mayor will need to answer to as they steer the lot toward a hoped-for profit someday?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe didn\u2019t really look up each other\u2019s pant leg,\u201d says McG. \u201cWe split it right down the middle. I brought in a couple of friends to help offset [some of the down payment]. My nephew gave me a couple bucks\u2026 It was a lot of money for me. We had to put down a lot cash to make the deal work\u2026 We all became sort of blinded with desire just to get it done at the end there. \u00a0But we got it done and, at the end of the day, what matters most is, it\u2019s dually John and McG.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah, I mean, I think it\u2019s just you and I on the paperwork,\u201d says Mayer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah, there\u2019s no \u2018And therefore we also have to check with the big Daddy Warbucks character.\u2019 It\u2019s truly just us,\u201d McG says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have a food truck business,\u201d adds Mayer. \u201cI just went into that \u2026 used my profits from the food truck.\u201d He\u2019s kidding, although, as is sometimes the case with him, it might take a beat or two to realize it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two co-owners got almost everything they wanted in procuring the lot \u2014 with a couple of symbolic exceptions that were denied by the property\u2019s last two sets of owners. They were not allowed to use the A&M name, and the statue of Kermit dressed as Charlie Chaplin that had towered over the LaBrea front entrance for 25 years was carted off to go to a museum, despite a vociferous case being made to leave the frog where he stood.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Hensons took the Kermit dressed as the Tramp and put it in a museum in Atlanta that\u2019s dedicated to Jim Henson, which I think is terribly sad for the people of Los Angeles,\u201d McG says. \u201cI\u2019ve always made it analogous to, like, if we all owned Randy\u2019s Donuts, but we sold it to the barbecue place, I think between us and the barbecue person, just leave the donut up there\u2026 Griffith Park Observatory, Formosa Cafe, the Hollywood sign \u2014 we don\u2019t have that much, so don\u2019t keep cannibalizing and chipping away. A woman I work with takes her kids to school every day on this road, and she says, \u2018My kids every day would say, \u201cWhat\u2019s up, Kerms?\u201d Now, they don\u2019t.\u2019 And it breaks my heart, and I think that it\u2019s an opportunity missed. I think it transcends the Henson family, respectfully, and transcends John or McG or anybody. I feel like at a certain point it belongs to the city, and I\u2019m very sad to see it go. Oh, well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came to renaming the facility from Henson Studios, there were issues of whether to go back in time and, if so, how far back.<\/p>\n

\n\tSays McG, \u201cMy company\u2019s called Wonderland Sound and Vision, and of course, John\u2019s breakout hit is \u2018Your Body Is a Wonderland\u2019\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd my best song to date, by the way,\u201d interjects Mayer, tongue firmly in cheek.<\/p>\n

\n\tMcG: \u201cSo a woman I work a lot with goes, \u2018Are you guys gonna call it Your Body Is a Wonderland Sound and Vision? And I\u2019m like, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother idea: \u201cPeople for a long time were saying, just call it J&M,\u201d Mayer notes. Another immediate no.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut we even took a run at just, \u2018Hey, should we call it A&M?\u2019\u201d says McG. \u201cBecause I\u2019m of a generation where I just regard this as A&M. I used to hang out on the docks begging everybody for CDs, so I associate it with that period. But there were problems with Universal Music Group being proprietary about this, that and the other.\u201d Technically, A&M is part of a current label name \u2014 Interscope Geffen A&M \u2014 which represents some of the imprints that Universal bought and absorbed, although at this point the A&M part is more of a faintly nostalgic technicality than a distinct entity with any connection to the house that Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss built. \u201cThey just couldn\u2019t see it,\u201d says a frustrated Mayer. \u201cThey had A&M Records. This would\u2019ve been A&M Studios. Two nodes\u2026 They couldn\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut sometimes simpler is better (as anyone who has ever had to wrap their tongues around Interscope Geffen A&M can attest), and \u201cChaplin\u201d is pretty simple.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to correctly launch the narrative of a new brand in 2026,\u201d Mayer says. \u201cAnd if you take any name you have in mind for a studio and put the word \u2018studio\u2019 after it, it exists online\u2026 It\u2019s very hard to find a (new) name for a studio that still has vowels in it\u2026 What I liked about Chaplin is, it is a 100-year-old brand, and there\u2019s this second life to it. I thought this could be really interesting, to have people in their twenties who are working on their first album go to a place called Chaplin, even if they\u2019re not aware of what the connection is. How can you get those who understand the legendary contributions Charlie Chaplin made to film understand it, and have a new cohort of artists just see a name that looks and sounds good, hoping that at some point people go, \u2018I didn\u2019t know there was a person behind Chaplin\u2019? You don\u2019t go to buy a Ford Raptor and interface so much with Henry Ford and his legacy. But it\u2019s important to keep legacies alive. I think it\u2019s cooler to have it exist in a constant but very low-grade way, so that you have just kind of a pinky locked on it, but move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA tour of the facility establishes that everything still around on the lot that has any connection to Chaplin\u2019s era, which extended from 1917 through 1953, is being carefully preserved\u2026 except in cases of pure dry rot being uncovered.<\/p>\n

\n\tStanding out in front of the La Brea entrance on the exterior sidewalk, McG says, \u201cWe started to redo everything in the spirit of getting it exactly like it was when Chaplin built it. We did the research with the width of the strip oak that he put in for the hardwood floors and replaced them.\u201d In front, \u201cWe chipped off the paint and we got the original colors from when Chaplin did it and did the analytics, so it was the exact brown and the exact white. We did all the landscaping to make it more beautiful for the forward-facing part of La Brea, just trying to give back to the city, since there\u2019s a lot of blight around here, and we\u2019re just trying to be a moment of light in that. And these wooden buildings are historically protected\u201d \u2014 but not necessarily in the exact spots they were in the 1910s. \u201cWhen they widened La Brea, they had to put \u2019em on logs and push \u2019em back.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMcG points out features on a vintage overhead view of the A&M\/Henson lot, now Chaplin Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Willman\/Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tSigns of Chaplin\u2019s reign remain within. On a tour of the buildings, for instance, Ganjehei shows off a furnace where the silent film legend used to burn outtakes, after examining dailies in his screening room right across the front entrance. Some of Chaplin\u2019s footprints remain in cement in an inner courtyard. In McG\u2019s own office, there are stained glass windows that apparently date back to when Chaplin held court there. \u201cA few years back, there was a really bad car accident on LaBrea, and the fire hydrant went up and the water destroyed the wall, and when we knocked down the wall for the repair work, these windows were discovered. It\u2019s so beautiful that Mc G is now including it in his office,\u201d Ganjehei says. The director says that other glass windows will be replaced with Mondrian-style glass to match the original.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are other artifacts or entire buildings that remain from the silent era. On the slightly tawdry side, the studio overseer points to a mostly out-of-sight loft where \u201crumor has it that that\u2019s where Chaplin would keep his concubines of sorts.\u201d Chaplin\u2019s original grooming and makeup chair sits near the entrance to Studio A. Down the hall, there is a table with books perched on it that propped up a studio saw a hundred years ago, still branded with the \u201cC.C. Film Co.\u201d logo. In the building still called \u201cthe mill,\u201d is \u201capparently the oldest standing saw, minus the blades, in the West,\u201d Ganjehei says. All this woodworking talk leads to anecdotes about how, in the A&M era, there would be shout-outs about \u201cneeding the carpenters,\u201d only for Richard and Karen Carpenter to answer the call.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDetail of Charlie Chaplin-era woodsaw table at the Chaplin Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Willman\/Variety<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Chaplin\u2019s makeup chair, on display at the Chaplin Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Willman\/Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tMost of the footprint of the lot remains as it has been since the late \u201860s, when Jerry Moss and Herb Alpert bought it and transformed two of the three soundstages to five recording studios. Each of these six spaces where music or video productions are made has its own history.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe recording studios continued to be made available to outsiders during the quarter-century Henson had the place, while the soundstage was mostly utilized for Henson\u2019s own kids\u2019 shows, with exceptions.<\/p>\n

\n\tLately, the giant stage has been used for everything from \u201cKnives Out: Wake Up Dead Man\u201d pickup shots to a Stella McCartney fashion show to a benefit concert Mayer and his band did for a veterans\u2019 charity. They have been looking at what kind of event should be held there during Grammy Week.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI want it to be the kind of place where, if the event is happening here, the address is the pull to go,\u201d says Mayer. \u201cThat might sound a little superficial, but I think that\u2019s an interesting way to create a goal. Can the address become \u2018Ooh, there\u2019s a thing at Chaplin. It doesn\u2019t matter what it is, that\u2019s a cool place to go hang.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tChaplin Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrecht Van\u2019t Hof<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are more outdoor chairs and tables, and more greenery and fountains, to \u201csoften\u201d the facility\u2026 not that everyone didn\u2019t already just dig a nice bungalow. McG has gotten down into the dirt to do some of the planting himself, the studio manager avows.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat you see with these gardens and stuff\u2026 for me, the whole impetus of this place was, everywhere we shoot, literally around the world, when it\u2019s wrapped, you\u2019re like,\u2019How fast can we get the fuck outta here?\u2019\u201d says the filmmaker. \u201cHere, when you finish your work, it\u2019s like, \u2018Do you want a glass of wine? Do you wanna hang out and talk a little bit?\u2019 And I find that so magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou will not find Mayer literally getting into the dirt, himself. Although if you are in one of the studios and you happen to need a guitar part, and you come across Mayer in the hallway, he might oblige you, without taking a credit.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for whether there is a need for this kind of advanced studio anymore, when home studios are capable of so much in the 2020s, Mayer has an answer: \u201cIt\u2019s work from home versus working from the office. And I think it\u2019s cool to hedge your bet on the side of humanity,\u201d especially when you don\u2019t know who you\u2019ll meet on a bathroom break in the hallway or sipping wine on the patio.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s why they haven\u2019t made any major renovations to the structure or look, especially, of the recording studios, knowing that part of the appeal is being able to go into the exact room \u2014 Studio C \u2014 where Joni Mitchell recorded \u201cBlue\u201d and several other albums. Mitchell came by the studio last month, to revisit the scene of the crime at a holiday party, and was no doubt pleased to see that it\u2019s Henry Diltz photos of her that everyone who comes in first sees, establishing a Laurel Canyon vibe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf artists walked in and immediately everything was LED back-lit\u2026\u201d says Mayer, letting that distasteful thought trail off. \u201cThere\u2019s a nomenclature to being in the studio that lives in its own timeframe, and you just let people relate to that still. Even the tapestries\u2026 there\u2019s just something about tapestries and string lights that make people want to write songs, even if it\u2019s not the most modern, Tesla-fied thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt times it can be a tough choice to upgrade, or not to upgrade, for fear of ruining the unknown ingredients that make a room unlike any other on the planet. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u201cI was telling John a lot of the buildings are built like film sets,\u201d McG says. \u201cI remember getting the reports, where there would be gaps in a window where the breeze will come in, and someone is like, \u2018For God\u2019s sake, a spider could crawl through! You gotta seal those windows.\u2019 And I\u2019m just like, if I seal it, that California smell might be erased \u2014 I can\u2019t do it.\u201d They had hoped to renovate Chaplin\u2019s private screening room, which is largely intact, but can\u2019t, because there is a star music client \u2014 they won\u2019t say who \u2014 who adopted it as a makeshift recording studio some time back and swears by the unique sound of the room, which obviously was not even designed for music-making. For now, it will remain piled with music equipment, not film projection; whoever isn\u2019t budging from that valuable bit of lot real estate has to be a high-profile squatter.<\/p>\n

\n\tSometimes, an artist\u2019s attachment to a room staying exactly as it is can border on superstition. Studio B, where McG and Mayer are presently sitting, was undergoing some important renovation work at the end of the \u201970s when Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers needed a place to finish \u201cDamn the Torpedos.\u201d Petty and Jimmy Iovine so loved the sound they got there that architect Vincent Van Hoff got a middle-of-the-night call saying, \u201cYou are not allowed to finish this room. Do not touch it.\u2019 They were even trying to convince the senior manager to keep the tools in the corner\u201d in case that was a factor. \u201cSo hence, all these years later, the floor, the ceiling, and the walls are unfinished.\u201d There is also a giant crystal in Studio B, known as \u201cthe Karen crystal\u201d in honor of Karen Carpenter; it\u2019s a replacement for the one that Alpert and Ross originally had installed in the room, but they keep it lit 24 hours a day. <\/p>\n

\n\tGanjehel, the studio manager, will happily reel off past recordings of yore: The largest studio, A, can handle a 45-piece orchestra, and has been home to everything from vintage Burt Bacharach, Alpert and Sergio Mendes recordings to Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 \u201cUse Your Illusion\u201d projects to five out of the last six Paul McCartney albums to Justin Bieber\u2019s recent \u201cSwag\u201d (volumes one and two). The smaller Studio D, on the other end of the hallway, has hosted the Doors, U2, Fleetwood Mac, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Miley Cyrus and the last two Harry Styles albums.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut don\u2019t ever imagine the studio manager is ever going to give up who is currently woriing in the studio. \u201cWe don\u2019t kiss and tell,\u201d she says. Not even to major rock stars or a co-owner.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLady Gaga a couple years ago was recording in Studio B, and the Stones were in studio A and D,\u201d she recalls. \u201cMick Jagger comes up and says, \u2018I hear Lady Gaga\u2019s here.\u2019 And we respond with, \u2018We don\u2019t discuss who\u2019s here.\u2019 But the bodyguards made it happen. Lady Gaga was sitting on this couch and I said, \u2018Mick asked if you were here, but everything is so private and confidential and we really, really value that.\u2019 And she said, \u2018You can always tell Mick Jagger when I\u2019m here.\u2019 She recorded that duet with them [\u201cSweet Sounds of Heaven,\u201d from their 2023 \u201cHackney Diamonds\u201d album] two hours later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSays Mayer, talking about the years before he bought the lot, \u201cFaryal never let me know who else was here. And you might say that my half of this place was worth paying just to get the calendar every day, being let behind that very iron curtain of who was in the building every day, I\u2019m still not over it, I don\u2019t think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMay I add, I\u2019m not behind that iron curtain,\u201d McG protests. \u201cAs recently as yesterday, Faryal was chewing my ear off because there was a truck loading in something, and she goes, \u2018I have an artist coming\u2019,\u201d but she wouldn\u2019t say who. \u201cI\u2019m shooting a fucking nude scene with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hardy \u2014 I can handle the discretion of who the artist is! But I don\u2019t say anything and I honor the code. So when I\u2019ve earned it, that\u2019ll be a hell of a day and I\u2019ll definitely elbow John, like, \u2018She let me in, dude.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tChaplin Studios\u2019 soundstage<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrecht Van\u2019t Hof<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Bieber no longer on the premises, they can acknowledge press reports of an unusual recent request that made use of the large soundstage for a non-filming purpose.<\/p>\n

\n\tSays Mayer, \u201cFaryal wrote me one Saturday morning: \u2018Hey, Justin\u2019s gonna be in the studio. He mentioned wanting a basketball court. What do you think about turning the soundstage into a basketball court for him?\u201d I said, \u2018Great, but I don\u2019t know that you can do that.\u2019 Two or three hours later on that night, I get an image of what looks like a perfect basketball court with a three-point line and a foul line and everything, all done with tape. The runners had figured out how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for whether whims like that need to be indulged, Mayer, perhaps not surprisingly, is on the side of the talent. \u201cI staunchly defend artists both as being more normal than you think and way more screwed up than you think. And I try to protect the best parts of both of \u2019em. So if Justin Bieber had something that you could hear on \u2018Swag\u2019 that was nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys because he was able to shoot a little hoops on a break, then we\u2019ve done our job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe match of personalities between Mayer and McG has been a good one, they avow, after 10 months of working together tightly, as two guys who both talk very fast and who can both use big words like \u201cnomenclature\u201d while talking that fast. To say nothing of shared ambitions.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI like high-octane personalities,\u201d says Mayer. \u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say, McG, you have a high-octane personality. I have somewhat of a high-octane personality. And I know how to weave in and out of that, and I know how to let someone else rip when it\u2019s time to rip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMcG and John Mayer at the Chaplin Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Willman\/Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tPreservation was far from their only reason for acquiring the Chaplin Studios, but it\u2019s neither negligible nor ignoble as a factor.<\/p>\n

\n\tSays McG, \u201cI hope that organically it will be revealed: Oh, that was the tenure where John and McG were the torch bearers and hopefully will be regarded as they did a good job and they threw down for Los Angeles. They put their money where their mouth was. I love what Jason Reitman did with the Village Westwood theater, where he got a consortium of superheroes to kind of come in and save it. It\u2019s like, we don\u2019t need another six-story mixed-use. They\u2019re not cool\u2026 We really should take a look at what made Los Angeles great and be of a mind that those things don\u2019t grow on trees and not everything is disposable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMayer has his own take on that. \u201cI wonder if at some point, like 10 years from now, someone who\u2019s gonna be 30 will stand outside of Supreme [the clothing store that moved into Tower Records\u2019 old Sunset building] as it\u2019s being closed down and go, \u2018You just can\u2019t keep anything good these days.\u2019 They probably will, because I do think that probably every generation thinks that their thing is the thing that matters the most \u2014 except this building has five generations. So I think if you can [hold onto it], you should, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(More details about the lot can be found here<\/a>, with specific information about the soundstage here<\/a> and the recording studios here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tChaplin Studios<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrecht Van\u2019t Hof<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Mayer and McG have both spent a lot of time thinking about what is inherently special about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,189013,88,110190,189014],"class_list":["post-389065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-chaplin-studios","tag-entertainment","tag-john-mayer","tag-mcg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}