Kathleen-The Great!
On her knees, using a fire extinguisher for protection, Kathleen Wirt crouches beneath her studio storefront window at 4th Street Recordings as the sound of broken glass coming from the jewelry store next door and the roar of a drill pierces the tension-filled space of her beloved recording studio located just off the infamous Santa Monica Promenade in historical downtown Santa Monica. Wirt whispers to Music Producer and Chief Engineer, Sejo Navajas, who is on one knee holding a sword given to the studio years earlier by The London Choir Boys that is normally displayed in the control room.
“You don't bring a drill to a protest!”
It is Sunday, May 31, 2020 when Kathleen Wirt gets the call about 1:00 p.m. from her studio engineer, Rueben Valle, telling her that Santa Monica is being looted, and she better get down there, like ..now!
By 1:45 she and Navajas find parking in the back alley and run to the studio as crowds began to swell. They duck and dodge massive groups of fast-moving people and sneak through the control room door, located in the side alley directly in front of the entrance to The Santa Monica Playhouse Theatre. Once inside, they pulled all the gold records from the walls, covered the front window with a blanket, and bolted the six-inch control room door as the screams from outside begin to swell.
“We were very amped- just on adrenillin..but I was prepared to stand them down for my business,” Kathleen says with conviction.
See Article in the Santa Monica Mirror
https://smmirror.com/2020/06/santa-monica-police-chief-defends-handling-of-looting/
They were locked in, Kathleen with her fire extinguisher, Valle with his drums sticks, and Navajas with the sword.
“ We were right behind the door while they were pounding on it!”
She called the police -they never responded. The only sign of law enforcement surfaced much later in the night around 10 pm when the police and national guard funneled the protesters down 4th street instead of the promenade.
This seemed deliberate to Wirt as she randomly peeked through the blanket covering the front window throughout this enduring event. For hours before any protesters appeared, Wirt took note that the looting and robbing took on the appearance of an
“..organized, military operation-with leaders-like an army,”
With the constant sound of drilling, breaking glass sawing, and hammering, Kathleen observed that this uprising took on the characteristics of a
“..Well organized street gang-with clear leaders directing the looters.”
She goes on to say that when the protesters for the Black Lives Matter demonstration finally showed up, they were not aggressive- “..they were highly emotional but not destructive like the earlier crowds,” Wirt continues
“I felt like it was a total misappropriation of force…part of me wondered if they were just letting it happen.”
This uncanny feeling that the police purposely did not make any attempt to stop the looters throughout hours of destruction and robbery is still with her and Producer Navajas today.
“We held the fort down for ten hours,” Navajas says ..” I soon realized that the looters had nothing to do with the actual protests, they had a plan of action and they were there to sack the places.”
By 6 pm their defense was still in place-drinking bottled water and studio snacks for energy- they stayed the course and by 10 pm, they were able to dart outback taking the expensive microphones and whatever they could grab to put in the car. They made the studio look empty and boarded up the front window and quietly escaped out the back alley and onto the 10-freeway that had just been opened up.
Despite this epic civic uproar, Kathleen Wirt and her 4Th Street Recordings studio stand strong today and seem to be built to endure throughout the ages. Not looters nor the male-dominated music industry evidently have the power to take down one of Los Angeles’s top recording destinations.
Kathleen became the sole owner of 4Th Street Recordings in 2001. After arriving in Los Angeles armed with a BA in English from Missouri State University and publishing credits in poetry, Wirt hit the ground running as a working actress. She soon realized her extraordinary abilities to not only act and to write but to also communicate, organize, and curate musical talent as the co-owner of a top-rated recording studio in the mecca music city of Los Angeles. When she became the sole owner of the studio (after an amicable divorce with her co-owner husband at the time) Kathleen took note that women in power positions in the industry were extremely rare- more like..non-existent.
Two decades before the #metoo movement took hold in the civic literature of today’s culture, Kathleen often found herself being the only woman in the room.
“ I tell you when I saw the change, is when all the guys who worked for me-were hired by me. We stopped having sexual harassment in the place. We stopped having any kind of creepiness, all the guys had a lot more respect for women because of that.”
It is worthy to take note that Kathleen explains she has endured years of sexual harassment and has endless stories of how she would counteract these advances. She goes on to reveal that she, like millions of other women, had to adopt a “tough policy” to simply survive the oppressive sexual environment that dominated the workplace and entire culture at the time. Kathleen’s ability to take it right back to the offenders stems from her observations as a young woman growing up in a culture where girls and women were unfulfilled in their perceptions of what they could be.
“It took me many years to know that I didn't have to be a man to have what I wanted.”
Kathleen has many tales of her aggressive verbal and physical responses she threw back to the harassers to counteract the endless systemic sexual harassment that she has endured since her early twenties. Kathleen readily admits that not all women have this “ tough policy” function as she does and says that women should not have to do this just to get through a day. It is just how she chooses to handle these situations.
“It was about twenty tears ago that I started to provide a safe place for women.” Kathleen continues,“ It was an interesting dance to keep from being harassed”.
Kathleen believes that the #metoo movement facilitated an unprecedented amount of awareness in this country and the world to the true plight of women in every society on the planet and is arguably the most significant shift in the social justice of women's empowerment awareness in decades.
When asked how she sees the situation today in terms of the #metoo movement, Kathleen says...
“I think that because of social media, and the heightened awareness galvanized by the#metoo movement, I don't think anybody is getting away with anything anymore. Peoples’ mothers are more enlightened now, I think women and mothers are more self-realized and that boys and young men see women more as people.”
Kathleen’s indestructible recording studio has been deemed one of LA’s 17 Temples of Sound.
So, has the current pandemic (Covid -19) even affected this “Temple of Sound”?
“ We had just finished the new Weezer record” Kathleen reports, ..” we had seven weeks on it- and we had been booked at top dollar -solid- for seven weeks before that, so we were able to weather that two months of no business that came after the riots and looting that, may I remind you- had nothing to do with the BLM movement-which I support.”
Music Producer and Cheif engineer, Sejo Navajas says:
“Covid-19 has brought a big set of challenges to the recording studio environment. I try to keep my sessions small, the fewer people involved means a smaller risk of infection, masks are required at all times (except for when an artist is singing, which occurs in a separate room from the production staff), social distancing is practiced as much as possible, and extremely detailed disinfection protocols have been put in place to ensure everyone’s safety.”
On the topic of working for a woman owner and lead, Navajas says
“As a music producer, I think the #metoo movement has been really important for women in the music industry, which has been mainly dominated by men for decades. Any industry should be an equal playing field, where talent dictates your success, not your gender, race, sexual orientation, etc… If you are great at what you do, you deserve a shot, if you’re not, get better and keep trying. I think that they are probably way better than men at multitasking and juggling bookings, which can be extremely stressful and constantly changing.”
The list of clients that have recorded at 4Th Street include:
Weezer- Muse- Little Richard- M.I.A Hoobastank- Fiona Apple- Mick Fleetwood- AliceCooper- No Doubt- The Neighbourhood -Ke$ha- Nelly Furtado -TheBeach Boys- Incubus-Spinal Tap- Stewart Copeland Aimee Mann and countless more.
Kathleen continues to utilize her business sense alongside her ability to spot talent and create profitable results.
“There’s a list of like thirty acts I got signed”, Kathleen says with self-resonance.
Here are a few- Fiona Apple-Incubus-Alien Ant Farm-Hoobastank.
To see the full list of clients and history of this one of a kind recording studio -go to
With a lifetime of accomplishments still manifesting in this place and time, Kathleen has many plans for the future. She wants to expand 4th Street Recordings to include opening up a record label office and start doing some licensing. She is currently in the process of putting together a proposal that will open the door to this expansion.
“Money is not the only measure of success,” Kathleen begins, “..we hear a lot about balance these days and I think that's a reaction to uber capitalism. We’ve all had to shut down here this year and realize what is important to us. I know people are very stressed out financially -and I think that a lot of people who are just used to work-work-work all the time, feel that this has given us an opportunity to reevaluate our lives, our relationships, and how we like to spend our time. I know that I, for one, have been on this path for a while and this experience has cemented that the peace that I feel, from having the friendships and the love of my life- and doing something every day that I love makes all the difference. I feel optimistic about the future and can't wait for it.”
