The artists on the venerable L.A. heavy-rock label Sargent House are known for their clamor. But over the course of the pandemic, they learned to appreciate total quiet as well.
“We had been looking for properties to build a studio, where artists can write and chill, and kept not having any luck in L.A.,” said Cathy Pellow, who founded the label from her hilltop home in Echo Park in 2006. Pellow sold the house and moved the label into a rambling compound in Sunland-Tujunga in 2016, and although it took some time and savings to build out (the label is “100% self-financed and has never had any investors,” Pellow said), by 2020 Sargent House had “this magical, insane place that’s six acres on a mountain, a huge converted barn and a pool, guest bungalows, gorgeous gardens and the backyard is mountains.”
It was a perfect COVID-19 hideout. The label’s roster of metal and experimental acts like Chelsea Wolfe, Deafheaven, Emma Ruth Rundle and Lingua Ignota could come up for fresh air. After 15 years of championing the harshest fringes in rock, the label found its stride at this bucolic haven, where the wildest noises were the howls of Pellow’s seven dogs.