Help Rebuild Our Music Studio After Robbery

Aloha Everyone

My name is Julian Sullivan and me and my partners Jack McFall, Nicholas Salmas, and Matthew Lee rent a space in Lana Lane, Kaka'ako that we have turned into a music studio. We got robbed last night and we are devastated and heartbroken. Music is not only our livelihood but we are a start-up collective venture as music producers/recording artists/music event creators, and also were set to give music classes next month to area keiki as a condition of our new lease! Will you help us raise monies to replace our equipment and repay the artists that allowed us to use their equipment? We need to keep our businesses going but also the classes that we hoped would inspire us all to keep making more music!

We were there temporarily until we moved into our more permanent space nearby where the condition of our lease was to also provide the community with music classes to the neighborhood keiki which we were very excited about. In addition to that, our livelihoods all entail some form of music production, events, and community activities that we participate in as musicians and artists.

We had dreams of creating a space where we could create, express, and share music as a form of entertainment, inspiration, and even healing.

Our community means everything to us but things like this make it hard to trust and really took us all by surprise. The building has onsite security, cameras and they haven’t had any problems in quite some time.

Robbery Details:

The robbery took place in a commercial building on Lana Lane in Kakaako on Saturday, September 16, 2023 at approximately 2:40AM. As you can see by the photos that were picked up by the security cameras, show a white van pulling up. Our footage shows more details and that has been reported and given to HPD and our landlord.

The robbers smashed our front door and took all our valuables.

Valuables that we worked hard for over many years to get to this next level of actually joining forces to start and taking a big risk to open a commercial studio space where we could create and invite others in to create with us.

The money donated through this cause will be used to replace the gear and equipment stolen, and also repay the borrowed gear taken. Any donations will be greatly appreciated. We also understand that this is a tough time for a lot of families in Hawai'i so we would be grateful for anything.

Here is a list of everything we noticed that was taken so far:

- Fender 5-String Jazz Bass (dark orange w dark burnt wood pick guard)

- Epiphone Hollowbody 4 String Bass (Blue)

- Fender Stratocaster (Off White Cream color)

- Fender Stratocaster ( Dark orange wood grain w/ white pickguard)

- Black Fender Blues Jr. Amp with Grey grill

- Pair of Yamaha HS8 Monitors

- 32 inch ONN computer monitor

- Universal Audio Twin Apollo Interface

- Audient iD14 Audio Interface

- Audio Technica AT4060 Microphone

- Alesis 61 Key Midi keyboard

- Korg Minianalogue synth

- 1 Focal Alpha 50 Monitor

- Pair of White Rokit 5s

- Canon 6d Camera

- Canon 50mm lens

- Shark Cordless Vaccuum

- Shure SM7B Microphone

- Blue Cloud Lifter Pre Amp

- Talkstar Talkbox

- Nintendo Switch OLED

There were also a few boxes full of gear that we have not accounted for yet.

We all are the type to do what we can for our family, friends, and the community so to ask for help like this is out of our comfort zone. But we look at it this way.

1. When we know our neighbors are in need we help and we appreciate them letting us know. So our friends and family are asking us how they can help so we figured it’s a good way to help keep us on track with our work as none of us really have the resources to purchase new equipment and….

2. We want our community, neighbors in Kakaako, and in the music world to know what happened so they can be aware also. Our kupuna, the keiki we are meant to teach, and the artists that we plan to collaborate with – all of us – We just want to be able to safely work hard, do our thing, and share in the rewards in a safe and uplifting way. We figured it we share this, then we are doing our part to watch out for each other.

With so many things going on in Hawaii right now, we understand that times are tough for many. We feel it too. We understand that our situation is just one small part of a much bigger picture too. But if you feel called to help, we hope that you know that if you contribute to our GoFundMe WE WILL ALL WORK HARD TO MAKE YOU PROUD and truly do our very best to do what is right and good for our small part of this place we call home.

UPDATE:

We wanted to share an update on the status of our robbery on early 9/16 Saturday. First, we are so very grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from all of our family, friends, and others. Your messages, texts, DM’s, emails, and face to face encouragement and belief in us and what we are doing is validating and motivating us to keep moving forward and to build back stronger, and no words can describe how much gratitude we are feeling from you guys.

In less than 3 days we’ve managed to raise over $10,000 to help rebuild and replace the things that were damaged and stolen from our studio thanks to all of you and all the people sharing what happened.

Our original estimate of $15,000 was increased today as we had more time since the incident to really comb through the space and our collective lists in greater detail. We raised our fundraising goal to account for the more than $5,000 of additional items stolen and damages incurred.

We will continue to share information as it comes in so that we can all continue to look out for one another. We did go around to some of our neighbors in SALT, Kaka`ako and found out that numerous others were robbed or vandalized in similar ways.

We are learning just how valuable it is for us to stick together and watch out for one another. We hope to have more favorable updates soon.

Thank you so much and we really appreciate you all. ❤️

Contact Information:

Julian Sullivan

Instagram: @julian.sullivan

Jack McFall

Instagram: @jack_mcfall

Nicholas Salmas

Instagram: @subtoll

Matthew Lee

Instagram: @matthewdavidlee.mp3

Le Vanta Records (our business)

Instagram: @levantarecords