Our story · Los Angeles since 2007
A betterplace tomake music
LemonTree began with a musician looking for a better place to work.
Owner Erik Nilsson spent his first ten years as an independent audio engineer and composer moving his setup between bedrooms, basements, rehearsal lockouts, improvised industrial spaces, creative offices and one costly studio buildout. Each came with its own frustrations. Those were the available options, but he kept looking for something better.
Along the way, a serious case of Gear Acquisition Syndrome had left him with more equipment—and less desire to move it again. He wanted a quiet, professional space for his own setup, without the scale and expense of a multimillion-dollar recording facility.
From searching to building
The space
he couldn't find
The opportunity was across the street.
After two years searching the commercial market, Nilsson still hadn't found the right fit. A single, independent, quiet studio seemed a reasonable request, and so did his rent budget. Yet the alternatives meant taking on far more space, expensive construction and a lease lasting years. He finally owned the equipment for the studio he wanted, with nowhere suitable to use it. After investing in that setup and years of searching, he had reached the end of his resources.
From the window of his noisy downtown rehearsal space, he could see a yellow building used as offices and a machine shop. It stood on its own, was just the right size and sat in a great location. When it came up for lease a year later, he took it—and the chance to create what he had been looking for.
The idea became LemonTree: independent studios where music makers could bring their own gear and settle into their work.
Built around the music
A place to
make it happen
The first tenant's experience still shapes the place.
Writing, playing, singing and recording now meet in new ways inside those studios. LemonTree brings together Nilsson's creative and entrepreneurial sides, with a mission drawn from his own search: an honest, authentic and uncomplicated business relationship, and a cool, professional, inspiring place to make music.
The vinyl underfoot is a tribute to record shopping, giving the hallways their own character and keeping a little funk between the studios.
His original story closes with thanks to its readers and the words “In Groove We Trust,” signed Erik “Nils” Nilsson.
And the name? LemonTree felt fresh, tart and distinctly Californian. There is also a wink for fans of a certain sitcom about nothing: Tippy Toe just didn't sound as good.
One idea · Two Los Angeles neighborhoods
Room to grow
The first home
LemonTree opens in the DTLA Arts District.
Built for Highland Park
Purpose-built private studio control rooms and a shared Live Room take shape on North Figueroa.
A new chapter downtown
The original DTLA location is rebuilt and reopened with seven private studios.
Find your own place in the story
Make room
for your music
Come see the studiosTwo places to make it yours