Man at Work: Actor Danny Masterson Has Embraced a New Leading Role at His Recording Studio, Bronson Island
Danny Masterson has worn many hats in his lifetime—child model and actor, restaurateur, bar and boutique owner, radio-show host, globetrotting DJ, and, of course, television sitcom star. But on the day that he welcomes Guitar Aficionado to his home, situated in the Bronson Canyon area of Los Angeles, the 37-year-old actor is preparing to embark on a new venture. In a few days, he will be launching a YouTube channel to present live video of bands performing at Bronson Island, the fully equipped recording studio that he and two friends constructed in the three-car garage that sits off to one side of his residence.
The property itself has its own uniquely weird musical history. "Chuck Berry owned this place for about 30 years," Masterson says. Back in the Nineties, when Masterson was enjoying steady TV and film acting work but had yet to land what would be his breakout role as the afro'd and acerbic stoner dude Steven Hyde on That '70s Show, he and his friends would hang out at the house. "It was always like, 'Party at the Chuck Berry estate!' " Masterson recalls. "By that time, Chuck was renting it out, and the place was a wreck—deck chairs in the pool, that sort of thing.
"But it was a great place. Every year I would call up whoever was overseeing the estate and try to buy it." The property was eventually sold, but to another buyer who had designs on flipping it for a quick profit. "The guy did a really bad renovation," Masterson says. "But the day it went on the market again, I bought it. Now I'm slowly redoing everything."
Chief among Masterson's reno work is the garage-cum-studio project. He first came up with the Bronson Island concept some years back, when he was moonlighting as a part-time radio DJ on Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles, cohosting a Monday night show called Feel My Heat. "We would have a lot of the new young indie bands at the time come in for acoustic on-air performances," he recalls. "I would film them on my Leica and put it on YouTube, and we would get a ton of hits."
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