noise

Leonard R. Garner Jr. loves roller coasters. And the mostly-retired television director and actor has a place in his heart for Universal Studios Hollywood, the theme park atop the studio where he spent many days behind a camera.

He also adores the tranquility of his home. As a resident of Toluca Lake, the tiny neighborhood nestled below the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Super Nintendo World and other park staples, Garner watched with curiosity as Universal Studios began erecting Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, its new outdoor, high-speed thrill ride. He continued to track the construction over the next three or four years while out on afternoon walks.

At last, when Universal Studios began testing the ride this spring, Garner breathed a sigh of relief. “I was amazed at how quiet it was,” he said. “I could not hear it at all.”

But he wasn’t considering one detail: There were no people on it.

Everything changed, Garner and numerous other Toluca Lake residents said, the summer day when Universal Studios began running the coaster with a full slate of riders. There were screams. They were loud — piercing even double-paned windows. And they were constant.

“Disturbing,” said one resident, Dr. Christopher Zito.

“You think something is happening,” said Patrick Nazari, another resident. “Like someone is getting murdered out there.”

Garner said he stopped in his tracks. “I heard it, and I thought to myself, ‘There are going to be problems with this.’”

Universal’s new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster can be seen (and heard) from Toluca Lake.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Headaches at least, both for the residents of Toluca Lake and for Universal Studios Hollywood in the days before the ride’s opening this summer. For residents, there’s panic as to what, if any, recourse they may have at this late stage, with one man joking he may forever have to blast loud music all day to mask rider screams. For Universal Studios Hollywood, the complaints, first reported on social media and quickly picked up by media outlets, have added a sudden jolt of negative publicity around what was intended to be the North American ride of 2026.

Longtime Toluca Lake residents have had to get used to its high-powered neighbor making changes over the past few decades. Through the last 10 years in particular, Universal Studios Hollywood has accelerated in growth, evolving from a behind-the-movie-magic showcase to a park that’s increasingly ride-centered, each addition bringing with it new worries of disruptions to the community. None, say residents, have been more tone-altering than this one.

Karen Rogers has lived in Toluca Lake for more than 20 years. “It was a never a roller coaster kind of park,” she said. “When a lot of residents moved in, it was about the history of film, and everything was inside the park. This is different because it’s hanging over a neighborhood. It’s just disappointing.”

Rob Cerny remembers the moment he heard the screams. He had just exited the Metro B Line across the street from the studio.

“Every minute you hear this big scream,” he said. “When I got home, my wife was upset. It’s made our backyard unusable. It’s extremely prominent, the noise. I really don’t think this is going to be tenable.”

Around the issue of noise, Universal Studios Hollywood has been proactive with Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, devoting a website to just how silent and unobtrusive its groundbreaking coaster would be. Multiple noise mitigation efforts were undertaken — sound walls, scream shields and even pea gravel in the coaster’s tracks.

And those were all welcome, say Garner, Cerny and other residents. All are eager to speak out, but they’re also cautious. They’re aware that some of those who have gone to the press have been attacked on social media, with many a non-Toluca Lake resident appearing unsympathetic to their cause, comparing them to not-in-my-backyard complainers.

Toluca Lake residents are fearful Universal’s Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will be constant noise.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

If you live next to a theme park, goes the primary argument, what did you expect?

“That’s a good point,” said Cerny, who has resided next to Universal Studios for 30 years, around the time the park was opening what is now known as Jurassic World: The Ride, but long before additions such as the “Harry Potter” franchise or Nintendo.

“This was not Magic Mountain,” Cerny continued. “I grew up here. It was a studio tour place. Now it’s a major thrill theme park. That’s a different deal.”

And it’s not, he said, background noise, such as the barely audible soundtrack from Wizarding World. “It’s screams,” he said. “Screaming is a disturbing noise. It’s not a lullaby.”

Universal says it’s listening.

“We appreciate hearing from the community, and that feedback is an important part of the process,” reads a statement from Universal Studios Hollywood. “The coaster is currently in its testing and commissioning phase, which is designed to evaluate the attraction over time and under a variety of operating conditions. As part of that process, we are actively reviewing sound levels to ensure the coaster is operating in compliance.”

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift has been about a decade in the making. It’s a feat of engineering, situated on a hill between the park’s upper and lower lots, extending out toward Lankershim Boulevard. Universal has its own interest in limiting noise from the ride, beyond being a polite neighbor, as it is still a working studio.

The theme park has made outreach into the neighborhood over the years in an attempt to assuage concerns, be it distributing fliers or attending community meetings. And many a Toluca Lake resident enjoys some theme park perks courtesy of Universal, such as free parking, and invites to pre-opening events at the park. Garner still speaks fondly of getting on Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge before the bulk of the public.

“We all went to meetings about it,” Rogers said of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. “Universal says they want to be a good neighbor. They made a big deal about making it the quietest coaster ever. Well, that’s nice, but you can’t put tape over people’s mouths.”

While residents say the screaming is crushingly loud, there’s no indication as of yet the ride violates any county standards. The path for the coaster was cleared with 2013’s Universal Studios Specific Plan. Presented to and approved by the County of Los Angeles, the documents outline studio, theme park and hotel expansion plans, detailing requirements such as as height, noise and more. While nothing in the papers explicitly previewed any potential ride specifics, such as a 72 mph coaster with 360 degree rotating cars, county officials note there was also nothing in the pitch for Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift that would violate terms of the plan.

Thus, say county officials, there was no requirement for Universal to hold public hearings to be granted approval to build the coaster. That’s left some residents feeling slighted, saying they were unaware of the attraction until ground was moved.

Universal Studio Hollywood’s Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift will reach speeds of 72 mph and take riders on multiple inversions.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

It should be noted, however, that before construction began, Universal Studios did place speakers on its old special effects and stunt buildings to see how noise traveled down the hill. And as per the documents, Universal Studios Hollywood must track noise at six designated monitoring sites outside and around the park. At least three are in the heart of Toluca Lake, situated on or near Valley Springs Lane.

Residents are also given a number to call for complaints such as a noise. Zito has been in touch with park technicians near his home, noting they are sitting with microphones and equipment to capture sonic readings. “I always go up to them and say, ‘You’re not here when it’s really noisy,’” he said. Another resident spoke of downloading a smartphone app to track decibel levels throughout the day, intending to document the noise of the coaster screams and report any violations.

Allowable decibel levels in the neighborhood vary depending on the time of day, as well as the type of noise. Operational sound, such as those from an attraction, are classified differently than “impulsive noise,” such as a gunshot from a film production. A scream, said county officials, is considered operational noise, and decibel levels should hover somewhere around 50 dBa during peak hours.

Most decibel charts consider that moderate noise, somewhere between steady rainfall and a dishwasher. Over the years Universal has been required to make alterations to its attractions, such as replacing some live special effects in its “Waterworld” show with prerecorded digital tracks.

The office of county supervisor Kathryn Barger is aware of the complaints of Toluca Lake residents. Her staff has been facilitating a conversation with people at Universal Studios and has found them to be “very willing partners,” said Helen Chavez Garcia, Barger’s communications director. “They are very interested in finding common ground to address the community concerns, while also meeting their bigger objectives of bringing a new attraction to keep their theme park thriving. They’ve been good partners at the table and this is going to be a continued work in progress.”

With the coaster slated to open in the coming days or weeks, residents aren’t optimistic for change or the sudden construction of more noise buffers. Rogers, for instance, said her and husband have begun shopping for water fountains, wondering if installing them in their backyard will mask the screams. Coaster fan Garner, however, said the only recourse may be to find a way to live with — and enjoy — the ride.

“I’m dying to get on it,” he said. “I’m sure it’s going to be something to experience and I’m sure it’s going to be great.”

Then he pauses for a moment. “But I don’t want to have to listen to it all day and into the night.”

Universal Studios Hollywood has long been slated to have the biggest theme park opening of 2026 with its new high-speed coaster, Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. But with no officially announced opening date, questions have started to intensify and rumors have begun to swirl as to what may be causing the park to go radio silent on what is expected to be its centerpiece attraction.

According to Universal, there is no need for concern.

Yet speculation has zeroed in on the potential noise of the coaster as being a problem for residents of the nearby of Toluca Lake. Rumors were fueled Friday by Fox 11 Los Angeles reporting, via a since-deleted post on social media network X that Hollywood Drift’s opening had been delayed at least until the end of year due to neighborhood complaints. Videos of audible screams of riders on the coaster have gone viral in recent weeks.

A spokesperson for Universal said reports that the coaster’s opening is postponed until the end of 2026 are “not accurate” and disputed the notion that the coaster has been delayed. Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, the spokesperson said, is still on target to open before the end of summer.

“We expect to announce an opening date soon,” read an official statement from the company. “The information online is incorrect.”

The summer season lasts through the end of September. The park begins its popular fall Halloween Horror Nights on Sept. 3. Tickets for the latter are currently on sale, and Universal is promising access to Hollywood Drift for those who purchase its line-skipping express pass, which starts at $259.

Sources familiar with the coaster’s operations have also disputed the notion that noise is a cause for the coaster having not yet opened, instead pointing to more routine mechanical issues that have arisen during its test and adjustment phase. One theme park insider, however, stressed that when Hollywood Drift does open, it will likely be considered a “top-5, or top-10 coaster, in the world.”

The view of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift from Universal Studios Hollywood’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is unique in that it is a 72 mph ride with vehicles created to rotate 360 degrees through multiple inversions. Designed to mimic the feel of stunt cars, its four-seated vehicles will twist and turn through banks in the track in an effort to create a drifting sensation.

Universal’s own website earlier this summer posted June 26 as an opening date, and while that was once the targeted launch, the date was quickly removed from the site. Universal began hosting media for walkthroughs of the coaster in May.

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift has been in the works for than a decade. Built essentially on a cliff between the park’s upper and lower lots, the ride’s existence is a feat of engineering, and Universal has described it as among the most intense attractions in its global park portfolio.

Before land was moved, Universal began a series of tests to track how noise would travel through the surrounding neighborhood. Universal placed speakers on the old special effects and stunt buildings to see how ride screams traveled down the hill.

Ultimately, the tracks would be complemented with multiple sound walls and shields, the latter clear structures designed to block coaster rumbles and audience screams. And because the cars can rotate 360 degrees, Universal can in theory direct rider yells away from the studio below and the neighborhood nearby. The actual track has been filled with pea gravel, designed to minimize noise from any reverberations.

“It’s incredibly quiet,” said Jon Corfino, the lead creative at Universal Studios Hollywood. “We were able to do that by putting materials inside portions of the track to deaden the sound. I’m not sure we would have needed it, but it was important to do the right thing. It’s pea gravel and rocks. It’s quieter than I ever thought it was going to be.”

Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift isn’t the only notable coaster slated to open in Southern California this year. Buena Park’s Knott’s Berry Farm initially intended to launch its reimagined Montezooma’s Revenge, now known as Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress, on Monday. Late last night, the park indefinitely delayed its public unveiling, with a spokesperson citing additional fine-tuning that surfaced during its final days of testing.

The delay is not expected to be a prolonged one.

“We appreciate everyone’s understanding and look forward to welcoming media and guests in the coming days when we can showcase the attraction exactly as intended,” read a statement from the park. Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress has been in development for the past four years.

AFTER years of writing about politics, technology and the chaos of the modern world, Matt Bellamy wanted something different for Muse’s tenth album.

“The theme was to get back into mystery a little bit,” he says. “The mysteries of the universe, mysteries of spirituality and returning to the rawness of the unknown.”

Inspired by the 1977 Wow! Signal — an unexplained radio signal from space once seen as possible evidence of alien intelligence — and a turbulent period in his personal life, the record finds Bellamy searching for meaning on both a cosmic and personal level.

“I’ve turned completely apolitical,” he admits. “It’s weird when you go through things in your personal life — the news just becomes an annoying noise.

“When your life’s going great, you get drawn into the news and what’s going on in the world.

“But when you’re actually going through something yourself, the news and politics just become a headache.

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“I’m a little bit gloriously out of touch. I’ve normally been so in touch, my finger’s always been on the pulse, and a lot of the albums I’ve made talk about the rise of populism. But this album and my life for the last year-and-a-half has been different.”

Bellamy has split from US model Elle Evans, his wife of six years, who he quietly separated from in October 2025.

“I’ve been through a separation involving two young kids,” he says carefully.

“I can’t really talk about the reasons behind it, but it was not your normal run-of-the-mill situation. I became a full-time single parent for a period of eight months.

“She’s doing a lot better now and she’s getting better, but it was an unusual situation to go through. It made writing the album so much easier.

“It’s hard to talk about what’s behind the album because I don’t throw people under the bus. And I don’t want my kids to grow up reading stuff.”

Bellamy, 48, is in London for band rehearsals and when we meet, he’s just back from the gym in a bid to shape up for the tour.

“I’m not that old,” he laughs. “But I met Mick Jagger at a party and I went straight in on the fitness. I was, like, ‘What is your secret?!’ He said when he was in his 30s, he started working out a few weeks before a tour.

“By the time he got to his 40s, he was working out for the same length as the tour.

“If it was a three-month tour, he’d work out for three months before. And by the time he got to his 50s, he was just working out all the time, all year round.”

The 1977 Wow! Signal fascinates Bellamy because it remains unexplained and happened around the time the band members were born.

“The Wow! Signal is probably, to this day, still the most interesting signal that’s ever been seen in space,” he explains.

“It happened in 1977, which is basically within 12 months of all the band being born.

“Chris [Wolstenholme] and I were born in 1978 and Dom [Howard] in 1977, so I just thought it was funny that this little Wow! Signal appeared around the time we came into this world.

“I think this album was really me letting go a little bit and engaging with the unknown.

“What is this thing inside me, or all of us, that wants to not be alone? I don’t mean with a partner or friends. I mean this thing in the universe. At the moment, we appear to be so alone, and we have this drive, which you see through religion and science.

“Behind all of it, we just don’t want to be alone.”

That search drew Bellamy back to one of his formative influences.

“I grew up watching Contact, the Jodie Foster film from the 90s,” he says. “I used to read Carl Sagan’s books and that film really stayed with me.”

It has also led him into the world of AI.

He adds: “I’ve spent time in the tech world, in California’s Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, and I had some involvement in that world.

“I went to a private talk where Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) was talking off the record about his thoughts on AI.

“I saw (Meta CEO Mark) Zuckerberg talking about it, too, and I was interested in what they were saying.

“When you really hear them, they know they’re ushering in an intelligence which is beyond us. They start to see it as, ‘Well, we’re just kind of messengers bringing in this thing that is going to be more intelligent than us’.”

Bellamy says he enjoys asking AI philosophical questions — and that is where Hexagons began.

“That’s actually my favourite thing to do with AI, and where I got the idea for Hexagons,” he says. “And again, I think that is part of the same human condition.

“Whether it be religion, looking for aliens in space or trying to bring in artificial intelligence, it’s kind of all the same thing.”

Epic, organ-led Be With You was the first song that made the album’s direction clear.

“You can look at it as a love song, or you can look at it as a religious song, almost,” he says.

“I’m not a religious person, but I decided to play the song on a church organ.

“I went to the biggest church organ in Los Angeles, so the song was recorded in this church-like setting.

“I liked the idea that it could be perceived as searching for alien life, or searching for alien intelligence of some kind, or God. That was the first song that felt right, lyrically and musically.

“There are a lot of personal elements in the album that are quite unusual for me.”

Bellamy says the album came from a difficult period, but that made the music flow.

“This was actually the easiest album for me to write and make for 15-plus years,” he says.

“Space Debris is probably the biggest reveal of what I went through, especially lyrically at the end,” he says.

“It’s the rawest moment of explaining what really happened over the last year. I like using space analogies — space debris, things breaking up and falling apart in gravity — to describe the chaos and feeling in your life.

“It also fits the theme of connecting this search into outer space for a higher power with the chaos and feeling in your own life.

“I hope the fans don’t ask me to play that one live.”

If Space Debris is the album’s rawest confession, Bellamy says it also opened the door to bigger questions running through the record.

“What I went through threw me off into the unknown,” he explains.

“When things go wrong in your life, that’s when you’re most likely to seek meaning or search for answers.

“In my case, it was a blend between religious thought, alien intelligence and AI.

“I don’t know what it is, but you’re searching for this higher power to guide you, or to give you answers.

“Music became my catharsis. It became my way to understand my situation.

“Making this album gave me flashbacks to these periods where music was my everything.

“It wasn’t something I had to do to pay the bills. It wasn’t something I had to do for the record label. It was something that I had to do for myself.

“That’s why I think this album is probably, since the 2000s anyway, the most raw, emotionally raw and honest album I’ve done.”

Bellamy says despite the personal nature of the album, Chris and Dom were central to every song.

“I’ve always been in charge of the lyrics, and I’m the leader in terms of the concepts,” he says.

“But musically, this is the most equal album we’ve had for a long time.”

The Wow! Signal includes some of the best tracks Muse have made in years.

Cryogen has already been compared to early Muse, while Shimmering Scars shows off the vulnerability in Bellamy’s voice.

“Cryogen is deliberately Muse from 2001,” he says.

With Shimmering Scars, he explains: “I felt like I needed to do five or six takes, so we could edit the best bits in.

“But producer Dan Lancaster was, like, ‘Nah, let it be raw, let it be weird.’

“To me, it sounded a bit off — not quite what I wanted it to be. But he was, like, ‘No, that’s the whole point. That sounds a little bit raw’.

“This is the first album where we said, ‘Let’s give Dan a go at producing it’. The last two albums were self-produced, so it was nice to hand the reins to someone else.

“He did a great job keeping us towards that more raw, vulnerable state in the performances.”

Bellamy believes AI is pushing younger listeners back towards authenticity.

“My stepson with Kate [Hudson], Ryder, is 22 and he’s just graduated from NYU,” he says. “Then Bing is 14, and I’ve got the two little ones as well.

“Having a boy who’s 22 and a boy who’s 14 means I get a real sense of what’s going on in their generation.

“I think that generation is turning away from pop, hip-hop and dance a little bit. They’re seeking raw, chaotic-sounding music.

“I think the reason why is because that generation is drowned by AI. AI is dominating everything they do, from schoolwork to music and the arts.

“I could be wrong but from what I sense from them, they’re gravitating towards what they know to be real.”

Recent single Nightshift Superstar was the band wanting to go French disco.

“I love Daft Punk, Justice and ABBA,” Bellamy says. “I went to see ABBA’s show and I loved it. They’re some of the best songs ever written. So after that and seeing Justice in Paris, I was, like, ‘How do we do that? Let’s just go there’.

“The song has a late-70s feel but with a more cutting-edge tone associated with modern dance music.

“But the good thing about it is that it really is us playing.”

One surprise on The Wow! Signal is Hush — a collaboration with pop star Ellie Goulding.

“Ellie was in the studio next-door, working with Marshmello on something,” says the singer.

“We have known each other for years and always wanted to try and do something together.

“Muse fans will read online that we’ve done a song with Ellie Goulding and think it’s going to be a pop song.

“But it’s got one of the biggest, heaviest riffs we’ve done in a long time. To me, it sounds a bit like New Born or something from 2001.

“The verses get a little bit poppy, I guess, but the main riff is pretty hard rock, so I thought it was quite fun to get Ellie’s voice over that kind of heaviness.

“I think it’ll be a nice surprise.”

Bellamy says the song came together by chance.

“This was an experiment,” he says. “It’s the only song on the album that really involves multiple writers.

“Ellie popped her head in towards the end of the day, at about 11pm, and went, ‘Hey, what are you guys up to?’ We played the song and she said, ‘Oh, can I sing on it?’ We tweaked the lyrics and turned it into a duet.

“It came completely by chance. It wasn’t planned to be a collaboration.”

Bellamy says the reaction from Muse fans to the new songs has “been the best we’ve had for at least 15 years” and he’s looking forward to getting back on the road following their special Brixton Academy show in April to launch the album.

The show marked Muse’s first appearance at the venue in 25 years, just before the release of Origin of Symmetry.

“I didn’t realise it had been so long,” Bellamy says.

“I remember the last time we played there, it was around the second album and I was so nervous because it was the biggest show Muse had ever done.

“We got to debut Be With You for the first time, and we had a great time.”

Visually, Bellamy says the full Wow! Signal world will come to life properly when Muse return to Europe in November.

“The American tour starts with what I’d call a medium-level production,” he says.

“But when we come to Europe, including London and Manchester in November, that’s when we’re going to ramp it up to a really sophisticated production.

“I think there’ll be a lot of geometry, a lot of hexagons, shapes and lasers, and strange, interesting visuals.

“Hopefully we’ll build the spaceship you see on the album cover in the arena.”

• The album The Wow! Signal is out today.

The Wow! Signal