A Peek Inside Paisley Park, Prince’s Minnesota Recording Studio

published Apr 28, 2016
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(Image credit: Tara McBride)

Quite unassuming from the outside, you’d hardly guess this building was the creative refuge of The Purple One. But at Paisley Park in suburban Minnesota, Prince recorded nearly 30 albums. Take a look inside:

(Image credit: via The Spaces)

55,000 square feet on nine acres, Paisley Park was completed in 1988 and houses four recording studios, a video editing suite, and a 12,500 square foot soundstage. Not only were all of Prince’s recordings since its opening recorded there, the studio attracted a wide range of artists from Barry Manilow to Kool & the Gang.

(Image credit: via The Spaces)

Not surprisingly, the interior of Paisley Park is very purple. It’s described by The Spaces:

Carpets, walls and upholstery are also fitted in shades of violet. Even lighting in some of the rooms has a lavender hue. Elsewhere, walls are painted with fluffy white clouds and the boardroom ceiling is a silken purple galaxy. Portraits of Prince himself are also plentiful, including a mural of his eyes.

Like the raising of the Royal Standard, the pyramid above Prince’s office glowed in his signature color when he was in residence.

The compound also became Prince’s archive, with his awards stored in a basement room with over 100 unreleased songs and two complete albums— and that’s from a 1990 TIME story, so who knows how many are down there now.

In an interview with The Sun, Prince’s brother-in-law Maurice Phillips said, “We will turn Paisley Park into a museum in Prince’s memory. It would be for the fans. He was all about the fans — this would remember his music, which is his legacy.”