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Flying Cloud Drive Warehouse

Far cheaper to hiring conventional studios, having spent much time and money renting out Sunset Sound in LA, Prince took out a lease on a warehouse at 9025 Flying Cloud Drive in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, from May 1984. This single floor, wood-panelled building with tin roof was Prince’s second such facility, providing a sufficient space to conduct rehearsals with his band for their upcoming tour. From here throughout from May to November 1984 Prince and The Revolution prepared their Purple Rain Tour.

For the purpose of recording these rehearsals, Prince had a API/DeMedio soundboard and MARA MCI JH24 – 24-track recorder installed to have the warehouse operate additionally as a fully functioning studio – set up by his recording engineer Susan Rogers. This equipment had been transferred from Prince’s previous warehouse, an ageing former dog food distribution store, at 6651 Highway 7, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, which he rented since May 1983. The aged building, dating from 1945 (demolished 2007) suffered with electrical interference and the studio equipment broke down often. Its walls were lined with a heavy black theatre curtain and was the rehearsal space where The Revolution perfected much of the new material which would end up on the Purple Rain album. Owing to this, Highway 7 famously received studio credit as The Warehouse for the recording of Let’s Go Crazy and Computer Blue during May and August 1983 – The Revolution taking full advantage of the building’s echo to produce the live venue feel for the songs. The Warehouse consequently became the inspiration to create Purple Rain as an almost fully live album. In preparation for shooting the accompanying film, in September 1983 Prince and the band took their acting lessons at Highway 7 three days a week to get ready for the Purple Rain movie, under the tutorage of Don Amendolia.

The limitations of the Highway 7 warehouse caused Prince to seek to upgrade to a better facility, settling on Flying Cloud Drive ten miles south in the district of Eden Prairie. The studio was transferred there and it became the base Prince and The Revolution to rehearsed and recorded continuously throughout the remainder of 1984. During these sessions tracks were laid down for Prince and The Revolution’s second album Around The World In A Day, as well as recording the debut for his side-project The Family; Andre Cymone’s debut Mazarati was also recorded here. The property’s tin roof created a harder sound than can be heard in Prince’s other albums. The key songs recorded at the Flying Cloud Drive warehouse include Roadhouse Garden, Mutiny, Nothing Compares 2 U, Paisley Park, Raspberry Beret and The Dance Electric.

Prince later bought the facility outright for $450,000, paid in cash, and engaged the architectural firm BOTO Design of Santa Monica to submit various plans to redevelop the site into a full-blown studio complex. The warehouse was demolished in the spring of 1985 in preparation of this work, however the site proved too small for purpose and its busy suburban surroundings raised privacy as another concern. A new location was therefore required and Prince purchased a plot of land 7 miles to the west in rural Chanhassen where he built Paisley Park Studios. During the construction of Paisley Park between July 1985 and early 1987, Prince rented his final warehouse, 6953 Washington Avenue in the district of Edina, and fitted out with the console transferred from the Flying Cloud Drive facility.

Albums recorded at Flying Cloud Drive warehouse