Legendary Depeche Mode musician puts West Sussex music studio up for sale

The property – known as Willowbank at Itchingfield near Horsham – is where the musician and songwriter programmed the music for Depeche Mode’s ‘Devotional’ World Tour – the longest and most expansive of the band’s career – back in the nineties.

“I also produced several DM remixes and versions at the studio,” said Alan, who later continued to use the place for further production and his personal music project called Recoil, along with film and TV work.

The property is on sale through agents House Partnership – who describe it as ‘a unique, detached house offering huge potential’ – with a guide price of £695,000.

Meanwhile, Alan’s main residence – a nearby mansion known as Storries on a 28-acre estate where he has lived for the past 35 years – is also on the market with a £3.75 million price tag.

As for the music studio, House Partnership say: “Willowbank is a fantastic, open-plan, period house, currently arranged as a rather avant garde one bedroom house, with the traditional exterior belying the space within.”

Alan himself – who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 – originally converted the property into his music studio in the 1990s but designed it to be dual purpose “so that when one removed all the equipment, you are left with a very cool open-plan adaptable dwelling.

“Willowbank would house guest producers and engineers whenever a studio session was taking place as it is completely self-contained with its mezzanine bedroom, kitchen and shower rooms.

“At one stage, Willowbank’s basement – which is accessed remotely via a Bond-like hatch door – was converted to a drum booth, and the noisy computer drives, amplifiers and similar equipment was also housed down there, with tie-lines up to the main space above where a vintage Neve mixing consul and Dynaudio speakers would sit, all surrounded by sound baffling panels built to sit on the walls, plus hanging from the steel rafters.

“For fine tuning and mixing, I would create a ‘room within a room' using additional screens to adapt and change the acoustic quality and listening environment. When recording instruments at source, the vast space would be opened up and utilised fully.

“One of the great advantages was that noise was never a problem as I had no neighbours anywhere nearby to disturb – so I could turn it up loud!”

He adds: “Whilst Willowbank has only one actual bedroom, it is larger in floor area than an average three bed semi, plus it is detached and can be further extended, subject to planning permission.

“It’s in a great location with long private garden leading onto views of a large field on one side and an orchard on the other.”