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Steve Vai Lists His Encino Home and Studio Sanctuary for Nearly $11.8 Million
Steve Vai has listed his Encino home and Harmony Hut studio for nearly $11.8 million after 20 years in the Valley.
Steve Vai and his wife Pia have put their San Fernando Valley home on the market after 20 years. The Encino property, in the long-running Music Row area, is listed for nearly $11.8 million through Sotheby’s International Realty’s Malibu brokerage.
The house sits on Encino Avenue, in a neighborhood that has also been home to Tom Petty, Ronnie James Dio, Dave Grohl, Slash, Graham Nash, Sergio Mendes and others. The Jackson family compound on Havenhurst is nearby. Vai bought the 1941-built home in 2006 for $1.2 million after it had been abandoned for 10 years. Since then, he says, he has invested millions into a full renovation.
“It’s bittersweet, sure,” Vai said. “There’s always those heartstrings. We raised our (two) children there. It was a really good life. We customized every inch of that property. I put millions of dollars into it to restructure the house completely, and there was a lot of love put into it.”
That includes the Harmony Hut, the detached studio Vai built on the property. He described it as a place with “only good vibes” now, even if its past includes a darker detail: a gardener who had been looking after the abandoned property died there and was found two weeks later. Vai said it was “kind of a creepy story” and not one he likes to lead with during a sale.
The studio is a major part of the listing. The Harmony Hut is an 1,800-square-foot, acoustically tuned recording space with a custom console designed by Steve Firlotte of Tree Audio in Los Angeles. It combines 500 Series and Neve technologies and has room for a substantial number of modules and plug-ins. Vai recorded albums there including 2005’s Real Illusions: Reflections and 2022’s Inviolate, where he introduced his custom triple-neck guitar, the Hydra. He also worked there with Joe Satriani and rehearsed Beat, the quartet with Adrian Belew, Tony Levin and Tool’s Danny Carey that has been touring King Crimson’s early ’80s material.
Vai said the studio, which also holds his guitar collection, will largely remain as it is for showings. “If you look at the Harmony Hut, it doesn’t look like a recording studio. It’s more like a gentleman’s lounge,” he said. “It’s just a dreamboat property for an artist. It’s a sanctuary, it really is, completely walled-off and beautiful. If somebody wants to have a home with a studio, you’re not going to find anything better.”
The main house is about a half-mile from Ventura Boulevard and has been expanded to more than 10,000 square feet. The property includes five en suite bedrooms, a swimming pool and pool house, a gym, a billiards room, a library and landscaped grounds that include a 400-year-old oak tree. The Sotheby’s listing calls it “an inspired, artful environment where nature, creativity, peace and possibility converge.”
Vai said the move is about a change of pace. He has relocated to the San Diego area and plans to build “a more appropriate studio” at his new home. “I didn’t want to grow old in the Valley,” he said. “But we loved it there. It has a particular energy and it really served me and my family well, and it’s…great for people in the arts and the music community and the film community.”
He is still staying busy. Vai is touring with Satriani and their SatchVai band through May. The group has released three songs and finished a full album expected later this year. He will then join Beat in Europe in June and July, and he has other touring scheduled for much of the year.
Vai also said he will host a Creamsicle Sunset cruise of the Rhine River from June 26-July 3 2007 and has several projects underway, including an acoustic vocal album, orchestral works with the Metropole Orchestra in the Netherlands and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland. He is also set to compose a piece for performance in summer 2027 in The Hague.
