Right after the battle of recording ‘The Magic Infinity’ I had a deadline to write and record a 45 minute rock-opera for an insurance companies-100 years anniversary . Though I desperately needed a rest to recharge , there just was no time for that. In ‘overload’ I squeezed the opera out of me and once it was done I was completely empty. I wasn’t able to write after that for more than 8 months. I felt totally blank for a long time. Though in the mean time "The Magic Infinity" came out and we were a little busy promoting it. Doing some gigs and also the tour with Brian May. But no new ideas came out of me. While trying to get SuperMario to the next level I listened a lot to Abbey Road , Sgt. Peppers , Paul McCartney’s ‘Uncle Albert’, 10 CC’s ‘I’m Mandy..’ These songs gave me back a little inspiration to start with 2 new songs : ‘The Supernatural Sign’ and ‘Never Be Lonely’ . Recorded them at my 16-track home-studio April ’94 . ( Those versions actually turned up on the album ) I felt the need of doing something different and wanted to have a more diverse album this time. Contrary to what the title suggests this became a solo album again . After the tour we did with Brian May , sadly the band and I grew apart . Except for guitarist Rob Winter and newly recruited drummer Juan van Emmerloot the others sort of lost their interest . So I decided to do most of it myself again . But I was kind of lost . Only came up with 3 songs . The ones mentioned before plus ‘In The Arms Of Loneliness’ , a piano-ballad . At the same time Polydor (now Universal) Japan released the first two CD’s and it became a success. End of May I was invited to do a big promotion-tour across the whole country . It was wonderful . We signed a direct deal with the Japanese record company . And newly inspired I started to write again. Though because of personal problems it would take me another year to complete the recordings . Most of it I recorded at home with the idea to add drums and piano later on in the Wisseloord studio’s and to mix everything there as well . The first song I recorded after the Japanese adventure was ‘God’ . Another big track that took a long time to write and record . What I particularly liked on it were the overdubbed voices that led into the chorus. Called them the Walt Disney choirs. It was the first time real violins appeared on one of my songs . That was brilliantly played by the Koch-family who would appear again on the 4th album . Rob was still a big help and played some great solo’s, also the ukulele on ‘Eyes In The Mirror’ ( A song inspired by the these vaudeville type of songs Queen used to do in their early years ). And sometimes Arthur came to the studio to do some harmonies with me. (Take My hand, Dreams Never Die, Where Do We Go From Here ) . Even John Ewbank made his recording debut on a Valentine album by adding harmony-vocals for first single ‘Where Do We Go From Here’. As usual my old time friend Johan Willems also sang on a couple of songs . When I finished the recordings at home I went into the studio with engineer John Tilly . One special event was the recording of "The Mourning Minstrel". We hired Dutch gipsy orchestra Tata Mirando to play on the track , giving it that really authentic sound . The skills and passion of those musicians were just unbelievable . Except for one song , ‘ Eyes In The Mirror’ , the mixes weren’t really what I expected them to be . So I cancelled the whole operation, threw away one huge expensive month in the studio and decided the best option was to use my demo’s for the album . Fortunately Wisseloords manager Bart Sloothaak felt sorry for me and was so kind and generous to give me 3 days in the studio for free . British engineer Matt Butler managed to remix 6 songs in those 3 days. I did the final track ‘!’ at home one year before . I always record everything that comes to mind on these little memo recorders . And found that piece on one of those tapes , totally improvised and phonetically sung. I thought it would be a nice piece to end the album with . Most of my lyrics are rather autobiographical and with this album no exceptions . only ‘Just For Fun’ is pure a silly fictive story . For the first album I had this idea for the sleeve . A drawing or airbrush of me standing on a grand piano above the clouds with my hands in the air radiating the name VALENTINE . The record-company people found the idea over the top and too arrogant, so they waved it away . But I never forgot about it and with the new Japanese contract I was able to use it for the 3rd album-cover. We found an airbrush artist (Rob de Wit) who was experienced with making clouds and piano’s and he made a wonderful front-cover.