After coming home from Japan March 1996 I couldn’t wait to get back . But first a new album had to be made . The first track I recorded was "Don’t Let The World Fall Down On You" followed by "Don’t Tell Me", a song inspired by Nick Kershaw’s ’Wouldn’t It Be Good’ and ‘The Riddle’ . I wanted to change the style more drastically but didn’t know what direction to follow . So writing went slow . My heart was with playing live , we didn’t do enough shows to fulfill the hunger for the stage . Though I upgraded my studio big time I wasn’t anxious to play with the new toys. Didn’t feel like recording at all . Only a few songs came out . "My aching Heart", "Welcome To The Nineties" and "My Side Of the Story", a very short a cappella thing , my answer to some rumours back then : ‘It’s the other way around’. And ‘Christmas In Heaven’ which I already recorded most of before the tour . But my heart was in Japan , couldn’t get myself inspired here in Holland . So I went to Osaka, Japan , actually not just for the country , but for love . Never felt happier before than those months in Osaka . The songs came out quickly , most of them without a piano nor guitar . Wrote it all down and hummed it in at a memo recorder . I remember walking on the streets and suddenly every part of ‘Back On The Track’ came to me , rushed back to the apartment to write it down . I was so in peace with everything, so very much in love. I felt that everything came together at that time . That’s why I called the album ‘UNITED’. When after a few weeks a piano arrived at the apartment all the songs had already been written. Arranging them was the only thing left to do . The Wisseloord studio and engineer Matt Butler were already booked 5/6 months in advance for the mixes and some additional recordings , so eventually I had to return to Holland to start recording at my new equipment again. Newly wed , with a heavy heart I returned home , alone . With a tight recording schedule, missing my love, I dragged myself into the studio . That was tough . Because the new recording-system failed time and again , it broke down so many times . There were many times the failing machines drove me insane , it ruined most of the fun for me. And the deadline was getting closer . But I managed to finish everything at home in time where Johan Willems was a big help again with the harmony vocals . Guitarist Vinnie Kay from the new live band did a couple of solo’s and sang harmonies on one track . Also Juan was a big support, programmed some drums and also sang in a chorus . In the studio Juan replaced the programmed drums on ‘The Visionary Victim ‘ by real ones. A track that also starts out a-cappella , with mouth emulated guitar solo and drums . The Koch family played some terrific fast violin parts on "I Believe In Music" and "Back On The Track " and we hired the same bag pipe player as on ‘Megaman’ to play on ‘The Power Above’ on which Dutch session guitar player Bert Meulendijk did a solo . Engineer Matt Butler was great as always. I had a very nice time with him . So for a change this time no problems in the studio whatsoever. It went rather smoothly . The last track "Rise And Shine" was an anthem we used to end the live concerts with in 1996. I thought it was also nice to end the album with . The intro has the same melody and title . Originally I did a solo-vocal trying to do it the way like an official sports game often begins with . Matt found it no good and summoned me to go back home and do better . He was right , although I hated to go back into recording when I thought everything was finished , but later I was glad to have followed the Admiral’s order . I used to be a bit superstitious and always had something with the number 4. And in that way I thought everything came together with this album . It was the 4th album. 16 tracks (4x4) . The year of release ’97. 9+7,16 (4x4) , A piano usually has 88 keys 8+8,16 (4x4). I was 28, 2x8,16 (4x4) Valentines day 2-14 etc. etc. … had a lot more of that numerological nonsense that made me believe this album would finally give me the big breakthrough. But it all turned out differently. And I should have known , because in Japanese the number 4 (shi) also means death . It’s the bad luck number in Japan . On June 15 we made the video of ‘I Believe In Music’ with director/photographer Niels van Iperen . Right on that day my father passed away . And everything changed . I can’t express enough how important he was for me and what a terrible shock it was. From this album "I Will Come Through" was one of his favourites, and it was played at his funeral . When I hear back the song, always the image comes to mind of everyone there standing up, paying tribute to my fantastic dad . A few days after I had to go to Japan to promote the album. Though the sales didn’t really meet my unrealistically high expectations, it did rather well . At least I was happy with the album and the whole package . Art-director Takashi Ito put my ideas into reality well. I’d put 2 photo’s from my childhood in it. There’s a picture of me in Dutch national colour soccer outfit posing the way soccer players do when the national anthem is playing before a game . The picture is taken in our backyard where later my dad built the studio. There’s also a picture of me playing my mother’s old piano . In the intro ‘Rise And Shine ‘ of the album you can softly hear a small part from an old recording of that time , a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody : ‘Sometimes wish I’d never been born at all’.