15 years ago to the date, my first big musical project was launched into orbit. I wrote the material for the Neo-Opera “Diablo” in 1992, when I was studying and living in Paris. The city constantly fed me with inspiration and it had to be channelled somewhere. Being a typical child of the eighties, I had been playing Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood album to the point of it physically breaking. It gave me the idea to do a concept album, moulding together the best songs I had been writing in my teens and weave them into one coherent story. Musically Diablo became a crossover between 80s pop and Bach. The lyrics had the structure of a classical Greek tragedy: 5 acts and a leading lady called Helen. The album got picked up by some of Holland’s national musical heroes including Musical director Eddy Habbema, who loved my voice and guitar work and invited me to his offices to discuss a co-operation. It inspired me and my best friend designer Jean-Paul Mulder to make a theatrical production out of it, that was subsequently discussed with the Japanese NHK broadcasting company. Eventually Sony Music offered to release one of the album tracks “Helen” as a standalone single in the Netherlands which I stubbornly refused (and regret to this day). Everything was still very much all or nothing for me in those days.

Today looking back at this project drenches me in muscial memories. This morning, for the first time in what is probably over 10 years, I listened to Diablo again. It’s 15 years old and sounds crappy as hell, but the words and the music still do it for me today.