When I was about twenty-four I went with my band on a summer’s day to the Rhine promenade in Düsseldorf. We passed a crane that was positioned in a parking lot and you could bungee jump from fifty meters. We decided to do it. Once I was up there my fear was enormous. I felt that my strength was leaving my body. Finally I jumped and I was high for fourteen days.

I normally don’t drive much but there are some days when I have to go one way a couple of times. Today I drove the same stretch of five kilometres five times back and forth. The last time I felt like I was in the film Groundhog Day. It gives you the impression of being attached to coincidences, as the way is the same and the buildings are still there, but everything else is changing.

My grandmother Alma was a wonderful person. She was quite a small person in terms of her size, and she was always wearing these working dresses that women used to wear for their housework. She was a mixture of a warm-hearted, simple, working class personality combined with a very precise humour. When gambling with us she always cheated and I always felt when we played chess that suddenly something changed on the board. But she was so fast in doing it that it seemed like she was a magician; the cheating always had this character of an illusion. I still like this combination of intelligence and simplicity.

A lot of times during the year we have family celebrations at our house. I always love to have people in the house, but family gatherings have the weird character of getting too long and unfocused. So after two hours I went in my room, locked it and played piano until the people were gone. Today I sometimes do the same with presents. I think presents have to be given when you want to give them and not because it is someone’s birthday. So I appear sometimes on a birthday with nothing, and half a year later I am passing something that reminds of this person and I buy it.

In 1994 I travelled with my cousin to the USA. We went first to LA then NYC and at last to Richmond, Virginia. I was already deeply into music but I had no trust in my talent and no vision that someday I could find people that liked my music. In the US I found totally different attitudes. I met people that started with nothing and, by being totally convinced and focused, the reality changed for them. I found out that there is a deep connection between your visualisation of the future and the reality of your future. I was so happy about this clearness.

I will describe this place on a sunny day, at a time where the summer says goodbye and the autumn reaches out to touch the land. This morning the light rises around 7am and because I have no covers in front of the window the daylight is waking me up. I open the door to the veranda and I feel the humidity of the night. You can see the water pearls on the grass leaves and the air is extremely fresh and healthy. The rhythm in the village I was born in seems to be strong.