Valentine! In 2023, I spent a month traveling through Japan, drawn by a fascination with the country’s record-listening bars— small intimate spaces where music takes on a ritualistic quality.

In these tiny, dimly lit spaces, bartenders double as curators. From huge shelves of vinyl, they’d carefully select a record, hold it up as if unveiling a treasure, and place it on the turntable for the six or seven patrons wedged into the room. What followed was always magical: unfamiliar tracks that seemed to appear out of nowhere, yet somehow felt destined to reach your ears.

Inspired by those evenings, I wanted to create a track that could have emerged from that world—a song that would make me sit up, transfixed, if a bartender had placed it on the platter.

It was during this journey that I also discovered a newfound love for Italo Disco, a gloriously unabashed 1980s subgenre of electronic music, dripping with melodrama and earnest charm. Somewhere in the blending of these experiences, Valentine! was born—a heartfelt homage to those smoky bars, those unearthly tracks, and the irresistible, cheesy allure of Italo Disco.

I hope it takes you there. Enjoy!