Hi Simon. First of all, congratulation for the new album. Worlds Apart is in my opinion one of the best melodic rock album of the year. I supposed you’re satisfied with the cd too, but retrospectively, is there something you would have done differently?
Simon Abbots: I think with any album there’s always something in hindsight you would have changed or done slightly differently. However on the whole the way the songs were put together I am really pleased with the album, & the reaction so far goes a long way to proving that.

Your first album came out through the label Now & Then/Frontiers Records, and then we didn’t hear that much about PULSE. Do you know why they have not released the new album?
We had no ties to any label after the first album,& after receiving nothing back in terms of money from Now & Then records, we were free to approach or be approached by any label, we talked to a lot of labels for this album but MTM offered us the best package.

Had you signed for more than one album with them?
Vince signed a contract for 3 albums with Now & Then records, however my contract although promised never appeared. Therefore I never signed one, we had no obligations to do anything else for Now & Then, they were very interested in the 2nd album nothing materialised.

I think there is a big confusion concerning the last couple of years of PULSE. Let’s get back to that period if you don’t mind… First, we learned that you had left the band, without a clear explanation. Can you now tell us why did you leave PULSE?
I have to be somewhat diplomatic answering this, after the first album was released although a lot of people were quick to praise it the situation with the label & their failure to help us led to a lot of conflict & differences in the band, despite successful gigs we reached a point where we seemed to be standing still. At this point I had other commitments & Vince decided to bring in another singer to obligate gigs already booked, although I was disappointed & angry at the time I was focused on other things. Eventually Vince realised things weren't working out we met up & sorted out any differences we had.

Then, about a year ago, a rumour was saying you were back with the band, but this rumour was immediately denied by yourself (at any rate, that’s what I’ve read), and then you finally were back with Vince and worked on the new album with him. What did really happen?
We talked on a number of occasions whilst I was working on a solo album but never arranged anything, eventually we met up at a THUNDER gig about a year later & agreed to get together & start writing a new album. Any rumours we had got together before this were exactly that.

First, Worlds Apart was supposed to be released through the label First Hearing Music, I think. Was it your own label?
We had written about 6 songs for the new album & were approached by FHM to release the album when it was ready, despite numerous promises of money distribution etc nothing materialised. We felt very let down at this point we started to circulate demo's etc to see what interest there was.

Why did you finally release it through MTM ?
We signed to MTM because they seemed the best long term option, there were 5 labels after the album when it was finished but MTM just seemed the right option. We really needed the right company for this album as we had a lot of catching up to do after all the misdemeanours with the first album, but we really think we've made the right decision.

How and when did they approach you ?
Basically we sent pre mastered copies of the album to about 10 companies including major labels,the feed back was very good including the majors but it was obvious to anybody that we were not a boy band so the majors were out of the question. As I’ve said in the last question when MTM got involved we knew it was the right deal for us.

You recorded Worlds Apart with two new band members. Could you introduce them to us ?
Andy Mills (bass) joined the band 2-3 weeks after we finished the first album as Al Barrow had already joined MAGNUM, he's done all the gigs with us so far & to be fair it would have been the right thing if he'd played on the first album, as for Scott Barrow (drums) when we came to record Worlds Apart we needed a drummer & we didn't want to go through the auditioning process we asked Scott to do the album as a session & we think he did a stunning job.

How do you work with Vince O’Regan ? Who does what in the song writing process ?
We come up with a basic idea & sometimes its Vince & sometimes its me who takes the song to the next level there’s no regimented formula. We would look at the song in its basic form & build guitar melodies riffs keyboards etc until we felt we had a finished product. I would then take the song home & work on the lyrics harmonies etc bring it back to the studio & we would work out the best dynamics for the song in the studio.

I have read several critics (highly exaggerated, in my opinion) concerning the sound of Worlds Apart. Some people deplore some saturation in the production. Are you personally pleased with the production, and what would you tell to those people ?
We've read & listened to a lot of reviews for this album & there’s only been 2 reviews that didn't like the sound, we set out to get a certain sound for this album & we got it, we think its 100% what we wanted but you can't please everyone at the end of the day its down to the individual who listens & draws his own conclusions.

How many songs have you recorded for Worlds Apart? Is there any unreleased material left aside?
We wrote 20 songs for this album & after looking carefully we chose 12 songs we thought were the most commercially appealing. The twelfth song to be included for release as bonus track for japanese market is called Faith.

I think your first album was featuring new and older compositions from your previous works with Vince. Have you used old unreleased tracks on the new album too ?
When we did the first album we had been recording as a partnership for 10 years so we had a lot of songs new & old. For this album ‘Talk To My Heart’ & ‘Feels Like The First Time’ were written just after we finished the first album. Everything else was written specifically for this album.

I have heard that both you and Vince were working on a solo album. Can you tell us more about this?
At present the solo recordings are on hold as Al Dawkins who I was writing with is committed to working with Dante Fox, all efforts & recordings are being pooled towards the third Pulse album.

Have you already started to work on the next PULSE cd?
We have already recorded 6 songs to be included on the next Pulse album although they may be re recorded in the future at present we are busy writing this interview (ha ha) so all writing & recording is on hold as we will be busy promoting this album & rehearsing for possible tours etc.

Finally, will we have the pleasure to see you on stage this year?
We are in negotiations with several promoters & things are looking extremely positive for the future we look forward to seeing you all.

Thanks for the time, Simon, and again congratulations. I was really blown away with the new tracks and I have rarely listened to such a compact album those last few years. You really made my day !
Thanks.

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