"THE-PULSAR" by Stéphane Froidcoeur
"THE-PULSAR": Alexey Boitsov, Vladimir Sokoushin, Sergey Naan

SL: Hello guys, can you briefly introduce us who you are and how you came to set "THE-PULSAR"?
AB: Yeah we are just the common guys from St Petersburg, which is believed to be a cultural capital of Russia. Long ago in 1996 we decided to devote ourselves to the electronic music. At that time it would be considered just a pure enthusiasm and the struggle for the idea as there was almost no demand for such kind of music and it didn't really exist for public. When we tried to find any labels those responsible big men would look at us in a strange way as if we were crazy or from another planet. But we didn't give up and now we have something to discuss with you.

As for our lives we are quite far from comfort as we have quite a difficult period in our lives. At the moment Sergey and me are almost unemployed. And one of the reasons is crisis but on the other hand it was always our desire to escape from the world of exhausting hours of working for somebody to get his targets and instead to give all of ourselves to music. As a result we are free but this freedom costs a lot and we have to be satisfied with minimum. Sergey earns his living by writing reviews for the movies for the famous website and I earn additionally as a designer. Volodya works but it's a secret what exactly he is doing)))

 SL: I've been rather surprised you guys aren't that active on the internet ! Is there any explanation for this especially as the internet is an opportunity to spread your music around?
AB: It's quite simple. The rights for publishing and replicating of our music belong to "Advoxya Records" so we have something to think over but we discuss it with the label and we'll try to find the optimal decision to develop this direction as we have quite good and trusting relationship between us.

SL: Tell us a bit more about your official debut-cd "NEVER"?
AB: The first thing is that "NEVER" is not our debut album. The first one goes back to 1996 and the official album was recorded on the cassettes in 1999. If we talk about the new history of our group it started in 2005 when we brought out the album " away kenning".  There is more info about it on our website

SL: How would you define your music to people who have never heard of you before?
AB: It depends. Usually when people who have no idea what it is about ask us about our music I would say, " do you know "DEPECHE MODE"? So it's something similar but harder))). Or I would say: "hard electronic music". Anyway it's difficult to characterize our music with one word. One of my friends once called it  "an intelligent EBM".

SL: Some of your songs like "DON'T STOP" remind me to the early years of Vomito Negro, but the main pieces are more in the "HAUJOBB" -style. What does it say about your influences?
AB: "HAUJOBB"? Not sure…. I respect those guys. We like their music and they could influence us somehow but I don't think we ever have tried to copy them. But I guess if you try you will always find influence of many famous groups upon our music or any other as well. You know once it was created by somebody and we all live in the world of repetition that's why you can always find some associations and more interesting is that every other person would have his own. Somebody would find it similar to WUMPSCUT))).

SL: Do you have some bands you feel close to in the style of music?
AB: We don't have idols and we try not to make them. There are some guys who influenced our worldview. There are quite a few but I would especially mention FRONT 242, DEAD CAN DANCE, JOY DIVISION. And UNDERWORLD and FAITHLESS as well.  At the moment I like islanders SIGUR ROS.

SL: Tell us a bit more about the composition and recording of the songs on "NEVER"?
AB: It took us the longest time almost 2 years to make it.  And in the very beginning it seemed to us it would be different. We even planned to name it in a completely different way. But on the way when we made almost a half of it we realized the name doesn't match the character.  So transformation happened when it was in progress. By the way we thought to finish it a year before but we were not satisfied with the result and it took us another year. So we had to exclude some tracks as they lost current importance for us but later on we made new ones. But for example we discovered the track "BLIND VISION" among the old ones. And it was already about 5 years old. Of course we changed it a lot. "LEVITATION" was created under the impression of "THE UGLY SWANS" movie from where we took a couple of samples.

SL: The song "MY DREAM" seems to express some vision about a better world! Tell us a bit more about it?
SN: We are sure the world is going to change. The dominating idea will be the unity of mankind in creation due to the laws of the Supreme Universal Ethics and the best human sides created by God will replace egoism and "commercialism" and cynicism. Everybody will take responsibility for his own life and its influence upon the rest of the world and at the same time it will not be possible to bribe the judges and at last the evolution will be lead by intelligent people. No Golgofa would exist any more. This process doesn't depend on our wish. It's predetermined by the evolution which means it's not long left to wait before the moral laws are going to be leading and those ones which are considered to be ok today will not be possible any more. For   example such notion as " war between nations" wouldn't exist as it wouldn't be possible for the liars and dissemblers to take the leading positions as they would be kicked out by the system of fine filters.
Just imagine a piece of glass. The dirtier its surface is the less light goes through it and the hotter it becomes so soon the control emanation is going to be so strong that only the best guys with pure souls will get to the certain level of hierarchy of ruling. The others will get burnt and fused.
By the way the movie "the ugly swans" is quite predictive in this sense. Mankind is going to have lots of cross at the time of global changes and the planet restarting.

SL: Do you have someone particularly in mind on the "PRETENDED PRAYER"-song? What is it all about?
SN: It's a song about hypocrisy. Many of those who seem to be obedient people and raise high their hypocritical prayers are guilty directly or not in that sad position the mankind is as in reality they live to the principle " share and rule" and admit and prove the power of money and lack of conscience and they despise the moral value. They pay for the their sins to be forgiven they pray to Jesus but at the same time are ready to crucify him again and again if he seems to be dangerous to their satisfied chronic bliss and vanity. They are praying for themselves for their prosperity and the possibility to be parasitic at the expense of defying all the humane in this world to get their own power and profit.
They are destroyers and seducers of souls and in reality their principle is nothing but  "the only thing I care is myself. "

SL: Your lyrics seem to reflect some 'psychological' themes so what does it say about your own perception of life and future in this world?
SN: We've already answered this question. World is going to be completely different and based on the moral laws currently in force by that time and in scale of people's acceptance of evolutional laws and corresponding responsibility for their life way.

SL: What does the title of your album "NEVER" reflect?
SN: The name is quite abstract as well as the words of the song with the same name. This is just some sensible perception covered in words with the idea of a man similar to us living in a contemporary society who can find harmony between the world and himself. Or you have to become a slave of prescribed by the society fake laws or to live due to your own laws but being a social outcast. The middle point is at the survival level and the constant struggle and that's why harmony is not possible ever.

SL: Tell us a bit more about the electronic scene where you live and in Russia generally speaking?
AB: In Russia there are many talented groups: "WAVEFALL", "DENERGIZED", "ALTERA FORMA" etc. It's difficult to name all of them. But by some reason their creativity doesn't go as far as overseas. Though they are not worse but even better in some cases than some European groups. And I don't think the reason is their creativity that is in fact quite progressive and distinctive but consumer's attitude and money-grubbing businessmen. And as a result of their commercialism at the moment lots of Russian groups in our country find themselves in vacuum of unclaimed ones. A couple of years ago the promoters of such kind of music went in for bringing the western groups here and completely forgot about the Russian ones who were to be actively developed and Russian groups were left just for themselves. As a result public have had enough of foreign stars and still have no idea what the local ones are. And quite often when they hear the Russian music they get greatly surprised that it exists.

SL: The album has been written and recorded in your home studio so how does this studio looks like and what have been your favorite tools to compose the "NEVER"-album?
VS: For over 10 years of our existence we've had different hobbies. There were times when the computer was somewhere under the table and we played synthesizer. But later computer technologies made a big step
And now we don't have any priority. The main thing is to make it interesting and we use both synthesizer and soft. We compose we record and we do bring the music together by ourselves. We used to use the service of a sound producer but not any more. We do everything.

SL: How did you get in touch with ADVOXYA RECORDS?
VS: It was exactly at the concert of HAUJOBB where we also took part. In 2005… But nothing really special. Advoxya was at that time a young and fast developing label staking on Russian and eastern-European teams. So we were in the nick of time….

SL: What do you expect from "NEVER" and especially in the old 'Western' part of Europe and the USA?
AB: We hope that as much audience as possible will get to know our music and it'll find a response and consonance. We hope for that creative resonance and for the audience to understand what we wanted to say. Similar attracts similar so we would like to have as many friends and brothers-in-arms and spirit brothers though it sounds a little bit of pathos.

SL: How does a live performance of "THE-PULSAR" looks like and what are the live plans for the coming months?
VS: Our program is quite rich.  For the concerts we attract our constant drumming which gives some new colors to our music. We've got 2 big screens that show video clips of our own production besides different for each screen. Plus there are video cameras both on the stage and in the hall. They together with the screens broadcast whatever is going on. If the concert is live we can perform for an hour and a half or longer. So at the concerts we give away all of ourselves all the energy we've got.
In the nearest future we don't plan any specific concerts, as we are completely busy with recording a new album, which we want to finish by the summer. But there is nothing impossible. If there are any good offers we are ready to consider them.

SL: What would be the biggest dream of "THE-PULSAR" for the future?
AB: We would be happy if once any group is asked a question while being interviewed  "Is it true that "THE-PULSAR" has influenced your creativity a lot?")))
And to be honest we want our creative work not to be a struggle any more….

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