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Interview with Andy Perring aka Pulser about his album The Space Between The Stars


In a professional music career entering it’s 12th year some artists would be happily resting on their laurels, sticking to a tried and tested sound but that’s never been an option for Andy Perring aka Pulser either in the studio or the DJ booth.

Since the early days of Cloudwalking, My Religion, Spiritualised (Olmec Heads) and Open Our Eyes (Insigma) his ever-evolving production and DJ style has stayed current yet Pulser has always managed to go his own unique way, challenging the status quo and delivering the alternative sound in Trance. The forthcoming debut Pulser album showcases the fact in spectacular fashion as it effortlessly encompasses everything from tech-house and synthpop beats through to the most uplifting trance yet still retains that inimitable Pulser sound that makes the endorphins go into overdrive.


2010 was not just a comeback year for Pulser but also one his busiest ever. Working endless hours in the studio amassing the multitude of productions that will make-up his debut artist album, remixing for the likes of Lange, Airbase, Blacktzar and others not to mention running his own monthly club night Elements at Riga superclub Essential you could say Pulser really has hit all the bases, not just restabilising his musical credentials in a vastly different and evolved EDM scene but also becoming a successful club promoter in his own right.



With his Elements residency already the most successful, monthly Trance event in the Baltics  Pulser has reached new heights as a DJ delivering everything from the deepest, darkest tech-trance warm-ups to peaktime, roof-raising headline sets alongside his guests Lange, Ashley Wallbridge, Mike Koglin, The Thrillseekers and a host of up-and-coming local talent. At only 7 months old Elements has proven to be a massive success in the Latvian capital Riga where he re-located to in 2009.


2010 really kicked-off big with the release of 'Broken Universe' on Gareth Emery's Garuda records. Massive DJ support , many weeks in the Beatport top100 and Pulser’s return to the UK for a memorable Garuda Artists DJ set at the worlds best club Sankeys in Manchester was the perfect way to announce the return of a trance tour de force.



He followed that up with his hugely successful ‘naughty remix’ of Sasha & Emerson's - Scorchio which saw plays from DJ's across the board including support from Judge Jules on his BBC Radio 1 show. Moving forward we saw the debut single Sunstorm from a new project Luminal which saw a Pulser release on Ferry Corsten's Flashover imprint for the first time and his second Garuda release 'In My World', a track which caused  waves across the trance world.

In My World is radically different to what came before from Pulser yet has still managed to hit the mark with DJs and clubbers alike and with Armin Van Burren playing it on his A State Of Trance radio show (#484) it keeps up a 100% support record for Pulser singles from the World's #1 DJ.


It's no wonder then that the buzz surrounding Pulser is getting louder and louder! With the release of more bigfloor singles and the release this month  of his debut long player The Space Between The Stars on Black Hole recordings , a return to top-flight international DJing, a wealth of new online media about to hit, a rapidly expanding and successful club night, the return of another legendary alias ‘Insigma’ and some very big remixes to come, Pulser’s star is certainly rising again!
 This can only be the best moment to request an interview and I’m glad Andy replied to it so extensively and he really gave a lot of valuable time to tell us  not only his view about the state of EDM today, the backstage of his latest album with comments on each every single track  but also to offer his warm hearted, clear and precise advise for new artists such djs and producers on how they can build a healthy, lengthy  and successful career. Huge thanks to him for replying to it and I hope you will like it as I do. Please if you like this interview share it with your friends in your social networks and let the world know that Pulser is back better than ever!

Interview is written and conducted by Dimitri Kechagias, Music Journalist/Radio & Club Dj.




Dimitri: First of all I would like to say how happy I am that we conduct this interview as I’m big supporter of your music from your very early days. So it would be great to go back in time and tell us if your family upbringing was rich with music or any other arts and if yes on which kind of music you were often more exposed too?

Pulser: I think art and design was the most important thing to me at school mainly because it’s the only thing I enjoyed doing. I grew up with music 24/7 thanks to my father being a Hi-fi fanatic. He also plays guitar and a lot of his friends were musicians so I was exposed to a huge variety of music from a very early age, especially electronic music.

Dimitri: Can you recall the moment that you took the decision to get into the electronic dance music culture? Was this the result of a track that you felt in love with or maybe a particular life changing experience that you had within a club?

Pulser: I’d been making experimental electronic music for a long time but mainly for fun and I wasn’t really into club culture. I was far more into EBM/Industrial music (Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, NIN, Frontline Assembly etc) and Depeche Mode but I guess hearing ‘Enjoy The Silence’ on DM’s Violator album for the first time switched something on in me which made me want to explore the dance music scene. Hearing the original Age of Love by Age of Love for the first time was the moment for sure. It was the birth of the trance as we know it IMHO.

Dimitri: Can you list for us the artists that have the most influence and have shaped in a way your sound those can be djs, producers, music composers, or even poets/authors?


Pulser: Ummm, how long have you got? Lol
I think certain DJs and producers have definitely influenced the type of music I make but I’m far more influenced as a musician by sounds. If I have to choose anyone I would have to say Paul Oakenfold as being an inspiration to me since I started making Trance and he’s a pioneer in so many ways. Oakey supported my records in the very early days, I met him a few times back then and his support was a key factor in getting our (Olmec Heads) first record deal. I also have huge respect for Ferry Corsten for pushing the boundaries of trance but even though he’s not a producer, a DJ or professional musician the biggest influence on me musically was always my dad.




Dimitri: Your main artist names are  Pulser, Insigma,Olmec Heads. Is it possible to tell us why you adopt those  particular name and if each one of them  signifies something particular for you?

Pulser: The name ‘Pulser’ was basically an accident, a temporary name that stuck. I wrote Cloudwalking while in the Olmec Heads but it didn’t really fit with the OH sound and I needed to give the track a project name for the demo CD. If I had known it was going to be with me all these years later I think I might have chosen something else. I still get introduced to people backstage at clubs as Pulser (or usually PulsAR) which is kind of weird.  I can’t take credit for the ‘Insigma’ name as Steve (Thrillseekers) thought it up and likewise ‘Olmec Heads’ was Westy’s idea. I don’t think my artist names/aliases ever really mean anything and it’s usually just a random word that I wrote down and picked at the last minute. My track titles do have some thought and meaning behind them though.

Dimitri: Did you pass through classical music training and music engineering courses or are you totally self taught? Do you believe that when  you go through a formal course you lose the spontaneity and the creativity that EDM requires? 

Pulser: I’m completely self taught except for mandatory music lessons at school which I didn’t really enjoy. I think some basic musical knowledge does help especially when composing or working with other musicians but I’ve always subscribed to the idea that some of the best moments are when you break the rules. I can sight read music but far to slow to play at the same time. I learned to play keyboards by ear and I love to occasional just sit and play the piano without knowing what it is that I’m actually playing. Using computers can make you very lazy and most of the time I will only ever play a melody once but I do play everything into Cubase on a keyboard and not just program with a mouse.


Dimitri: You had series of hits that nowadays considered as classics and come up at many Now That’s What I Call Trance Classics type of compilations. “Cloudwalking”, “My Religion”, “Spiritualised” (as Olmec Heads) and “Open Our Eyes” (as Insigma) are just some of them. Is it possible to choose your favorite and maybe to tell us a funny or a serious story that maybe is connected with any of those trance classics?


Pulser: I can’t pick a favorite but I’ll tell you a story about all of them. Whenever I used to play at Godskitchen a guy would always come into the booth with a big stack of my records which I would sign. Every gig without fail he would be there, records in hand. When I stopped playing vinyl I sold off most of my big collection and accidentally sold off some of my own copies of my own records. I saw someone selling a few of my tracks on Ebay a couple of years later so wanting to get them back as a keepsake I bid and won the auction. I remember opening the pack and there it was, a copy of My Religion with my signature on it. Typical!

Dimitri: From the days of those tracks music technology has changed really fast and from analogue many producers moved fully to digital. Can you give us a short description of how was your studio back then and in which studio you worked for your latest album The Space Between The Stars?

Pulser: Back when I started having some success I developed a pretty healthy (or unhealthy depending on how you look at it) gear addiction and I spent a fortune building up a big hardware studio. I seemed to buy something new and usually expensive every month and had big racks full of outboard gear, samplers, effects etc plus loads of synthesizers, big mixing desks like a Soundcraft Ghost 32channel and a Roland V7200 96ch digital mixer with 24channel’s of ADAT fed into the computers. I was constantly upgrading and building new computers, buying synths and always swapping out monitors (speakers), soundcards, custom built cables not to mention the DJ gear which was 1210’s, CDJ’s etc. It was complete overkill for the kind of music I was making.

It did look impressive but it was slowly driving me crazy and it really felt like an addiction at times. Looking back I think it even prevented me from writing for long periods because I was obsessing over the gear, the engineering and production rather than the important bit which is obviously the music. I needed to do something about it.

I took a break and sold most of the studio which was a big decision but it was also a huge weight off my shoulders. These days I do everything on a simple PC laptop using Cubase and VSTi’s, a Mackie firewire interface, KRK monitors and a cheap controller keyboard and couldn’t be happier. It sounds great and I wrote the entire album on it. The vocals were recorded in the US and Scotland but we did everything over the internet. I’m a total convert to the in-the-box way of working. It’s liberating and to be honest I don’t even buy the magazines anymore.  I do read the music technology message boards occasionally and see people obsessing and arguing over various new and old bits of equipment. Just glad it’s not me anymore.


Dimitri: Your return as Pulser is released through the global renowned label Black Hole recordings that is based in Holland. I wonder why you decide to release it through a label based in another country and not in a label in UK. Does this means that UK dance labels are not strong enough and influential as they used to be in the past? To add many other UK artists like Judge Jules or Julie Thompson released music on labels in Holland too.

Pulser: I certainly don’t think UK labels are less influential these days. You only have to look at Anjunabeats, Garuda, Enhanced etc to see how strong the UK trance scene is and it’s growing. There is however still something very special about being part of the iconic Black Hole Recordings label. Ever since Tiesto included Cloudwalking on his Magik 6 compilation I’ve looked up to the label and its founder Arny Bink. Black Hole has innovated and delivered some huge tracks over the years and being label mates with the likes of BT, Jes, Andain, Allure (Tiesto), Manufactured Superstars and Cosmic Gate isn’t bad either ;-)

Dimitri: Why you choose the name The Space Between The Stars for your album? Of course sounds mysterious and eye catching but is there any other reason for doing this?

Pulser:  I like mysterious lol. I prefer to let listeners make up their own minds about what it means to them. It does mean something to me, several things actually but I keep that to myself.

Dimitri: How long it took you to complete it and is there any incident that you will remember for ever that happened to you while you recording it?

Pulser:  It took about 18 months but I didn’t realise I was writing an album until a couple of months into it. I didn’t work every day, in fact I had big gaps without touching any music but I tried to stick to writing at least 2 tracks a month. Sometimes I would write 3 or 4 simultaneously. I ended up with about 50+ new tracks/ideas on the hard drives which I kept going back to. I made mp3’s of the ‘work in progress’ tracks and stuck them all in a folder so I could listen without needing to load up the whole thing in Cubase. I found it a really great way to work. The tracks that made the album are the ones that I found most interesting. I’ve held a few others back for the future.

Dimitri: Please can you give us a short comment about each track of that great album? This can be a story that happened while you produce it, how was the collaboration with other artists and if means something special for you for instance?




Pulser The Space Between The Stars in his own words:

01. Voyager
Typically the first track was one of the last to get finished although the idea had been sitting there for about a year. I didn’t stick to the usual Trance format but let the sounds dictate the direction of the track. Of all the tracks on TSBTS Voyager is probably closest to my roots in dance music and feels like some of my early experiments in trance, albeit much better produced. I wanted epic but also different. The track was inspired of course by the Voyager probes that are out there on the edge of our solar system and about to cross into interstellar space. I could get all geeky about my love of science, astronomy, physics and Sci-fi but that’s another story!

02. In Deep (featuring Molly Bancroft)
It’s rare to realise a track is good while you’re still writing it but everything fell into place with In Deep. I was really happy to be working with Molly, who as you know is an amazing and in-demand artist. She sent me a rough draft of the song and just hearing her voice on the track gave me goosebumps. Molly works in a very traditional kind of way and I love that, it’s what I’m comfortable with. We finalised the lyrics and I spent about a week fine tuning the track. I did play a rough to a few people who all loved it but even if they didn’t we did.  It’s a real highlight of the album and I’m proud of it. I’m looking forward to working with Molly again.

03. Another Night In London
This was one of the first tracks I wrote for the album. I wanted to write something that reflected my mood at the time. Moody.

04. Sunrays (featuring Manya)
I was introduced to Manya by Betsie Larkin and after hearing a couple of Manya’s own songs I really wanted to work with her. Manya comes from Texas and is used to writing acoustic and rock tracks so she knows how to structure songs and write meaningful lyrics. As with all the songs on this album the words do mean something very personal. I experimented with the drums to give it a different feel and treated it as a song, not a dance track. I never thought I would use the sound of Bagpipes on a track but here’s the proof.

05. JaywalkerJaywalker has one of those ceaseless hooks that just repeats while everything around it changes. I loved the subby kick drum and spent a good couple of days tweaking the mix so everything had is own space and the track had depth.

06. Alone (featuring Madeline Puckette)
I’d actually written a few tracks with Madeline prior to the album but for a different Electronica project. Madeline is another very talented US singer songwriter and previously appeared on Joachim Garraud’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ as well as releasing her own EP’s and singles. Alone stood out to me as having something Pulser about it even though it’s essentially a breakbeat track. It’s got hints of Depeche Mode (circa Violator) and a lot of vintage Moog sounds. I love the flow and atmosphere of Alone and the way it evolves. Madeline wrote a very simple and cool song but it’s the way she sung it that grabbed me. It’s quirky; it’s dark and very atmospheric. One of my personal favorite tracks on TSBTS.

07. Chemistry (featuring Mike Koglin)
I’m not sure anyone would imagine me and Mike to come up with something so progressive but Chemistry is the end result of our long-planned studio collaboration. Mike came over to Riga last year to play my Elements night at Club Essential and I had a chance to play him some of the album demos at my place. Chemistry (or track 7 as it was then) was just a shell of an idea but it got Mike’s attention. I eventually sent him the parts and after kicking the ideas around for a bit and the addition of some Koglin magic we ended up with Chemistry. I play this in my sets and even in its unknown state it does the business on the dance floor. I always get asked what it is when I play it.

08. Cold Love (featuring Manya)
The first track I wrote with Manya. We knew this as the ‘whistle song’ for a few weeks. I play a bit of bass guitar sometimes and love the sound against dance beats. I kept the music and structure simple to give room for Manya’s cool vocal. She has beautiful tonality to her voice and writes very thought provoking lyrics. As soon as I heard the song I knew it was destined for the album. I expect you’ll be hearing a lot more from her too in the future!

09. I Dream Of Stars
A pseudo House track with a Cylon vocoder vocal, mechanical chugging guitars, Italian house piano and blippy bits. What more can you ask for?

10. Don’t Look Down
Buried in this track is a very Kraftwerk type lead, a lot of my original self-made samples and as much energy as I could squeeze into it. I recycled some of the sounds from a few of my old tracks like My Religion and even Cloudwalking here so I guess this is an eco-friendly tune LOL. It’s one of the club tracks that I’ve been playing in my DJ sets along with ‘Singularity’ which is available as digital bonus track to the album.

11. The Space Between The Stars
I let you into a little secret. I hardly ever think of track titles at the same time as writing the music. I usually have random flashes of inspiration and write the words down on scraps of paper that frequently get lost. The Space Between The Stars was different, I thought of the title as I wrote it and it’s the track that made the whole album come together in my mind. It became the title track and is possibly the most uplifting trancer on the album. It’s a bit of old skool trance and it’s in a major key for the most part so it’s very positive sounding.

12. By Your Side (featuring Blacktzar)
After discovering Blacktzar through Twitter and becoming a big fan of their new Electropop sound I was itching to work with them. Tom from Blacktzar was behind one of the coolest electronic bands of recent years (Salon Boris) and together with Paul they ticked all the boxes for me as a band. I emailed their producer Greg Brimson to see if I could remix ‘How Does It Feel’ which is just epic and over the next few months we became good friends. The guys wrote By Your Side over the track I sent them and delivered a huge song. Yes it’s a bit pop oriented for a trance track but it works so well. You can tell by listening to the intro we had a laugh doing it. The guys are already blowing up in Europe and I’m convinced they are the new superstars of Electropop. This was always destined to be the last track on the CD. End it on a high!

photo by Martins Lacplesis                                                         

Dimitri: Is this the final track listing from the very start or you had other tracks as well finished that didn’t fit the overall sound of the album?

Pulser: The final tracklist was a very last minute thing. I never view my tracks as finished until they are released and I can no longer tinker with them The 15 tracks (including the digital bonus tracks) were the ‘most finished’ of perhaps 50+ tracks I wrote over an 18 month period. I’ve continued working on a few of the others and also written a lot of new material so it definitely won’t be another 15 year wait for album #2

Dimitri: Did you test first on the road, as we used to say for working djs, the tracks that you have finally included in the album and are there tracks that you did adjustments in order to improve them.

Pulser:  Yes definitely. I’ve been playing Don’t Look Down, Chemistry, Voyager, Singularity, In Deep, Jaywalker and I Dream Of Stars for ages and I try to road test tracks and remixes whenever possible. I’m fortunate to have my own monthly club night here at Club Essential in Riga (Latvia) so I get to play long warm-ups sets which lets me try out some of the slower tracks and headline sets for the uplifting and harder stuff. All the tracks benefited in some way from a few club plays but usually it was just minor arrangement tweaks.

Dimitri: Of course this album is characterized from diversity of sounds and great variety of styles. It is not definitely  strictly a trance album for glow sticks and party. Was this something intentional from the very beginning or came up as a result of the material that you have composed for it? Is this a sign of maturity in your sound and art as well?

Pulser: I’ve never heard of an album being played in a club and if someone is having a party they’d more likely be playing a mix comp so it was certainly my intention to use the opportunity and be as diverse as I could within what I think the Pulser sound is. I could have pushed it a lot further but I’m very happy with how the album turned out. I learned a lot during the making of TSBTS and pushed myself hard to get the sound I wanted and the production as good as possible. It’s easy to get lazy with dance music production especially if it’s just going to be played in clubs where finer detail gets lost but I know one or two people will actually hear this on good hi-fi’s and I wanted to do the best job I possibly could. I guess my sound has matured. I certainly feel more confident as a producer and engineer but even after all this time I’m still learning. I’ll always try to improve.

photo by Martins Lacplesis                       

Dimitri: Are there any other artists that you wish to remix any track from your album? Maybe can you choose a particular artist that you believe that will do amazing remix for a specific track from the album?

Pulser: I think Michael Woods would do a good job on ‘I Dream Of Stars’ and I’d love Ferry to remix something. I have a short attention span with a lot of producers these days because they seem to play it safe and stick to the tried and tested sounds but after 2 or 3 sound-alike tracks and the inevitable copycat tracks it gets boring.

Dimitri: From the early years of trance, that particular style has changed a lot with substyles like progressive trance, deep trance, club trance, tech trance, uplifting trance, psy trance and many more. What is your opinion about those really specific  styles and do you like this type of categorizing trance music. In addition do you have any other style as favorite except trance?

Pulser: I think these new substyles that seem to spring up almost weekly serve no purpose other than to confuse people but occasionally one will gain traction and become an established genre. The problem is that what you might call tech trance I would call hard trance etc. You need to make up your own mind if you really care about a tracks’ genre. Personally I don’t. If it’s a good track and works for me I’ll probably play it in my sets. I never think about the genre when I write a track. I’ll leave that up to other people who care about that kind of thing. Other than trance I love a bit of Techno and House but TBH I listen to anything from Disco to Rock. I don’t understand Dubstep as a club genre though LOL.

Dimitri:  You performed as dj in many clubs and countries all over the world. Where did you met the best crowd so far and it would be cool to share your most unforgettable moment in your dj career.

Pulser: That’s a tough question. I can say for sure that the worst crowd I ever played to was in Goa, India. I literally gave up and went back to the hotel when people kept coming up to the DJ booth and asking me if I’ll be playing any Timberland or Jay Z. From the first record it was obvious that the promoter had seriously screwed up and the whole crowd was expecting Hip Hop and RnB.

For me the best crowds are always the ones that you can tell are loving the music and are all on the same wave. It can be 50 people or 10,000 but when it happens its pure magic!  My debut at Godskitchen is something I’ll always remember. It was my “I’ve arrived” moment.


Dimitri: What is your opinion about the Dj Mag Top 100 djs list pool? Do you agree on the heavy campaigns that many djs do in order to get more votes?Can you predict the number 1 for this year?

Pulser: I think there are a few very talented DJs who work hard, contribute a lot to the scene and are amazing to hear live. They certainly deserve their place but I’m sure there have also been a lot of ‘manufactured’ appearances in the Top 100 over recent years.

I can understand why some DJs go all out with the big marketing campaigns. It’s advertising, it’s the world we live in and it’s all about money unfortunately. I think the DJ poll moving to Facebook this year will be interesting and the results could be a shocker but I can’t predict who might win it.

Dimitri: Do you consider social media  like facebook, twitter or youtube as really important for your communication with your fans? Do you use them often and actively respond to your fans requests and questions?


Pulser: I always try to respond to fans on Twitter and Facebook when I can. Your fans are the most important thing as an artist so the least you can do is reply to them. Social networking is vital these days and is really the only way I communicate with people online. I’m not one of these people who just add countless people to get a big number on my pages. I’ve added maybe a handful of people I know but I leave it up to people to find me and follow me. Some might say I’m shooting myself in the foot by not utilizing the huge numbers I could have if I did add people every day but I think I have a much truer fanbase and they tell their friends. Besides, I don’t have the time for it.

Dimitri: Do you have a radio show? If not are you thinking to start one soon? Do you believe that is vital for self promotion?

Pulser:  Another thing in the long list of things I guess you need to have as a DJ these days but it’s not something I plan on doing any time soon. There are thousands of DJs with thousands of radio shows all playing the same tunes. I’m a musician and a club DJ, I play live. I do the occasional guest mix for the radio but I want people to see me and hear me DJ in a club because that’s where the magic happens.

photo by Martins Lacplesis                       

Dimitri: Finally please give us your advise to any wanna be djs and producers who aspire to become successful as you are and get a release on a such great label like Black Hole recordings?

Pulser:  Find your own sound. Just because it’s very easy these days to make dance music and to even sound like an established artist doesn’t mean that’s what you should do. It won’t help you if you don’t bring your own ideas to the party. If you write tracks for DJs make them DJ friendly with good, long intro and outros, uncluttered and with solid beats. Keep your track lengths shorter. I frequently get sent tracks that are pushing 10 minutes when 6-7 minutes is more than enough. If I play a long track I’ll only play half of it or even less but most of the time I wont play it at all without first editing it myself and that’s a pain in the ass. Don’t squash the hell out of your tracks with limiters and maximisers. It might sound like it’s on the radio but it will sound crap in a club. Keep your productions clean and dynamic!

I can’t speak for Black Hole but at my label Toneplay we generally look for well produced tracks that have something different about them. Learn about the music. Go to clubs, buy tracks and listen to them. Teach yourself how to do things through trial and error and you might even end up inventing the next big sound. There are so many new producers popping up but few have the talent to last for more than one or 2 releases.

If you want to start DJing now is the time. You can do it on your computer very cheaply or even free. Learn to key mix and practice, practice, practice. When you think you’re ready put your best mixes online. There no point sending DJ mixes to people like me or even clubs these days. You can always point them to Mixcloud where hopefully you’ll have built up a good following. Having your own tracks out is really essential these days to get noticed.

Dimitri: Many thanks for this great interview, Good luck with this fantastic album



Many thanks to Jeroen at Black Hole offices for helping me to organize this great interview

Many thanks to Mark at Black Hole offices for his support in my shows.

Additional info: www.djpulser.com
                      www.blackholerecordings.com





Pulser - The Space Between The Stars Track list:
01. Voyager
02. In Deep (featuring Molly Bancroft)
03. Another Night In London
04. Sunrays (featuring Manya)
05. Jaywalker
06. Alone (featuring Madeline Puckette)
07. Chemistry (featuring Mike Koglin)
08. Cold Love (featuring Manya)
09. I Dream Of Stars
10. Don’t Look Down
11. The Space Between The Stars
12. By Your Side (featuring Blacktzar)


The CD is available at:


The digital download is available at: