We caught up with Pulled Apart By Horses to talk about their new album Tough Love, tours and much more!

You have been quoted as saying that Tough Love feels like your first proper album and that it isn’t just something for self-gratification. What do you think has contributed to your progression from the first album?

The first album was incredibly important to us and we're still very proud of it, but the manner in which it was written was totally different to this one. It was a collection of songs we had accumulated over the 1st 2 years, which meant that it didn't have the coherence and flow you get with an album written as a whole. Tough Love does have that flow as we wrote everything on it with the view of it working as a coherent piece of music. The fact that we're better at playing our instruments now and we had one of the best rock producers in the world work with us also helped a bit!

I just watched the film clip for 'V.E.N.O.M' it’s got some pretty crazy themes in it, what was the inspiration behind it?

Horror. Always horror! We see music videos as 3 minutes to make a little movie and show our influences aside from music through that. We'll never do that boy meets girl bullshit. That is so lame and shows people that the band probably don't give a fuck about what their videos look like. We've found a director we love to work with (Bob Harlow) and know we'll get great results with. Bob and his team have a similar vision to us and we're very lucky we found him!

With the release of your new album that of course means a lot of touring, what do you enjoy the most about that part of your career?

Touring is a double-edged sword. Its what's best about being in a band and can also be what's worst. On the plus side you get to travel around the world playing music, but on the downside being away from home can really suck.

At the moment you’ve just got a European tour booked, any plans for other places later in the year?

Yeah, I think after the UK and Europe we will hopefully have a summer full of festivals. Who knows after that, I know we wouldn't say to no to getting out to the US and Australia again. Japan would be nice too!

What’s your favourite place you’ve ever played?

I couldn't pick one! So many cool places - Anywhere in Germany, Latvia, Australia, to name but a few!

You’re well known for hectic live performances, is it all part of the act or do you just get carried away with the music?

Its completely natural and has been that way since our very first gig. If it was just an act then people would see through it in a second. We'd also have to live the rest of our lives knowing that we were a lie.

You did a UK tour with Muse, I think it’s safe to say you’re a fairly different sort of band to them, how were you received on that tour?

We only did one date, but it was pretty cool to see and be a part of something of that magnitude. It was another world. I'm not the biggest Muse fan but they don't fuck about, they're aiming very high.

What would you consider to be the stand out song on Tough Love?

I love every song on it, otherwise they wouldn't be on the album. I think my favourite to play live at the moment is 'Bromance Ain't Dead'.

Are there any plans to head back to Australia any time soon to tour Tough Love, and what did you enjoy the most about last time you were here?

Yes!! We really want to. So everyone cross those fingers. We had a great time last year. Golden Plains was amazing.

What is the songwriting process for Pulled Apart By Horses?

The skeleton of a song will be brought to the band by Tom or Rob usually and then, as a band, we'll chop it up and add parts and put the PABH stamp on it.

2011 was a big year for you, what were your highlights and apart from the release of Tough Love what else can we expect from the band this year?

2011 was cool. We actually didn't tour a lot but we got to hit the US, Australia and play a lot of cool festivals. Aside from live stuff though, making an album with Gil Norton was an achievement above and beyond anything we ever thought we'd do. It was an incredible experience.

This year we're going to hit the road and tour the fuck out of Tough Love!

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Their new album Tough Love is in stores now. New music video below!