In today's Times newspaper in the UK, former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters talks candidly about his past and present career, his thoughts on music in general (with specific comments about Abba, the Swedish pop supergroup of yesteryear, and the release of Pulse on DVD), and reveals how he is providing direct help to a Senegalese village.

Roger Waters interview The Times, 30th June

It is clear from the interview how life is taking a lot of Waters' attention. From his personal life (his divorce a few years ago, and subsequent starting a new relationship), through to how family and friends have changed his perception, and affected the work on his new material, he talks honestly and in a relaxed frame of mind, and also looks back at darker days.

“[Around the time of The Wall, and the 1977 tour which lead to it] I was quite separated from myself and in consequence, quite separated from anyone else.” Improvements in his outlook has been a result of “getting rid of the judge that sits on your shoulder telling you you’re an a***hole. I mean, my judge was a powerful figure for my whole life. That’s why 30 years ago I was so hard on everyone else.”

With Roger due to perform the whole of Dark Side Of The Moon at Hyde Park tomorrow, accompanied by Nick Mason, he seems remarkably relaxed about the activities of his ex-colleagues. On being told that Pulse was coming out on DVD in July, which includes their live 1994 version of the album, he said “Is that the case?” he smiles. “I didn’t know. I gave up after I heard a reggae version of Money on (the 1988 live album) The Delicate Sound of Thunder. I remember lying on the floor howling with laughter with my feet in mid-air.”

With the London concert falling almost exactly a year after Live8, the question naturally arises of another collaboration. “From my point of view there is no impediment to doing more work together,” Waters says. “There would have to be some kind of emotional negotiation that would need to take place for us to do that, and I’m not sure that Dave wants to go down that road. He’s had this baby for 20 years and he doesn’t want to relinquish his grip on it.”

Still, Waters has got other things on his mind. After throwing a dinner party in honour of US economist Geoffrey Sachs (his book "The End Of Poverty" inspiring Live8), “I’ve put my money where my mouth is and decided to support a village in Senegal. Single-handedly? Well, yes, but really it’s just a matter of committing lots of money for the next five years and putting tons of fertiliser into the ground and buying nets for mosquitoes.”

“But, you know, it’s no one act that makes you feel happier. I’ve been through a personal journey of transformation — with parenthood and failed relationships and all the rest of things that change you.”

The fascinating interview can be read in full over at www.timesonline.co.uk.