Cosmic Gate have made themselves household names in the world of trance, from humble beginnings in 1999 to now. Throughout their 20 year journey, Nic and Bossi have managed to create incredible tracks, share their love with the world, and create a passionate fan base to carry them into the future. They have solidified their status as tastemakers, with their LP 20 Years [Forward Ever Backward Never] encompassing both new tracks like their opening stunner, “Come With Me”, to featuring remixes of what made them legends with Andrew Bayer’s take on “Fire Wire” and Grum’s “Exploration of Space”.
Last weekend we had the chance to sit down with Bossi from Cosmic Gate after their energizing performance at Freaky Deaky and reminisce about their 20 year career, talk about their latest LP, their recent Grammy nomination for their remix of “Only Road”, their current fall tour and more.
RR: Hello, welcome to Texas! Have you been here before?
CG: Thank you so much! We’ve been coming to Texas for basically the last 18 years. I think we came to Texas for the first time in 2001. Yeah, so we have quite some history.
RR: You two are definitely globetrotters. Over your career is there a place that has a special place in your heart (besides home, of course)?
CG: Well, the thing is in the club scene, things really change a lot. But when you travel, it’s a mixture of the people, the culture, the party you play, the venue. The good thing is, let me say, music unites. It brings people together and it’s not just like techno, EDM or trance. It’s this whole dance music thing, it’s just uniting people worldwide and you see different cultures and influences. But people will feel totally the same and this is just the beauty of the game and what keeps us going for so long.
RR: If you could tell yourselves one thing to know or a piece of advice back in 1999 when this all started, what would it be?
CG: Everything will be good, haha. You know, a few years before we started Cosmic Gate, I finished my university MBA degree and I told my family I want to go for two years as a full on professional DJ. They thought I would end up living under the bridge basically. That’s the same problem that a lot of people who are creative and have a good education have, they don’t want to be sitting there in a suit and do marketing for a product that’s just not yours. The passion for music that I’ve always had, it was fortunately stronger than just going on the safe side and stay there. I played the card, high risk, and fortunately it worked out. Right place, right moment and I met Nic. We had our single releases before, but with Cosmic Gate everything came together and fell into places and boom! So yeah, everything will be fine.
RR: Yeah, exactly. You don’t know until you try!
CG: Right, my sister tells me all the time, like, ‘Hey I can’t believe you made it.’ It’s amazing.
RR: So your new LP, 20 Years [Forward Ever Backward Never] is a flashpoint in your career, encompassing both new tracks and remixes of your biggest hits. How do you feel this shows your journey?
CG: Well, 20 years as a duo, there isn’t many out that has gone such a long way together. We felt the need to want to celebrate it. With our shows, what stood out for us was, well it sounds a little funny but different generations of our fans were coming together and partying with us. We played the brand new stuff, unreleased stuff, stuff from five, ten, fifteen years ago and all the way to the end with the harder and faster stuff from 20 years ago and everyone was enjoying it. So it was very, very special for us to just stop by for that and really celebrate. To look back, where did we come from and stand still, see where we are right now and where we are going to be in the future. It was a lot of work but we loved it.
RR: What is the meaning behind ‘Forward Ever Backward Never’?
CG: It’s basically a little bit how we do our things. We are pretty progressive. If you listen to our albums, from one to the next, there is always steps forward. We push the sound, try to sound modern and have different, new influences put into our music. It’s a little bit the way we think, the way we feel. Art, when you stand still, it’s already the first step back. You have to come up with something new, but never forget where you’re coming from. We’re Cosmic Gate, we don’t do stuff that is all of a sudden that is different. We feel like from the hard trance times from ‘99 to the 2000’s towards now, it’s still our own signature sound, our own handwriting of melodies and feel in trance. Even with pushing and sounding different, we still feel that you can hear that it is a Cosmic Gate track. At least we hope so.
RR: Yeah, you have a really solid foundation and that’s important right?
CG: We try too, haha.
RR: So you two never seem to quite stop creating banging tracks, do you ever get cabin fever while in the studio? What are some tricks to break out of it?
CG: Well, writing music is not like cooking in a kitchen where you are following a recipe right? So you start with different bases and you build on it. Every time it’s different, but not every day in the studio is like a productive, good day. Sometimes you have two or three days, you work on a track and add things but somehow you feel it’s not it yet. Then you have just half an hour, suddenly, a few days later and then you feel right away that now we get there. It’s not like cooking or following a recipe. It has to work, and we have to feel it and when you come to that moment when you feel like the track is not as a good as it should be, just put it aside. You can repeat all these loops all the time, all these vocals, and so you can sometimes loose perspective on what is good on a track. That’s the important thing in the studio is to focus on what’s really the good thing. If you’re getting lost, just forget about it and start again in a few weeks. We call it the ‘get fresh ears’.
RR: Right, let it germinate and let it roll around in your brain in the background.
CG: Exactly. So when it’s too much, put it aside. Like when you talk too much in a relationship, just say ‘Hey, let’s relax’ and we’ll do our stuff separately for a day and then afterwards it’s easy. Same with music.
RR: Yeah, definitely! Are there any shows, such as your Honolulu sold out island party or festival sets that really stand out in your memories?
CG: Fortunately, there is a lot during these 20 years. Recently, we just had one show that we feel was the best crowd we’ve had in the 20 years and that was A State of Trance in Mexico City on September 21st. That crowd, I still don’t know how to describe it. They were absolutely mental. They were so loud and when I try to explain to people that weren’t there. Like watch the videos and even then it was still better being there. If I was a producer for a movie about electronic music, I wouldn’t have even thought to wish for a crowd half as good as they were. It’s maybe a way to explain to everyone how crazy and loud they were. They were dancing, partying, clapping, screaming. It was unbelievable.
RR: You can watch a video but it’s never going to match the actual energy you are experiencing in person.
CG: No, sometimes I see the videos and this is nothing like what I felt. You had to have been there to feel the vibes, the back and forth between the audience and the DJ’s. A video or short clip will never really fully capture that.
RR: That was this year right?
CG: That was just six weeks ago.
RR: That is amazing! You are currently on your Fall Tour, how is that going?
CG: The thing is we’ve been on tour for 20 years, haha. It’s just the tour has a different name. Now it’s the ‘20 Year’ tour which has slowly has come to an end. You still play shows and festivals like today. We had a really fantastic year.
RR: You will be playing at EDC Guandong as well later this year. Will this be your first time?
CG: Yes, this will be our first time playing for EDC China. China is a very interesting market, so different. There are a lot of options and cities with multi-million people we haven’t even heard the name of. They don’t really have any dance music culture really so sometimes their reactions to the crowds can be can be odd because it’s different. But it’ll be interesting to play.
RR: You were just recently nominated for a Grammy for the Best Remix category of Gabriel and Dresden’s and Sub Teal’s, “Only Road”, how did you approach remixing this track?
CG: Well we basically approached it like every track that we remix. If someone wants us to remix a track, we have to listen to the original song and then look for anything in the song that we feel we can do basically in Cosmic Gate style and make it different. The original “Only Road” is a sweet, house album track. We just made it a little more clubby, it’s pumping. Somehow we fortunately were able to capture the vocal and the strings, the melodies so that it’s really touching and also in your face. We have to feel and have an idea to follow from the beginning. Fortunately it turned out the nice way that it did.
RR: Yes, well congratulations again! Any future collaborations or releases coming our way?
CG: Yeah, haha. Well, like I said before with ‘Forward Never Backward Ever’, it’s also pointing out what we might do in the future. There is always, when you do an album, there are some tracks that are nearly done or half done but you know there is that line. Then you have the second and third deadline and you’re like, ‘Okay, we have two or three tracks that have a lot of potential’. Solo, collaborations (I don’t want to mention names) and some were about 80% ready and then you don’t work on it for a few months and don’t feel it anymore. Things change, music changes and suddenly you want to do different things. Our music is all about what we feel and so hopefully our feelings are still there with these ones that I’m talking about.
RR: Well we can’t wait to hear them!
CG: Me too!
RR: Do you two indulge in Halloween festivities? Are there any traditions you two enjoy back home that may be different from the U.S.?
CG: Honestly, we took more things over from the U.S. like for Halloween for example. It didn’t happen in Europe till ten years ago and now the kids dress up and stuff. So for us, Halloween was a non-existent thing. Now we are playing shows like this weekend and it’s big, we enjoy everyone being dressed up and having a good time. So, but there is nothing we do in Germany. We celebrate Christmas the same way. One thing we did take over from the U.S. is like you guys celebrate your birthday a week, a month sometimes while in Germany it’s like you do it on the day and at midnight it’s over. And don’t wish me Happy Birthday a minute before midnight, that’s how we are. So we like the way it is here, haha. We like the way you celebrate.
We thank Bossi for taking the time to chat with us about his and Nic’s incredible 20 year journey as Cosmic Gate. We want to congratulate them again on their success and we encourage you to share the love with them through their socials below. You can stream their latest LP, 20 Years [Forward Ever Backward Never] on Spotify, Soundcloud and Apple Music. You can check out their tour dates and buy tickets here.
Connect with Cosmic Gate:
https://www.facebook.com/cosmicgate
https://twitter.com/cosmicgate
https://soundcloud.com/cosmicgateofficial
https://www.instagram.com/realcosmicgate
https://cosmic-gate.
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