Exclusive interview with Cosmic Gate for TranceSound.net

December 1, 2011 Posted by Cosmin Lukacs in Interviews, News

Interview with Cosmic Gate Wake Your Mind feature

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Cosmic Gate Wake Your Mind credit Gerard Henninger COSMIC GATE are the German trance DJs/producers also known as NIC and BOSSI. While on their 35+ date, sold-out North American tour in support of their fifth studio album, WAKE YOUR MIND (Black Hole), the duo took a few precious moments to speak with TranceSound.net

With the release of the first single from the album, “Be Your Sound” featuring Emma Hewitt, climbing radio charts and setting dancefloors on fire, there is a lot going on the world of COSMIC GATE. TranceSound spoke with the artists to talk about the album, their inspiration, their appreciation for their fans, and life-on-the-road…

1. With the release of this album in particular, how would you say the sound of Cosmic Gate has evolved over the last twelve years ?

COSMIC GATE: Music is never standing still, and so don’t we as producers. We would find it boring to not bring in new influences from other genres and incorporate the experiences we have as DJs etc. All this together has brought our sound from the more hard-trance-ish style of 1998 slowly into what it is today, which is more slow and Progressive but still Trance and always Cosmic Gate.  

2. You recently teamed up with fellow American female vocalist and luminary artist JES for a track called “Flying Blind.” Can you tell us a little more about that ?

COSMIC GATE: We know JES already for many years, and finally on “Wake Your Mind” it has been fitting for us to do a track together! We met last time in Miami for the Winter Music Conference, we sat down for a nice dinner and agreed to finally get it working this time. We normally produce music first that singers write their lyrics on, but JES came over with these beautiful vocals that we totally liked right away. So this time we produced the music only after the vocals already existed. It was a great new experience for us on this album!

Black Hole Recordings

3. At one point or another in your career, you have either crossed paths or worked with nearly all of the most respected EDM (Electronic Dance Music) artists to ever do it. Having witnessed more than a decade of EDM firsthand, what would you say is the biggest difference between the way the industry is today as opposed to the breakthrough era of the early 2000′s ?

COSMIC GATE: There are a lot of differences in the scene to how it was 12 years before! The biggest maybe is the importance of social media. A DJ or musician these days can promote a track without a major record company only while having a lot of fans on Facebook or followers on Twitter. This is giving a lot of chances, as the direct contact to the fans has never been as close as it is now!  

4. As two prestigious producers, you have always been into vocals, more or less. All too often, when people in the States, for example, talk about top notch producers as a band, the conversation doesn’t get much past Gabriel & Dresden, Filo & Peri, David & Carr and a couple of other ones. Why do you think Europe has a lot of vocal trance producers, such as yourselves, Above & Beyond, Super8 & Tab, Aly & Fila, Kyau & Albert, Ernesto vs Bastian, Blank & Jones, Agnelli & Nelson and so many others who have been representing the European EDM scene for a long time ?

COSMIC GATE: Europe simply has a big history in EDM in general. This might be the biggest difference to the U.S., and that’s why also most of the early DJs and producers came from Europe. The U.S. is picking up on this now, and for sure a lot more producers will come from the U.S. in the growing EDM scene.

  5. As far as producing goes, you are both known for a very cinematic style where you paint very trancy, angelic and vivid pictures incorporating specific details that tend to really jump out at the listener. How did you develop that unique style of storytelling that in many ways has come to be your trademark as two outstanding producers ?

COSMIC GATE: We really have no idea where our style finally comes from. This is simply what happens when we are in the studio together. What we want is to produce tracks that touch the listener. We like emotional, positive music, and we try to produce these moments out of the track and the beats. The result is simply Cosmic Gate.  

Cosmic Gate Wake Your Mind credit Gerard Henninger
Cosmic Gate “Wake Your Mind”
Photo credit Gerard Henninger

6. One of the tracks featured on “Wake Your Mind” is “Be Your Sound” with Emma Hewitt which is among the most celebrated tracks of the album. Can you take us back to when that song was originally recorded and what was the studio session like? How did you write your melodic part and what were you feeling at that particular time ?

COSMIC GATE: With “Be Your Sound,” it was the same as with “Flying Blind.” Emma this time delivered the vocal just on some harmonies and we started working on the beats, melodies and bassline simply from scratch. We loved her touching vocal right from the start and wanted to keep the emotional feeling, but we wanted to add some kind of hitting beats and bassline. We wanted to have this harder club and dance feeling combined with this touching piano line we came up with and her stunning vocals on top.  

7. You have quite a huge number of big acts featured on this album, such as Arnej, Myon & Shane 54, Andrew Bayer, Cary Brothers, Emma Hewitt, JES and so on. What’s the working process with the likes of the ones mentioned earlier ?

COSMIC GATE: Most of these guys we know for many years already, so it was pretty uncomplicated. We only sent ideas and stems up and down by the Internet. The only problem showed up was a time problem, as we often simply could not work parallel on things because of the touring plans we all have, so the realizations simply took longer as expected. But we think it was worth the waiting!

  8. As an entity, you have have continued to release records pretty much nonstop since the inception of COSMIC GATE. What gives you the collective inspiration and ambition to work at such a high pace to keep re-supplying the fans with new material, sometimes even releasing multiple projects in a single year? ?

COSMIC GATE: The times we live in move very fast, and as an act it’s simply important to be present on the market with new material. We like to go on, share our ideas, and have more material already prepared for the times after “Be Your Sound.” The story continues!  For more information, visit Cosmic Gate official website and Black Hole Recordings official website too.