Exclusive Interview with Cosmic Gate @ Exchange LA on November 23, 2011 (Video)

Twenty-eleven has been a massive year for Cosmic Gate. From their retrospective album, Back 2 The Future, tracks hitting top 10 on Beatport’s charts, their debut Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1, and fifth studio album release Wake Your Mind, Nic and Bossi of Cosmic Gate are international trance sensations. According to Nic, Wake Your Mind “is our collective call-out to the EDM universe, and we want it to shake up people’s conceptions of our music!” Bossi added, “We wanna blow any lingering, outdated misconceptions to pieces.”

Cosmic Gate’s Wake Your Mind tour began on September 2nd in Houston, Texas and still has eight tour dates remaining (see below). We were fortunate enough to interview Nic and Bossi on November 23rd before their performance at Exchange LA. Catch the video above and the full transcript/audio below!

Upcoming Cosmic Gate North American Tour Dates:

December 26th @ Flames Central in Calgary, Canada
December 27th @ Republic in Winnipeg, Canada
December 31st @ New Year’s Eve Countdown Massive in Richmond, California
January 21st @ Mansion in Miami, Florida
January 28th @ Glow, Fur in Washington D.C.
February 2nd @ Fluxx in San Diego, California
February 3rd @ Ampitheater in Tampa, Florida
February 4th @ Guvernment in Toronto, Canada

Full Transcript of Cosmic Gate Interview

Hey guys JD here with DBNB. We are honored to have the dynamic German trance duo Cosmic Gate, Nic Chagall and Stefan Bossi.

DBNB: Twelve years and five massive albums later many fans still wonder how you guys first formed. Give us a background on how you guys formed the name and how you first met.

Nic: We met, we did the first production in 1998 and we met like a few months before, maybe a year. We had friends that knew him and me so we got in contact.

Bossi: Yeah, you were working for company and I played. Produced some music for it, we signed it. We were visiting each other in our resident clubs. So we actually had been playing records together before Cosmic Gate. Then we had that chance. Studio… studio day that our friends all left. And we looked at each other, “Okay, are we just making a jam session or are we going to go home?” Fortunately, we did this jam session which was called The Drum Slater. The name? Baby needs a name. We had these spacey sequences and we were searching for something spacey and so Cosmic Gate came up on the table. We said, “okay, we go for it.”

Nic: And honestly, at that day we had no idea that we’d be sitting here now. It was really just a nice afternoon with a good production, a good vibe, and so yeah that’s it.

DBNB: Congrats on your fifth album WAKE YOUR MIND recently released in October. Massive ratings and reviews from many critics. Can you guys tell us more about how much time it took and how you guys decided to choose collaborations such as with Andrew Bayer, Arnej, and Emma Hewitt came along?

Nic: Honestly, I don’t know exactly anymore how long it took us. It started quite early with the first ideas. Was it even a year ago, maybe?

Bossi: Yeah, it’s about a year ago. It’s simply, sometimes you start slowly and you know that we touring a lot. I’d say, half of the work we did actually during the summer from June, July, till August. We’ve been allowed to say, “we’ve been working our assess off” during that time to get it finished to release it by this time now.

Nic: It was really like non-stop. Just DJing and when we get home just in the studio and um.. as you said we were working, we worked with Andrew Bayer and other producers. And it was kind of sending ideas back and forth. It wasn’t that easy because we weren’t in the studio together, honestly. So it was quite interesting. Add a new melody, change a little bit here and there, it was exciting times.

Bossi: From the time table I don’t want to say impossible, but it’s very hard to really go to the studio together. And when there’s like three..four people together it’s like who’s doing what now? And you know, sometimes it’s better just to send it up and down. Here’s my idea, you add something.

Nic: It worked out quite well. It was fun.

DBNB: Since your first album “rhythm and drums” to “wake your mind”.. your sound has changed obviously due to how the current style of music is changing, what style do you guys predict going towards in the new coming years?

Bossi: If we knew this. This is like a…I guess the last years have really shown that it’s good to mix styles. Like house is getting into hip-hop and pop at the moment. Progressive things got into trance and housey beats or whatever. So yeah, there’s going to be new things happening like dubstep came up the last two..three years blowing up like crazy. There’s new developments and we don’t care as long as it’s electronic and that’s simply what we like.

Nic: It’s more that we just go in the studio and produce. We don’t think about it too much. Just what we feel and the influences we get while traveling.

DBNB: With tracks such as Sometimes They Come Back for More and Perfect Stranger, How do you guys make the names up for your non-vocal tracks?

Nic: Sometimes it’s more difficult than doing the track. Laughs…

Bossi: Absolutely, we always happy when we got a vocal. It gives the name. Sometimes They Come Back for More, of course, we played how Arnej was doing his stuff. So we said, sometimes they come back as a little joke. And Perfect Stranger was like… I got a t-shirt or something…something similar. But a baby needs a name and in the end, yeah.

DBNB: Nic, happy birthday! We know it was your birthday this month. With all this touring how do you guys celebrate?

Nic: Thank you. I think actually that was my first year that I wasn’t at home during my birthday. I think. Maybe I’m wrong. But for..definitely for the last years. I spent the whole day…or we spend it just on airplanes and airports this time. But for sure we had like so many options and opportunities to party .Tonight is another one so I can’t complain.

DBNB: Tonight is possibly one of your biggest headlining gigs in LA backed by JES and Aruna and its SOLD OUT! Do you guys remember the first time you guys played in LA?

Bossi: Many, many, many years ago. Like seven or eight years before for heaven or something.. It’s so far away.

Nic: I remember we were so happy to play in LA. We were so excited and yeah we have to go there and take the chance.

Bossi: And now it’s like our second home.

Nic: It’s like yes, back!

DBNB: What does music mean to you?

Nic: What music means to us? I think for sure it’s like… the main thing in my life. When I wake up I listen to music. Music is my main focus and passion. I think every day is about music in my life. It’s really my heart and soul. So I’m so happy. Uh..

Bossi: It’s hard to say. Without music if there would be no music. Maybe we would be part of the people that would like, how you say, invented maybe? Come up with the idea of music and yeah, I guess life would be more a little more boring and poor without music.

Tagged as: Cosmic Gate, Exchange, ExchangeLA, Interviews, Nic Chagall, Nightlife, Stefan Bossi, Trance, Wake Your Mind