Cosmic Gate, a name everyone in the trance world is well aware of. They have been a go getting duo from 1999 showing the world the wonders that is Trance. With their recent release of the compilation “Wake Your Mind Sessions 002” as well as a new remix of the all famous “Exploration of Space” it can be said that there is still a lot we can expect from this dynamic duo.
We caught up with the duo and spoke to them about their recent single ‘am2pm’, Wake Your Mind sessions 002, working with Anjunabeats artists and plenty more! Read our chat below. :)
Rasalika – Firstly I know I can speak for a lot of people when I say I absolutely love “am2pm”. Where did this name originate from?
Cosmic Gate – Thank you very much! ;) We felt the name fits pretty well, simply because the song has these two different sides combined, the lighter am side, melodic in the break, and then the darker pm side when it kicks in, breaks and releases the energy, that’s why we felt am2pm was a good title for it…
Rasalika – What was the journey like during the creation of ‘am2pm’?
Cosmic Gate – A production always is kind of a journey, and so it was here with am2pm as well. We had the melody and break basically as it was, but were not 100 % satisfied with how it kicked in. All of the sudden we made some quick changes on the filters and sounds, and boom, there it was, sometimes a few minutes can change everything even after days of prior work…
Rasalika – Exploration of space is by far one of the most recognizable Cosmic Gate tunes, why the idea to release a remix after so many years?
Cosmic Gate – The club scene and its music styles are changing so quickly, on top the production levels increase so fast as well, after only a few years a track sounds simply absolutely outdated, both from the style and sound level as well. We play EOS in basically all of our shows, so after the Back to the Future Remix it felt it was time
to again introduce the song to a new generation of clubbers, make it sound relevant and modern again from the beats and sound design, BUT, and that’s most important to us, keep the vibe of the original alive, have the complete melody and feel still in it, to use only short fragments wouldn’t make sense to us. We wanted to introduce the song to a new generation, make it sound relevant and update it for our DJ sets, and it works really fantastically, we are very happy with it. All 3 versions we have released over the last 16 years now have their own charm, wrap up the “Zeitgeist” they are made in, but all build around that same synth sound and melody from the original EOS, and that’s key to us!
Rasalika – So I have to admit I have the first Wake Your Mind compilation and it encompasses everything about trance that I enjoy especially from the cosmic gate sound. What made you guys work on another album?
Cosmic Gate – Thank you for the compliment, great to hear! :) We simply felt its time we give a statement again for the sounds we play as DJs and stand for as producers, which is important to us, simply because not everyone has the chance to listen to us while playing a club or festival. So the WYMS as much as the Back2Back before wraps up the current sound of a time, a sound we like and that we are standing for, all put together in 2 cds, basically a showreal for our sound. Its starting with deep club sounds we do on our longer club sets up to the more banging sounds we would play on a festival, so a total journey from a to z through what Cosmic Gate stands for in 2016.
Rasalika – With Wake Your Mind sessions 002 you have worked with many Anjuna Artists, where did the idea stem from to include these artists on your compilation?
Cosmic Gate – What can we say, Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep simply reflect a lot of good talent and their musical output fits us so well at the moment, thats why we feature a lot of their music in the end :)
Rasalika – With the dynamic music industry artists are always branching out, trying new ideas anything to stay ahead of the game. Your own sound has transformed from the harder trance to your current subtle yet still energetic music. How do you both manage to stay to your own unique music style?
Cosmic Gate – Well we simply just follow our guts, we have our own style, and no matter if Trance is big or not, we just do our own thing, follow our gut feeling and not what is the latest trend of the time. Otherwise we would’ve changed our style totally in the times of edm, but we did not, and we sure will not jump the 138 train now because its hip and so many go back there. We simply do what we think is cool at a time, but running behind what others do is never sexy to us, we try to write and play unique music without much looking to the left or right, and hope that our fans appreciate and follow our ideas in the future, as they did during these 17 years until now…
Rasalika – Now Cosmic Gate has been a name we’ve heard for many years and I know will still hear for many years to come, where do you see yourselves in the next 5 years?
Cosmic Gate – That’s a very good question. 5 Years is a very long time and its impossible to see where music will be by that time, but as long as we have fun and our fans are loyal to us and want to see our shows, we for sure still will be around doing what we like most; writing and producing music and playing our DJ sets around the world!
Rasalika – Your top 5 tracks of the moment.
Cosmic Gate –
Cosmic Gate – am2pm (WYM Records)
Cosmic Gate – Exploration Of Space (Cosmic Gate’s Third Contact Remix) (WYM Records)
Floboy – Elision (Adrenalin Room)
Max Ruby – Meldonium (Intricate Records)
Stoneface & Terminal – Keep Going (Flashover Recordings)
You can listen to ‘am2pm’ right here.
