Cosmic Gate (aka Nic Chagall and Bossi) is thrilled to release the first stage of their hotly anticipated new artist album. Trailed throughout 2021 by vanguard single releases and stunning live streams, ‘MOSAIIK’ will platform nine sensational cuts from the GRAMMY-nominated duo.
Mirroring the same delivery system adopted by their 2017 ‘Materia’ albums, seasoned CG fans will already be familiar with ‘MOSAIIK’ release dynamic. Shared across two ‘Chapters’, ‘MOSAIIK’s ‘II’ styled title is a direct nod to the group’s eleventh artist long-player.
“When we laid all of ‘MOSAIIK’s ideas, drafts, and demos for new avenues out, it almost overwhelmed us,” says Nic. “That played a part in the decision to split the album into two. “There was such a span to it that Bossi & I both felt there was almost a danger of ‘too much, too soon. So ultimately the two Chapters of ‘MOSAIIK’ will click together to present that broader vision of our music.”
‘Blame’ – the album’s opening single, which features singer/songwriter Diana Miro, provided perhaps the biggest surprise of the year for Cosmic Gate fans. Deeper and more progressive than CG had gone before, it became their fastest-growing single release to hit a million Spotify streams. From that point a follow-up with Diana became a certainty, and ‘Nothing To Hide’ – just released, and featured on the album – is performing in an even stronger fashion.
Tell us about the story of your act
Hi, we are Nic and Bossi, Cosmic Gate, 2 guys from the area of Duesseldorf in Germany. We produce and DJ together for roughly 22 years now, literally
living our dream every day, from hobby DJs to travel the world, become Grammy nominated and play shows in the world best clubs and festivals.
We just released our 11th Studio Album called MOSAIIK, nice to meet you guys, pleasure to do this interview.
What is the message behind your art?
We would say: „Feel It!“ It’s not only a single of our new album, but also something that is essential for us. We want the people to feel our music.
What are some sources of inspiration for your lyrics and storytelling?
regular sources sure are our everyday life, which mostly means travel, living on the road, play shows,
meet different people all around the job, but also time with our friends and families, things we might not even think about
as sources of inspiration at first, but actually, because they are a big part of us, we feel they are very important. then of course there is the music we listen to,
and our dj sets. new trends start in clubs and they are an important inspiration, we feel for pretty much every DJ out there.
then of course the last 1.5 years that put us all to the test sure were not inspirational at first, but without doubt
will reflect somehow in our music as well. Covid has been a big challenge for our industry, but personally after struggling like most others after our life got
so brutally slowed down, we tried to use this challenge as something to even inspire us, make us think out of the box, bring out the best in us, at least we
tried and we hope this positive spirit reflects in our current work.
Who is an artist that you look up to more than others today?
fortunately there is a lot of inspiring music around, but we feel the one guy that pretty much always puts an extra dot on the I, and this for many years,
on both his productions and DJ sets, is Eric Prydz.
All time favorite record?
Depeche Mode – Violator Album
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about
Our latest release as shortly mentioned in the introduction already, is our just released 11th studio album called Mosaiik.
After our Album „20 Years – Forward Ever Backward Never”, our 20 Years anniversary album plus World Tour, it did not just feel like a restart for a new Album,
the start for Mosaiik felt a bit like the start into a new era.
To explain. there were some signs that our fans are as ready as we were, for an acceptance of a deeper, progressed sound and production direction, as you might know already from some of our latest remixes or from listening to the diversity of influences when listening to our WYM Radio show. No one told us we needed to do this change, we very naturally felt this from within, as we always followed our intuitions over the years.
When the clubbing world was pretty much separated from their dancefloors in March 2020 on top, circumstances provided even more artistic latitude. Thus ‘MOSAIIK’smusic making became less symmetric and floor-focused, and all the richer for it. So as weird as it sounds, we somehow became even more free in our work, while life outside was actually the opposite, we tried to take circumstances as a chance, not an obstacle.
After a good while then, we laid all of ‘MOSAIIK’s ideas, drafts and demos out, and started to realise quite quick, there is so much material, we will split the album into two again, as we did before with the Materia series.
So now here we are, with everything that happened in the last 2 years, we are proud to present part 1 of our new Album Mosaiik.( The ‘II’-styled title a nod our eleventh longplayer, in case you wonder :))
You seem to be fusing several musical genres. What inspires your sound?
This is true, we love total different genres of club music, there is just so much good music, and sure these widely ranged influences reflect in our productions as well. Our main background sure lies in Trance, started with the early years,
music on EyeQ Records for example, but also rave, Techno and of course progressive house has to be mentioned here. on top we sure dig a good Vocal hook line at times, what better than to sing your
lungs out to a song, while on the other hand we can get lost in a minimal Techno track as well. We feel diversity is important, breaking boundaries is key, art in general has to progress to stay relevant.
personally we tend to get bored easily, thats why we quite natural try to add little fresh ideas to pretty much every new track, which over time then, hopefully leads to a somehow progressed new sound versions of ourselves. skipping form Album to Album you will always feel our handwriting, but an artistic development we think is as obvious as important.
What excites you the most about what you do?
the most exciting thing is, that with all the time and work we put into Cosmic Gate, it actually never feels like work! our hobby turned into our profession,
thats why even after all these years its still exciting. without passion and excitement for our studio work and dj shows, we sure wouldn’t be relevant anymore, as we won’t like it, and our fans sure won’t like what we do anymore either, easy as that.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Time seems to run so fast these days, this is hard to say. hopefully we still enjoy what we do, write music, travel for our shows and share our passion for music with likeminded all around the globe,
that would be really cool.
Your style is very original and elaborate. How do you take care of your aesthetics?
we feel artists have to be critical, with others but even more and most, with their own work. we try to be careful and protective, tasteful in our work and protective and loyal to our brand. We do release music when it feels right, not when a market dictates it, our personal taste is always first, this is the number 1 rule we have, non negotiable.
What was the most daunting moment in your career so far?
there is not this one moment that we can remember, but in general and to be very honest, this from the outside maybe so glamorous scene can be quite political, and looking behind the scenes, sure isn’t always sunshine and good times.
when you care about what you do, you worry, you think, but in the end we can only try to make the best decisions, stay honest and loyal to ourselves and who we are as artists, by putting the important stuff in the centre of what we do, which is writing real music and play shows representing a sound we do care and stand for. We try to always be creative, feel music, not analyse it, by doing this the daunting moments seem to get less important, because we have fun at first, and thats all that matters in the end, does it!?
What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
sometimes you have to say, NO!
Where do you think the next game changer will be in the music industry and entertainment scene?
That’ll be great to know as we would rock the shit out of what ever it is! fun aside, right shot from the hip, we don’t have the slightest clue and answer to be very honest.
pretty sure though after all the drama and negativity that Covid caused, on the other hand we are certain it also will lead to a lot of new creative ideas
that will be shared soon. If a full on game changer will appear, lets see, we are as curious as anyone else in the industry.
