For more than two decades, Cosmic Gate have been one of the defining forces in the global trance and progressive scene, evolving their sound while staying true to the energy that made them stand out in the first place. This Friday, February 13, they present the full release of Perspectives, a complete album that brings together the three previously released EP chapters and expands the project with additional material, offering a deeper look at where they stand creatively today.
Ahead of the release, we had the chance to sit down with Stefan Bossems, better known as Bossi, to talk about the inspiration behind the project, how it all came together, and what this chapter represents for them after more than twenty years in the industry.
Hi Bossi, I’m really happy we’re connecting today! How are you doing? Where are you joining us from today?
Well, thanks for having me, or actually us as Cosmic Gate. I’m good, thank you! I’m right now in Germany, in the city of Mönchengladbach.
Last weekend you played in Dresden at Altes Pumpenhaus an der Marienbrücke. What was the show like?
It was actually not far from the border to you guys. Great show — sold out, really good vibes. Beautiful. It’s a really cool, old industrial kind of venue, very clubby. Just the way we like it, honestly.
You’ve been gradually releasing the Perspectives EPs. They have such a strong mood and atmosphere. Would you say they reflect where you are personally and creatively right now?
I would absolutely sign for that. I think all our music always was like this. That’s just what a real artist does, right? Expressing where he or they are, making a statement. And of course, Perspectives by name is already pretty much saying that this is our statement of how we see things, what we like to play as DJs, where we are, how we feel. Yeah, and it’s vibey. It’s our emotions. It’s pretty awesome. Club oriented. Pretty much all the tracks were great in a club setting. So it’s emotions meets club most of the time. That’s what we like, which we pretty much always liked over all the years.
Why did you decide to release Perspectives gradually as a series of three EPs instead of one full album?
That’s a very easy answer. Everything is so fast-paced these days. When you release 12 new tracks, it´s a lot. Well, we had it like several years ago. I do not even remember which album it was, but it was greatly received. And people are like this one. I like that one. So two or three tracks were released before. And then you have 10 brand new tracks. You’ve been working on it.
We’ve been working on it for a year and a half. Then, just two weeks later, someone was like, “Okay, love it. So when do we hear new stuff?” We were still pretty much exhausted from touring and working on the album. Maybe people don’t really understand the process and how much hard work it takes to write 12 new tracks and produce them from A to Z. Considering the way people listen these days with their individual playlists, we decided to split it into two chapters. And this time, with such a heavy booking schedule, we thought it made sense to release two chapters, each with six tracks or so.
It was like, “Wow, this is going to take a while.” Then we thought, okay, we’re just going to do it in an extended EP format — three to four tracks, three times. And honestly, we can also stretch out the tour. We don’t have to drain ourselves too much; we can take a break.
And during that break, of course, for us a break doesn’t mean doing nothing. If we’re not necessarily touring, it means more time in the studio or, once in a while, time with our family and loved ones. We feel it just makes a lot of sense not to have marketing for weeks. Something that we’ve been working on for so long can be gone and forgotten relatively quickly, you know, given the fast pace of things these days.
Each EP consists of several tracks. How do you decide which tracks belong together on an EP? Is there something they share?
Well, we feel that there is a year or something in between, maybe even a little more now with the three chapters. But we feel overall what’s funny to us is like from chapter one to two and from one even more to three, the club sounds change so fast these days. What we play in January might be totally different to what we play in March, but certainly different than what we play in May or June. So we feel that the three chapters, even though they’re kind of sound-wise leaning towards the same side, that there is already a development now in between the chapters.
The fast pace and movement of club music, what you’re playing, you know, on the one week, two or three weeks later you find something else and then two or three new tracks change the dynamics and everything is so fast paced and crazy. So it’s always very up to date. That’s another thing we like about working in these chapters.
We always had, say, four or five tracks, and we picked three or four out of those. So it’s not like we have, of course, 10 or 12 tracks every time to choose the best from. With our touring schedule and everything, that’s not really doable. But in the end, when we have a demo that we continue working on, we really like it. Once it goes past demo status, that means we’re happy with it. It doesn’t mean that every track we start will be released, right?
So yeah, what brings these chapters together is really just the short time period in which they’re produced. And we kind of like that. Also, in our sets, it’s really cool to see how the sound evolves slightly for us as producers. It’s a very satisfying process. From whatever perspective we look at it, we like this EP form — for us as DJs, as producers, and I think also for the marketing. So yeah, we feel pretty good about it.
Is there a track that is most personal to you?
That’s a question all over the years that we are always struggling with. We always say, “You have three or four siblings. Of course, there’s one you might get along with a little better at times, but you still love them all.” Maybe one gets a 1% extra touch. We have three mixes now for it. If we had to pick one of the track, maybe it’s Brave, with its lyrics meaning, which is pretty dear to us.
After all these years on the scene, how do you manage to keep the Cosmic Gate sound evolving while still staying true to your identity?
Well, our sound, of course, now over the years, it’s really different than it was at the beginning. But you said our identity, and then we feel that’s really true. Even though our sound is different, still we have this overall Cosmic Gate signature in a way.
There are friends who say, ‘Hey, there’s so much music out.’ But when there’s a new track that you guys do, I always recognize it, even though I don’t know it’s from you. So there must be something about how we arrange, how we produce, how we write, which some people do recognize and which is just Cosmic Gate, right? That’s as good an answer as I can give. Music is a feeling, and maybe what we bring together in our music has maybe that specific kind of feel which separates us, well, hopefully from others and makes us unique in our way.
Do you ever feel pressure from fans’ expectations, or does it actually help guide your creative direction?
There wasn’t pressure, but there were certainly fans when we moved away from 140 BPM and slowed things down. And now, there are still some who say, “Oh, I like the old stuff. It was so much less commercial”. We actually just laugh, because we feel that, for example, Exploration of Space is way more commercial than most of the songs we’re doing now.
Doing vocal singles doesn’t necessarily mean it’s commercial. I think the rougher instruments in the music we do now are more progressive and more club-oriented than what we did at the beginning. But, you know, why argue? We’re just happy if people like what we do. Some fans prefer what we did 25 years ago and don’t love what we do now, but there are others who find us now and didn’t like what we did back then. Things just come together or drift apart. And, well, we’re doing great.
We always, as artists, do what we feel, and that’s the most important thing to us. Our music has always been, as when we started, a personal statement. And yeah, we just hope our fans follow us.
Do you feel today’s electronic scene is more about community, or more about algorithms and numbers?
Yeah, algorithms and social media are, unfortunately, sometimes more important than the music itself. It’s very sad, but DJs often get famous more for wearing the right mask and having, you know, the right social media push behind them than for real hype. Fast techno, for us, for example, is basically just hardstyle music, and people are like, “Oh, I’m cool, I listen to techno”. Maybe not — but, who are we to tell people, you know, what’s the right term or anything?
We just think, in general, that even though social media is so important, there will always be a market for real music and real emotions — and that’s all we want to do. We are our music and that will never change.
Is there something you still haven’t done as Cosmic Gate that feels like an unfinished dream?
That’s a very good question. Well, we’ve played most of the big festivals, you know, Grammy-nominated. We’ve released so many albums. I don’t think there’s anything we have to prove, so there isn’t a big dream or anything like that. But we enjoy what we do, and that’s why we’ve been out there for 26, 27 years — even longer. So, no, it’s a good feeling. We like, you know, DJing and writing music, to express our feelings and share them. And yeah, I think we’re going to continue doing this.
