By: Natty Morrison

NM: Like other duos such as Justice, The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk, the two of you have stuck together over the years. What is it about your dynamic that works so well?

COSMIC GATE: What can we say? We have the same understanding of what fits with a Cosmic Gate song or what we see as a track we would include in our DJ sets, so our dynamics come out of a totally natural understanding about what we see as fitting for our project. That’s the simple reason why it works so well.

NM: What is your writing process like? Does one of you tend to take the lead on a track, or is it an equal effort?

COSMIC GATE: We are always together in the studio while doing productions. It’s not that we work separately on ideas and only listen after we’re in the studio together. We are used to this method of working together since day one, and it works best for us.

NM: Do the two of you have matching aesthetics when it comes to making a track? Or is it an “Odd Couple” sort of situation in which you have opposing styles?

COSMIC GATE: Making a track is always different. Once we start with a beat, create a bassline, a vocal or a melody, it never should be getting a routine to produce music, in our eyes.

NM: What initially drew you to the trance sound?

COSMIC GATE: We simply like trance, that’s the easy answer. We are hooked to this music since the first trance sound coming from labels like Eye Q or Harthouse in the early 1990’s. Both of those labels were from Frankfurt, Germany. We like nice harmonic changes and melodies, and we want music to be emotional. We want music to touch us, and of course with hitting beats and basslines right in your face. [laughs]

NM: Since trance is often best experienced live, I’ve always wondered if trance artists write more for the stage as opposed to for a record. Do you feel this is true? Do you guys write songs you know will be heavy hitters in the clubs, or is that not something you think about?

COSMIC GATE: It’s true, most of our tracks, we write to perform during our DJ gigs, this is very important for us. We are definitely not the typical songwriters who think about radio plays. The dancefloor is always what it’s about and will always be what we write our music for!

NM: Do you think you’ve stayed true to the trance genre, or would you say the two of you have drifted in other directions over the years? How so?

COSMIC GATE: EDM in general is getting closer together, so sure, we also have more influences from house and progressive, to mention just some, in our music.

NM: Though you first started making music in 1998, it wasn’t until the U.K. release of “Fire Wire” that you achieved mainstream success. What was different about that song?

COSMIC GATE: Hmmm, we have no idea! But we had mainstream success already with different titles before “Fire Wire,” and as such, “Exploration Of Space” was selling big numbers in Germany. About “Fire Wire,” sometimes tracks just fit somehow, no one knows why, but they explode, and not even the producers of such tracks know what they did differently to other productions before. [laughs] “Fire Wire” was even only a B-side track for us at the beginning, a fun club track for the club freaks. We had not the slightest idea what would happen with it after its release…

NM: One avenue that has helped maintain your level of success is the catalog site Beatport. Why do you feel the site has been so popular throughout the years? Is it pretty much your go-to for releasing new tracks?

COSMIC GATE: Beatport is simply the online store that you can go to if you really want the latest in electronic music. Nowhere else will you find these tracks. Most DJs even buy their stuff there. Beatport has so many exclusive tracks, that’s why for sure they are a good first-indicator for what tune gets hot in the clubs during the next month.

NM: On both of the two new releases from Cosmic Gate, we find you revisiting the past, particularly with the remix of “Explorations of Space,” which originally came out before “Fire Wire.”  What made you two want to go back and unearth those older songs?

COSMIC GATE: The idea behind Back 2 The Future: The Classics 1999-2003 Remixed (Black Hole) started because we still liked to play the old tracks in our DJs sets, but the sound/style from these early works of ours simply didn’t fit the feeling of our current sets anymore. Out of these reasons, we decided to first do some new versions ourselves for some festival events. Seeing the great reactions from the crowd on these new mixes and people asking for these new mixes over and over again, we thought, “Maybe it’s time to rework the old tracks and make a whole CD for the fans!” The result is remixes from the likes of Rank 1, Wippenberg, Markus Schulz, Arty, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Alexander Popov and Robbie Rivera.

NM: Throughout the years, you two have become known as top performers in the electronic world.  How do you guys approach playing live? Do you both have set roles when it comes to live production?

COSMIC GATE: It’s pretty simple. We just go and play! We are not a boy-band coordinating the stage performance, but we always play back-to-back giving our energy and music to the crowd. That`s the only rule we have. Only a restroom that’s located too far away can ever break-up this back-to-back set. [laughs]

COSMIC GATE’s Back 2 The Future: The Classics 1999-2003 Remixed (Black Hole) is released January 24th, 2011. For more information, visit www.cosmic-gate.de and www.blackholerecordings.com.

Listen below to Cosmic Gate's December 2010 Radio Mix:

Tracklisting :
1.    Cosmic Gate – Fire Wire – Wippenberg Rmx.
2.    Boom Jinx & Andrew Bayer vs. Trifonic & Matt Lange – Quadcore 2
3.    Armin van Buuren feat. Christian Burns – This light between us – Dabruck & Klein Rmx.
4.    Space Rockerz – Save the planet – Elevation 313 Dubtek Rmx.
5.    Cosmic Gate – Human Beings – Estiva Rmx.
6.    Cosmic Gate feat. Jan Johnston – Raging – Alexander Popop Rmx.
7.    Cosmic Gate – The Truth – Cold Blue Remix
8.    Cosmic Gate – Back to earth – Arty Rmx.
9.    Cosmic Gate – The Drums – Markus Schulz Rmx.
10.   Cosmic Gate – Exploration of Space – Cosmic Gates Back 2 the future Rmx.