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Cosmic Gate talk new album, celebrating 20 years in dance music (Includes interview)

On the song selection approach for their new album, Forward Ever Backward Never, they said, “Well, what can we say, in the end, nothing else than our personal taste is making the call, only music that we are happy with will find the cut and make it on the album. Music we would feel we want to play on our shows, or possibly blast it out while driving a car, simply music that touches us, that’s the way it was and always will be.”

They just celebrated 20 years in the music business. “Honestly, on the one hand, it’s what we do every day for so long, so it’s like, we do our job, the thing that we like, and time flies when you are having fun, so it doesn’t seem that long,” they said.

“On the other hand though, when we started reflecting things a bit deeper, 20 years in this constantly moving industry is quite something. All the changes we went through, all the things we have seen, it’s quite unique and possibly even more so being a duo,” they said.

“So yeah, we have seen so much and went through so many things, to successfully go for 20 years surely is something to be proud of, stay relevant, have a loyal fan-base, that’s why we wrote this album, to celebrate this landmark with our fans who have followed us all the way to here and hopefully many years further from now,” they added.

On August 30, they will be playing a show at Marquee New York. “There will be lots of music from the Forward Ever Backward Never album, on top of our current club favorites, and some classics from ourselves and others. Marquee always has a great, intimate vibe, we are looking forward to the show,” they exclaimed.

Regarding their music and songwriting inspirations, Cosmic Gate said, “Inspiration comes from many things and places. every day traveling, every conversation we have, listening to music, but maybe mostly DJing with its always-changing influences and being at the forefront of evolving trends, are huge inspirations when writing new music.”

The duo continued, “Still, there are days when creativity flows, on others basically nothing happens, which makes it so interesting to be in the studio. After so many years every day is somehow different. We always say writing music is not like cooking where you follow a certain recipe, at least we don’t.”

Digital transformation of the music business

On the digital transformation of the music business, they said, “It certainly has changed the industry a lot, mostly because streaming doesn’t really let you build a – let us call it – a closer relationship with a track. What we mean is, when holding a vinyl or a CD its simply different, eventually having a beautiful artwork on top makes you value a song and the artist behind it more, while a stream, as practical and easily accessible it has become, is only a virtual thing, in the end, something you easily can change and switch to another song.”

“That’s the big difference which changed the way music is valued. For many, it basically has become a consumed good, more than to be a really loved one, simply as it’s so easily accessible and available at any time and any place for basically no money, and this is the point where social media comes in on top,” they explained.

“Most artists brand themselves as persons more than their actual music, and the music for the before mentioned reasons unfortunately sometimes seems to get more and more secondary it feels. This is a fact which we find a bit sad, as a music artist always should be liked for one thing at first, their music, and not to be entertaining or omnipresent on their socials. That’s a nice extra, personality and fashion always were a great factor in music, but should not be the main reason for a music artist’s success,” they elaborated.

On being electronic artists in this digital age, they said, “As much as we were pointing out some for us questionable aspects of parts of this digital age in the question before, of course, there are plenty of positive aspects and advantages that come with the change.”

“It’s a great thing if basically everyone on this planet with a WiFi can access and stream our music when our new releases are popping up on our fans’ news feeds, or our radio show can be streamed easily as you can’t catch it somewhere live on an FM channel,” they said.

They continued, “Also as DJs, the advantages are big, no lost vinyl on flights, a USB stick and headphones are all we need, DJ shows can be broadcasted live, we can produce our music on a laptop now, when before we needed a whole studio, so many things that are helpful in marketing, and production. We chose whatever fits for us, and hopefully make it work.”

Cosmic Gate listed Depeche Mode as their dream collaboration choice. “We are big fans of this band since basically forever, and it would be an honor to eventually one day work with these pioneers of electronic influenced music,” they said.

For their fans, they said, “Thanks a lot for the continued support, so many are following us around for basically the two decades. It’s actually mind-blowing when so many fans stand in front of us with our 20-year vinyl and still come out to party and dance, basically sharing the same passion for dance music and trance as we do.”

“Hopefully, there will be many more years to come,” they added.

On the key to longevity in the music business the past two decades, they said, “Be unique, always stay true to what you do, try to be the trend instead of running behind it, as Oscar Wilde said, ‘Be yourself, everyone else already is taken’.”

To learn more about Cosmic Gate and their music, check out their official website and their Facebook page.

Markos Papadatos
Written By

Markos Papadatos is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for Music News. Papadatos is a Greek-American journalist and educator that has authored over 20,000 original articles over the past 18 years. He has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, entertainment, lifestyle, magic, and sports. He is a 16-time "Best of Long Island" winner, where for three consecutive years (2020, 2021, and 2022), he was honored as the "Best Long Island Personality" in Arts & Entertainment, an honor that has gone to Billy Joel six times.

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