Cosmic Gate is created by two figures from Germany: Nic Chagall and Bossi. Over 10 years ago during a chance meeting at a label office in Cologne they joined their forces. Shortly afterwards they introduced Cosmic Gate which quickly evolved into one of the most creative and highly-sought-after electronic music acts in the world. As a proof of their ever-growing success is the 19th position at the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ chart in 2009 (their highest score till today).

Cosmic Gate is a regular guest at Trance Energy and this year they took the clubbers by storm at the High Contrast Stage. Agnes Klos met with them to chat about the event and more.

Hi Nick and Bossi. First of all, thank you for finding time to answer some questions for iBeats. Could you please tell us how many times you have already performed at Trance Energy and what you like about the event?
It was our 5th appearance on Trance Energy since 2002 and we definitely can say that it is our favourite indoor party! It is always organised on highest professional levels, the stages are designed with a lot of love and the audience is coming from all over the world, simply a pleasure and also honour to be part of this show!

Could you describe the vibe at Trance Energy 2010? Did it exceed your expectations?
As Nic solo played the opening set on the mainstage, we followed the whole night and it was amazing to see how the vibe build up, the people were walking form stage to stage, TE is simply a role model for so many other parties how it should be!!

How do you prepare your set? Do you plan it out or is it more of a spontaneous thing?
It’s a mix of both, of course we were searching for new tracks and did like some editing, but in general we like to be spontaneous, just react on how the vibe is, we find this very important!

When was your first contact with music? Do you come from musical families?
Like for most kids, our first contact with music was through our families and especially Nic was supported by a musical family, taking piano lessons since he was young.

Every DJ has a defining moment of their career. So far, what has been yours and why?
There was not maybe the one moment we could talk about here, but if it was, maybe it was our first appearance at TE in 2002, we had no idea how big and massive this party was and when we came on the stage, we were just blown away from the hall and the gig was really amazing, we will never forget it!!!

Where do you take inspiration from to create your music?
For us our whole life is inspiration, the music we listened to since we were young, our daily life, the travelling we always do, a nice conversation, we are sure that all goes into a new production or the sets we play!

What software and hardware do you like to use in the studio? Do you have a favourite piece of kit?
We work for many years with Logic and for a few years only with plug instruments,
all our old synths, drum, computers etc. we are not using anymore. We do not think there is a special kit we use that other producers do not know or so, everything is pretty standard in our eyes, no tips we could give here.

Do you remember which gig has been your favourite one over the years and why?
That’s hard to answer; fortunately we had a lot of outstanding shows during the years, both in clubs or on festivals, would not be fair to keep one higher than the others.

If you were not DJing what would you do for a living?
That’s a good question, maybe some management job in marketing or so, but we are happy that our hobby is our profession now, lucky guys!

What does one need to be a good DJ?
The right music, good mixing, charisma.

Do you listen to the same music at home as you do at work?
We both listen to different music at home most of the time, only trance would get too monotonous and we love diversity in music for sure.

What is the future of music going to be?
That’s a good question again; maybe styles will be mixed together more than they are even now. It would be amazing to know how it would sound, but we unfortunately do not know it yet.

Over the years, what is the strangest request you have ever received while DJing? And what strange things have you witnessed out and about while travelling?
There are so many strange and funny things happening, both while playing and also while travelling, the bad thing is that most of them are situated in the moment and maybe not so funny while telling here, but believe us, some good laughs come across our way when touring.

Could you describe your typical day?
The good thing is that most of our days are different. Only when we have a longer studio period we try to get a rhythm and try not to start too late as we want to keep a kind of regular life with our families during the week.

Have you already achieved everything in your career that you planned? Or maybe you still have some burning ambitions to be fulfilled?
We maybe have no burning ambitions but sure we want to reach more things, playing big halls, producing great tracks, if you are too satisfied we do not think that’s a good thing, so let’s say we are still hungry to go on for more of Cosmic Gate in the future!

What are your top 10 tracks of all time that you always carry with you?
There are too many brilliant tracks to just mention 10, this also changes depending of the moods we are in.

What is your biggest addiction in life?
Music, Sushi and football, lol

Cosmic Gate will perform next in the UK on 02.05.2010 at Godskitchen @ Syndicate – Bristol, on 02.05.2010 at Judgment Sunday @ Time Flies – Cardiff and on 28.05.2010 at Gallery, Ministry of Sound – London.

Thank you for your time and see you guys in London at Ministry of Sound.