Cosmosis Interview - February 2011 - Taxi Music publishers

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: London, England. I spent most of my life in London before re-locating to Switzerland where I'm now based.

Q: What made you realize that music was your path?

A: When I was a teenager I used to sit in a darkened room and listen to music with my mates - as you do when you're a teenager. One day I began to be able to distinguish the seperate instruments in a mix along with their stereo placement. Music changed from being a 2 dimensional sound with a melody line on the top that you sing along, with into a 3 dimensional technicolour tapestry. It was quite a revelation. At that moment I knew that's what I wanted to do; be involved in creating that stuff.

Q: How would you describe the music that you typically create?

A: Well firstly, I'm musically schizophrenic and have two distinct musical personalities: My main electronic project (Cosmosis) could be described as trippy, high powered dance music for the digital generation, it's all hi-tech, computer based modern production. On the other hand I have a whole other side which has it's roots in more traditionally based music and sits somewhere around the intersection of Blues, Gospel, Soul and Jazz.

Q: Who are your biggest musical influences?

A: Difficult question, I have a pretty eclectic taste. For the guitar side of my musical personality, Chet Atkins, Larry Carlton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, JImi Hendrix. For the dance music and electronica side; The Acid House movement which kicked off in the U.K around ' 87 was a massive influence, followed by the early underground Goa Music labels such as T.I.P Records, Dragonfly and Blue Room Records in the early to mid nineties also a big influencial milestone, especially with regard to sound design, mixing techniques and the whole concept of frequency based music.

Q: What makes your music unique?

A: I tend towards synthesizing styles. I'm no purist, I attempt to drag (kicking and screaming if neccesary ) elements from one style into another to see what happens and attempt expand/melt musical boundaries. (see Down at the Crossroads in the music player for an example)

Q: Has there been one particular moment in your musical career that you're most proud of?

A: Thinking back, there' ve been many goals accomplished on my journey so far, but they pale compared to what I'm most pleased about; which is being able to make a living out of doing something I enjoy, creating music.

Q: What's next for you?

A: For some time I've been feeling the itch to give more expression to the traditional side of my musical persona. Also I want to expand my game generally and am up for some bigger challenges. Overall I wish to reach more people with my music.