 The Cosmosis/Laughing Buddha Interview with Bill, New Last updated 8/97 by Mark_H, HTML by Seth Well for those of you that are interested (it's a sceptical thing) my full name is William Bryan Halsey and I was born on the 18th. day of July in 1962. 2. Tell us something about your musical background? I've been a fully professional musician for about 11 years now.and semi pro for about 5 years before that. That was in my previous incarnation as a session guitarist. I did some international tours, some T.V and radio and played any and every style of modern music, though my passion was Jazz. At the height of that part of my career I had managed to blag my way onto the stage with some of the most talented singers and musicians on the London Jazz scene and had the pleasure to play some great music with some incredibly talented musicians. Great though it was, after a time I began to notice that something wasn't quite right, something to do with the fact that especially with Jazz, somehow the music becomes more about the individuals playing it, rather than the people listening to it. It has to be said that around this time I also played with some very sad bands just for money. Only the other day I had to pay £500 for an photo that someone had taken of me playing the Okey-Kokey at a Working Men's Club in Preston. 3. How did you get involved in trance music? My brother Mark turned me on to trance music. He kept playing me these mainly German 303 based trance records which I thought were wild. But what really turned my head around was when he sat me down and said you've got to hear this record, gave me his headphones and cranked up "LSD" by Hallucinogen. After I took the headphones off my life had altered. I looked up just in time to see my Fender Stratocaster flying out of the window, followed closely by a large collection of jazz records. I thought it was one of the most powerful and evocative pieces of music that I had ever heard full stop. 4. What kind of music do you do, at the moment exept trance [if any]? The only other musical project that I'm doing at present is with a friend of mine called Leslie. She has one of the most unpretentious voices that I've ever heard. And she writes profound lyrics. She has absolutely no ambition to be a star or do live gigs, although she will sing for her friends, and she writes songs for her own pleasure. It was my idea to record her, she didn't ever consider it. That makes her an absolute treasure. As far as I'm concerned, there is a universe of difference between singing to be a star (so that people will like you, for money, status etc.) and singing just to sing. And that intention comes across in the sound. The sound posesses an integrity. I'm using a pretty sparse, acoustic guitar backing and playing a little clean electric guitar, but the focus is definitely the voice. 5. Can you live only from making music? Yes. Especially now that I own all the machines and a small studio that I need to create music with. I'm a bit of a hippy too so I have pretty simple tastes. Although I'm dreading my first tax bill. 6. Have you ever done a compromise about music with your publisher or agent? No. And I never shall. I make music and the record company releases it. If they like it, they take it. If they don't, I take it to another label. 7. Do you have an agent at all? Yes, an agent called Lunar Promotions for d.j. gigs and P.A's. The last thing I want to be doing when I'm halfway into a tune is hustling gigs. I pay a percentage if he gets me a booking. 8. How often do you have gigs? This summer coming is pretty busy. In June so far we've played in Copenhagen and I'm d.j.'ing Israel in Jerusalem on the 20th. and we have a live P.A. in Singapore on the 28th. June. On the 11 July we have another P.A. at the Return to the Source Album launch in London. On the 15th. July we leave for a week in Colombia, though only one date as yet. There's talk about Estonia and Russia on the 24th and 25th.July. I'm d.j'ing on the south coast on 8th August, a P.A at a festival in Wales on August 9th. London at "Otherworld " on 22nd August, Cologne, Germany on 23rd, Berlin on the 30th August, Munich on the 6th September. It goes on....... 9. When and why did you start DJ-ing? Because I like to hear my favourite tunes being played at the parties. And if I'm putting them on, then I get to choose! Also working with the labels as I do, I have access to lots of music before it comes out. Furthermore there really is little difference between playing dats at a P.A. and d.j.ing. 10. Do you consider your self a good DJ[s]? For me, the main ingredient is choice of what (and when) to play. And I think I'm good at that. My technique is not as good as some. Although on a good night I can pull off some good mixes. 11. What are the main differences between your projects [LB vs. Cosmosis]? Is it only the name? Originally it was a conceived as a difference in approach, though it became more a way of having more freedom to experiment, you know, not having to do what we thought people expected from Cosmosis. Although I'm happy to say that I'm over all that "what people expect" nonsense and now I just write tunes that will turn myself and people on, to the best of my ability. What Jez and I have decided to do, in order to have more autonomy with our projects, is to take charge of one each. So now I'm writing all the Cosmosis material including the new album, and Jez is taking care of the Laughing Buddha stuff. We're doing some P.A s as Cosmosis/Laughing Buddha as we did before, and we still have a certain amount of input into each other's tunes. 12. Do you think there is any conection between the sixties hippy movement and today's Goa trance scene?? Do you really want to get me started on this? O.K. then, a couple of things otherwise I'll run out of paper. Absolutely. You can trace a direct connection between the parties of today and Ken Keysey's (in)famous "Acid Tests" held around California in the early sixties. (Incidentally Ken Keysey wrote the book "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" which was inspired by his early experiences as a paid voluntary LSD guinea pig in a psychiatric hospital.) The "Acid Tests" were put on by the "Fabulous Merry Pranksters" and were a series of warehouse parties involving Psychedelic visuals and lighting, Large (for the time ) sound systems the psychedelic music of the time, and a large and very innocuous looking bowl of "punch". The music was often 4 or 5 hour sets of improvised music by bands such as the Grateful Dead, named Grateful(ly) Dead after the state of " ego death ." A term used to describe a state of being beyond the identity often reached by imbibing psychedelics. A term that first appeared in Timothy Leary's and Richard Alpert's book "Psychedelic Experience" (Richard Alpert disappeared to India on a spiritual quest and later appeared as Baba Ram Dass, and whose vocal samples appear in various Cosmosis tunes) The press were invited and told that it was possible to have a genuine psychedelic experience merely by being at such an event, the experience being brought about by the general weirdness of the lights and sounds and colours. Spookily enough they did feel quite strange and reported on this strange phenomenon. Of course what they omitted to tell the press was that the punch was spiked with large amounts of L.S.D. And the acid tests went on. On tour in fact, around some major U.S cities, until they were finally rumbled and Ken fled to Mexico. (For more insight into sixties stylee psychotic psychedelia and an excellent read check out "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" by Tom Woolf and written in his unique style.) Also the fact that there was a large amount of traffic going to India at that time for spiritual enlightenment after having had their eyes opened by psychedelics, some of whom loved the country and stayed on in places like..... Goa. 13. Does the word Goa trance bother you? Not really now. Only insomuch as it focuses a media spotlight on Goa and the community there really doesn't deserve a bunch of Ibiza style poppers and lager boys descending on their doorstep. What the term Goa Trance has come to mean for me and others that I know is kind of Psychedelic trance with lots of 16th note melodies in the phrygian scale, and it goes Diddle-iddle-iddle-iddle. Which I do actually like every now and again as a colour, but not as the basis for a whole track. A little while ago it seemed to be the basis for every track and had become the "fromage du jour." 14. Is tempo of trance tracks getting slower or faster? Maybe 9 months ago it seemed to be getting faster and faster. Although I'm happy to say that it seems to have stopped that now and has settled down to around 150bpm as a general maximum. It's obvious what happens in that scenario. An easy way to put excitement into a track is to make it faster than other tracks, and if everyone does that, before you know it you are making gabba. It's far more challenging to create the power in a track by crafting the groove, creating those sounds and shaping those envelopes to make it irresistable to the mind and body. 15. Do you think that it's getting a little bit minimalistic these days (trance of course)? Generally, no. Some artists are experimenting with less layers and using more space, Lorenzo from Amsterdam springs to mind, but I like that, it gives the sounds more room to breathe and I like experimentation, it inspires me to compose in different ways. I like variety. It's all part of the rich sonic tapestry of Electronic, Psychedelic Dance Music. Minimalistic, maximalistic, hedonistic, holistic, supercalifragilistic, I like all the takes, all the angles. The bottom line is, is it good? If it's gets my neurons firing and my joints-a-jumpin', then it's good. To quote Duke Ellington "There are only two types of music; Good music and bad music." 16. You've been almost all around the globe, where are the best parties? That's a difficult question to answer so let me answer it by drawing some distinctions. You've probably heard of the terms: set and setting. By set I mean the particular mind set or mood that you arrive in at the party and that you are responsible for maintaining and managing during the party. i.e. your personal interpretations, thoughts, feelings, and intentions, to name a few elements. Choosing your interpretations possibly being the key element. And setting being the logistical aspect, i.e. Location, safety of participants, quality of sound system, choice of music, temperature, Physical space to dance etc. Generally speaking you could say that the party goer is responsible for creating and maintaining the set, and the party organiser is responsible for creating and maintaining the setting, the conditions in which the party can occur. As far as I can tell, if the setting is poor then there is much less chance that the participants will relax enough to trancend themselves. To give you an (extreme) example I was in Israel recently with Riktam and Bansi. Ricktam told me the last time he was playing in Israel he got physically hauled off the decks by 9 Arabs, one with a gun in his back and one with a knife in front of him because they didn't like the music that he was playing! Not so much a party as a nightmare! Unfortunately the trance scene attracts a large organised crime element in Israel in all but the remote desert parties, where I'm told real parties can still be found. Needless to say the vibe was not happening and floor was not cooking that night! Lots of parties don't even get off the ground because the setting or logistical aspect is not handled. I've been to 'parties' where the venue was so over capacity that I couldn't even get on the dance floor, never mind dance. Or it was so hot that I was running with sweat just sitting still. Now in answer to your question, where are the best parties? In my experience the answer has to be any party that has the setting right has a great chance of being a great party, because I can be responsible for creating the set myself, how much I enjoy myself is then all down to me. Some of the parties that I've enjoyed the most were ones in particularly beautiful surroundings. I remember one that I went to in the sub tropical eucalyptus forest in Byron Bay, in the Australian bush, where Ollie Space Tribe played all night. Which was completely inspirational. Also one I went to in Wangamata on the East coast of New Zealand in a house with 25 people and a 2k rig on New Year's eve. Life altering. One in Goa with Chrisbo playing,and Indian madness happening all around. an absolute peach. A summer solstice party in Gloucestershire England, hosted by the Dying Winos (Flying Rhino) Superb, I was buzzing for days. I have been to some really great indoor ones too, but they do lack that extra dimension that parties outdoors have. And I do have to say that people seem to really know how to enjoy themselves at psychedelic events in London. 17. What is your best DJ/live act experience? I think playing a P.A. and then a d.j set at an outdoor party both in the forest at a place called Unicorn (watering) Hole near Mullumbimby near Byron Bay, Australia. It was the night of the Harmonic Convergence (it's an astrology thing) apparently this particular alignment of planets happens once every eon or something. It was due to happen at 2.42am local time. After that time we were officially into the Age of Aquarius. And that particular part of the world being what it is; the home of every tarot reader, white witch, crystal gazer, freak, space cadet and fluoro hippie, (I love it, by the way) everybody knew all about it. They were having large scale all day group meditations in the local community centres (seriously) radio programmes about it, public talks, discussion groups. And it was a full moon. So we played our P.A. I was vibed to the max, people were vibed to the max and going crazy, dancing like lunatics under the full moon to the psychedelic mayhem. As our last tune came to a close and was fading fast, something strange happened. The dat player that had the first tune of our D.J. set lined up wouldn't play for some reason. After much frantic fingerpokenbuttonpushen there was no music at all and all that I could hear were the frogs in the forest and some cicadas that we'd woken up and were joining in with their own frequency manipulations. It was a strangely relaxed silence. A woman then walked up to the decks and said "Thats amazing that you should stop right now, do you know what the time is?" I said no I don't have a watch and looked up to see her showing me her watch. It said 2:42 exactly. The dat player suddenly seemed to work and in came the intro of the first tune in our D.J set, "The Frog" by X-Dream a full 30 seconds of frogs croaking that got the real frogs croaking back in response, building up to a fever pitch. The place was alive. And Kicking. Several times that night I harmonically converged, In fact I had multiple convergences. 18. We heared that you are now in charge for choosing music that's going to come out on TRANSIENT? Yeah that's right I'm doing a little A+R scouting for Transient. 19. What should tracks that you say "THIS IS IT, GUYS!", must have? For me it has to have a great groove. I like those grooves where you have no choice on the dancefloor. It picks you up and throws you around and spits you out at the end. Originality is a major one for me also. It's quite difficult to quantify that one. I'm afraid it's back to Duke Ellington, do not pass go, do not collect 200 beautiful party locations. 20. Are you persons with very sofisticated taste? You tell me, now you know a little bit about me. 21. What are your current TOP 5 tracks? They change from day to day, so here's 5 I like today in no particular order: Freak - X-Dream Function Junction - Process Slugfest - Slug Flight of the Pteredactyl - Nick Taylor Reality Check - The Visitors 22. Could you tell us something about your forthcoming releases? We have a track coming out on the next Return to the source album: Sacred Sites under the name Laughing Buddha called "Tapu" which means sacred site in Maori. Which Jez and I co-wrote. A track on the Transient "Dawn" which is an album of mellower psychedelic or Cannabadelic sounds called " Dawn of an Era" under the name Cosmosis, again co-written. And a further one on the "Otherworld" album again on Transient called "Atom Bom" again co- written. I have one on the go at the moment which is nearly finished which hasn't yet got a title which is due for release on 12" vinyl on Transient. And will be the first Cosmosis release written by me only. 23. What is your favourite track [done by you]? What is your favourite goa track ever? Well I always liked Gift of the Gods. But these days maybe it's Reality Check or Tapu or possibly even the tune that I'm just finishing now thinking about it. I'll have to wait until it's mixed to really tell. Favourite track ever, now that's a difficult one. No, I've got it, it's that one that's playing in your head on the way back from a great party. O.K. that's it! Thank you for doing this interview! If you want to add anything you want to say, anything we didn't ask, DO IT! Also if you want to ask us somenthing DO IT! :) Sorry it took so long guys, I had my head stuck in the machines. I hope it was worth waiting for. Keep up the good work with the magazine. The trance scene is a very positive force and you're doing a great job by providing that alternative for people particularly down in that part of the world. I hope to meet you one day. If you are ever in an event where I'm playing, promise me you'll come and introduce yourselves. See ya, Love and peace. Bill. Interview by Goran Stetic and Damir Ludvig for Croatian "DJ Magazine" and Asian "Update" magazine © 1997 Cosmosis/Laughing Buddha |