April 98: Cosmosis with Pi Magazine
There are more interviews in the History section.
Reproduced From Pi Magazine
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Pi Magazine Who are Cosmosis?(Names) Cosmosis Cosmosis is Bilbo Bagginz. For live shows Wai T'sang (mad wandering zen monk and wizard guitarist) joins me adding his fretboard squiggle mastery to my analogue squelcherama and dat mixing/ desk dubbage. Pi Magazine How did it begin?(When? why?) Cosmosis It began when I heard a track that my brother played me. L.S.D by Hallucinogen. My former incarnation as a session musician with leanings towards jazz, ended as abruptly as my daily practice of diminished wholetone scales played over an altered dominant chord built upon the tritone interval. Pi Magazine What are your musical influences and who would you most like to work with? Cosmosis How long have you got? Let's see, Frank Zappa, Steve Hillage, Earth, Wind and Fire, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Miles Davies, Carlos Santana, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Stan Getz, Sly and Robbie, it goes on. I love music full stop and I think it's especially important for musicians to keep an open mind and not to limit what they can appreciate. Pi Magazine Are there any other bands within the trance genre that you particularly like/admire? Cosmosis Yes, I love Nick Taylor's stuff, very out there. Those german gtroovemeisters X-Dream, er Prana for going for the jugular. Simon Posford's production skills, personally I reckon that Trevor Horn has nothing on him. There are a number of very talented producers making Psychedelic Trance music. The opposite is also true of course. Pi Magazine What are your favourite five records ever, in descending order? Cosmosis Well today they are:
Pi Magazine What are the best parties you have ever been to and why? Cosmosis 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. Pi Magazine What is your best DJ/live act experience? Cosmosis 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. Pi Magazine Are you into fast cars and loose women? No. Pi Magazine What do you think about the accusation that the trance scene is mostly white, middle class? Why do you think that it has gained that label in this country? Cosmosis First of all, I don't think that the accusation is accurate. Secondly from my point of view having played at and partied at trance parties in most parts or the world, the trance scene has a global culture which is way beyond local class distinctions. Indeed if it does have that reputation in this country, it may well have been propogated by the unusually hostile attitude of the established dance music press. Pi Magazine Explain more about your new album - (Why is it called Synergy? How would you describe it? Was there anything in particular that inspired it? Are you trying to convey any particlar message with it?) Cosmosis The title was inspired partly by the concept of synergy as applied to human society,(which is a whole other conversation in itself) and partly by the structure of the word Syn(thesis of en)ergy, which I took to describe a synthesis of different musical energies. On the album you will find elements of Dub Reggae, Funk, Salsa Rock and even the Blues which have been fused or synergized together with pure electronica and trance grooves, to produce a wider variety of moods than is usual. I would describe the album as containing elements from the sublime to the ridiculous, from Funk to the Blues and nothing less than a veritable compendium of frequencial manipulation set to tranceable beats for the psychedelically inclined. Pi Magazine What are you saying at the end of the album? Cosmosis That conversation was recorded in Melbourne, Australia. It was the morning after a Cosmosis gig at the after party at someone's house. It was 40 C and I was in the garden with my d.a.t player and a mic. half recording the strange sounding Australian birds and half trying to sober up, when out came Lee Harvey from the party and what you hear is what took place. The track should be called "Mashed in Melbourne." Pi Magazine What do you think about the question of live music for trance acts? Cosmosis Most music that you hear in the charts is created on and played by computers. And has been for a lot longer than most people realise, including lots of non dance music. All psychedelic trance music is made on computers and played by sequencers (computers) This is the nature of this type of music. Traditionally created music relies upon trained manual dexterity, and for the most part a rock gig is about the audience observing the band re-create their recorded material by using their manual skills. And appreciation is given if the band re-create their music well. These are 2 different paradigms, and each has it's place. A problem arises when people want to bring the traditional or rock music paradigm into electronic music, i.e. the issue of manual dexterity. Observing a band's ability to re-create their music manually has no place in trance parties, because it was never created manually in the first place. It was "played" by a computer. In fact it is impossible to play manually with the speed and precision that is neccesary to make it Trance music. Furthermore, the trance party is not about observing, it is about participating. Everybody at the party is just as important as the d.j. or P.A. in the business of creating the party. At it's best it's a pro-active event where everybody gets to contribute to the success of the night and by the end has the satisfaction of knowing that they contributed, and has the feeling that everyone else contributed to them. Having said that, Cosmosis live appearances features live guitar and some live analogue synth tweakage, some live fx jiggery-pokery (improvising) and live dat mixing. So there is a live element, which helps us to create a sense of excitement (if only for us onstage!) Personally if I am dancing at a party, I don't care how the music is made or even who is playing it, as long as it sounds good and fat and keeps coming at me. ........... over and out Cosmosis HomeSpace © 1998 Cosmosis & Innerverse |