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[ELECTRONIC/DANCE] Vitality in the music industry is quite a feat. Since 1999, Claus Terhoeven (Nic Chagall) and Stefan Bossems (DJ Bossi) have been producing and performing as Cosmic Gate. The two sparked their career together in Germany and have since become internationally known and praised by loyal followers. From intimate club settings to arenas and festivals, Cosmic Gate has seen it all, and will be bringing their talents to Buffalo on Friday, February 6 to perform at Lift Nightclub, presented by Factory Nightlife.

“For both of us it actually started with DJing first, and when we did this for several years, then the idea of writing music started to take over,” Bossi said. They began writing music to develop a more complex and unique set. “This was how it started: first demos, first smaller releases, both separate at first, and then on a chance studio meeting we produced this track in basically just three hours.” A few months later, that tune called “The Drums” was released under the new project name, Cosmic Gate. “From that day on things totally changed for us.”

“A gig in a small intimate club and a big show indeed are as different as they can be, but both sure are a lot of fun. In a club, you are close to the people, the energy is way more intimate, the sets are longer, and the DJ can build a vibe better while playing for three hours or more,” Bossi said. When it comes to festivals “most sets are only one hour long. Huge speakers and LED screens pump the crowd.”

“There is not a lot of a build up possible as the limitations of time [at a festival]. Still, we try to get a buildup—a progression going—on a festival set as well, and work with the crowd. Our music has a lot of breakdowns comparing to EDM, but we try to change the vibe to how we need it for our set. So the music we play at a festival is not even that different to what we play in a club; we just present it maybe a bit differently,” he says.

Nic Chagall and Bossi perpetuate the vibe of progressive trance with their emotion-centric productions and space-transcending aesthetic. Emphasizing organic performances, Cosmic Gate won’t perform pre-recorded sets.

“For us, trance is simply the most touching music. The music that we feel the most. Trance in our eyes, though, is not only the typical strings kind of tracks. Trance for us is more the feel of a track,” Bossi says. “If you can get lost in it somehow, and that’s what we like a lot about it, and what made us chose to play trance in the end. Even with all the changes music has gone through since we started Cosmic Gate in 1998, the overall sound we do is trance, and we do not think it will change.”

The authenticity of their work ethic may be one of the major factors that has kept them more than 15 years in the game. 

“The times back in the end of the 1990s were so different; the music itself, the marketing, and social media were basically nonexistent. It was a total different game, somehow. But, for us the music is always the most important thing; so with all the changes in the scene—the music, producing, media—we do it for our passion for music. We want to share our thoughts and feelings put into music with our fans, if they buy it on vinyl or now listen on SoundCloud, as different as it is, the music is the center of it, and we hope our passion shows as much today as it did when we started,” he says.

When the duo began their career as performers and producers, the stature of a DJ was not idolized on such a mass scale, as it is today. What drove them was their passion for the music, not for the glory of fame. When asked if they ever expected to become internationally known, Bossi responded, “No, absolutely not. We just loved to DJ. When we started it was not cool. DJs were no big stars, people did not know their names. It was simply our passion for DJing and mixing that got us into it. We had no clue we would travel the world one day when we started, and it indeed took very long.”

“In the 1990s, DJs were not blowing up with basically one song as it happens today. So we had our residency nights, basically learned the whole DJing life from scratch, and played different kinds of music styles for different kinds of crowds. We think this is what makes a complete DJ. To read a night, a vibe, the crowd. To play the same kind of set simply does not work. We do have our two or three favorites to start with as well, but then we just react on how the crowd goes. How we feel ourselves. That’s the art of DJing for us,” he says.

With their 2011 album release of Wake Your Mind, Cosmic Gate created their label, Wake Your Mind Records. The duo stemmed off of that even further with the creation of a radio station of the same name and Wake Your Mind Sessions, a compilation album. Their fandom has remained strong, and the two DJs share nothing but gratitude. 

“It’s really amazing when fans write you that one of your albums has helped them through a rough time, or that people were getting married to one of our songs, or were falling in love to it. [That] is indeed a beautiful feeling,” Bossi said. “The biggest compliment for a musician is to see that the heart and soul we put into the writing is getting shared so deeply; it’s simply fantastic and gives us a lot of energy to simply do what we do.”

Get to the LiFT Nightclub early to experience the liquid motion dancefloor and opening sets from local talent Jesse Aaron and Jillie Wags.