Updated 2 years ago
meets Cosmosis
2004
by Ari Davidov
Cosmosis is in part the work of Billy Bagginz, an acclaimed trance producer based in London, England. Influenced in the beginning by the first acid trance records of the 90’s, and then by the likes of Man With No Name and Simon Posford, Billy began producing trance as Cosmosis and Laughing Buddha with his partner Jez.
Cosmosis has become a favorite in the worldwide trance party scene over the last several years. Frequent travels have brought the Cosmosis sound to events in many cities and remote rural gatherings around the globe.
Cosmosis albums were released on the well respected Transient label, and tracks on scores of compilations easily found in anyone’s collection. And recently, Billy started up his own label called Holophonic. Cosmosis is known for treating audiences with intense signature journeys into full-on psychedelic trance. Here are some insights Billy has recently shared with us.
You released the widely appreciated “Speak in Tongues” album as Mumbo Jumbo (with DJ Kuma) last year. How do you like working in collaboration with other artists and do you ever play live together?
I enjoy working on my own because I get to indulge my creative vision completely. However, I also enjoy working with other artists. It is a completely different dynamic. The focus is is more about your relationship.
I find that he more open and relaxed you are about each other, the better the musical result. Also I get to learn new ideas and techniques. Making music is a never ending journey. One can never know everything about the subject as it so vast.
Mitch (DJ Kuma, the other half of Mumbo Jumbo) and I do play out occasionally as Mumbo Jumbo.
If you can, describe for us your creative approach in the studio. What gets your “creative juices” flowing?
Getting a nice kick, hats and loop grooving so it makes me feel like jumping around is often a good start.
Also I am usually quite inspired up after playing a party. Often I get back to the hotel the next day and while I am still in a party frame of mind, I boot up the laptop to get some ideas down before they disappear off into the ether.
And lately I have come up with the overall arrangement and concept before sitting at the sequencer which is a nice approach.
Other than that, it is other artists’ music. Junya from Eskimo is producing some great tunes lately.
Have you gotten any new & exciting studio gear lately? Or do you rely mostly on the PC, like many of today’s artists?
Yes, these days I use mainly a PC with a couple of pieces of outboard. It is so much more convenient, and with some good software the possibilities are truly astounding. Unimaginable 5 years ago.
Do you play a lot of unreleased material during your live sets, any tracks you are feeling out for possible future release?
For live PA’s I play a mixture of past present and future Cosmosis tracks, some of which are from the forthcoming Cosmosis album.
I tend to play them out to see if they work on the dancefloor, both in terms of the arrangement and the mix. I find that it is sometimes difficult to gauge and feel the correct dancefloor dynamic in the studio when writing a track. Playing it out at a party, it becomes immediately obvious if, for example, a section is 8 or 16 bars too long or short.
Looking back, how have your skills as a producer and performer evolved since you first began years ago?
As a producer, years of experience have honed my skills for sure, the main result being that I can get the sound that I want a lot faster. Having said that, I still consider that I still have an awful lot to learn and much space to evolve into.
Do you have any kind of background in music that seriously influenced you as a producer?
Well, I was a professional session guitarist for around 7 years before getting into dance music. I don’t know if that influences how I make trance music. It does pop out occasionally as I suppose that it must, as all music is grist to the mill for a composer.
Can you name any all-time classics that could define your musical influences?
The first trance music that I listened to and tried to emulate in my studio was Hardfloor, I think. I say I think, because I just had a few quite rare 3rd generation cassette tapes of all this new interesting and exciting music, most of which my brother turned me on to.
Later, when I got exposed to some of the early Man with No Name tracks like “Teleport” and “Superbooster” (which was the Infinity Project produced by MWNN), that really turned me on to the Goa sound. Also when “LSD” by Hallucinogen came out that also raised the bar in terms of production and composition. All those first Dragonfly Records releases were really the bulk of I was listening to.
For several years you have been with Transient records, a label that has opened the door to psytrance for many fans around the world. What can you tell us about the organization and why has this been such a fruitful partnership?
Transient Records have always been really good with me, and very importantly when one is living from producing music, have always paid up.
And, on time. Which is most definitely not the case for many friends of mine signed to other labels. Some producers I know never got paid for their work.
Though it is high time I started my own label, so the next Cosmosis album will be released on my new label Holophonic Records.
Is there life after the “Contact” album? When can we be treated with more Cosmosis releases?
The next Cosmosis album is due in early summer on Holophonic Records. I still have to finish two tracks and then it is ready to go.
