Name: Cosmic Boys
Members: Gabriel Meynadier, Sébastien Bevilacqua
Nationality: French
Occupation: DJs, producers
Recent release: Cosmic Boys's I Am A Robot is out via Drumcode. They have also announced a new EP, Ghost To The Galaxy on Legend.
Recommendations: The first masterpiece that comes to mind is Hans Zimmer's “Time”, which he produced for the movie Inception.
And the second is the beautiful and mysterious painting The Starry Night by Van Gogh. We love this painting, it represents us well haha.

If you enjoyed this interview with Cosmic Boys and would like to find out more about their music, visit their official website. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

We started playing and producing music in our late teens in the 2000s.

We went out a lot to clubs where they played electronic music but especially an after party at 10 minutes away from our home called Bar Live which was at that time the best after party in Europe. You could hear House and Techno music there mainly from 5am to 12pm thanks to their residents Cebb, Greg Delon, Bastien Grine etc ... It was clear to us, this is the job we wanted to do!
 
The first thing that attracted us was the discovery of new sounds, grooves that we weren't used to hearing at all and which, above all, had their own emotion. It was incredible !!!

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

The feeling that comes over us is one of freedom and well-being, like a calming and disconnection from the world. Some music can open the way for us to create a sound and it will inspire us to write our story for a few minutes. It will really depend on our mood.

Some sounds will remind us of materials such as wood, metal or those we prefer above all, which are the Cosmic sounds.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

We are always looking for something new. But above all we work hard to achieve something unique and personal. That's the way we see our career :) We like to be challenged and compete with our own ideas to become better every day.

We think it’s important to always believe in our work even if sometimes the results are not what we wanted, it’s part of the experience. You have to accept the unexpected.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

10 years ago, we chose the name "Cosmic Boys" as the best way to identify ourselves because we are constantly attracted to the Cosmic world and all the mysteries that surround it.

We love the mystical sounds that come close to the galaxy. We come back to this idea of travelling through music like a star that pierces worlds while leaving an indelible mark with our music.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

The key idea for us is to have our own style, our own universe and that each person who listens to you recognizes you from the first seconds - like when you have a painting by Picasso in front of you, it's obvious! It's Picasso.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Current electronic music keeps improving. In a sense, it is more or less still based on the same foundation, on the elements that have been part of it since its creation: kick, bass, hi hat, drum etc. And yet, it is going through a permanent evolution through the constant arrival of new sounds.

We are mainly attracted by a music of the future but which respects the people who created traditions. So we are trying to balance the two.

That said, for an album, it’s good to do what we like without thinking.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

We work mainly in MAO (Computer Aided Music) and in this case our instruments are synths that we take a lot of time to process to get our sound.

The most methodical strategy is to spend time putting fx, reverb, delay, distortion and more to make it sound good to our ears. You don't need to have a lot of synthesizers, the main thing is to master them very well.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

Before starting the day, we start with a sports session, whether it's cycling or weight training. It makes us feel good and fit.

Then we go into the studio and work on our music. Mostly we create songs but we also do a lot of research for new material. We are always looking for new things to be creative and to feel that our music is constantly evolving.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

We always start with the kick-bass. We spend a lot of time on it to make it sound the way we want it to. We always make it a point to have a groove. Then we add hi-hats and shakers. Then we add drums like toms to enrich the loop. Then we move on to the FXs, sounds that we'll put on repeat.

When we get a coherent structure we can move on to the melody. This part is important because it's the part that the listeners will relate to. Most of the time, it's the melody that people will remember.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

For our part, listening alone is made to enter another world, to refocus, to motivate oneself or to chill out. It can have several functions but its main one is to find oneself and one's feelings.

As for production, we always produce together. We started our career as solo producers but when we decided to make a track together, it was a no-brainer. Our ideas matched and everything flowed. We continued to produce together ever since.

We also did some collaboration with artists like Umek or T78, and it's really interesting to see how they work and to know their vision of the music. It's always a very enriching experience.

[Read our Umek interview]

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Our inspiration comes a lot from our current mood, so everything that's going on around us inspires us. The tours we do around the world, the people we meet, the different cultures we discover. We absorb all these things and use them to create our music.

Music is universal, it allows us to express ourselves, to pass on messages or simply to dance. It will set the mood for a party. A society without music would be extremely sad.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

It doesn't seem to contribute to our understanding, but more to our acceptance. Music is a companion in all moments of our lives, it can be comforting at the time of a bereavement, it can give us courage and transcend us to cross milestones or bring us together in moments of joy.

Music is there to sublimate our emotions. This is the main function of music for us, but also of art in general. To express feelings by sharing them in any form whatsoever.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Music is a science. It’s closely related to mathematics. With measures of time and tempo.

Like science, there are a lot of experiments that are done in music, especially in electronic music, where we hear sounds from elsewhere thanks to new synthesizers. But there must be a framework, well-defined times. Without that the music would have no sense and it would be difficult to understand.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Making music or making a good coffee are two completely different things but in both cases you have to choose good ingredients. For us it will be instruments and for the local coffee shop it will be the quality of his coffee and a good machine to prepare it.

We express feelings through music but there is also the desire to give pleasure to the listeners - just like the coffee maker who will prepare his best coffee so that the customers enjoy drinking it and come back every morning.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

That's the magic and the mystery of music, these are things that we can't really explain 100%. In the end it's best for us to experience it without knowing it.