Grammy-nominated duo Cosmic Gate joins forces with rising star James French for their latest single, ‘Take Me,’ on Sony Music. This collaboration marks a bold new territory for both artists, blending Cosmic Gate’s electronic mastery with French’s expressive vocals.
Cosmic Gate, comprised of Nic Chagall and Stefan Bossems AKA “Bossi”, has been at the forefront of electronic music for over two decades. With 11 critically acclaimed albums, a Grammy nomination, and hit singles that have garnered millions of streams, they’ve consistently pushed the boundaries of trance and progressive.
James French, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, made significant waves over the past 12 months with his emotive style. His collaboration on the track ‘Avalanche’ from Deamau5 & Kaskade’s Kx5 project, earned him a prestigious Grammy nomination for his writing and vocal performance.
We had the pleasure to interview both Cosmic Gate & James French on this occasion to dive more into this exciting collaboration, state of electronic music, and much more!
Guys, so cool to have you here with us today! How is everything in your life going right now?
Cosmic Gate
It’s a pleasure, thanks for having us! things are going great. we had a very successful year with our releases and a lot of sold out shows touring the globe. We have exciting new music and projects in the pipeline again, and are looking forward to what’s next in 2025 already.
James French
Thank you! To be completely honest, for myself personally the past few months have been really tough, but the release of ‘Take Me’ has been really special! Working alongside Cosmic Gate has been so amazing and I’m so grateful to be able to create music with them.
We are having this interview, right after ADE, how was Amsterdam this year for you?
Cosmic Gate
It might sound a bit weird, but Amsterdam and ADE in general means a lot of walking, and when the weather is great as it was this year, somehow it lifts an already good spirit towards being nothing but fun! So yeah, we had a great time, the perfect mixture of business and hanging out, meet, listen or talk to colleagues of ours, make new connections, run into fans on the street, its very unique, always a highlight of the year.
James French
Amsterdam was, and always is, incredible. ADE never ceases to surprise me with opportunities and new friends.
We heard you guys had a recent collaboration together, Take Me, it sounds amazing! What can you tell us about it?
Cosmic Gate
What can we say. Everything started, when we first heard James music, and what can we say, really liked his style. Then our managers got in touch and after receiving some of his demos, excitement lifted even more, and we picked Take Me pretty much instantly. We were touched by its vibe and emotions, and thought it could fit our style perfectly. Then it was our turn, write the music, produce and finish everything, and fortunately James liked our music as much as we loved his songwriting and singer skills.
Now we are simply super happy with the early support we receive from colleagues and fans, and spoiler alert, more from James and ourselves, is in the pipeline already!
James French
Take Me started as a small vocal idea that I quickly recorded on my travel setup. I always had the intention to re-record in higher quality, but the guys have managed to put their magic to the vocal and capture the original emotion using the original takes.
You guys have been in the world of electronic music for a long time now and I bet you’ve seen it grow and change a lot in the past years! Where is it now and where do you guys see it going from now on?
Cosmic Gate
Oh you bet it changed a lot, and we could talk about changes for hours indeed and still hadn’t touched all the facets of what’s changed since the early days. So maybe only let us say one thing. We all sometimes tend to think that things were better in the past, but in regards of Electronic Dance Music, look at where we are now. Electronic music pretty much rules the music industry, most every song, electronic or not, at least is using dance/electronic sounds and beats, DJs selling halls and stadiums, etc etc.
When Techno started in the early 90s, we nonstop heard it is going to be dead in 2 years again by the latest, and now, Techno/Electronic, call it however you please, is getting played in every corner of the planet, dominating charts.
Electronic music is here to last, everybody wants a part of it, music colours go from purest deep underground to the pop mainstream, this is what we love and are proud about, being a part of the scene since the early days and still be relevant and sought for nowadays, in this ever changing industry.
James French
I’m sure more trends will come and go but I’m sure great artistry will continue to cut through. Good music will always stand out!
It is already almost November. How was this year for you? Do you have any fun memories you would like to share with us?
James French
Performing at Ministry of Sound to debut Take Me was an amazing experience, It was the first time I’ve ever sung from a DJ Booth and I’m hoping to do more live shows soon!
What is next for you?
Cosmic Gate
We will finish our year touring through Asia in December, playing clubs and several festival shows like the famous Sunrise in Goa/India and PinkFish in Malaysia for NYE. After we will do some holidays and will return late January to start the touring year, with a bunch of shows in Europe. Please find all our tour dates on cosmic-gate.de
James French
I’m locking myself away in the studio through the winter so hopefully a ton of new music and some more great collaborations.
A question we sometimes ask is, if you could be an animal for a day, what would you be and why?
Cosmic Gate
An Orca! They are fearless, kings of the ocean but in the same time, no attack on a human ever has been reported, making them a mystery as well, we really like them. (können wir auch rausnehmen)
James French
It’d have to be some sort of bird for me, I think flying would be really peaceful.
Any message for all your fans?
Cosmic Gate
Thanks to always be so loyal, we very much appreciate every single one of you, following us on our journey of music and sound! 👏
James French
A big thank you! The support has been incredible <3
Listen to ‘Take Me’ on your favorite platform here.
