DJs and producers coming together to create new music under an alias is one of the hottest movements in EDM right now. Leading the way are some of trance’s finest: Markus Schulz and Ferry Corsten as New World Punx, Armin van Buuren and Benno de Goeij as GAIA, John O’Callaghan and Bryan Kearney as Key4050. The list goes on, with yet another name set to be added: Astrosphere.
Composed of two of the best in uplifting-progressive trance, Robert Nickson and Driftmoon, Astrosphere Live will make its debut this summer at the Luminosity Beach Festival in the Netherlands. The two artists are known for incorporating orchestral instruments in their music and live sets, and are joining forces under one name following previous collaborations. We were able to chat with Nickson about the exciting new project, the story behind it, and more, following his performance at Lucky earlier this month.
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You just announced a new project with Driftmoon on social media. Where did this all come from; how did it develop, and what are your goals with Astrosphere, with Driftmoon?
Robert Nickson: So I’ve been in this live thing for just over a year now. I bring the keyboard along, with a laptop. I take a track, remove the melody, and play the melody live- instead of djing. Some tracks I use a guitar.
Driftmoon does some kind of live thing as well, and we’ve been speaking about doing some sort of combine thing. I play keyboard and guitar, and he plays keyboard, electric violin, and some drum thing.
We’ve done a couple of tracks together now- one for his album, which is out next month. Another track we’ve done together for my album, which is going to come out…whenever.
So we got these new tracks, and we’ve been talking about doing this live thing together. We need a project for this- OK. Come up with some names for this- Astrosphere. We want to do a sort of live thing with keyboards, guitars- basically, anything we can play live, we’ll bring it and we’ll try not to mess it up!
What about you? Any projects you’re working on? Any more singles we can expect in the future? You mentioned your album…
RN: I’m holding a lot of stuff back now for this album, which I’m trying to finish. At this point, maybe it’s 70 to 80 percent done.
You need a story in the whole thing; the whole thing needs to make sense. I just feel like I need one, or two more, of the trance-y tracks to make the whole thing come together.
It’s always that last 10-15 percent, which is that hardest part to finish- with any project, or with any track. You get to a certain point- “yeah this is good, but it doesn’t feel quite ready yet- it’s not quite finished yet.” It’s always that last bit which is the hardest part. So I’m holding singles back for that.
Nickson also revealed a remix he did for Giuseppe Ottaviani, which he hopes will be released soon. “I’m hoping to ambush him here later tonight, to find out when that will be released!”
While Robert Nickson’s new music is a work-in-progress, check out Driftmoon’s epic new single Invictus [Isha’s Theme]. We seriously can’t wait to see what these two do together!
Who’s your favorite dance music super duo? Let us know in the comments below!
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