Interview with Freeze Magazine

Interview with Freeze Magazine, Greece

Conducted in May 2001, and Printed (in Greek) in the August 2001 Issue (#14)

{1} I WILL "TRAVEL" YOU BACK TO THE KODE IV DAYS. CAN YOU TELL ME HOW YOU GOT INVOLVED WITH THAT PROJECT? AND HOW GIL STARTED INVOLVING WITH MUSIC AND TRANCE? TELL THE WHOLE STORY!

GIL: Well, the story starts a long time ago, as I’ve been a musician all my life. I had bands in high school, and then was involved in the San Francisco music scene of the 60’s. I then left to India at the end of the sixties. Being a musician I used to play my music wherever I went. I lived for some years with Yogis in the Himalayas, and I used to write very spiritual songs that I would sing and play on guitar wherever I went, especially in Goa. It was then that I was given the name Goa Gil. The seventies in Goa were more about live music, and I had several bands that I played with at that time as well as Djing. That was the time of Acid Rock, before Techno and Trance. At the beginning of the eighties getting tired of the same old music, I heard the first New Wave, the roots of Techno, and really turned on to that sound, so I started to collect and play that type of music, never looking back.

I first met Peter Zeigelmeier of KODE IV in San Francisco in 1989 when I was playing at Das Klub. He had just moved there from Berlin and came to me saying that he really loved the music I was playing and he hadn’t heard anyone in America playing that kind of music. We became good friends and we used to party together whenever I came to San Francisco. He then formed KODE IV with Hans Schiller and when their second album came out they asked me to remix two of their tracks in their style. So I did it with them in their studio and then we went on to do quite a few tracks together in the following years. Many of those tracks are on the “Best of Kode IV” CD.

{2 IS THE NEW MINIMAL SOUND {FLYING RHINO FOR EXAMPLE}, OR NEW PROGRESSIVE SOUND {TRANSIENT FOR EXAMPLE}, THE SOUND THAT WILL CONQUER ALL OF THE TRANCE PARTIES, OR DO YOU AIM FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT?

GIL: Because I play such long sets, sometimes all night and all day, I find that different types of electronic psychedelic dance music fit well in the different quarters of the night and day. So I play a wide range of Psychedelic Trance depending on the time of night or day. I like a lot of the music on all of the Psychedelic Trance labels. My aim is to use music, and the party situation as a vehicle of Transmission, and to uplift the Consciousness of the participants through the Trance Dance Experience.

{3} WHY IN YOUR OPINION DOES SAN FRANSISCO HAVE A STRONG CONNECTION WITH PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE?

GIL: San Francisco was the birthplace of the Hippies and the Psychedelic Movement. So a lot of the ideas and dreams that are coming to fruition now were born at that time. In this way there is a strong connection.

{4} YOU HAVE PLAYED MANY TIMES HERE IN GREECE, HOW DO YOU FIND THE CROWD, PROMOTERS, VIBE, AND FEELING? AND HAVE YOU GOT A MESSAGE TO THOSE WHO WILL COME TO THE PARTY IN SALONICA AT AUGUST?

GIL: I have had many good parties in Greece with incredible vibes and energy! The crowd is full on, and the feeling has been great! The promoters in Greece always treat us very well. For those who will come to the party: Let us come together to Celebrate the Spirit.

Jai MA !!!

{5} APART FROM PSY MUSIC IS THERE ANY OTHER MUSICAL STYLE YOU ARE LISTENING TO CURRENTLY AT THIS TIME THAT WE SPEAK?

GIL: We listen to a lot of Ethnic & Tribal music from all over the planet. It is one of our passions, and we have a huge collection of it.

{6} CAN YOU GIVE ME YOUR TOP TEN CHART FOR THIS SUMMER?

1. Made in Chapora - Mahakumbha / Electrojump

2. Hux Flux - Lex Rex Perplex / Errorhead / Bring Your Own Bios

3. Droidsect - Ketamine / Invasion from Outer Space / The Box

4. Absolum – Drumatrix Remix / Sweet Little Wild / Recovery

5. Skazi – Let’s Go to Mars / Slide / Animal / Stealing my Memoies

6. Parasense - Are You Cloned ? / Train / Black Sun

7. Wizzy Noise - Devils Night / Deeply Unexpected / Ignition Speed

8. Nomad – Critical Level / Birth of Stars / Another World

9. Neuromotor – After Effect / Chaotic Systematic / Ghost of the Monkey’s Back

10. In-R-Voice - Mahakala / My Name is Trinity

{7} WHEN EXECTLY DID PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE START DEAR GIL? I MEAN, IT IS REALLY IMPORTANT TO LEARN THE TRUTH FROM ONE OF THE ORIGINATORS...CAN YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST PSY TRACK?

GIL: It started for me when I heard the first European New Wave tracks and New York instrumental BreakDance music that used synthesizers and drum machines in the beginning of the eighties. Its been an evolution and a constant search for new sounds and new beats ever since. I guess what you would call Goa Trance or Psychedelic Trance really started in the beginning of the nineties when some of the people who were coming to Goa went back to the west and started to make music that fit our party concept in Goa, and what we were trying to say, perfectly. Youth with his Dragonfly records projects, and Rajaram with The Infinity Project, for example. It has been exploding ever since.

{8} IN ALL THESE YEARS IN MUSIC, DJING ETC., HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT TO STOP?

IS IT DIFFICULT TO TOUR WORLDWIDE?

GIL: Because I see what I do with the music as my duty and my mission that I have been perfectly programmed to do for all my life, and because of the inspiration and grace that comes from communing with the cosmic spirit and the dancers in this Ancient Ritual, I had not really thought of stopping, as this is the way that I worship the Infinite.

Because I play such long sets, all night and all day, I only play once on the weekend, but after six months of constant parties all over the world every weekend, I’m quite ready to chill out in India for the winter by my Holy Fire.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA !!!

{9} THE NOMMOS HAVEN’T RELEASED AN ALBUM YET. ARE YOU THINKING OF RELEASING ANY FULL ALBUM WITH MUSIC ONLY BY YOU? CAN YOU NAME THE PROJECTS IN WHICH YOU PARTICIPATE {MUSICAL ONES}?

GIL: We would love to release an album and we would love to make more tracks, but in India we don’t have a studio and when we’re in the west our tour schedule is so busy that we get very little time in the studio. Together with Ariane, The Nommos is still our current musical project. As the Nommos, we try to combine Psychedelic Trance, Ethno Tribal sounds, and African Drumming to give an Uplifting Spiritual Vibration and Message.

{10} LETS GO TO RELIGION. IN THE CD FOREST OF THE SAINTS I HAVE SEEN SOME JESUS PICTURES ALONGSIDE THE DECKS.... DO YOU HAVE A STRONG CONNECTION WITH GOD AND RELIGION? WHAT IS YOUR PHILOSOPHY TOWARDS THEM?

GIL: The pictures that you mention, on my altar, are not of Jesus, but of my teachers, my Gurudev and Lord Shiva, Master of the Yogis of the Himalayas.

For me the Party is Holy !!! It is the Old Time Religion !!! Since the beginning of time mankind has used music and dance to commune with the Spirit of Nature and the Spirit of the Universe….We are using Trance Music and the Trance Dance Experience to set off a chain reaction in consciousness…. This is what we call “Redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual for the 21^st Century”.

When I come to the party place, and set up my alter, sprinkle the Holy Water, recite the Holy Mantra, and make the Offering to the Cosmic Spirit, and then start the music… The music and the whole party becomes an offering to the Cosmic Spirit… May Lord Shiva, Nataraj, Lord of the Dance come to this place and bless everyone. Then the dancers, the music, the dj, the Spirit, all become One.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA !!!!! HARA HARA MAHADEV !!!!!

Dance… …dance is active meditation…. ….When we dance, We go beyond thought, beyond mind, and beyond our own individuality…To become One in the Divine Ecstasy of union with the Cosmic Spirit…. This is the essence of the Trance Dance Experience.

In this way we worship the Divine… This is my Religion and my Philosophy !!!

{11} CAN YOU REMEMBER THE BEST PARTY THAT YOU HAVE PLAYED?

GIL: There have been so many of them that it is hard to remember… …But let me talk about what I think is a good party: When, after the Offering, everything starts to move in One Vibration, and it is as if a Cosmic Mind has come over the party and everyone becomes a part of It…. And everything becomes so perfect in the moment that you start to feel chills up your spinal column…. And it continues to be perfect in the moment…. And that feeling continues and intensifies until it feels like a cosmic orgasm!!! And then, in the best parties… Boom!!! It comes like a supersonic electrical current of Light that flashes

Through everyone simultaneously!!! That is when the Seed is planted!!! It is then up to those who have received it to nourish it and make it grow. In most, it will just disappear as they return to their normal life. But there are a few who will “get it”.

JAI MA !!!

Of course these things happen during the course of the whole night and day slowly, slowly. Sometimes it takes a long while to exorcise all the demons and get the people moving together in One Vibration.

When it happens it is as if time and space have disappeared and there is only Being Here and Now…

And it is as if my Heart is communicating directly with the Hearts of the Dancers,

Each one individually, yet all at once.

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA !!!!! HARA HARA MAHADEV !!!!!

{12} ARE YOU THINKING OF RELEASING MUSIC WITH REAL INSTRUMENTS {TRIBAL WITHOUT MACHINES I MEAN}?

GIL: Ariane and I have spoken about it quite often, that it would be a nice project to make an Ethno-Tribal Ambient CD with traditional tribal acoustic instruments, as we play so many of them. Maybe one day we’ll do it. J

{13} IS THE U.S.A STARTING TO BUILD A STRONG BACKROUND FOR PSY TRANCE THAT IT WAS BEFORE?

GIL: It seems that more and more people in the states, and worldwide, are turning on to the psychedelic sound every day!!! It just keeps on growing!!!

{14} IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO SAY???

GIL: I want to say this to you all out there that : It is up to us to keep the Vibe high. Nobody else is going to do it for us.The Keys are Love, Compassion, Awareness, Understanding, and Respect. The more of us that understand this, the better world it will be. May Peace and Love be with you all wherever you go!!! May you live in the Light of Truth !!!

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA!!!!! HARA HARA MAHADEV!!!!!