MORPHEUS MUSIC INTERVIEW - ZEN LEMONADE

10.06.09 - on release of Babylondon

Cozi : Finally my own studio after almost 10 years!! But we still really enjoy to exchange the ideas and work on each other's ideas . When we worked on " Die Ashanti " , It was my basic ideas and structures I made with music software " Vision " and AKAI CD3000 sampler and small gadget of Yamaha ( Gus hated vision but anyway he managed to use that) , then Gus took over and polished all beats and sounds and added his kind of twisted textures and it worked amazingly. I was blown away by his talent and skills to transform the track with my simple studio gear. We finished the track in few days and it was so quick, alchemistic process. It was like as if we click the new folder together and suddenly all those new ideas was pop out .. and it had been continued until now.

Gus : It's about our escape from the mind-numbing regimen that forms so much of the basis of our modern world and our desire to create our own reality on our own terms - where we decide what has value, what we should spend our time doing and what ultimately makes us happy. Underlying this was the fact that we'd just had a child and we suddenly found ourselves in a situation where we had to consider our future options carefully. It's a nice metaphor for our journey from London to Bali, though ultimately it's more about a state of mind than a question of geography.

Cozi : I guess everybody has the desire or experienced their own exodus at some point in their life - relocate the place you live, or change the town or job, complete renewal of life - It's a massive destruction but also the creation at the same time. Personally I wanted to reflect all the process of it into the album - Dawn of the new day for change, doubt and trial, the power you feel inside of you and twisted mind games , and the peace and calm you finally reach ...

Gus : I'm pretty hopeless with anecdotes, but I can assure you the process of making the album was pretty darn interesting to us - it wouldn't have happened otherwise!

Cozi : I think the spirits of Bali gave us many sprinkle of the imagination - for example, when we were working on " The Moon and a 1000 Offerings ", nearby Banjar ( Local meeting space for Balinese community - every single Balinese village has this) was playing Gamelan and manku ( Balinese hindu priest ) was singing because it was full moon. We can heard it in the studio and the sounds was perfectly fit on our track, so we hurried to set up the microphone at the outside of our studio's door and recorded it .. It's looks like a coincidence but there are the feelings as if we are " visited " by the spirits of Bali in our songs. Also when we are working on " It Doesn't Matter ", Steve and Miqquet ( System7) visited to Bali. They told me that it was Bali where they decided to form System7 long time ago. And as you know, their journey as a creative partner is still continue ( and I respect them so much ) - So they are the great example of the human spirits being destructive and creative together - and Steve played amazing guitar on the track and it was like a perfect last piece of puzzle came into the track to complete the bigger picture .. he injected amazing scale into it.

Gus : We both inspire each other- that's why we work together - it's the essence of a successful partnership in any endeavor. It's the old ying yang thing of being complimentary but having a little bit of each in the other, a la the Tao.

Cozi : In many tracks of " Babylondon" , I started with loops and bass and synth and build the basic structure, and Gus came in and shaped up the grooves and added deep soundscapes and does those his kind of wizardy magic on it .. then we continue the back and forth like a catch ball .. leave each other few hours or sometime days with it, then came back and discovered what others had done - it's pretty thrilling process and great fun at the same time.

Cozi : We had been in touch for yeas after the Samothraki. Then when we played in Athens in 2006, we stayed in his place and he asked us if we are interest to make a down tempo album for his label. So we started ... and took 2 years to finish off!! But we are happy to put so much time and effort on it because we knew Arash is the one who has great passion and insight for freestyle down tempo music, and he doesn't mind to put 100% of his energy for his label. So we thought it would be nice to release our album from his label. He just started label few years back and is still small label, but it's doesn't matter. It's all about collaboration to share our passion for the electronic music and do some adventure together.

Thanks to Cozi and Gus for allowing us that interview.