In Conversation with Cosmic Arcade

I had the pleasure of attending a small music festival in Bournemouth at Sixty Million Postcards and I stumbled across a great new act that is making music in Bournemouth called Cosmic Arcade. The band is unique considering it is formed of six members who all break off occasionally and make their own songs, and they only came together last year.

The members of the band include Galick-Z (Bass Guitar, Compositions, Production, Vocals), Chase Paul (Producer, Vocals, Filmmaker, VFX), TAE (Producer, Vocals, Compositions, Media Designer), Maya (Guitar, Vocals, Illustration), Tino G. (Vocals, Animation, Illustration, Promotion) DAN (Piano, Compositions, Production, Vocals) and then Freddie Gwenzi who handles Filmmaking, Storyboarding, and VFX.

I managed to snag an interview with some members of the group, these are Tino, Maya, Chase, Zach, and Daniel. Check out what we talked about below!

How did you get the name and come together as a group?
Cosmic arcade came from Zach. Before we met as a brand, he had this idea for a media company/label called cosmic. He has that company set up. We are lots of people from different backgrounds. Dan, Zach, and Tae met at Five Guys, flipping burgers together, within a week from when the Bournemouth branch opened. Someone said what do you do outside of work? And it was all music based so we all went for a jam! Chase and Tino met at university through Tae who was a producer that made instrumentals and beats and Chase was a videographer that lived with different people, including Freddie. Tino rapped, Tae produced, and we made music together, Chase and Freddie made videos and we made a few music videos together. From here, we met Olivia who was on the same course as Tino at Arts University Bournemouth and we never realised, after one visit to the studio as a group we began making music a lot together, this is when the collective formed in 2017.

Where would you like to be in 5 years?
To have a label and be a producer (Daniel). Let every individual within the collective have his or her own spotlight for a while. 5 years from now is unpredictable – we want Cosmic Arcade to take us to a level where we can work together professionally and with artists from the US, such as Chance the Rapper, A$AP Rocky and Kanye West. These are people we would see ourselves working with.

Who would be a dream collab for you all dead or alive?
We all have very different music tastes but as a collective, it could include people such as Prince if he was still here, Chance the Rapper, Erykah Badu or Bob Marley.

How would you describe your sound to new listeners?
Because we’re such a big collective we discover from one another, more than anyone else. Our individual sounds have grown since hanging out with Cosmic. Throw all of our individual sounds together and you create something unique – this is pretty much what music is about, bringing different sounds together to make something else. Our roots certainly help us too. Cosmic Arcade is a collective of artists that create music, which juxtaposes their eclectic origins and inspirations, into a unified sonic experience. I personally think we are completely different from the current UK rap scene. We do rap which isn’t grime. We bring something new to the table. We try to ignite a fire in our music that takes the listeners to another level.

Where would be your dream venue or festival to play?
Coachella! Because we are appealing to the American scene too. We don’t want to stay here in the UK for our whole career and would like to expand, being international would be great!
Another place would be where we held our first gig, and this was the Bournemouth University Student’s Union bar The Old Fire Station. We first performed here as a group when an old friend said they were holding an event there and wanted us to perform. We sold out the venue and it was amazing.

Can you tell me a funny or interesting story about the band?
We were doing a set where one of us was so drunk that they forgot to turn off the fader on our backing track off. It sounded like a tin can and was very embarrassing. It was as if the song was building up and we were already done rapping. Half the audience were drunk too however so hopefully, they didn’t realise.
There was another incident at Lost Gardens in Bournemouth where they were holding lip sync battles. Once again, one of us was a little too drunk and they got ready, went on stage, and were meant to lip-sync the song, but because the mics were on they sang the song instead! Everyone heard!

What would you be doing if not music?
I think we would be dead. Tino and Olivia studied to be an illustrator or an animator, so this is probably where we would end up. Likewise, Chase also started out by making films and music videos so making feature films would be an option. Zach said he would probably end up in a different genre like metal music.

Awesome! Is there anything else you guys would like to add?
Yeah! We just did our first festival last week at Bournemouth University’s annual Summerball. We got to do a half hour set at the Applebaum stage and it’s surreal because Christmas of 2017 was the first time we went home after forming the collective, we really missed each other and once we got back in January we were all hungry for music and filled with ambition. Tanaka mentioned how cool it would be if we could perform at Summerball, it was a passing thought and we never imagined that our gig at Sixty Million Postcards would be the stepping-stone that actually manifested that thought into reality. Adam Fox is a great man and a great DJ, and we cannot thank him enough for getting us the Sixty Million Postcards and Summerball gigs.

Cosmic Arcade is such a great group and they have a fresh, youthful vibe to them, which I know would appeal to the generation of now. With a variety of music styles bringing their music into one world music genre, I think they will take the music scene to a new level. I wish them the very best in the coming months, and I think they are on Bournemouth’s to watch list!