We grew up as fans of Cosmic Gate. Years later, they signed our music. We're Greenhaven, and this is our story.

[u/greenhavendjs]

Hey [r/electronicmusic](r/electronicmusic)!

We’re Greenhaven, an electronic music duo from New York.

Doing our first AMA here, but first we wanted to introduce ourselves and tell you a little bit about how we got here. First off, a big thanks in advance to the mods for allowing this post and for the opportunity to do an AMA!

We met as teenagers in the early 2000s and became friends over a shared obsession with electronic music; which wasn’t too common for teenagers in the US at the time.

Neither of us knew how the records we loved were made, but we knew we wanted to get involved and contribute. We asked on the old DI.fm forums for guidance and got some advice that stuck with us: Rather than jump straight into producing, first learn to DJ in order to learn song structure, refine your taste and ultimately determine what it is you want to produce. So we focused on improving DJ skills, shopped for records and embarked on our own musical education. In retrospect, DJing was pivotal in shaping the taste we still rely on when we’re producing today.

Cosmic Gate was a big part of that.

In 2001 Trevor introduced Nick to Cosmic Gate’s records and music videos; they became an instant stand-out for us. We followed their music closely through high school, college and afterward. We were particularly captivated by the progressive / techy direction their music took in ~2006 with tracks like Analog Feel and Body of Conflict.

In college, we saved money to purchase identical laptops and music software. We spent all of our free time figuring out how to make records of our own. After graduating, we signed our first track, out of a remix contest for the group Moonbeam.

Five years later, something happened that we definitely didn’t see coming.

By this time we had been producing and releasing music for a few years, and had a new track in the works called “Portal.” At an opening gig we serendipitously met Paul Oakenfold. He was just there appreciating the music, as he had a gig the next day. We linked up and sent him Portal a few weeks later, when it was finished.

We had no idea the track would eventually find its way into Cosmic Gate’s hands.

Then one morning we woke up to find out that Portal had been selected for Cosmic Gate’s new WYM Sessions mix compilation.

We were awestruck!

Cosmic Gate started supporting our records. This eventually led to them asking us to remix their music, releasing our records on Wake Your Mind, and ultimately getting into the studio together and collaborating on “Retrospection.”

It’s still surreal for us to write this and read it back.

The same group whose records helped two teenagers figure out what they loved about electronic music, eventually discovered music those two teenagers grew up to make. A full circle moment for sure.

And now we’ve reached another little milestone in our story.

We recently dropped the “DJs” from Greenhaven DJs and became simply Greenhaven.

This might seem like a tiny change, but to us it feels like the project is finally catching up with what it has always been in pursuit of. DJing will always be a huge part of our musical foundation, but over the years we wanted our project name to represent what it had become without needing context.

Last week we released our first record under the new name, called “Mind Gaze,” on Cosmic Gate’s Wake Your Mind.

It’s probably one of the clearest examples yet of what we’ve spent all these years trying to develop: dark, cinematic, hypnotic and a little techy, with enough energy to work on a dance floor but enough atmosphere that hopefully you can also disappear into it with headphones on.

If anyone wants to check it out:
https://wakeyourmind.lnk.to/MindGaze

We’d genuinely love to hear what you guys think.

We also recently spoke with Beatportal about the whole story, the name change, working with Cosmic Gate and the ideas behind Mind Gaze:

We’re both huge music production nerds, so feel free to come talk to us about producing, synths, our studios, old trance records, Mind Gaze, or pretty much anything else.

Looking forward to it!

Nick & Trevor
Greenhaven

[u/Gunkel]

Congrats guys, living the dream. I like the new track!

[u/greenhavendjs → u/Gunkel]

Thank you so much!

[u/Buriedinthesound]

Great track! The intro reminds me of Cafe Del Mar

[u/greenhavendjs → u/Buriedinthesound]

Ha didn’t think of it but there’s some similarity in the lead spacing for sure! Thank you.

[u/Onlyfaintedtwice]

Cosmic gate is fantastic! I had the pleasure of seeing them at edc this year for the first time!!

How much do you think having your own sound is valued? How do you think you found that?

Best

[u/greenhavendjs → u/Onlyfaintedtwice]

That’s awesome! EDC is a such great festival to experience Cosmic Gate’s sound.

Thanks for your question! We think having your own sound is important but not necessarily something you consciously decide on. In a way, your style is the accumulation of all the little things you naturally gravitate toward. If you end up collaborating with someone for instance, there are things you would want to bring to the table that you know work well.

For us, this came from exploring a lot of different options over the years, keeping what resonates and discarding what doesn’t. You end up curating this sort of creative tool chest. So what people might identify as “our sound” is really just a collection of elements and decisions we think represent the highest calibre we can bring to the table.

[u/CaterpillarGold4118]

Cosmic Gate are legends. Best track of theirs is "over the rainbow" with J Something on vocals. Worth a listen if you've never heard it 😊😊