(this is the English version of the interview which was published in German)

1) At first congratulations for the pretty good new album. What makes it the best OSC-album until now?

Tobias: Chemistry!! people. grooves. sounds, food, drink, recording and mixing. It all just fits perfect together.

Scott: As Tobias states, this was a great session where all of our experience of playing together, our psychic vibe and overall state of being were in a very high state! Combine this with the excellent mixing and mastering job of Henrik Udd and you get something great!

2) What's the different to the two former albums? Would you agree that the new one is more direct, groovier, rockier?

Tobias: We knew each other musically and therefore knew were to focus the creative energy.

Scott: I think some of the guitar riffs are some of the heaviest we laid down and we had these very long grooves where everyone was just locked into playing really inspired stuff. I think the mix really has brought out the best in our music and Magnus and Tobias played amazing guitar parts. It is a lot different from our first, more laid back CD, but not all that different (except the sound mix is more enhanced) from It’s all about Delay, if you look at some of the similar rocking tracks from that CD. More a move into a heavier, more spaced out place… but again this was only less than half the music that was recorded in this session. The rest will be released next year on Sulatron Records.

3) Your music is more than "just" space rock. There are some avantgardistic moments, some jazzy rhythm. Do you intend to include other elements? Is this something to be different from - let's say - Ozric Tentacles, First Band From Outer Space or Hidria Spacefolk?

Scott: I agree, what we do is different from the highly composed hydria tracks or First Band from Outer Space (both friends of ours and amazing bands!). Nothing you hear was intended as it is 100% free form when we play. The concept is quite similar to Zone Six, but the sound very different. The music is jazzy or electronic or strange,simply because that is how are cosmic psyche have all become interwoven to take us in this direction. Nothing is planned in this band, yet…

Tobias: I think we listen to a lot of music (same and different) and we take inspiration from things we like. We don't try to sound like something or not like something. We have a sound that is created when our inspiration meets.

4) You came from different countries: Sweden, Denmark and the USA. How did you get the band together. How did you start? What where the original motivations?

Scott: I started to bring my musical friends from Mantric Muse and Bland Bladen together after Gas Giant decided they did not want a spacey synth in the band anymore. I still wanted to make jamming music and ask Magnus from Mantric Muse about going over to Malmö, Sweden and having a jam with the Bland Bladen Guys (April 2004) and this is where it all began. There was no real plan to make it into a band and it still is not a band, but really a collective of like minded musicians who gather to play completely improvised music. The line up is changing all the time. Some stay some go, others return, new people enter…

5) How do you work together, when you can just communicate via email and internet? How do you prepare your jam-sessions? Do you prepare them?

Scott: I set up the jam sessions and the gigs and then try to gather a group of people who want to play. It is all done by email. In the beginning I would set up 3 or 4 jam sessions over 3 or 4 months based around my schedule and we would switch back and forth between Copenhagen and Malmö. Nowadays, we don’t have many jams in the rehearsal room and it is all based on concerts. I think in 2008, I will try to put some more jam sessions together. We will see.

Magnus: We do communicate a little bit. But we never prepare any jams. Just
our spirits.

6) You say on the website, that the music is totally improvised. But the music seams to be very well "composed" or "constructed"? How do you develop the tracks?

Tobias: Same as #2 somehow. We are just communicating musically.

Magnus: The tracks just develop themselves I guess. The studio sessions have the advantage that we can sort out the best stuff. For that reason
the official releases can sometimes come across as being arranged or
composed.

Scott: It is like Tobias says, we are all just musically in tune with each other and really listening and focused when we play and this allows it to have this feeling of some composition but nothing has ever been planned in advance.

7) You've got a lot a of jam-sessions for download. Are the jam-sessions the origin for the studio-album? Maybe the best moments?

Tobias: No, the jam sessions is more to get to know each other and find great combinations of good musicians that fit together.

Magnus: The jam sessions are...well jam sessions. That's how it began really. Each and every one is being recorded. Later we decided to do multitrack recordings in the studio. And also to do live shows. Sessions in the rehearsal room, in the studio and live. They're all just jam-sessions.

Scott: No.. the best of the jam sessions are all released in our Picks from Space CD- series of which we have 12 volumes now. What is released on our reqular CDs has all been recorded at the Black Tornado Studio in Copenhagen, except Picks from Space Vol 11, which is most of the leftover studio tracks from our first 3 studio sessions.

8) When you meet each other, are you instantly in the right mood to play spacerock? Or do you have to get used to each other?

Magnus: There are certain rituals that can get you in the mood for space
rock. We also have many things to talk about, since we don't meet that often.

Tobias: We meet to play music but I think we meet each other as just as much as friends talking about life, music gear and cool things we heard in the recent past. I really enjoy spending time with the "band" and I really enjoy to hang out by playing cool music together.

Scott: I think it is different if it is a gig or a jam in the rehearsal room. It is a bit more relaxed if it is not a concert and we usually hang out and have some beers and smoke and are pretty relaxed and talking about life, music, band stuff, etc.. The first jam of the night, whether it is a concert or a jam session, we are getting used to the sound, how people are playing, etc.. so this one is sometimes a little awkward as people find their groove and stuff but sometimes we can just come out and running and play something mindblowing right away!

9) Is your music "just" abstract sound? Or do you have a message in your tracks? Have you ever thought about lyrics?

Tobias: I usually have a mood or feeling that I want to express in a jam/part/solo.

Magnus: We're just playing stuff we like. And if someone else likes it too,
that is very good.

Scott: I think it is hard to put a message into instrumental music but what I hope our music does for people is to take them on a journey or a trip, let them escape into the music and really hear all the things going on, the pulsing rhythm or the space guitar or samples or spacey synths or the great lead guitar.. it is all there usually in each of our best tracks and you can key in on it differently each time you hear it and hopefully find something exciting as we do. IT is really music for people who like to really listen to music. IT can then give you a good emotional feeling, but not really a message. As for lyrics, I think no one in the collective at the moment is inspired to do free form lyrics. I for sure could see it happening. My good friend Thomas from the Norwegian band, WE, he is someone who has the ability to work with us on a lyrical level. The singer from the old US band, Finally Balanced, he did great free form poetry. We have talked about working with Damo Suzuki, a master at this sort of thing.

10) Do you have contact to the Copenhagen underground scene? To other bands like On Trial or Baby Woodrose?

Scott: Absolutely… I have known all of these guys for some years now. Guf from Baby Woodrose is often at our shows at Dragens Hule. Morten Aron, the former guitarist in On Trial, he will probably jam with us next year. As I also write music reviews and help to put on concerts as well, I know a lot of other bands as well.

11) You came from California. What are the reasons to come from sunny California and to live in rainy Copenhagen? (Okay, it's a cliche, but what were the reasons to come here?)

Scott: Besides music, I am a research doctor (PhD) and do diabetes research at the Hagedorn Research Institute in Denmark. I was previously working at the Harvard Medical School in Boston and got recruited over here for work. I grew up in California but it has been a long time since I lived there now.

12) You have already played several live shows. What are the differences between OSC in the studio and OSC live?

Tobias: The big difference is that the mood of the audience and the interaction with what we play. I think that It's not that laidback live, it's a little bit more intense.

Scott: I think there is a bit more pressure in the live situation as we really want to play well for the people and we are recording and releasing all of the live concerts on the www.archive.org in the USA. I think we know people want something upbeat and something they can dance to as well and this is fun to do at the live show but it does not really come into our thinking when we are in the studio, at least not into my thinking..

Magnus: The live shows are a bit different. And we can't leave out the not
so good parts.

13) I've heard sometimes Dave Schmidt (Zone Six, Sula Bassana) has played with you. Correct? How did you get in contact with him? Maybe this is the chance to play some gigs in Germany?

Scott: Yes.. Dave is a great guy. I have known him since the late 90’s when I first saw Liquid Visions and the Growing Seeds. He also has played with Gas Giant, the band I used to play with. It is an honour that we can call him a member of our collective. I think he will join us often when we play more in Germany. He is flying up to play with us for our two concerts in Norway in late November and early December. Should be a blast! I think you will see us down in Germany for a few festivals and also to play in Berlin next year!