From Coltrane To Boney M

Cosmo’s Midnight are identical twins Cosmo and Patrick Liney. But don’t believe the myths about twins – the reality is far different.

For the Lineys, it’s about trading files and living separate lives. “I never see him; he’s basically at his girlfriend’s house all the time,” says Patrick, of brother Cosmo. “We share one class a week at uni and it’s good, because that means once a week there’s this definite time that I’ll see him. We’ll write music together when we have the time, on weekends and stuff, but mostly we’re not writing things actually together, it’s more a lot of back-and-forthing.”

Both brothers are studying at Sydney University, Patrick a music major – “it’s more based on the history of music, and the philosophical side of it” – in his final year. The twins were born in Sydney to parents who’d returned from Los Angeles to start a family. They grew up in Petersham in a house filled with music, but it was only in Year 11, when they downloaded copies of Ableton Live, that it really took hold. They each started making music that they admit was “very exploratory” and “pretty crappy” by themselves, eventually coming together, as Cosmo&Paat, to make pretty straight electronic productions.

But a “more experimental” remix of Lykke Li’s Little Bit, done by Cosmo late one night in 2011, inspired both a new name and a new direction. “We were listening less to electronic producers, more to funk, jazz, R&B acts. And we really wanted an ambient element, to make it more atmospheric,” Patrick explains. “Cosmogramma, Flying Lotus’s third album, was a big inspiration on us. Purity Ring, too, were pretty huge when we started.”

"We want to make things that’re more timeless than timely."

Cosmo’s Midnight’s soon-to-be-completed second EP has a more esoteric set of influences, drawing from Russian trap producer 813, jazz legends Bill Evans and John Coltrane, and disco hitmakers Chic and Boney M. “It feels like a culmination of everything we’ve done through our careers so far. We want to make things that’re more timeless than timely, that you’ll still be able to listen to in, say, four years and they’ll still sound good. If you’re too concerned with what’s going on right now, you can make songs that sound too insular, too insincere, that don’t age well.”

The EP is nearing conclusion, awaiting files from an overseas collaborator Patrick’s keeping close to his chest. Things work not because of mystical twin vibes, more because they function as a complimentary artistic pair. “I’m more meticulous, and better at refining ideas, whereas Cos is better at generating those ideas; he’s the ideas guy. He’s the inspiration, I’m the technical perfectionist. Basically: he starts off tracks and I finish them.”