Gary & Dwayne Dassing

also from Mainesthai, Benestrophe, and
Parking Lot in Drug Form
Interview March 3rd, 1996 by Virtual Night Angel


Virtual - Hi, is Gary and Dwayne available?

Gary - Hi, this is Gary

Dwayne - Hey Tina, sorry about that.

Virtual - No problem, you're worth the wait!

Dwayne - We just got off the phone with Stephan. I didn't know he was going to talk a whole hour.

Virtual - I hope you got a lot of things accomplished during your conversation.

Dwayne - We did, he wants us to tour Germany, for the new album. We told him we'd have the new album done by September. We have to do an American tour, and then the album by September.

Gary - I think we only ought to play the towns where people know about us.

Virtual - Big cities, like Los Angeles.

Dwayne - We're definitely playing Los Angeles, don't worry.

Gary - I think we only ought to play places where we know we're going to draw a crowd.

Dwayne - I think that's the idea for this tour.

Gary - You know, hopefully Dave's got that idea down.

Dwayne - I think he does.

Virtual - And you know advertising is the key. Ministry is already advertising a full page ad for their show in May.
What did you guys end up doing last night?

Dwayne - I was with my girlfriend in Houston.

Gary - I was getting stoned.

Virtual - So far I've seen interviews on the internet by Petra Linder with Gary in April 1993, one in IndustrialNation Issue 11, and a press release/interview from Metropolis. Have you done any other interviews and where can we find them?

Gary - Yes, I've done some just recently. I've done two for Side Line, I just did one for DarkWave, New Life, and last week I did one with a guy from Chicago, I don't know what magazine that was. I've done about four extra recently.

Virtual - Is it true that you are the only band signed to Metropolis?

Gary - No. Numb, I think is signed to Metropolis. Dave just signed
a few more bands but I don't know who they are.

Virtual - Do you have a manager?

Gary- No

Virtual - Many feel you deserve support money for a tour, is that covered in your contract?

Gary - No, that's not covered in our contract, but there can be a contract made up for it, you know I'm sure there will be.

Virtual - Gary, in the interview with Petra it says that you will not change your style to make a buck and do what is popular. Have you approached a major label? Do any of the major labels interest you?

Dwayne - No

Gary - Not really in a sense, because they can rob you of your creativity.

Dwayne - And your money anyway

Gary - Yeah, and I'm not willing to sacrifice that, not my creativity, fuck that, you know. That's B.S. I'd rather just stick with an independent label. Do what I feel comes natural.

Virtual - I've talked to Dwayne about videos and he's unsure if he wants one because he feels everyone should experience something different when listening. If there was a video people would reflect on the images and visions instead of their own. Gary, you stated that you'd like a video without the glitz and glamour. You were interested in showing something very natural, hanging out and being yourselves.
Have the two of you spoke further about a video?

Gary - I understand Dwayne's point of view. If we were to have one, I'd want people just to see us as ourselves. I don't want it to come out, or trying to be Billy bad ass, putting on a rock star image, because that's what it's all about, just as well with Industrial music.

Gary - Even with some of the more underground bands as well. If their image has to make up for the music, that's pretty fucking sad.

Virtual - So have you talked about a video?

Gary - No, I wouldn't say so.

Dwayne - No, right now we don't even have the time, we're so pressured for shit. We don't know anyone who would film it or do this and that.

Virtual - Have you built the Slum #2 studio?

Gary - Yes, it's pretty much up and going. We'd like to upgrade it and get a new computer and Dwayne knows all about that crap.

Dwayne - We have a really old computer.

Gary - It sounds bad ass, I'll say that much. The new material sonicly is going to blow away anything we've done previously.

Virtual - Where is The Churchyard where Gary did the Oneiroid Psychosis remix?



Gary - That's basically over here. It's not the Slum, it's just a smaller thing. I took it from our old Benestrophe CD, where we use to have our old studio called, "The Churchyard". That was a small set-up compared to The Slum. At The Slum your surrounded by keyboards.

Virtual - Dwayne digitally remastered, edited, and mixed The RAS DVA Quad. Compilation at Chris Spoonts' Rotate Sound Production in Austin in March 95'. How did you like working in that studio compared to your own? i.e. Besides him having a bigger mixer?



Dwayne - Actually he had a smaller mixer than what we have now. He had the Pro Tools System which is a hard disc editing system which is really kick ass, but unfortunately really expensive. It would be really cool to have one, but we can't afford it.

Gary - Right now, that's what we plan to get in the future.

Dwayne - Hopefully, it's really kick ass. There's a lot of shit you can do on it that we can't even come close to doing, because we don't have it. We're using a 286 Computer which came out in 1984 and we upgraded to that just recently from an XT. All of our past material was recorded with an XT computer. Which really sucks.

Virtual - It certainly doesn't show in your music, that's the beauty of it, to think if you had everything you wanted, imagine what you'd sound like then.



Gary - All of our past material was recorded onto a tape deck. Angels was recorded on a regular tape deck.

Dwayne - Stereo tape deck, yeah

Gary - People freak out when we say that. "I can't believe you recorded that at home", they'll say. A lot of people don't, I remember even playing stuff for my parents once and they didn't believe we did that.

Virtual - It's very rewarding to hear that

Gary - Oh, definitely it is, I'm not going to say we don't have big heads, but yeah it is definitely rewarding to know that.

Virtual - Which track striked you the most?

Gary - I like the Jihad track and I like Vatican.

Dwayne - Yeah, I like that track a lot, too

Gary - I don't know, I gave it a brief listening but I really don't find myself listening to too much electronic music. I think we're too wrapped up in our own to even listen to other people's music, or just too busy.



Virtual - Gary, did working with Rich Mendez in Benestrophe encourage you to do vocals?

Gary - No, well maybe it did, somebody had to do them. Rich wasn't in the band at the time. I thought I did an all right job, I'm not going to say I'm the best or anything like that, other people liked them so I mine as well stick with it.

Virtual - Did you and Dwayne help Rich write lyrics?

Gary - Oh no, he wrote all the lyrics except "Flesh Decay".

Virtual - Will you and Rich sing together on the new Benestrophe?

Gary - Never, no we're not going to sing together but there is a vocal track that I did on the Vol. 2, it's an old track but it sounds really good. It's in the Benestrophe vein and all the new stuff that we've recorded here is Richard. With the Vol. 2 you'll be getting old stuff and new stuff.

Virtual - What is the title of the new Benestrophe?

Gary - I don't know if we're going to call it Auric Fires or not. That was just a title I came up with for Rich, it was the only thing I could come up with. I think I may come up with something better.

Virtual - Do you plan on releasing any old live Benestrophe footage from your performances in San Antonio?

Gary - There are a few things out there but I'd hate to think they'd ever get out in the underground. If they got a hold of them, that's just fine because a lot of the bands that are just now coming out, they weren't around let's say between 8 and 10 years ago. A lot of people have just aquired all this new technology and Dwayne and I have been getting it for at least the past 10 years, we've been buying keyboards.

Virtual - So you don't have old footage you plan to release?

Gary - No, definitely not.



Virtual - On the No Rest For The Wicked CD, the song, "Disrupture" is really upbeat and danceable. When I listen to it, it's almost as though it puts me into a trance, getting me caught up in the music, distracting me from any other task. What is "Disrupture" about?

Gary - People's Ignorance, it's basically saying you can't judge a book by it's cover. It's about me being so called verbally, physically attacked by people out in public because of the way I look. I've dealt with stuff like that when I was much younger. It's dealing with people's ignorance, that's what it's about.

Virtual - How do you look now? Did you shave your head or something?

Gary - Well my heads shaved now.

Virtual - There are no lyrics enclosed in the No Rest For The Wicked CD, is there a way we can get them?

Dwayne - No.

Gary - For the ones I can decipher myself, there's lyrics to "Narcotik Calling", "Lunatic", and "Disrupture". All the other lyrics were improvised on the spot, so it was all improvisation.

Virtual - No Rest For The Wicked was your first Mentallo & The Fixer release on the Simbiose Label, is that correct?

Dwayne - Yep

Virtual - I heard that Simbiose did not abide by your wishes and guidelines, is Simbiose a label you would deter others from?

Gary - I'll say this much, we've only received one payment, one statement and we've never been kept up to date on anything. They've said that they have tried to send us T-shirts, that they've always been sent back to them. Excuses, Excuses, it's like dealing with an over seas label. Now we're getting dicked with Zoth Ommog. Talla doesn't even have the decency to fucking give us any lubricant while he's fucking us. You know, that's the way I feel about it, I'll let that much be known.

Virtual - You'd think they'd all want to help you because your music is so great, so they can keep listening to new music by the two of you.

Dwayne - Well he's busy making money off of it and we're not.

Gary - From what I hear, he's too much into the techno thing.

Dwayne - What a cunt, man

Gary - Industrial is dead to him.

Virtual - You both do programming and Gary works on the analog equipment. Gary does a lot of the sampling, dialogue, and tapes. Which is a very important part, just getting the right sounds and textures; is this all correct?

Gary - Dwayne does a lot of sound programming. I can't program on anything digital, I like twitching knobs. Dwayne knows pretty much everything. If I was to do sound programming it's definitely on an analog keyboard.

Virtual - When you use a clip it seems modified to fit perfectly and flow in the song. It's even hard for me to tell if some things are a clip or not. Are all the clips you use in stereo? What kind of sampler are you currently using?

Dwayne - No, usually they're in mono and either panned or something.

Gary - We throw stereo effects on them. It varies we do a lot of variation of stuff when it comes to recording techniques.

Dwayne - We have a couple. We have the Proper 2000 and a couple E-Max.

Virtual - Dwayne's been described as the technical brain of the band, the fix-it-man, a trouble-shooter; and Gary as the experimental mix-man engineer. Gary what is the most recent form of experimentation that you've done?

Gary - Psilocybin mushrooms.

Virtual - Dwayne, would you ever consider doing vocals or have you?

Dwayne - No, not really. It evens out where Gary does the lyrics, vocals and songs. I also do the songs but I'm much deeper into the programming of keyboards.

Gary - Dwayne's more of a perfectionist when it comes to his songs. Mine, if something's not laid down in the exact right space by my tenth try, I just leave it.

Virtual - The song "Dead Days" on Where Angels Fear To Tread has a clip, "Get them out of here, Get them out of here". Where did you get it from?

Gary - It's from a movie called, "From Beyond".

Virtual - Are you using Macintosh or IBM computers? What programs can you recommend?

Dwayne - We're using an IBM 286 which is totally outdated. We only have one program, Textures, that we do our sequencing on, it's really old and outdated. Besides Librarians for our sound that's the end of our software.

Virtual - Have you recorded anymore songs for Parking Lot In Drug Form besides, "Step Away"? Is Ric Laciak doing vocals or anything else on that song?

Gary - Parking Lot In Drug Form on the RAS DVA Quad, is Ric vocalizing. Ric's got another mix with me vocalizing on it, he's titling it something else, but it's the same song, the versions a lot longer, and he's going to be putting it on another compilation.

Virtual - You haven't recorded anything else?

Gary - We don't foresee us recording together again because he's busy with RAS DVA. He was just down for a month and we decided to just mess around.



Virtual - I really love the song, "Clusterfuck", it's very groundbreaking to me. The music mixed with Gary's vocals is perfect, but it's way too short. Will you continue this style for your Burnt Beyond Recognition CD?

Dwayne - No

Gary - I'm sure you're definitely going to hear bits and pieces like that, all through the songs. I think the songs will all be radically different, within each song your going to hear radical changes. Yeah, you will hear bursts of outbreak, chaos and order on the CD, it will be intertwined.

Virtual - Have you completed any new tracks?

Dwayne & Gary - No

Virtual - I also love "Wicked and Psychokinetic" on Continuum, it's insanely chaotic. Do you use a drum machine in this song? i.e. Or is a sound brought into the sampler?

Gary - It was drum machines and samplers but it was just the way we mixed it. Everything is very chaotic and the drums are very distorted.

Virtual - On Revelations 23 there are two photographs, one below the other, is the photo of the same guy and who is it?

Gary - They are both of me, all thanks to Talla and company.

Dwayne - And they are one of their many fuck-ups.

Virtual - The picture on Out To Lunch is very interesting. The third and forth children look as if they are disappearing. What's the story behind the cover art?



Gary - The whole thing on the cover art is we sent them some ideas, they just didn't bring our ideas out. I thought they would do something cool with the pictures I had sent them. The pictures are of relatives of ours, like my grandmother when she was a little girl, and I thought they'd do something really cool with it. We didn't want a typical industrial album cover.

Virtual - It's not at all

Gary - I don't think any of our album covers are what you typically call industrial.

Dwayne - I think what Gary was hinting at towards the way the albums look, is that if you pick up a typical album of Industrial there's usually like some kind of skeletal thing on it, or some shit like that. How many fucking times has this shit been done all ready? That's exactly what we don't want.

Gary - On every cover it's something about what Dwayne and I represent. We're really into stars and astronomy.

Dwayne - Astronomy not astrology, the truth, not fiction.

Gary - The Angels album cover, those are pictures on our walls when we were children. Angels just always look cool.

Virtual - Why is Out To Lunch dedicated to Maria E. Melendrez?

Gary - Oh, that's my girlfriend. Put it this way the name sort of fits.

Virtual - Revelations 23's "Soaked With Blood" (T.H.C. edit) has an awesome beginning clip, "Whipping their exposed backs with thin metal chains", where is that from?

CLICK for Part 2 of Virtual Night Angel's "Mentallo The Fixer" Interview