Dascon being questioned by Ghandy/Nukleus
Dascon began his career as a mail swapper. But since the early 90s you can find his music everywhere in the net. Dascon has been in groups like Dual Crew Shining, Essence, Hardliners, Iris or TRSI – just to name a few of them. In the recent years he’s been quite active supplying his tunes to demos from Lemon in cooperation with The Deadliners. Ghandy has been recently speaking with the friendly musician who’s living in Germany.
Ghandy: Who or what are the Deadliners?
Dascon: “The Deadliners” consist of Carlos “Made” Pardo, Frederic “Soundy” Condolo and me.
It all started about five years ago – Soundy was looking for a musician who would accompany a demo project of him musically. We got to know each other through Ramon, the organizer of Desire. In search of a graphic artist, Soundy took Made on board, whom he already knew from earlier years. Our first joint project was the Java demo “68000 Reasons”, a kind of homage to the Amiga (although web-based), with which we won the “Demodays 2014” (formerly known as Bünzli) in Switzerland. We thought about under which label we should release it. I was in Desire, Made was in Bomb and Soundy was in NGC. But we didn’t want to create a gigantic monster group title – and we designed the label “The Deadliners”. The cooperation turned into friendship, the cooperation was so much fun for us that the “label” became an independent group. The rest is history. In the last few years we have cut out some productions, among others on the Amiga, and will continue to work together in the future. Clearly – “The Deadliners” has become my main group for me – and without being able to speak for them and without wanting to devalue our former or other groups in any way – I think my colleagues are similar.
Ghandy: You can watch “68.000 reasons” on a modern browser here: http://www.deadliners.net/68000Reasons/ – it’s a homage to a lot of old groups and demos, which are unforgotten until today.
By the way: Why are all your productions published as cooperations? Ain’t The Deadliners a release group for warez?
Dascon: I think the question refers to our Amiga releases, because in fact we have released some things on our own. Well, with our Amiga stuff a strong team has developed – among others with the guys from Lemon. but of course also with Oxygene. Our first cooperation was “Blast From The Past” and of course we wanted to follow on from last year’s success in the following year. From this followed “The Fall” and in the current year finally “De Profundis”. Dan, Facet and Leonard are simply great guys – here too friendships have developed and we simply wanted to continue working together.
“The Fall” went a completely different way than older demos of Dan. Lemonade from the deadline was again the complete opposite. Which way do you go in the future? Or don’t you want to commit yourself yet?
I don’t think you can say now what “The Deadliners” will do in the future. We love the Amiga, but at least we have delivered a full-grown demo for three years in a row. Maybe we’ll go in the PC- or web-based direction again, all that will crystallize out when we have the leisure and desire to work on new productions again. Experience shows that it always takes a few months after the Easter party until the battery is charged and the creative muse is activated. We musicians have it easier anyway, there’s plenty of work if you need it and want it. 😉
Ghandy: What do you like about being active again? The scene is much smaller than it was then.
Dascon: The interest into the scene was never gone, somehow they followed up from a far what came out in releases like that. What has changed: Today I have the money to buy the equipment I would have liked to have at the age of 16. But unlike back then, I have much less time to use it. For me, the balance between my professional obligations, my “other” private life and the demoscene is the challenge. Lust is always there.
By the way: If you look at the music competitions, then the music in earlier years, take the golden times in the early 90s, which were all about Tip+Mantronix, Firefox, Lizardking, Moby & Co., was qualitatively much better. Not that I’m complaining – I profited from it myself with podium places at the last revisions… But I think that the basic quality – especially concerning the music competitions – was much higher in former times than today. However – this year’s Tracked-Compo on the Revision party I found again really good, that was a clear increase compared to the previous years.
Ghandy: Why did you choose the classic Amiga (OCS/ECS) as your platform? Is it more about the memories of the past, or is there a different background?
Dascon: Memories, but also preferences. Even though I made music for some PC stuff – I feel most comfortable in the ProTracker and in 4 channels. You don’t really need more than that. The Amiga was personally my first computer. I have 5 of them currently in my study. I will always love the Amiga. Demoscene, that was and is Amiga for me.
Ghandy: Meanwhile many active groups have decided to program only for OCS/ECS Amigas. How comes?
Dascon: Because AGA sucks. 😉 No, I also have an AGA. And indeed I enjoy seeing some AGA releases. However, the challenges are not really given until OCS / ECS. If you manage to create a horny demo on a naked 500, then you have understood your craft. The limitations are just cool.
Ghandy: At which parties will you primarily be seen?
Dascon: The Deadliners will also be on the Revision in the future. If possible, I might make it to the Evoke, but the Revision party has been set for our members Soundy, Made and me each year.
Ghandy: Thanks a lot for your long replies!
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