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Dusk Interview | Can Başkent

Can Başkent

DUSK INTERVIEW

CAN BAŞKENT

Can: Darkest greetings Babar! How are the days for Dusk and for you recently?
Many hails and much of internal winter solitary greetings to you. Well I can definitely assure you that your solitary winter greetings are received by the all of us here at the dusk head quarters. And remember never to get fooled by the false spring and that goes out for all you true believers of the true art form of the black and the white. Any way coming back to the interview, well what should I say here things have been looking pretty good lately, because of the fact that I think whatsoever stir the debut album caused in the international scene is really paying off. And especially with the kind of art we promote you know for sure the moment you hear it that you want to love it or leave it. So keeping that in mind I think we're pretty satisfied with the kind of response we got out of the debut.

Let SONIC SPLENDOUR fans read your brief bio including your releases, some important and enjoyable gigs, line-up and so on…
Let's see now! That would be taking things to quite some time back I suppose, but anyway it all started in the year 1994 when I had just finished up playing with this experimental band I was playing with and I decided to put together some of the material which had been in my head for a while. At that time dusk was just myself doing everything from the lyrics to the cover art, so by 1995 I did this very rough sounding demo tape that I called casketize. That will have to be the first ever-dusk recording and the material was most definitely very hybrid death metal styled. By 96 I had some like-minded musicians playing for dusk and that was the same year we did our first official promo tape titled "where dreams bleed". Things didn't really work out with that line up so I somehow eventually had the honor of having within the ranks of dusk, one of Pakistan's most reputed guitar player, Faraz Anwer. Which brings us to the current dusk line up of Faraz and myself. Under our belts we have the debut dusk release "My Infinite Nature Alone", which was released internationally by Hibernia Productions from Portugal.

Dusk is from Pakistan, isn't it? Do you (you&dusk) still live there? What kind of a country is it for a metal band? Are/were there any good reaction as well as the bad ones?
Let me tell you first of all my dear friend that Pakistan is a country where let alone metal I think not even music on it's own is considered a true, (and I shall emphasize on the word "true") form of art. Let's just say that people here are generally closed minded about a lot of things in life. Make what you want to out of that but I would say that if an individual is motivated about certain things than these things only seem like minute particles of dust from a wider focus.

"My Infinite Nature Alone" was released by Hiberica Productions (old Hibernia). What made it possible to been launched a Pakistani band's CD by a Portuguese label?
Well yes I does seem like quite a mystery to a lot of people. What happened was that I think hiberica had and has always been open minded about a lot of things. They wrote a letter to me in 97 or something. They had asked me to send them a copy of the promo tape, I did and then a few months later in 98 they asked me I they could feature a track from it on this series of compilation tapes they were doing at the time. Dusk agreed and a few months later they asked me if they could re-release the promo tape on their label in Europe. At that time we had already laid down half of the album down, so we proposed to them asking if they would be interested in releasing the album instead. They heard it and so dusk became the first band that hiberica put out on compact disk.

How was the recording period of the album? Where did you record/mix it?
You mean to ask how long the recording period of the album was? Well there were a lot of financial constraints on the whole project so the entire album was done in parts and that too in various studios. That most work that we did was at this studio here in Karachi called the sonic audio lab. You know it's pretty different down here because over half of the time you end up working with sound engineers and people who've quite surely never ever even mixed a rock album. It's kind of sad cause the material can really suffer this way.

When considering the Asian metal scene, the first thing coming to my mind is countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and so on.. How is the scene in Pakistan (if there are any)? Let us informed about your metal world and activities?..
As I always put it my friend the scene down here is like it's dying a pre mature death in a bleeding womb. I heard a while back that some kids had gotten air of the ongoing nu-metal trend. I think what really a lack in the overall music scene out here is the lack of true hearted passion and the ultimate spirit. Seriousness I think is a very important factor in the building up of anything and anything.

What about the lyrics.. What are the main themes?
The lyrical content mainly revolves around personal experiences in life. Things that don't really seem all that important to one at one thought but once you analyze these things the bring out more than one translation to them. They can be much more frightening than a whole lot of other things. Let's just say the lyrics deal more with your personal demons more than "demons". I would say that in a nut shell all themes dwell between the grounds of the black and the white.

How are the reactions to "My infinite.." in underground press and among the listeners/audiences worldwide?
As I said the art form we promote is not the kind of stuff one gets top hear everyday you know. So getting a reaction good or bad out of anyone is not the easiest thing. But yes if you ask us I would say that we're pretty satisfied what whatsoever reactions we've gotten so far. Ofcourse we could have done with more promotion and stuff but at the end of the day it's all good.

Is your infinite nature alone?
You know what? I'll ignore that one. (he he )

Sounds and riffs you used in your album are too depressive, melancholic and sad. Are they your own real senses? Or you just write these lyrics in order to impress your listeners?[Or you just want your audience to feel depressed and upset]
Like I said earlier everything with dusk has to be a thematic translation of the desired expression that is meant to be captured. Maybe I would agree to the fact that the ambience that is created with the overall sound of the album is rather melancholic in nature. I think it has just become more enhanced lately but you could always point it out even if you listen to the initial material we put out.

What are your favorite bands living/lived on this earth? What are Dusk's main influences?
Countless to point out really cause just when you think you heard the most amazing record in years out comes someone else with this other piece of art that sounds as massive as the great mount Everest. I would most definitely sight people like Swans, Weather report and Black Sabbath as key influences. I personally find a lot of this ambient electronic music coming out these days rather interesting. We're all appreciates of diversification and experimentation.

How do you evaluate the current underground scene in the globe?
I think now because of all the exposure over the years that the so-called underground metal scene has undergone a lot of things have become clear. I think you could make categories out of it like people or rather groups of people who will never except the winds of change and then there will be the ones who would be happy to more on towards new horizons. I guess that's that.

What do you think about the global activities against the globalism&capitalism (WTO&IMF)? Do you support or not?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

How the frequent usage of PCs and Internet will affect the underground scene, according to you?
Will it have bad effects or not? The very first example coming to my mind is growing of e-zines and disappearing of computer-free collage zines. Will the underground die within a few years?.... I definitely don't think it's going to die this way. It's just that the feel of things will change more And more over the years and it is up to the people themselves if they're willing to or not willing to except this change. Tell you what for me personally It might be very easy to download all the latest mp3's from the internet but at the same time I think I'll be missing out on holding the very CD in my own hands. You know what I mean? Or Ofcourse one could look at it as just another communication facility.

Well, this is the time for me to stop, any last words…
Thanks a billion Can Baskent for sending me the questions for this interview and more than that waiting for all those months for me to answer them to you. A Hail goes out to all the true supporters of the underground scene especially all of you dusk appreciates all around the fucking globe. You shall conquer. Believe in the blacks &whites and the true expression under the yellow light coming through the broken window from the orange moon.

Thanx for sparing your time on this shit…
It's been a pleasure.

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