DUSK DELIGHT
Answers by: Dali and Andraz
The interview took place at K4 17/01/2001
Interviewers: Maja & Anja

At the moment you are recording your first CD?

Dali: Yes, we're slowly progressing...

Your demo CD was circling around before that...

Dali: At that time we were planning to do a serious recording but all the events caused it to become a demo CD. It was like an experience test for the band... to accommodate to the way of work in the studio. We decided to do it more seriously a bit later - that's what we're doing now - and that we'll use the two recorded songs for a demo... it's not a demo even. We have sent the CD around to different concert organizers so that the people could get an information about what we do, what kind of music do we play...

You've been introducing your music on the concerts though there were not many...

Dali: We had a lot of offers to play but we've done only the "better" ones because many of them couldn't provide us with the basic conditions to do a quality concert. The conditions themselves are not that demanding. We want to have our own drums on the concert and a trigger system... We have our own philosophy: "When you go on a concert you have 50% possibility to do a good concert and 50% possibility to fuck it up completely. We're trying to avoid the other 50% possibility that is why we rather have less concerts than to play in dump where you cannot distinguish the drums from the bass...

How did you start?

Dali: I used to play in another band, Godscard when I realized that everything is not functioning the way it was supposed to... That is when my wish to have my own band appeared. I called Igor from Noctiferia, he knew Robi who now plays drums for Scaffold... then Macek, the bassist, joined us. That's how we started. Then there were some changes. Andraz - we knew each other from before - took over the bass. Then everything stopped for a while. We were the only ones left.

Andraz: We were looking for the drummer for more than a year.

Dali: Me and Blaz, our drummer, used to play together when we were kids. I played the guitar and he played the drums... and we couldn't find anyone to join us. He sold the drums after a car accident and I bothered him until he bought the new ones. That was when it really started. We started to work seriously under the name Dusk Delight three years ago. Dejzi, the guitar player, joined us a bit later. We're in the same line-up for about two years now and we're getting along great. Beside being the bassist Andraz does the vocals also.

Who writes the songs and lyrics?

Dali: We all write the lyrics except for the drummer.

Andraz: Our lyrics differ very much. That makes it hard sometimes to form a reasonable concept. My lyrics are probably more poetic...

Dali: ...confusing. Mine are more direct.

Andraz: And Dejzi's are even more direct(laughs). It's very much like a tunnel. Two sides of the hill connected with a tunnel, they are totally different but it's the same world. The music always comes first...

Dali: We consider music much more important than the lyrics. Personally, I'm not talking in the name of the band, I think that the music is 90% of the song and the lyrics 10%.

Andraz: The lyrics have to follow the concept of the music and you have to interpret the lyrics with your vocals in your own way.

Dali: Each of us works on his own concept how is a song supposed to sound and be played. We are not used to getting together for a couple of hours: "Well, let's make a new song". We're trying to avoid that kind of work. Each of us writes his own song from the beginning to the end.

What is that thing which keeps you together, which "makes you" Dusk Delight? How do you connect in your music?

Dali: At first we didn't. But now we already know what is right for this band. We have very different taste in music. For example: our guitarist is one of the biggest power metal fans in our region... But there are no problems. He knows what he has to do for the band. For "his own heart" he works at home and he won't try to bring that in the band... At first we had some conflicts about it but we've solved them rationally. We don't have this kind of problems anymore.

Except Andraz, does anyone else participate in another band or project?

Andraz: Dejzi is playing in some trash-power band...

Do you participate this activelly in your other band or do you some other way of writing songs? How do you separate the songs meant for Dusk Delight and those meant for Last Twilight?

Andraz: It's a different way of thinking and the feelings I have towards these two bands. With Dusk Delight it's more about the technics, we know exactly what we want. With Last Twilight we're still exploring. We were so different that after two or three years the guitarist had to leave because we just didn't get along... Our goals are not that clear... We're still experimenting. With Dusk Delight I do 99% or !00% of a song, with Last Twilight it's only 80% of a song... That is why it takes us more time to do something together.

You also played some concerts outside Slovenia?

Dali: Yes. We had two concerts in Croatia. They were both great. I find Croatia much more opened for this kind of music... and there are more of them. We played in Zagreb twice. Both concerts were during working days so I did not expect the reaction that followed.

Andraz: I think that they didn't have the chance (up till now)... they didn't have much concerts so they come to every concert. If you can do a good concert over there... if you have the conditions to do it... they appreciate it much more. Here, in Slovenia, it's different. There was a time when there were a lot of concerts. People got tired of them and stopped visiting them. That was three or four years ago... In Kranj, for instance, there was a concert every week. I think that Godscard used to play there once in every two weeks. In one year period people stopped going to their concerts because they've heard it so many times.

Which Slovenian bands do you like or support in any way?

Dali: There are only few. I like Sabaium very much.

Andraz: In a way I support all the bands. There are not that many anyway so there is no need for us to "fight" among us. Nobody would succeed in the end... or maybe just one. In that case there would be no "scene", only one band nobody would really listen to or go to there concerts because there would be only them playing... But there is a certain limit to which bands I support. They have to be really trying... there are bands like Noctiferia, Scaffold, Sabaium which play different styles of metal in Slovenia.

Who were your idols that inspired you to play ?

Dali: I'll tell you a story... My cousin from Sentilj (he used to play guitar for Sabaium when they still called themselves Catacomb) brought me a compilation with Mansion in Darkness on it from King Diamond's album Abigail. I decided the minute I heard that song. And as a kid I always wanted to listen to this song while driving a car. Desire to drive a car has faded but King Diamond has stayed (The only album he has in his car is King Diamond's House of God-ed.).

Andraz: I decided when I saw Jan Plestenjak (a Slovenian pop-singer-ed.) and I said to myself that I'm never gonna do that. So metal was the only thing remaining... I started to get my own ideas when I heard At the Gates even though I used to listen to different styles of metal and play a guitar before that. But when I got their album the decision was definitive.

Dali: We don't listen to a lot of metal in our spare time. I have that kind of work where I have to listen to a lot of "crap music" so I'm used to everything (he works at a radio station-ed.).

Andraz: If it wasn't for this show me and Dali run on radio Triglav (he's referring to a metal show they run every Thursday night) I wouldn't be listening to so much metal music as I do because I never listen to it intentionally. Everything you listen to stays "written" in your subconscious and it comes out sooner or later. That is why I sometimes listen to some "x" music which releases me of all influences. In music you have cycles... there are times when you create and there are times when you are sick of everything, when you don't even want to see the people you work with, when you need 14 days of absolute peace to get yourself together and to release all this tension which builds up inside you during the year. Dejzi, for example...

Dali: ...he is nowhere to be seen when there are no rehearsals!

Andraz: Before, when you asked what's the difference between Dusk Delight and Last Twilight... I could say that in Dusk Delight it's more professional. We come to rehearsals, we play, we work and then we don't see each other till the next time... We don't have a need to socialize outside the time we spend together as a band.

Dali: A lot of bands say that they don't understand our behaviour. They never see us hanging out together, especially with our guitarist. He has his own gang so we never hang out... if we see him, we just say hi. I need a good guitar player and not a good pal in a band. It's cool if he's also a good pal but if he has his own gang.

How often do you have rehearsals?

Dali: We haven't had them in half a year now (laughs). We changed the way we work so we're not gonna have them anymore.

Andraz: ...we're too good.

Dali: No, we just realized that you lose too much energy rehearsing and this energy could be spent on other things, you could do far more important things for the band... That means that when you have an idea in your head you make a concept and you show it to everybody else. Why do we have to rehearse? We were playing same old songs for two years so by the time we got to the studio we were totally fed up. If we counted all the hours spent rehearsing we would get an enormous number but the result is not any better than if we just went directly in the studio with all the ideas and recorded it. And we have a possibility to spend as much time in the studio as we want to so we can do whatever we like. That is why we decided not to lose so much time on the next record. We'll make a rough demo so we can see in which direction everything is evolving and so the drummer, who is usually the first to record, gets everything the way he is supposed to. The ideas will get their final form in the studio and not on rehearsals. The rehearsals will take place after the CD is released, before our first concert.

Andraz: First everyone has to carry out his own idea. The rehearsals are not meant for the technical improvement because we play for so many years now that everyone should know his limits and how to use his own instrument. We used to rehearse 3 or 4 times a week, we played the same songs over and over again. In the end I couldn't sing anymore? it just didn't make any sense. I know the lyrics, I know in which order they follow... In the end you really come to the idea that all you need is some time before the tour just to get used to one another, to realize if the chemistry in the band is still working.

It seems that you stand out from Slovenian metal scene not only musically but also with the way you work...

Dali: Some people will probably resent this words, but if you choose for your goal the Slovenian scene you can be at the top real fast. And that is not our goal. I am aware of the fact that we are still very low when it comes to foreign metal scene... and our goal is foreign scene. Until we won't get there our goal will not be fulfilled.

Andraz: I think that this goal is not focused on "beating" the other bands. You want to beat yourself because we actually compete with ourselves. We are working on this album for a year now but the main reason for it is that we are constantly improving, not only our music skills but also our production. We surf on the Internet all the time, testing new programs...

Dali: ...legal programs (laughs)...

Andraz: I never said they were illegal... We work in the studio, searching for "our" sound. We write the music, play it and we're our own producers at the same time. In the end we'll probably be our own promoters also...

Dali: We buy our own equipment and we live at our parents. At least the drummer was smart enough to buy a car(laughs)... But I'm never gonna try it if not right now.

Andraz: You will never be able to reproach yourself that you never tried it... and I don't see a point in having low goals. A successful man was once our age, he had the same dream and he managed to realize it. If you think in advance that you won't be able to succeed then you really won't, except if you are real lucky. You have to be the one to create your own destiny and not just go with the flow. There are coincidences but mostly you are the one to create what you want. If you want to reach a goal, you have to try hard, give it all you've got.

So you will get back on the stage after the release?

Dali: The CD is our priority now so we probably won't have any concerts until we'll be holding the new album in our hands. We have offers but... you're nothing without the CD. You have to release the material after a certain period of time.

Andraz: A lot of people ask us why we have that "fuck off attitude towards the scene and why we don't play at the concerts... they think we feel we're too good for them. But that's not it! I have to sort some things out before I go to the concert first and second, I have to have that much respect for people that come to the concert to show them what we're really capable of. So if I have to play in a place where they cannot guarantee me that, I rather not play at all than to do an anti-promotion for our band and for metal itself.

Dali: Yeah, we had some problems with the organizers so there were a couple of concerts we couldn't play at. But the result was clear at the gigs we did play where we got a positive feedback from people, even those people who are important in the underground scene... we got their approval about our approach.

Andraz: If you have the opportunity to release all this energy which is building up inside into the crowd, you will get something in return.