In the late 1980s Mentallo and the Fixer started making "industrial" music in Texas. Before applying the term "industrial" in this case it is best to put yourself in a time machine and go back to the time period--when "industrial" didn't signify altered vocal shrieks over of sampled Slayer guitar riffs. Think clever. Think experimental. In 1992 the band released their first full-length disc, No Rest For The Wicked. Earlier this year the band released Enlightenment Through A Chemical Catalyst. In between Mentallo and the Fixer have released 13 full length CDs, five EP CDs and numerous side projects. We spoke to co-founder, Gary Dassing, about the gear he has used over the years and how it has changed.

"As I recall we got our first synth in 82 or 83 I believe, I recall our first pieces of electronica gear were the Roland Juno 6, and a Sequential Circuits Multi-track, We got the multi track because you could sequence in it and that was quite rare in those days to have an on board sequencer and I believe you have 8 tracks/ voices for 4 sequences," says Dassing. "Then we had the Roland 106 and we used the pulse clock in so the arpeggiator would be in sync with the sequential circuits Tom Drum machine- so everything was hooked up via MIDI, and back then MIDI was a new, and still in its early stages of development."

Dassing says that this is the time when he and his brother Dwayne (the other half of Mentallo and the Fixer) became avid gear-heads. Their collection of samplers and synths grew to am impressive, and possibly unmanageable level.

"I recall at one time our top numbers of synths, samplers and rack synths was 36, not including drum machines and effects processors and the like. Some of our other early gear was the Casio CZ series, I recall We owned two CZ 101's because they were great for bass and bell sounds, then we had a CZ 5000 and a CZ 1- all similar but with additional parameters and such," says Dassing. "We had 2 Sequential Circuits prophet 600's, a Sequential Prophet VS, one of our other early pieces of gear was an Oberheim Matrix 6r, We owned a Roland JX 10, and SH 101 {blue}- 4 Moogs, {a Prodigy, A Sonic Six, A MEMORYMOOG and a Moog Source. We had a Yamaha Tx 81Z-we had two EMAX 2's and a sequential prophet 2002. The Korg MONO POLY was also a favorite."

When Dwayne left the band they divided up the gear. Dassing says both of their studios have acquired and parted with lots of gear over the years and undergone numerous transformations. When asked about old gear he still uses he says he is primarily software driven these days.

"Dwayne on the other hand still has a full on studio with synths and digital recording media/via logic audio using a Macintosh," says Dassing. "He still uses his Moog's namely the Memory Moog just because it has such a warm and wet sound, there are so many parameters and knobs."

More soon with Dassing on gear he wishes he still had and how gear has changed since he started.