Synthesizers weren’t a novelty when brothers Gary and Dwayne Dassing embraced them in the mid-1980s. But plugging synths into a Commodore C64 home computer to make music? That was pretty out-there for the time. “You were coined a nerd for just having one in your possession in those days,” Gary Dassing says of the old 8-bit device.
The siblings leaned into the nerdiness even harder, naming their budding electro-industrial project after two obscure Marvel Comics supervillains: Mentallo & The Fixer. And unlike most partners in evildoing, the Dassings figured out how to co-exist. “My brother and I come from opposite ends of the spectrum in many ways when it comes to composing music,” Gary (aka Mentallo) tells PureHoney. “In fact we can be polar opposites and I believe that helped define our sound.”
The other challenge was existential, man versus machine, once the Dassings had decided against additional carbon-based bandmates and went all in on electronics. “I don’t want the technology to totally take over and make it feel cold,” Gary says, “because I feel that the defining part of our sound that gives it this unique characteristic is that it is emotionally driven, and that is conveyed through the melodies and rhythms.”
That formula yielded epic thrashers and ambient deep dives alike until the brothers semi-retired in 1999. A quarter-century later, Mentallo & The Fixer have found a welcoming niche audience on their Resurrection Tour 2025, not unlike the gamer raves for the newly revived C64. Old fans and new are getting the songs they’ve asked for on tour, and it has to feel gratifying even if one power these supervillains lack is the ability to stop time.
“I watched a video online from a performance of one of our shows in Florida back in ’97,” Gary says. “I started to chuckle a bit because we were literally going crazy onstage, jumping around, and I was thinking to myself there is no way I could maintain that energy level today. I would be sore the next day and my back would be killing me.”
Mentallo and The Fixer, Deep Red, and Miss FD perform 7pm Friday, November 14 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. instagram.com/mentalloandthefixerofficial ~ David Rolland
