Starfighter by Night Runner





Tabique: Well, my name is Marco, but mostly I go with my internet alias, Tabique. I studied Lingüistics and Literature, but now I'm dedicated to this, I'm a gamer and would love to be into game design someday. It's hard for me to pick a favorite movie, It would be easier selecting them by genre or decade, but to pick up an 80's flick quickly It would be hands down JVC's Bloodsport, that movie is so inspirational to me, cheesy yes, but inspirational. And my format of choice for watching it would be VHS, or the nostalgic memory of late night TV as well.

Alex Diosdado: My name is Alejandro Diosdado, I was born in Morelia, Mexico. Psychology student. My role in Night Runner focuses on the composition and performance of guitar and synthesizer. I find it hard to choose just one favorite movie, there's a list of them, but among my favorites in life are Blade Runner, Space Odyssey, Scarface, and The Godfather. Action movies of the 80's too, as they have a nostalgic value for me. As a kid I loved to watch over and over again Terminator 2, Bloodsport, Rocky 4 among others on television. I find it more comfortable to watch DVDs or digital format, but I could never forget those wonderful years of BETA and VHS.





Where did you guys meet and when did you decide you wanted to make music together?





Tabique: We met late in high school, some friends had a Heavy Metal band and he was the bassist, and I had some experience with production having my own ambient projects. But nothing happened until I stumbled upon a track called 'Plan B' by Maehelvin, then Lazerhawk (So good!), Miami Nights, Mitch Murder, Protector 101. I was blown away! This was my thing! All those years of my life bitching about how the 80's were better and now these guys show the way to bring it back! That night changed my life. I shared the discovery with Alex and he loved them as well, and like a week later he sent me a composition in MIDI that I produced and would later become Night Runner.

Alex Diosdado: At first I didn't take this too seriously, I just wrote the first track because it seemed fun to do something within this genre; synthwave made me feel excited and sent me back to my childhood years where eighties culture was still present. The first composition came without much effort but wasn't sure if I was making something good, but after listening to what Tabique was doing in the production I felt very excited, went to work on more tracks, he then began to participate more on the composition until we finally finished Starfighter. It was a job that took about eight months, and we were thrilled with the results.









Your 2014 album Starfighter seemed to have a bunch of different influences on it. Mostly, 80s retro films come to mind. Which soundtracks, musicians, or movies influenced Starfighter?





Tabique: Yeah that album has a bit of everything, to me it would be Paul Hertzog's Bloodsport and Kickboxer soundtracks, Jan Hammer and all the Miami Vice soundtrack, Tears for Fears, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, a lot of Italo Disco, John Carpenter, Journey, Dokken, Robert Tepper, Phill Collins, Billy Idol, movies like Blade Runner, To Live and die in L.A., The Running Man, Top Gun, They Live, Miracle Mile, Risky Business, everything scored by Tangerine Dream basically. I could go on all night long. And obviously the synthwave producers I mentioned, you know, to badly paraphrase Carl Sagan: To write a good book you need to have deep understanding of the subject, with a number of external influences and your own view.

Alex Diosdado: Yeah that's right, there were a lot of influences present and not only from the 80's. The first track I sent to Tabique was 'The Driver', and I wrote It after watching Driver (1978) and Vanishing Point (1971) I was fascinated with both movies and the synthwave producers we were listening to like Miami Nights, Lazerhawk, Lost Years and so on. 'Murder in Miami' was born while we were watching a chase in Miami Vice. But equally important was the fact that I played the bass in a Heavy Metal band at the time, regularly the scales and tempo I used to write synthwave and Heavy Metal were the same. Also artists like Paul Hertzog, Jan Hammer, Tommy Shaw and Tommy Shaw were a huge influence.





Being that Starfighter was your debut album, it seems to have gone over extremely well with fans in the outrun/synthwave scene. Were you impressed with the reception you received for Starfighter? Did you see anything negative posted about it?





Tabique: What I am is very very grateful to all the people that show us their support! I remember being very uncertain about what the reception would be. But I won't lie, I knew the tracks were good, Alex can come up with very inspiring compositions, I'm his fan as well and did my best to co-write and produce the tracks. And thankfully we haven't had many bad comments beyond the usual internet trolls.

Alex Diosdado: I think I was well received, after a long process, and reading the comments from people who liked our work made us feel very excited and motivated. We're very grateful because their support made us stand where we are and makes us want to make better songs. And for a bad comment pops in, we use it to improve ourselves









You've also gotten into the field of scoring soundtracks for movies. Fender Bender was the film that introduced me to your music. How did you get this opportunity?





Tabique: Mark Pavia contacted us by Facebook and we exchanged our love for those great John Carpenter movies and scores, as well as the whole 80's and 70's horror classics. It's always fun and uplifting to chat with him. Then a couple of weeks later he gave us the news of his new film, he asked us to send him some demos to show the producers to test if we could make the score, until we eventually were officially part of it!





When you were scoring the music for Fender Bender, what were you trying to accomplish? Were you attempting to make a moody soundtrack that fit the slasher film? Were you trying to emulate the great synth soundtracks from the 80s?





Tabique: We tried to follow what this movie is, it is a throwback to the slasher classics but made today. And the score is the same, it obviously takes elements from the 80's synth scores but at the same time more contemporary dark ambient parts, something you could hear in Lustmord or Silent Hill. We thought making it 100% retro would make it oddly anachronistic.

Alex Diosdado: We focused on making tracks as a starting point for films from the 80s, we watched a lot of them, and listened to a lot of music, we wanted to make it at the same time retro and new. Something original with our touch. Personally, when writing stuff I like to get carried away by the scene and not thinking much about what I’m doing, forcing stuff makes my mind hit a creative wall. Some people have asked me what I think when I compose, I reply that when I compose the least I do is thinking.





Out of all the scenes in Fender Bender which was your favorite? Mine was during the conclusion while Hilary's voicemail played over the slasher sitting at her dining room table.





Tabique: Mine would be when Hilary has enough of running away, faces the Driver and fights back. It was cool to see a Mexican-American girl kick the killer's ass. And that part has like 10 minutes of fast changing music. Also the ending, the guy has style, and I'm very proud of that track, haha.

Alex Diosdado: Same here, that part Tabique Mentioned first is my favorite, it has very different tracks going on through the scenes and I recall watching that part just after locking the score and feeling very excited and satisfied by what we achieved.







I've also saw via your Facebook that you've scored another independent film called Stealing Sunrise 2: Malibu Trail. Only, this one is an action/drama film. How will this soundtrack differ from that of Starfighter or even the soundtrack for Fender Bender?





Tabique: Yes, we agreed to score that film even before Fender Bender, but they didn't start filming until now. We just began working on it, so let's see what happens. It is going to be a lot of fun!

Alex Diosdado: From what we've seen I think it will be very different from Fender Bender, We hope it has many action scenes where we can do something more action-oriented and closer to Starfighter.





Your music seems to be doing well enough; is there any chance you'd be looking to get on a record label, or will you stay independent? And why?





Tabique: I don't see what the benefits of signing to a label are beyond promotion, booking and managing the money for you. I like it like this, we're not swimming in money and exposure but I feel free to do what I want, when I want and if I want.

Alex Diosdado: As we are now I think is perfect just like Tabique said, we have the freedom to do whatever we want; we make songs without time, structure, and production restraints. And in the process we learn a lot by ourselves.





And, shall you start releasing physical copies of your albums in CD, Vinyl, or even cassette format?Or is this something that you've never thought about?





Alex Diosdado: The very fact of releasing an album on vinyl is very exciting for us, plus many of our followers were asking and longing the moment of having a physical copy of Starfighter, and what best and more appropriate format than vinyl to do so, it's the perfect format for it, and my favorite, I love listening music on vinyl.





That's all for now. I thank you for your time and wish you the best of luck in your career. The space below is yours to say whatever you wish! Cheers!





The things that happened and are happening now are not something we were expecting to happen. Everything we've achieved so far we thank our followers for it. We thank Mark Pavia for the opportunity of being part of Fender Bender, Adrian Majkrzak for helping us with that killer artwork! Our bud Miguel Trillo for his help giving us a rad retro logo. And people like you who through various media spread our music. Thank you very Much!