Sasquatch & The Sick-A-Billys

There are thousands of good musicians out there, zig-zagging across the country at any given moment in their rusty vans, but few of them can match the fire that consumes Sasquatch & the Sick-A-Billys frontman, Dave Caetano. He’s less worried about offending thin-skinned drones and pandering to any subculture than he is concerned with speaking his mind and issuing forth music that provokes people to develop identities apart from their TV viewing habits. His songs come from a life hard-lived as an outsider, and his personality carries with it an undeniable gravity. He gives it his all, and love him or hate him, at least he inspires something other than a gaping yawn of apathy. - BL

RRP: Why did you decide to call yourself Sasquatch? Dave: Surprisingly, I don’t get asked that too often. I usually get asked, “What’s the name of your band?” and get small-minded chuckles from most folks (Fucks!) that immediately assume that because there’s the phrase ‘A-Billys’ that it is rockabilly. Do you know what? Fuck rockabilly. Fuck the Sopranos and fuck people that think that it’s funny to call me Elvis! It’s all I ever hear! Just because I put a half a can of Murray’s in my hair daily does not make me Rockabilly or an Elvis wanna be. NEWSFLASH, not all Italians are gangsters, rockabilly has turned into a trendy way to be different by looking like another kind of culture of sheep and Elvis is fuckin’ dead. I am the real King because I actually write my own songs and know more than 3 chords. Am I getting hostile? Yes. I’m fed up with society that needs to label EVERYTHING in order to accept it. Basically my name ‘Sasquatch’ started as a sarcastic nickname from friends in high school that thought it was funny to call me something that is big and hairy. I’ve always tried to be a bit different without being desperate for attention and to get the fuck out of something as soon as it turned trendy. I later learned that God (and the Devil) work in mysterious ways. I believe that if no one ever gave me shit or came up with the nick-name ‘Sasquatch’, I would not be as challenged to be myself. I would have (maybe, ha-ha) turned out a bit more typical, easily influenced and boring. I accidentally found out more about the origin of ‘Sasquatch’ via fate-filled situations where an article or a television documentary would just pop out at me. It was as if I was being given a tribal name from the source of broken-down spirits that have always kept me safe since I was a youngster. In their own way of doing things they told me more than a thousand times that I am ‘Sasquatch’! I have been sent from the sky to teach the lesson that I am discovering more important every day that I wake. I’ve read about your “Sasquatch Watch” and I assure you that I am only trying to sabotage the part of society that is against what this magazine stands for. I am fighting for Rock N Roll, freedom of expression and Truth. Sasquatch doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He just wants what everybody else wants. To be. RRP: You’ve said, “I think we need more people that are as angry as I am about the important things.” What are the important things as you see them? Dave: I think that it’s important to not follow anything except for your heart. Your heart will usually steer you down the road of righteousness. Your mind will be sidetracked by another outside source that is usually a messenger of evil. Your body is a temporary thing that gets way too much worship. I believe I am guilty of sins without end. I am always fucking up because I forget that my heart is usually correct. What I mean by the Heart is not the pulsing thing in your chest but the actual center of ones soul. Too many people get it wrong. Unfortunately most of those people are controlling us, exterminating us and making decisions for us without regarding what is more beneficial for when this world comes to a screeching halt. All the while ‘They’ are relying on the part of the mind in which greed lives. We are fucked right now and have been for a looong time. That’s what is important to me. To replace programmed fear with productive anger. Fight the good fight. The Shadow Government is watching you (all of us) everyday in every way possible. They don’t care about us. They only care about things that resemble power, wealth and admiration. They will do anything to get it and guess what? When money talks, freedom walks. Like I said, we are all doomed if we don’t start fighting now. They think we’re stupid lab rats and only want us to conform, consume and labor. They may be right about society being stupid lab rats. Why? How many people do you all see each day that are following the rules a little too closely. Welcome to 1984 my friends. Wake up and fight for the gift that God has given you. Your soul. RRP: The lyrics to “Hot N’ Faster” seem to be about Native American vengeance. What inspired that song, and do you have Native American blood in you at all? Dave: It is very much about Native American and Human vengeance. Our leaders and their ancestors have been inducing different versions of the ‘Trail of Tears’. Each day that goes by there is blood on someone’s hands in result of someone else getting what ‘They’ (Shadow Government) want. All the while the hands that gave the orders stay un-scarred and clean. It’s happening right this very minute in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other places that they’ll never tell us about. I have always felt very close to the anguish of the people that have been driven out of their land in the beginning. I have Cherokee blood running through me and I feel the rape, murder and theft that has stricken everyone before me. I very much believe that my soul was there (in a different body of course) and that I fought until the end. I have too many unexplained passions within me. I actually hate being called ‘American’ because it reminds me of the original motives of colonization. The Pilgrims fucked over the Red Man and I’ll stand by that fact forever. The fact that we have more freedom than most places is not enough reason for me to be proud to be ‘American’ (barf). I want to be proud of what is righteous. I will not call myself something in order for everyone to accept me. I don’t belong to any club or organization. I belong to God (where/whoever he/she/it is) and myself. I am me. I am free. I will start an army that will scalp the people that have taken things that do not belong to them. Share or fuck off and earn it. RRP: On “Seven Sound-Horns” your lyrics get to be directly political. What can you tell about that song, and what do you think about the avoidance of politics in a lot of rockabilly and roots-oriented music? Dave: The title is a metaphor for the ‘Seven Horns of Gabriel’ as described in the biblical story ‘Revelations’. It’s my version of a warning of ‘The End’ and what I believe is leading up to it. I am not a follower of any certain religion or political group. I think the outcome of ‘Religion’ is organized belief. I will not have any part of belonging to a herd. I reference that President Bush is the Devil. Not the actual ‘Devil’ but at least one of his children or an individual that thrives by the same sneaky intentions. I think “the avoidance of politics in a lot of rockabilly and roots-oriented music” is because it’s too deep for most folks involved with the rockabilly lifestyle and elsewhere in the world of music. Rockabilly, through its history has been very light-hearted, flirty and a bit mischievous. It’s supposed to be fun or cool and politics are neither of these things. I actually now hate the word Rockabilly because of what it has evolved into. It has been transformed from an outlet of rebellion into a clique of non-welcoming snobs. Boston, for example is filled with either non-welcoming garage rockers or boring wanna be greasers. Unless you play by their rules you are nothing. I fill rooms everywhere around Boston and cannot get a regular gig in Boston/Cambridge. Why? Because, unless you are signed or you’re an average talented, non-threatening artist (living in the same city) you are not welcome. They are fooling themselves into being authentic. Well, the original rockabilly greasers did not have tattoos, drink ‘Pabst Blue Ribbon’ or act like snobs. A pompadour or a hot rod does not make a person cool. It lives inside. You have to earn cool. Rockabilly has turned pussy. Blah!!! Bring it you unoriginal bastards & bitches! RRP: I’ve read that you were a member of a band called ‘Altered Minds’ during the late ’80s. What kind of music was that, and how did you come from that to where you are at now stylistically? Dave: Altered Minds was my first baby. It started in 1989 and ended around 1994. We had a decent cult following with an eclectic mix of fans. Hippies, punks, metal heads and classic rockers all were digging what we were putting out. I basically had the same vision as I do now except I have a bit more musical knowledge and painful miles traveled since then. I was in the middle of the ‘Thrash Metal’ scene when it was in it’s prime. I wasn’t closed to other styles of music. I was and still am always looking for that ultimate sound that has been haunting me since before I can remember. My first album ever was ‘Boxcar Willie’s - Greatest Hits’ and my second album was ‘Kiss - Destroyer’. Some of my favorite bands back then and some still are: Nuclear Assault, Misfits, Samhain, Kreator, D.R.I., Sacred Reich, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, The Beatles, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Dead Kennedys, Death Angel, Sick of It All, Death, Jim Croce, Crumbsuckers, Obituary, Cro-mags, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, The Doors, Mucky Pup, S.O.D., M.O.D., Simon & Garfunkel, Slayer, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue (1st two albums), Wargasm, Frank Zappa... get the picture? I tried to combine every emotion of the bands that I listened to without sounding like any of them. I was really mesmerized by their individual essences. After ‘Altered Minds’ ended I didn’t really know what to do next so I got really involved with drinking... a lot. I found ‘The Blues’ in more ways than one. I started to really understand my insides closer and found personal bliss while drinking bottle(s) of Mad Dog (MD-20/20) while staring at my dashboard and listening to ‘Muddy Waters’ cassettes. I would just sit in my van and numb myself until I came up with a solution to where I need to go next in life. I had no control over what was to happen next. It took me there whether I liked it or not. Fate brought me to meet a group of women on their bachlorette party in Providence, RI one night while hanging onto a telephone pole that was outside of a club (‘Club Babyhead’ R.I.P.). I made friends with one of them and she convinced me to take my talent to Texas. I did. I tried living in Dallas, Texas by myself to find myself. I found Sin and hung out with that motherfucker that goes by the name ‘Lucifer’ nightly. I woke up each day just in time to go out again. I would pawn my guitars, amps, effect pedals and stereo equipment constantly in order to keep up with my nightlife. I really made a ton of friends in Dallas. Eventually everyone in Dallas that I thought believed in me totally fucked me in the ass (without lubrication or foreplay) one at a time. I was left with nothing except a job setting up stages and doing A/V work for the local stagehand union, ‘Dallas Stage Producers’ I.A.T.S.E. Local 127. It paid very well and you could make new drinking friends in between shifts. I believe that what brought me from Boxcar Willie to Slayer to Muddy Waters and then back to country is the unexpected introduction to Wayne ‘The Train’ Hancock during my 3rd night in Texas. After that I found so many artists that I should have been listening to all along. Bob Wills, Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe, Hank Sr. and Hank III are people that filled a big void in my life. I’m also grateful to hard-edged twangster revivalists like: Reverend Horton Heat, The Cramps, Nekromantix and others for showing me and the rest of the world that you can intertwine musical styles in any way that explains how you feel without having to go by the book of traditional musical rules. I hate rules! Hopefully that explains how I got to what I’m doing today and why. RRP: Why did you hate country music before encountering Wayne Hancock? Dave: Because, I had absolutely no clue. At the time all I knew about country was what I heard on the radio or saw on the television. It was that stereotypical “My dog’s dead, my wife done left me and I’m sad and lonely.” Pop country crap. What 20-something year old that was listening to metal, punk and Zappa would be able to relate to that while living in Rhode Island? During my first week in Dallas I went to a club in Deep Ellum (Tree’s) on Elm Street because the 3 people that I just met were going there to see some dude that was supposedly totally rockin’. I walked in slightly skeptical. I bought a beer (Shiner Bock) and looked up at the stage only to find myself drooling with total fulfillment. I was taken by surprise to say the least. I watched 5 songs before I realized that there wasn’t a drummer in the band. It was so powerful that I found myself utterly embarrassed inside that I didn’t know that this sort of music existed before. “THIS is country music!” I was instantly convinced when I saw an upright bass slapping and a weird dude yodeling that you would never see on my hometown stages performing with such power that it made any metalhead look like a real life ‘Beavis or Butthead’. The preacher of my destined road of soulful knowledge that night was Wayne ‘The Train’ Hancock. He is still my favorite songwriter and always will be my authority to the true revival of roots music. RRP: I’ve heard about your live show where you’ll berate the audience, break things, make yourself puke, and sometimes set your pubic hair on fire. What is going on in your mind while doing these things, and do you feel that it has become something that people expect of you, and would get disappointed if you don’t do it? Do you worry about that aspect becoming a focus that overtakes what you are doing with your music and lyrics? Dave: I start a performance with the complete intention to stand in my spot and entertain. After the first few notes that changes. I start getting a little blurry inside and go somewhere else other than where I intended to go in the first place. I guess you could say I feel a bit of panic, confusion, pity and anger all at the same time. I wouldn’t be so proud of what I do on stage if I could describe completely. It would be pre-meditated and non-authentic. Some things cannot be explained. I am here for a reason and I’m trying to do it right. Whatever that is at the time. I think that the fans expect some of the things that happen during our shows. I feel it’s hard to be myself while the audience is expecting a vast array of burning pubes, vomiting and sheer rock and roll destruction. What the fuck do people want from me? Pain, humor, humility, fun, music or death? I think all of the above. I think that everyone in the room has a different boiling point and a different expectation of what would satisfy them and make them come back for more. I feel all these things in my senses while on stage that it sometimes hurts. I don’t know what they want sometimes because it not universal. It’s all jumbled up into one voice. I have found that there is one thing that we all want. We want something real and immortal. We all want something that will never let us down. Something we can trust that will lead us to the Saints as they go marching into this hell of a world we live in to save it. I am here to open eyes and minds in any way that I can. I hope that my shock-factor tactics and emotional release on stage doesn’t camouflage what I’m really about. I am Music. RRP: I know that Jake’s Bar & Grill in Rhode Island has banned you because of the deluge of adverse responses to your recent show there. Is this the worst reaction you have gotten? What kinds of things are people saying to you and about you? Who are these pussy-ass bands that have refused to ever share the stage with you again? Dave: I am really surprised at this most recent reaction to a ‘SASQUATCH AND THE SICK-A-BILLYS’ show. I would say this is the worst reaction because it’s the most absurd. I didn’t stick a small animal up my ass. I didn’t skin a baby and roast its corpse. I didn’t touch any one physically. I said words. I burned the top patch of hair on my crotch and ended the last song with my finger going down my throat to emulate that I am sick of everything that is going on in this world right now. The majority of people that have witnessed what I do first hand are standing by me. They understand that it is a show of expression. I think that they dig the fact that I don’t completely follow the rules of fragile-minded society. On the other hand, there has always been cowards throughout history that can’t handle change. They can’t fathom something unless it is a carbon copy of something that they have already approved. If change is coming their way it has to be very slow in progress or it is threatening to their existence. I don’t get this way of living. Why don’t they shut the fuck up when it comes to artistic expression and speak up when it comes to public/private suppression. The whole time that they’re in an uproar about who said what about what, the Government is stripping another right away from us. First Amendment... has anyone ever heard of it? I don’t know exactly which bands refuse to share the stage with us again. I do know who I think they are. It wouldn’t be fair to give names unless I was absolutely sure. A few ex-members of ‘The Amazing Royal Crowns’ were on the same stage that day in different bands. I know 2 out of 3 of them dig what I’m doing. The biggest pussies were the people that couldn’t confront me personally but called the club the next day to express how appalled they were. The ultimate complaint came dressed as a corporate beer company threatening to pull $15,000.00 worth of promotions away if we were to ever set foot on the stage at Jake’s again. That company is...... Miller Brewing Co. Fuck them! We won. We made it to Rock N Roll Purgatory!!! RRP: Tell me about the “Thought Police Brigade.” Do you think society has become so painfully sensitive that everybody has to qualify everything they say as if they were politicians, for fear that some first-year sociology student will come along, point their bony righteous fingers in your chest, and say something like “Ah-ha! I knew you were a crypto-fascist bourgeois pig!” Or conversely, if you say something critical of the government or American values, you have to worry about some radical nationalist AM radio douche-bag calling for your head as if you are some kind of seditious traitor. Dave: I can’t agree with you more, Ben. My personal explanation of the “Thought Police Brigade” is a growing army of fascist, lip sealing, envious traitors of the truth that live in the underground while controlling the mainstream. You probably see them everyday and don’t even realize it! Although I hate ‘The Bush Family’ that doesn’t mean that they’re the only enemy. They were just picked (not by the voters) as the representatives to show us what they want us to see. There are tons of like-minded people everywhere that make me sick. Go to any golf course, country club or corporate office worldwide and you will be standing face to face with the real terrorists. I don’t buy what they tell me because I see right through their cold-faced lies. They want your money, integrity and time no matter what they have to do to get it. Even if the only way for them to freeze us into a paranoid, uptight with no reason, consuming frenzy was to fly some commercial planes into some buildings. What do they care? All they had to do was pay people to kill people to scare people to finally collect their profits. War = Profit. Death = Profit. Fear = Power. I don’t proclaim myself as fully educated in the study of politics or authority on conspiracy theories but... I am a master of intuition and know when something’s fucked up. I am learning about more evil in the world of human’s everyday. I am sick of it. I think everyone is scared to death (literally) to speak up against what is wrong because we (not me) are getting programmed everyday to only disagree with each other in our personal lives. It’s another way of distracting us while they withdraw a few coins from everybody’s bank account simultaneously. They know very well that either we won’t realize it’s happening or won’t fight it IF we catch on. We (not me) are all too busy learning how to argue via ‘Soap Operas’ and ‘Reality Shows’. No? I didn’t see much protest on the obscene gas prices recently. Why? Because they have/are succeeding in enslaving us physically and mentally. Wake up, unite and fight you stupid fuckers! RRP: I understand that you are afraid to death of tornadoes. Did you have an encounter with one? What is the root of this; can you psychoanalyze yourself? I’m asking because I actually have a similar fear of high winds that I’m trying to overcome - just the hiss of leaves on the twisted branches of trees arching in the wind makes me sweat like a pimpled and puny nerd at the Playboy mansion. Dave: I have never seen a tornado first hand but while living in Dallas I’ve had a few scares and knew a few friends that lost their roofs while drinking with me cross-town on the same day a twister was in route. I have had numerous dreams with several people that I know today where a twister threatened my existence and everything that is around me. A tornado is the scariest, most unpredictable wonder of nature. There are other storm monstrosities that share these same traits but it affects me more because they thrive in one of my favorite musical states in North America, Texas! I lived in Austin and came very close to one the day before I left to come back home to Providence. I was living in Austin in 2000 and had just purchased a shiny semi-new Dodge Ram pick-up truck and was destined to take a drive to San Antonio to hang out at the Alamo and do tourist stuff by myself. I had a pocket full of hundreds and rambling on my mind. I sat watching television with total peace in my mind for once until the bottom of the screen started flashing tornado watch and then tornado warning! I was living in a 1950’s motel converted into a cool apartment complex filled with musicians and Mexicans. I watched the trees outside blow around in a circular motion while shitting my pants “like a pimpled and puny nerd at the Playboy mansion”. I was a bit home sick prior to that day and used it as a private decision to pack up and leave Austin the next day if I were to live through this catastrophic event (to me at the time anyway). RRP: What can you tell me about your new CD? Dave: The new CD is called “Burning Miles of Sin”. It is my first release that isn’t home made. It’s got Johnny ‘Custom’ on doghouse Bass and Mike Levesque on drums. Mike played a handful of gigs with us but wasn’t a permanent member. He’s recorded with tons of folks like: David Bowie, Natalie Imbruglia, Tracy Bonham and Dave Navarro. He is a hired gun that came along at the perfect moment when we were screwed. Johnny has really stuck by me for almost 2 years now. We recently added a permanent drummer, Miss Natalie, who is showing great progress for someone that just left a hardcore band to be thrown into all of this crazy shit. I really am lucky except for when it comes to money. I’m going to be adding a store to our web site so fans can buy through me direct. I’m currently in the process of getting help with distribution. So far ‘Spindrift Records’ has agreed to sell them in their giant catalog. That will hopefully be in effect in the next month or so. I would say people should expect to never get ripped off by anything that has my name on it. This is raw and professionally produced, mixed and mastered. We cut 10 songs in almost one take each all ‘Live’ in the studio, even the vocal track was not overdubbed. That’s Rock and Roll! I wouldn’t mind a little more time in the studio but we hardly have enough money to do what we want. I think what is on this CD is my best recording to date and everyone should own one. Why? Because I wrote these songs and I fuckin’ rock! My shit tastes like chocolate. Eat it! RRP: What is the one thing, aside from music, that keeps you from eating a gun barrel? What makes life worth it for you? Dave: Well, you answered your own question, sir. Music is all I have as an outlet to help the world. I won’t swallow a gun barrel because that would be as stupid as believing and trusting the Government. I am here to piss off the ‘wrong’ people until they fuck off and let us be ourselves. I will only let the sky take me away. I am still here because I know it’s not too late to win the good fight and I’m not the only one that cares about the final outcome. I won’t be surprised if this planet ends in the result of a nuclear holocaust, or a massive collision from an angry asteroid. All I know is that the people with the Hearts of Gold will be brought into Rock N Roll Purgatory where the beer is free, the music kicks ass AND there’s no cover charge. I also enjoy quiet walks on the beach, eating red meat and getting blowjobs from my girlfriend Holly. She’s from Texas. Meow! I love you - Sasquatch

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