How sharing 1 last song could lead to rebirth of beloved Phoenix rockers Captain Squeegee
Danny Torgersen is on the phone to talk about the first new Captain Squeegee music since early 2018, a song being hyped as the final release for a beloved Valley band whose sound this very website has called “a heady brand of neo-psychedelic prog as a van full of jazz performance majors raised on ska would play it."
The thing is, he’s been having second thoughts as to whether he’s actually ready to end this particular chapter of his life.
“It’s a dramatic thing to say, right? I don’t know. Squeegee has been through a lot together. We’ve been a band for 15-plus years,” Torgersen says.
The trumpet player (who also goes by Dan E.T., a play on both his name and his interest in extraterrestrials) wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction they’ve been getting since they started teasing the release of "Knew Something," a single and accompanying video due Wednesday, Feb. 1.
“It’s been weird, getting back on the Squeegee accounts and hyping the fans up,” he says.
“Dude, they are so excited. I did not expect the outpouring we’re getting. So it’s hard to say that this is the last song, you know? It’s certainly the last song in existence currently.”
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Captain Squeegee 'scattered like a firework' when the pandemic hit
Captain Squeegee haven’t played a show together since a Full Moon Festival in downtown Phoenix in early 2019.
They recorded “Knew Something,” the song they’re releasing, before the pandemic shut everything down.
“When COVID hit, we all just sort of scattered like a firework,” Torgersen says. “And when the dust settled from all of that and us not being able to meet, we'd kind of split into a solar system of schedules and professions.”
Torgersen “accidentally" joined an East Coast tribute to Sublime called Badfish.
“Our sax player became a chef,” he says. “Our drummer became a mechanic. Our trombone player is probably flying a plane right now. Our keyboard player is a computer scientist now. Everybody is killing it in their own worlds, you know?”
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The recording (and subsequent shelving) of 'Knew Something'
Captain Squeegee recorded “Knew Something” with their friend Josh Medina, who engineered the track.
“We were trying to see how much we could do our on own because we’re just such a creative pack of individuals,” Torgersen says.
“But it kind of timed out poorly with when the pandemic hit. And it just started gathering dust.”
He had forgotten all about the song, in fact, until an injury took him off the road and laid him up with nothing much to do.
“I went into a deep digital dive of my hard-drive dungeons and that’s when I rediscovered this song we had recorded on our own and filmed a video, which I also barely remembered,” he says, with a laugh.
“So I found this awesome music and footage and I was like, ‘Dude, Squeegee is still awesome and unique. I was just blown away by how cool the song actually is.”
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How a 'doomsday math-rock banger' led to new excitement
He took the tracks to his go-to producer, Bob Hoag, who helped finish mixing and mastering the songs and “giving it that Squeegee sound,” Torgersen says. “And then I kind of mustered up the gang for this adventure of dropping the song.”
He and his bandmates even rekindled the group chat, talking up the new release among themselves.
“There’s a lot of new excitement,” Torgersen says. “Which is fun. It’s a huge, big insane song. It’s funny that if this is our last song that we’re giving the world this doomsday math-rock banger.”
Could this lead to a return to active duty after all this time?
“Dude, I’ve been shocked by bands and venues hitting me up since I started hyping the single,” Torgersen says.
“It’s a really warm and fuzzy feeling to know that we could still rage a show if we wanted. And I think we maybe want to. So keep your eye out for that. I think there’s some excitement there.”
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Is this the year of Dan E.T.?
Regardless of what happens on the Squeegee front, Torgersen plans on making this “the year of Dan E.T.”
He has a feature on the latest Bear Ghost single, “Rivers Is a Vampire.” He co-produced a hip-hop album with rappers Grieves and Mouse Powell. And he’s about to drop his first release as Dan E.T., a song that features Grieves.
“So that’s a big moment for me,” he says.
“It’s part of an entire EP I’ve been creating for a bit. It’s kind of a new sound. I still think the Squeegee fans will dig it because it has that psychedelic adventurism that I just can’t help but do. But it has more reggae and hip-hop elements since I’ve kind of found new homes in those genres on the road.”
He credits Badfish for the reawakening of his reggae side.
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“It’s a really special thing to be in that circuit,” he says.
“And as a trumpet player, playing ska, dude? That just gets my heart bubbly. That’s where I started playing music, ska and reggae. That’s where Squeegee started, really. So it’s so cool to be able to do that professionally for sold-out audiences with Badfish.”
The hip-hop flavor grew out of his recent work with Powell and Grieves.
“It’s just been cool to branch out,” he says.
It may be easier to stay on top of all his different projects if you follow his accounts on social media.
He’s Dan E.T.
“I’ll be posting my collabs there,” Torgersen says. “And there’s a lot of awesome Squeegee footage I found from the past that I’m gonna be posting on those accounts to kind of celebrate the legacy of Squeegee. So just follow our socials. It’s gonna be an exciting new year for everybody.”
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Final Captain Squeegee song could mean a new start for Phoenix rockers
