Biography

The Quahaugs (Kwah’ HOGS ) are the musical creation of singer, songwriter and guitarist Kaika Kale. A native New Englander, Kaika defines The Quahaug sound as a “sonic melding of The Gin Blossoms and Billy Bragg, with a little Matthew Sweet circa 1990 thrown in for good measure.” Translated into layman terms, this means plenty of jangly guitars, perceptive lyrics, and melodic guitar riffs that can get frantic from time to time.

 

The Quahaugs debut album, Venus Mercenaria, started taking shape in 2005 shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Kaika Kale explains the motivation behind the CD this way, “my in-laws live in New Orleans and my nephew is a student at Tulane University. I was deeply affected by what this storm did to New Orleans. I revisited the city seven months after Katrina ravaged the area and I couldn’t believe how bad things still were in what I like to think as my adoptive home town.”

 

Kaika felt compelled to chronicle the destruction he saw in song. Weeds Amongst Flowers was the resulting musical creation. This song and a desire to do something for the city he loved, drove Kaika to head into the studio. The end result is a 10 song offering called Venus mercenaria. Kaika plans to donate a percentage of the net proceeds from the sale of this CD to the Music Rising Foundation. The foundation's goal is to bring the music back to the churches, schools, and city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. "Ideally, I would love to raise a sizeable amount of money for Music Rising. It all depends on how well the CD is received."

Venus Mercenaria was symbolically released on August 29, 2006 to coincide with the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The CD was self released on Kaika Kale’s own independent label - Bathmetric Records. A new Quahaug record is in the works and is slated to be released in 2011.