The Importance of Being Sinner — An Interview With Pat Pasquale

Words by Zach Baker / Photos by Dom Travis

In the wake of the sorrow that has come with the passing of Dylan Rieder, the thing that shines brightest about his legacy was an adherence to his own set of artistic values. You may recall him receiving backlash for his tastes in music, attire, skate shoes, and in general for how smoking hot he was. Despite that and piles of other shit talk, Dylan did what he wanted. He stayed true to himself and expressed who he was, despite what a million opinionated avatars had to say. While it’s undeniable that he was one of the best people ever to ride a skateboard, what will always stand out to me will be how he chose the represent himself. For that and so many other reasons, he will live on for generations. R.I.P.

Pat Pasquale A.K.A. Sinner A.K.A. Bandana B, as we’ve claimed before, is another polarizing individual. Some people found his Theatrix part to be inspired; others found the man, the gear and the dubstep to be downright infuriating. QS described it as “Josh Kasper in The Storm meets Guy in Mouse meets 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Total Recall.” It’s not like we’re all about dubstep, but all three songs worth of Sinner’s last major part was a pre-meditated, unflinching realization of a vision as close to its author’s sense of truth as imaginable. Furthermore, he lives by a similar albiet far more hectic mantra to that of this site: “Ollie up it if it’s under eight stairs, if not, go ahead and huck down it.”

Anyway, Snackman’s all “do you want to interview Sinner?” and I’m all “hell yeah,” so he sends me the contact info of a guy named “Bandana B,” who keeps texting me the words “hijinx” and “Arf!” We plan to link during my time in Los Angeles, which is tough because ~you know how getting around L.A. is~. Eventually, we agreed to link and do the interview at Street League, which, in so many words, was drenched. We decided to save the interview for the next day, but go to a party where Nyjah is playing drinking games, EDM is on blast, empty Monster Energy cans are everywhere, and people are lined up to get tattoos. Next morning, he tells me to meet him at the Roosevelt. The rest is, well…it’s here.

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What are you going to be for Halloween?

Skip from Dead Presidents, B!

What’s the last NBD you did?

Last NBD? Like ever? Or for me?

I mean, have you ever?

Yeah, I got NBDs on my resume for sure! That switch shove 5-0 shove it is one of them. I got switch three-shove revert, up five. I call it a Sin Spin. I invented that one.

How was Street League yesterday?

That was my third time being at Street League. This one was by far the most fun. I was banging the most hectic music on the floor and no one said anything. The only time someone said anything about the speaker or anything was when I tried to crook the rail after the contest for the Muska. I guess the shit’s probably endorsed by some other speaker company, so the people who control the course were like “you can’t be out here with that.” I was like, “that’s the whole reason I’m even on the course!” I heard a story about Muska getting harshed out by security and Mike V. whooping security’s ass. That’s kind of ironic huh? That I was getting harshed out by security while paying homage to the Muska? I love Muska.

How’d you fall in with the Baker guys?

I owe that all to Beagle. I’m originally from Chicago, but my mom moved to Huntington in like 2004 when I was sixteen. I had already linked up with Knox [Godoy] and those fools. They came to Chicago on a Hawk Clothing trip the summer before, so I started skating with them. I used to skate Huntington like everyday. It was the worst skate park, but it was fun to go mess around at. You’d go up the five stair to practice snapping your tricks, then you’d go down it to practice sailing.

It was around 2005. I was finishing one of my first sponsor me tapes at the time, and I knew Beagle was from that area. He was really nice to everyone, but I think he saw me doing my thing at the skatepark. I gave him my sponsor tape and he hit me back up like “dude, Erik was super stoked on your part.” The first time I went and skated with him, I switch backside flipped up that five stair, so I had that on my resume already and they were hyped on me. I hung out with those dudes with a dusted heel for like three months, then I eventually started being able to skate with them a little bit more. I got a call from Jim Greco being like “Hey, are you down to get Baker boards?” I was like yeah, fuck yeah dude.

Tell me about L.E.

L.E. is good. It’s just tough right now. So many companies have popped up in the last five years that it’s hard for anything to make money. For skaters, unless you’re endorsed by one of these big shoe companies or clothing brands, you have to work jobs. I’ve never been paid well enough to support myself on skating, so I’ve always had a normal job. Any of my video parts, I was also working a job. It’s possible, you just have to be smart with your time.

What started the whole bandana thing?

That would have been right when I did that Stevie on that launch to gap.

The shove-it revert?

Yeah. The week leading up to that Stevie — shout out to S. Dot — I was staying over at my buddy Eric’s house, who’s a Shake Junt homie. It was the last week of filming for the Shake Junt video, I was over there trying to edit my part but there were so many parts that they kept putting me off. I would have to stay the night and kept extending it.

We watched Killa Season, and Juelz Santana name is Bandana in that. They’re dropping Bs the whole time: “My homie Bandana B.” Then the homie Travis — rest in peace — he was like a vato homie and had a bandana. We were all pumped up on Killa Season and I was like, “fuck dude, I’m just gonna rock this.” It was that day that we went and got that Stevie on the Burbank bump to flat.

Does the dubstep ever harsh out skaters?

Oh yeah, dude, people hate it. Well, most of the time, when I’m around bumping it, I don’t know if it’s something about my personality or something, but no one really has a problem with it face-to-face. But you read the comments for that video part — “Worst part on Thrasher.”

Yeah, we were reading them today, the comment was “this is the worst part uploaded in the history of Thrasher.”

Dude, so harsh. I catch a lot of backlash from my Theatrix part because I have all these replay slow-mos. I do that on purpose so the kid doesn’t have to do anything. I learned switch tres from the one Reynolds did off the Cherry Park stage in an old Emerica commercial. I’ve learned so much from just watching other pros do tricks in slow motion.

But the hate, I just thrive on it. I don’t even have to do anything. There’ll be a random fan that’ll just pop in like, “Fool did you not see his Chickenbone part? He’s motivated by the haters, b!” Me and Nyjah have an understanding with haters because he’s got so many and then I have a lot too. You can’t help but just be motivated by those shits. Like, fuck those fools.

Are you into rave culture?

Love it dude. Tony Tave brought us to our first rave. Then, I didn’t really do it for a while, but kept listening to the music. Then, I started hanging out with Nyjah and them. D. Loy and I fully got Nyjah into it. He won that first Street League and D. Loy’s like, “Nyjah’s coming back with us to party in Newport.” We get in the car and Nyjah had the fuckin DJ Khaled song playing — “All I Do is Win.” I’ve got my “Listen to Dubstep” shirt on, trying to preach it to him over the loud ass “win win win.” It just wasn’t working. I eventually started raging with those dudes more, skating with them more, then eventually somehow I was able to fandangle it and he loved it. They all loved it.

I’m trying to think of the first rave I went to with Jah. I think it was Coachella…

You call him Jah?

Yeah, I’ll take full credit for Jah. And he loves it because of his his Rastafari roots, mon. So pretty much, after Coachella it was over. Nyjah started getting all these free tickets to all these raves and started connecting with all these people that throw the events. It’s crazy to think back. I’ve come so far as a raver.

Did someone say you were going to try and start a bandana company?

Yeah, launching early next year, it’s gonna go!

Previously: Art At Its Purest — Rieder v.s. Sinner