INTERVIEW: Pepper rock the reggae sound on summer tour
Photo: Pepper, a reggae rock band, consists of Kaleo Wassman, Bret Bollinger and Yesod Williams. Photo courtesy of Pepper / Provided with permission by band’s PR.
Drummer Yesod Williams, guitarist Kaleo Wassman and bassist Bret Bollinger — better known as Pepper — are still bringing their unique brand of reggae rock to fans across the United States. The Hawaii group, which is now based in San Diego, are currently touring the country with Slightly Stoopid. They have upcoming shows in New York, Michigan and Illinois.
For Williams, the summer tour has been a real joy and a trip down memory lane.
“It has been amazing,” Williams said in a recent phone interview. “We’re back on the road with probably our oldest friends in the music industry, our brothers in arms, Slightly Stoopid. And it has been a full decade since we’ve done a tour together; 2008 was the last time. Besides all the amazing gratitude we have for being able to transmit music throughout this world and travel, on top of it having this whole family reunion vibe has been just over the top. You know what, I say it has been 10 years. But we basically have gotten back on the road, and it’s like we haven’t skipped a beat — no pun intended. It’s like, oh, it seems like we’ve been touring this whole 10 years already. I can’t say enough about how much fun we’re having out here.”
Pepper first formed in 1997 after the guys graduated from high school in their native Hawaii. Within a couple of years, they moved from Kailua Kona to San Diego and became a go-to name on the reggae rock scene. They have recorded numerous albums and toured with the likes of 311, Flogging Molly and Sublime With Rome.
When fans check them out this summer, they should expect a little sampling from each of the group’s albums, including Kona Town, No Shame, Ohana and their self-titled release from 2013.
“To be totally honest, probably we’re not getting much from Give’n It, our first record from 1999 in there, but as far as Kona Town through Ohana, there’s a little bit of everything in there when we put together the set list,” Williams said. “The downfall is, after having that many albums, always after a show, there are those couple songs that always end up falling through the cracks. But we’ve been trying to change it up for this tour and have about three or four mainstay set lists that we kind of go in between just to give new life, instead of going through the motions.”
Williams described the band’s vibe and sound in simple terms: “Aloha,” “Hawaii” and “Ohana.” They bring their experiences from the island everywhere they play, whether it’s the middle part of the United States, where an ocean is thousands of miles away, or along the West Coast, where the sun can be seen setting on the Pacific Ocean.
“You can take the boy out of the island, but you can’t take the island out of the boy,” Williams said. “So, yeah, that’s kind of our version of the magical release of music that we bring around in our brand.”
On occasion, the trio will take time off to recharge their batteries. Such a break occurred after 2008’s Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations. It wasn’t a split, but more of a regroup.
“We had been going strong for about 10 years, maybe more, straight out of high school,” the drummer said. “We graduated high school, formed the band, moved to San Diego, and I think it was just a time where we had to regroup and be like, OK, we’ve been going on for a solid decade. We had solid success, such a rad story so far, that we just wanted to check in, regroup. With anything that you’re so involved in, our head to the ground, you always got to bring it up at one point and just make sure and double check everything, and that’s kind of what we did.”
Since that break, the band’s sound has matured and become more recognizable. Now, when fans hear a drum beat from Williams, it comes off as pure Pepper. Ditto for the guitar licks and bass lines.
“There’s so many peaks and valleys, for lack of a better term, in the journey,” he said. “We went so far out with our songwriting, kind of ventured and tried different avenues with the self-titled album and different styles of music that we hadn’t delved into before and whatnot. And then with Ohana, it’s funny because it’s almost like we brought it back to where our style was back in the early 2000s. … But it’s not same as it was back there. It’s a little more rounded out and a little more mature, but at the same time, it’s the best of both worlds because I think we’ve gone this whole journey. And it’s come full circle now. That’s what that signature sound is I was talking about earlier — a little bit of the old with all the good from the new as well.”
Recently the band has been releasing their albums on their own label, which gives them more creative freedom. Williams recommends that model for other bands, as long as the groups can respect the bottom line.
“If any band can do it, then I would highly recommend going the independent route just because of having the complete control and not having a million hands in the pot,” he said. ” Everyone knows the way the music industry has gone and record sales, and the pots have gotten smaller. Yeah, we’re very fortunate that we’re able to do that, and by all means, we jump at the chance to control our own destiny.”
Touring doesn’t seem to get old for the band, who are almost gigging nonstop. Even when they are exhausted, they bring that island life to fans with a smile and ceremonious pound of the fist. In fact, Williams said his stage time is, without fail, high energy.
“Honestly, as tired, as worn out, as mentally worn as we are, it’ll always just automatically flip once we take that stage and we see all the people and energy,” he said. “Any of that tired energy just escapes. There’s no way around it just to be pedal to the metal, even if you’re totally exhausted.”
This summer, as Pepper’s tour winds down, the Vans Warped Tour also draws to an end — for good. This is sad news for Williams because Warped and Pepper went hand in hand for many years. The band’s history is very much tied to the annual festival of punk, metal and rock.
“Any great thing does come to an end,” Williams said. “It was kind of a surprise, and then the other 50 percent was like, I kind of see that era is moving on and other things are coming into play. So I guess I accepted it when I heard it, being very sad as well because if it wasn’t for Warped Tour, I don’t know. Who knows, we may never have made it this far because that was our first official tour we ever went on. Back then, there wasn’t really a big genre for this reggae rock music anyway. It was just pretty much us and Slighty Stoopid, so things like Warped Tour were entities that we could latch on to. … But the beautiful thing is the legacy will always remain, and all the beautiful faces we still get to see.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Pepper are currently on tour with Slightly Stoopid. Click here for more information and tickets.
