Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Pepperin' O'side

Reggae-rock trio Pepper livin’ Hawaiian style in Oceanside.
Reggae-rock trio Pepper livin’ Hawaiian style in Oceanside.

“You’d be surprised how many Hawaiians live in Oceanside.” Kaleo Wassman, the guitarist in Pepper and a Hawaiian transplant himself, says this after he tells me he’s lived in Oceanside for the past three or four years. “Why Oceanside? Because I can afford to live on the beach here and still buy food.”

Wassman says he and his two other bandmates in Pepper chose San Diego because “this was as far away from home as we could afford to go. In 1999, all three of us decided to move from Kona to Carlsbad. We had a friend with a spare bedroom who lived there. Our first night in California, we all went to Tijuana. You wanna talk about culture shock? Going from a small island in the Pacific Ocean to Tijuana in one day — we said, what did we do?”

Sponsored
Sponsored

He says they picked up the San Diego Reader and scanned the listings of venues and local shows to get an idea of the lay of the land as far as the local music scene. “Our first gig was at a sushi bar in Carlsbad. They paid us in all-you-can-drink sake.” Soon after, Pepper began to land gigs at ’Canes and Winstons. In time, they forged a musical alliance with a local band likewise influenced by Sublime, Point Loma’s Slightly Stoopid. “Same attitude,” says Wassman. “Same work ethic.”

The duo that would eventually become Pepper started when Wassman and Bret Bollinger began playing together in middle school in 1996. They found a drummer named Yesod Williams, left Kona for San Diego a couple of years later, and once here hooked into the reggae circuit. In 1999, they released their debut CD Give’n It on Volcom Entertainment.

Pepper began playing as many as 220 shows a year as tour support for acts such as 311, Flogging Molly, and, by 2001, Warped Tours. “That means you’re in the studio during your three weeks off,” Wassman says. But for their new self-titled release, he says the trio spent three years writing and recording, much of it in his home studio in Oceanside. The single “FKARND,” released this month, is license-plate-ese for “fucking around.”

At home, Wassman says he hits open-mic nights at clubs in Carlsbad and Leucadia. “There are these amazing bands in San Diego that nobody knows about.” For eats, he favors the Hill Street Café, and then there’s the ocean. “When we’re home, we surf every day.” He had been in the water on the day we spoke by phone. “Sixty-seven degrees,” he says of the ocean temperature. “No wetsuit needed. Just being by the ocean is incredible,” he says. “Oceanside’s got a lot of grit, but I kinda like that. You got soccer moms, bikers, surfers. It’s got so much in this one little zone.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

SD Symphony singer tells what it’s like behind the scenes

Conductor Payare even looks like Mahler
Next Article

A history of the house on the hill at Ivanhoe Ranch

From Apolinaria Lorenzana to Jane Goodall
Reggae-rock trio Pepper livin’ Hawaiian style in Oceanside.
Reggae-rock trio Pepper livin’ Hawaiian style in Oceanside.

“You’d be surprised how many Hawaiians live in Oceanside.” Kaleo Wassman, the guitarist in Pepper and a Hawaiian transplant himself, says this after he tells me he’s lived in Oceanside for the past three or four years. “Why Oceanside? Because I can afford to live on the beach here and still buy food.”

Wassman says he and his two other bandmates in Pepper chose San Diego because “this was as far away from home as we could afford to go. In 1999, all three of us decided to move from Kona to Carlsbad. We had a friend with a spare bedroom who lived there. Our first night in California, we all went to Tijuana. You wanna talk about culture shock? Going from a small island in the Pacific Ocean to Tijuana in one day — we said, what did we do?”

Sponsored
Sponsored

He says they picked up the San Diego Reader and scanned the listings of venues and local shows to get an idea of the lay of the land as far as the local music scene. “Our first gig was at a sushi bar in Carlsbad. They paid us in all-you-can-drink sake.” Soon after, Pepper began to land gigs at ’Canes and Winstons. In time, they forged a musical alliance with a local band likewise influenced by Sublime, Point Loma’s Slightly Stoopid. “Same attitude,” says Wassman. “Same work ethic.”

The duo that would eventually become Pepper started when Wassman and Bret Bollinger began playing together in middle school in 1996. They found a drummer named Yesod Williams, left Kona for San Diego a couple of years later, and once here hooked into the reggae circuit. In 1999, they released their debut CD Give’n It on Volcom Entertainment.

Pepper began playing as many as 220 shows a year as tour support for acts such as 311, Flogging Molly, and, by 2001, Warped Tours. “That means you’re in the studio during your three weeks off,” Wassman says. But for their new self-titled release, he says the trio spent three years writing and recording, much of it in his home studio in Oceanside. The single “FKARND,” released this month, is license-plate-ese for “fucking around.”

At home, Wassman says he hits open-mic nights at clubs in Carlsbad and Leucadia. “There are these amazing bands in San Diego that nobody knows about.” For eats, he favors the Hill Street Café, and then there’s the ocean. “When we’re home, we surf every day.” He had been in the water on the day we spoke by phone. “Sixty-seven degrees,” he says of the ocean temperature. “No wetsuit needed. Just being by the ocean is incredible,” he says. “Oceanside’s got a lot of grit, but I kinda like that. You got soccer moms, bikers, surfers. It’s got so much in this one little zone.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Fix it Clinic, Gaslamp Holiday Pet Parade

Events December 14-December 18, 2024
Next Article

Holiday Market At Petco Park, Will Smith’s Dance in the Darkness Tour, Light Shows, Snowfall, Caroling

Events December 12-December 13, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader