Not everyone in Anchorage can manage an escape to Hawaii during the winter, but the Bear Tooth Theatrepub is doing its best to bring some island flavor to those celebrating New Year's Eve here in town. Reggae-rock trio Pepper, originally from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, is headlining Bear Tooth's party to ring in 2012 and help pull attendees out of the winter doldrums.
Comprised of Kaleo Wassman (guitar and vocals), Bret Bollinger (bass and vocals) and Yesod Williams (drums), Pepper formed in 1997, finding local success before releasing its first studio album in 2000, "Give'n It." Since then, the band has produced four more albums, repeatedly appeared on Warped Tour, launched LAW Records and opened for such acts as The Offspring, Less Than Jake, 311 and The Wailers (the latter two have also helped mellow out Alaska audiences with performances in recent years).
Often described as a reggae group, band members have shied away from such a classification.
"What's funny is reggae groups like The Wailers would laugh at that and would never call us a reggae group," Bollinger told Hear magazine in September. "But what they did give us was essentially musical lessons that we were able to incorporate into our sound."
The band's upcoming Anchorage show follows a year of heavy touring, including a run that just wrapped up November in Hawaii. Now, with a new year on the horizon, Wassman told music blog The Sights and Sounds that Pepper is looking to get back into the studio. The group's last effort, the EP "Stitches," was released in 2010, but Wassman said in that same September interview that he often finds inspiration for writing at unusual times.
"I don't usually sit down at a desk and say 'OK, I'm going to write this song today.' That never happens," he said. "Every song usually starts on a cocktail napkin at a bar or stationary in a hotel room or being woken up at 4 in the morning with some(thing) playing on repeat in my head."
Perhaps it's the random nature associated with the band's songwriting that's contributed to Pepper's difficult-to-define style. As Williams told Infectious Magazine earlier this year, Pepper hasn't really had an identifiable sound over the years, but he feels they're finally getting to that point.
"(I) look at our first CD compared to the latest EP released, 'Stitches,' and it's kind of more all over the place, the first CD -- where there is this song in this style of music and this song is this style of music and this song is another different style of music," he said. "Where I think with the new EP ... we've brought all the styles together into each song. That's something that I hope people can recognize us by and identify us by -- that certain Pepper sound."
By Toben Shelby
Daily News correspondent