Events

Four Questions with Pepper Bassist, Bret Bollinger

Pepper is a three piece rock band from Hawaii that specializes in reggae juxtaposed with stylistic comedic punk influences. They will play the Rapid’s Theater on Niagara Falls on Friday, November 28, their first appearance in the Western New York region. This week we had a quick chat with bassist Bret Bollinger.

Public: I’m looking forward to your performance at the Rapid’s Theater in Niagara Falls. Have you run into much snow before on your tours?
Bret Bollinger: It’s our first time playing Niagara Falls. These are not typical Hawaii problems. We are freezing, nobody packed warm enough, we were in total off tour mode when we left for our buddy’s wedding and were still wearing our tuxedos and nursing a hell of a hangover. Within about two days that Arctic chill had rolled in. We’re not even to the north yet so I don’t even know what to tell you. I’m going shopping.

P: You recently released, a song called “Every Little Thing,” which is a collaboration with New Beat Fund. How did this come together?
BB: It was a super fun collaboration. We basically said “hey, let’s start from scratch, no demos.” We met over email; they sent music and we sent music. We built it like Legos. They sent us a cool production of a drum beat, we sent them acoustic bass and guitars, they sent it back with core progressions and melodies. It was like building a human skeleton from nothing.

P: You’ve said in the past that the songwriting on Pepper is more refined than on previous albums. What was the catalyst for the evolution of the band’s sound?
BB: We got hungry for music on our own. We were literally doing a handful of shows, a little mini tour, not really recording really. When you get hungry as an artist, you go after it. The guitar and the studio are always sitting there for you.

P: Later this week, I’ll be talking to Slightly Stoopid, who you’ve toured with extensively. Any embarrassing escapades I should bring up about those guys?
BB: We’ve pretty much done everything you can do touring wise together. The first time we ever played with them was in Ocean Beach, San Diego at a house. We started sound-checking and doing it and meeting the guys and they were super sweet. One song into our sound-check, Miles [Doughty, guitarist/vocalist] gave us a tuning pedal. Previously we tuned by ear according to the punk rock, DIY philosophy. They would not take it back. They said “Please keep it, you need it, for your fan’s sakes.”