We caught up with Yesod of Pepper for a quick follow-up interview to their recent CD review.

SDP: How does “No Shame” differ from Pepper’s past albums?

Yesod: We had the best time making this record; I think we did the best job so far on catching that "live show" vibe on CD. We took a different approach than before; we recorded one song at a time and worked with about 4 different producers. And it has more songs than our last three albums.
How do you feel about the final product?  What are the parts you’re really proud of?  Is there anything you wish you could change?

I think it's our best yet, as far as the songs go, the groove factor is heavy throughout. As far as things I would change, you always end up playing things a little different live , it comes in time after playing the song 100 times, that's inevitable for us, but I'd say there's the least amount of those scenarios with this album.  I'm most proud of the fact that we are 4 albums deep and going strong!!!

How has the response been so far?

It's been great, it's the first album that we play pretty much every song live. There's always that weird phase before you put the album out where you are playing new songs live but they are unfamiliar to your fans, it always makes for a more energetic show when the peeps know the words, so since the album has been out the shows have been off the hook.

The band moved to Southern California from Hawaii 7 years ago.  Is it safe to say you’re here to stay?  What are some of the biggest contrasts between the Hawaiian and Californian music scenes?

Here to stay, FOR NOW!!!!! Kona is always home!!!! We'll be back there at some point.
The biggest contrast is the mass of the scene in the mainland compared to Hawaii: it's very limited over there, and you have to fly from island to island, so it's for sure less accessible to tour. And the music as well, it seems a bit more detached in Hawaii, it doesn't follow the trends as much. Reggae has and will probably always be one of the most popular genres over there.

What’s next for the band?

We will just be touring tons to promote the new album, “No Shame.” We head out on our first headlining US tour in over a year and a half, we've been doing a lot of supporting tours for 311 most recently. The tour starts in the wonderful city of San Diego and then goes through the first week of April, we are bringing our good friends, the Mad Caddies, and a couple groups from our label LAW records, the Supervillains and Splinta from Arena Productions, so get there early!

Anything else you’d like to add?

I predict the Chicago Bears to win the super bowl!!!!! God Bless the Bears!

Thanks for your time!

More info on Pepper:
www.pepperlive.com
www.myspace.com/pepperlive

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