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PEPPER



members present: Yesod Williams
conducted on: July 2010
by: Nevra Azerkan
extras:official website








 
 

PZO: As a band, what are your best qualities?
Yesod: Probably our dancing on stage and the fact that most of the time people don’t know what the fuck we’re talking about, but somehow we have a tendency to entertain people. The fans are so amazing because they put up with us and they come party with us and what not. It’s more about them then us kind of thing, you know and then our last quality I would say is our appetite.
PZO: So you guys have some amazing dance moves?
Yesod: No, they actually are not. That’s why I’m saying they put up with us. <laughs>

PZO: What event in your life had the greatest impact on you?
Yesod: My mom used to work for this big concert promoter in Hawaii when I was growing up and she always used to take me to the arena shows. We got to fly to Honolulu from the big Island. I was like her little sidekick. I went and saw Bon Jovi on their New Jersey Tour, Mötley Crüe on their Dr. Feelgood Tour, even the Bangles and Rod Stewart—all this crazy shit. I got to meet all the guys, but the one that really hit me the hardest was I saw Metallica on their ...And Justice for All Tour before Lars turned into a total douchebag. I got to meet all them too. When I think back now,  I had the realization, Wow, these people are actually just normal human beings. They’re not these super hero gods. I think that kind of put it in my mind that anyone can do this. <laughter> This is proof, if we can make a living, jeez.
PZO: I think a lot of people have to meet someone famous to realize that.
Yesod: Yeah. I was young then too, I was like eleven, ten years old. I was like these rock stars are super human people. That was definitely a big one in my life.

PZO: Given the opportunity, who would you kidnap for a day?
Yesod: Probably Dave Grohl. First, I’d have him give me a drum lesson, then he’d probably want to do a bunch of whiskey drinkin’ which would be a good time. But my first thought was John Bonham from Led Zeppelin, but I dunno I think I might connect more to Dave Grohl because John Bonham is English and I don’t know.
PZO: You can kidnap one on one day  and then the next the other day.
Yesod: Okay, there you go. John Bonham and Dave Grohl, threesome.

PZO: What band would you like to see get back together?

Yesod: <long pause> Shoot. I don’t know, let me think about that. Well, minus, one of them passed away, but minus Dimebag Darrell, I would say Pantera. If you could resurrect some guy and put a band back together I’d say Pantera.

PZO: Are there any fairly unknown bands you think people should check out?
Yesod: Yeah, all the bands on our record label, Law Records, which starts out with Iration. They are from Hawaii as well, The Supervillians from Florida and Passafire from Georgia. All really great music.
PZO: What kind of music?
Yesod: Iration is kind of like island reggae, Hawaiian kind of like reggae with a little rock here and there. Supervillians are really high energy upbeat like rock reggae with some ska band. Passafire, they’re like progressive reggae like if Rush played reggae or something; super crazy musicians, crazy songs and arrangements and what not. They are like a musician’s band, people who are musicians who listen to them will be like holy fuck.

PZO: What was the last good deed you did?
Yesod: I sent my Grandma flowers for no reason. She’s a witty, nuts lady. She always tells me I’m her favorite. She calls me and she’s like, “Yesod sent me flowers for no reason” and all her other grandchildren and her other family she’s like, “All those other bastards can fuck themselves.”
<laughter>
Yesod: She’s got a real dirty mouth, but it’s super funny. It doesn’t seem mean or a bad thing or anything.
PZO: It’s just hilarious.
Yesod: Yeah, it’s hilarious. That was the last thing.
PZO: How old is she?
Yesod: Like eighty-eight and she’s like five feet tall.
PZO:That’s awesome.
Yesod: When we’re in Austin, where her and my auntie live, her daughter, we have her bring us on stage. She just goes, she cusses to the crowd. She’s like “You motherfuckers, fuck you!!” Everyone loves it. There’s actually pictures online you can check her out.
PZO: She’s not here today?
Yesod: Nah.

PZO: What’s one thing you would not do for any amount of money?
Yesod: Cheat on my wife.
PZO: That’s a good one.
Yesod: That’s pretty much it. I love that woman. She is here though.
PZO: She should do the introduction then.
Yesod: Yeah, I don’t know. The stage might get bum rushed by dudes ‘cause unlike myself she’s an amazingly good looking person.

PZO: What is one thing you have always wanted to do, but haven’t done yet?
Yesod: Go skydiving.
PZO: Indoor or outdoor.
Yesod: The real thing, but with the dude strapped to my back.
PZO: I think they are required to anyway, the first time.
Yesod: I wouldn’t trust myself…
PZO: to do it on your own.
Yesod: Yeah.

PZO: Who would you love to work with musically?
Yesod: Dr. Dre. I think it would seriously be a cool thing working with a sick hip hop producer. I mean our music is like rock music, but heavily bass oriented and what not. I think that would be a cool thing. Call me, call me.
PZO: Yeah, we’ll get him to check this out. Put in some good word.
Yesod: Nice.

PZO: What’s the best lesson you’ve ever learned?
Yesod: To not take yourself too seriously is definitely a good one. I grew up with my mom my whole life and so to respect women. That’s kind of the two.

PZO: What’s the first album you bought as a kid?
Yesod: It was a tape. Run DMC, Raising Hell.
PZO_Camera_Friend: That was my question.
Yesod: That was a good one. God bless your soul.
<laughter>

PZO: As a band, what has been the biggest decision this past year?
Yesod: We built our own studio, which is one big one.
PZO: Where at?
Yesod: In Dana Point. What we did was since we have our own record label, we release our own records, basically we have a distributor through Sony and they give us money to make records. They’re like loan sharks, like here’s some money, but we want it back, motherfuckers. So we decided to take that money, instead of going and renting out a studio and recording an album, we just put it in to building our own studio. That was a pretty big decision; it was a good one at the same time.
PZO: When did that happen?
Yesod: We are just kind of finishing it up right now.

PZO: What’s a common compliment people give the band?
Yesod: I think that we’re like real humble and nice and that we really try to go hang out with our fans and thank them for giving us the best job in the world. We went into a radio station before and they started looking at us all weird and we’re like what? They’re like you guys are so normal this is weird. I was like it’s weird that you’re saying that, who are these other people you gotta deal with.
PZO: Everyone else. There’s some really weird characters.
Yesod: Yeah, that’s the whole taking yourself too seriously thing. Some people think they’re really blessing people with their presence. <laughs> It's like heeey.
PZO: Yeah, we’ve had some encounters.

PZO: What has been the most surprising moment in your career?
Yesod: Right now, when I look at my watch and I realize what year and what day it is. I’m like holy shit, we’ve been a band for thirteen years and we’re doing better than we ever have and we get along better than we ever have. I appreciate it.

PZO: What question comes up in almost every interview that you’re tired of being asked?

Yesod: There’s a lot, but probably, this is a broad answer, but probably any of the cliché Hawaii questions, you know what I mean? Like why did you move from Hawaii? So you guys are from Hawaii, right? Like did you guys live in houses when you were growing up? No, we fucking lived on the beach. Of course we lived in houses.  Any of those questions…it’s just like I’ll answer, but come on.
PZO: After all this time, you still get those questions?
Yesod: <laughs> Yeah.

PZO: What question would you like to be asked?
Yesod: Wait, hold on, I have to retract to the last question. This is the most annoying one, so tell me about the craziest moment that’s happened on tour? It’s like look buddy, it’s almost like Groundhogs day being on tour. That one comes up all the time. Okay, what question would I like to be asked? How about: See, I have a million dollars in cash in my car, would you like it?
<laughter>

PZO: When is your next album going to be released?
Yesod: We just released two…
PZO: Singles.
Yesod: Singles, yeah. Well, it’s one single and then we gave one for free. So it’s like you buy the one..
PZO_Camera_Friend: A 2fer.
Yesod: Yeah, a 2fer. We’re like 7Eleven. Then we’re going to release either a couple more songs or an EP, like a four or five song EP around the Fall tour, which we are doing a headlining tour in the middle of September and then the full album probably will come out earlyish next year.
PZO: Any details, musically?
Yesod: I mean it’s kind of like the two songs, have you heard the two songs?
PZO: Yeah.
Yesod: Yeah, it’s kinda like that. We are all in a super happy place right now and I think it shows through the music. I think the whole new album and the new songs show that. It’s going to be our first self-titled album. So it’s going to be called Pepper <pause> Pepper. We’re going to put it twice. <laughs>.


 
 
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