Kaleo Wassman (born January 6, 1978) is an American musician who serves as the

lead singer The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

ist of

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

, dub bands

Pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

and Sabotage Soundsystem.

Biography

Early life

Wassman was born in

Kailua-Kona Kailua-Kona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is also known as Kailua (a name it shares with a community located on the windward side of Oahu), as Kona (a name it shares ...

on the Big Island of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. In 1996, he started working with fellow bandmembers and bassist Brett Bollinger and Yesod Williams. The three of them have been friends since high school and started the band shortly after graduating. Kaleo said in an interview, "Everyone went to college and we went to the bars...."

Career with Pepper

In 1999, his newly formed band, with friends Bret Bollinger and Yesod Williams, relocated to

SoCal Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ag ...

to pursue their interest in

music and get signed by a major label. After releasing the band's debut demo '' Give'n It'' in 2000,

were signed by

Volcom Entertainment Volcom Entertainment, officially founded in 1995, in Big Bear, California, and currently based in Costa Mesa, California, Costa Mesa, CA is the brainchild of Volcom founder Richard Woolcott and theLINE's singer/guitarist Ryan Immegart. Ryan being ...

. After signing in 2000, the band performed in their first major show at the

Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touring ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. Following the Warped Tour, Wassman and his bandmates quickly hit the studio to produce their first album under

Volcom Volcom is a lifestyle brand that designs, markets, and distributes boardsports-oriented products. Volcom is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, U.S. The brand is known for its trademark ''stone'' logo, its slogan ''True to This'', and the '' ...

. This was done with the help of

Less Than Jake Less Than Jake is an American ska punk band from Gainesville, Florida, formed in 1992. The band consists of Chris DeMakes (guitars, vocals), Roger Lima (bass, vocals), Matt Yonker (drums), Buddy Schaub (trombone), and Peter "JR" Wasilewski (saxoph ...

and

blink-182 Blink-182 (stylized as blink-182) is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Poway, California in 1992. Their current lineup consists of bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their ...

producer

Steve Kravac Steven B. Kravac (born June 17, 1964), is a Canadian-born RIAA gold-accredited record producer, recording engineer, musician and composer. He is the owner of the music label Porterhouse Records and its sub-labels Porterhouse Prime Vinyl and Porte ...

. The album was completed by early 2002, and on March 26, 2002 the band's first album '' Kona Town'' was released. Some of Wassman and Pepper's songs started to appear on various

compilations, as early as 1999 with ''Summer Sampler'' and '' The Early Poems Of''. After

released '' Kona Town'' in 2002, Wassman and Pepper went on a few tours before returning to the studio. '' In with the Old'' followed in 2004, and Pepper started touring with the likes of

311 311 may refer to: * 311 (number), a natural number * AD 311, a year of the Julian calendar, in the fourth century AD * 311 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar * 311 (band), an American band ** ''311'' (album), band 311's self-titled album ...

and

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...

. Wassman and the band decided to leave

and they began their own record label,

LAW Records Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. Its first release was a re-issue of their 2000 demo '' Give'n It'' in 2003. A live DVD was issued in early 2006 before Pepper returned that fall with the studio album '' No Shame'' in 2006. After this Wassman and his bandmates began a subsequent tour alongside

Slightly Stoopid Slightly Stoopid is an American band based in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California, who describe their music as "a fusion of folk, rock, reggae and blues with hip-hop, funk, metal and punk." As a band, they have released thirt ...

and also appeared at the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. After finishing this tour, Pepper returned to the studio and released ''

Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations ''Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations'' is the fifth studio album from Pepper released on July 22, 2008. The title is taken from a fictional album recorded by "Coconut Pete" in the Broken Lizard film ''Club Dread''. The album is produced by Paul ...

'' on July 22, 2008.

Relationship status

Kaleo has been married to Melanie Wassman for more than 15 years. They met, as Kaleo describes, “midair, deep in the cut”, while hang gliding.

Career with Sabotage Soundsystem

Kaleo and fellow surfer-musician Remy “Dub” DeRochemont also from Kona, started collaborating in 1999. After releasing many EPs and demos as well as doing many live shows, the band signed to Volcom Entertainment. Sabotage Soundsystem released their seventeen track debut album on February 17, 2009 entitled ''The Boto Machine Gun''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wassman, Kaleo 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singers American male guitarists American punk rock guitarists American punk rock singers American reggae guitarists American ska guitarists Reggae rock musicians Reggae singers Dub musicians Singers from Hawaii Guitarists from Hawaii People from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Living people 1978 births