Following with Kolohe Andino

Kolohe Andino and I have long disagreed about the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anthony Kedis and Flea flooded all the LA airwaves from KROQ to KIIS FM for most of my adolescence, forcing me to disregard their charm and talent because I just could not get away from them. They drove me to hate. Couldn’t stand ‘em. The first profile I ever wrote about Kolohe started with the line: “I hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” Kolohe has always enjoyed. Well, I have recently come around to the Chili Peppers and learned to appreciate them thanks to songs like, “I Could Have Lied” from Blood Sugar Sex Magik and much research on the almost tragic and always tumultuous career of John Frusciante and the surprisingly delightful read of Flea’s memoir Acid for the Children. I’m back in on RHCP.

I recently rekindled with Kolohe as well after months and months of radio silence through the Covid-summer which saw him and his friends go feral on a sojourn into the remote regions of Indonesia while you and I made bread. Such is life.

We recently caught up with Kolohe and followed him around before he headed off to Hawaii for Pipe and Sunset. What I loved the most about our time together was his grom-like enthusiasm for cold, one-foot waves despite a long career of privileged access to the world’s best waves. He still gets up for one-footers at the San Clemente pier. And I like that. Enjoy a little blip into his world below. —Travis Ferré