Jeremy Hernandez
Drummer.
Aspiring Music Teacher.
On a Saturday night, I met with Jeremy Hernandez, the drummer for
Hatewaker, a band from San Marcos, TX. We arrived at a venue in
Austin, TX.
The front entrance had a dark sign with white letters, reading “Come
and Take It Live”. The white letters were framed by red LED lights.
There was an outside patio area in the front that was lit by string
lights with a food truck at the end.
At first glance, Jeremy’s long hair and tattooed exterior is pretty
much what you would expect of someone who is a drummer in a band. But
there is more to his musical journey than you might think. This is
what I learned as I followed him around for a show that Hatewaker was
headlining.
“There’s not going to be as many bands here. It’s going to be a pretty
different show than what we usually play.” Most of the shows they play
are usually in San Marcos or on 6th street.
He looked for his band mates and called his guitarist Duncan, who then
let Jeremy know that they were just sitting, waiting outside the venue
in his car. He spots the car and walks over to greet his band mates,
while one of them asks if he had brought the back tracks for their
set. He quickly hurries to his car and back to Duncan’s car to drop
off the mini Adidas bag of their backtrack equipment.
It’s now time for Jeremy to take his drum set into the venue. To my
surprise, this is a solo task for him. I offer help, and Jeremy
politely declines a couple of times before finally allowing me to open
the door for him while he rushes each of his drum set pieces from his
car into the stage entrance of the venue.
Jeremy comes from a family of drummers. His Dad and his grandfather
were both drummers, but both stopped at playing in church or playing
tejano music. His dad was involved in what Jeremy calls “a little
Mexican church in the middle of nowhere”. He recalled his first time
playing there. “He told me just to keep a simple beat and to follow
these 40-year-old guys… and I just kept the beat. And they were like
‘Dude you’re a good drummer.’”
Jeremy’s personal interest in music came around the time he was in
middle school.
“I was desk drumming for like a month until I convinced my Dad to get me a drum kit."
His dad then got a drum kit for him from the church he was in. Getting the drum kit was one step accomplished, but the next was actually learning how to play. Jeremy used Youtube videos of drummers doing drum covers to learn. After his family saw Jeremy taking music more seriously, they sent him to another church that has Gospel ties. He played at one of their Easter Services.
Afterwards, the church offered him a spot there every weekend.
“Once I knew that I could actually drum, I wanted to be like the drummer of the family.”
After loading everything up, we walked inside the venue. It was dark inside, with most of the light coming from the stage and from the outside patio. Jeremy meets up with his band mates, who are sitting at some tables outside on the patio area. A couple of his band mates were drinking, but Jeremy said he prefers not to drink before playing. Instead, he prefers to watch the other bands who are playing usually.
But, at this show some of the bands there had a different sound.
The genre of music Hatewaker falls into is “considered deathcore
or metalcore.” The sound of the other bands didn’t exactly match
that. Their songs weren’t as cohesive in sound. Other bands came
in with a different look, like one band who had AC/DC-like face
paint. “We don’t paint our faces like that.” He gave a sort of
half-smirk. There were a couple of bands that Jeremy spent some
time watching perform. “This sounds a little closer to what we
play. It’s still different, but it’s good.”
Finally, it was getting closer to their time to play. Since they
were the headliner, their set was the last to play at 11:30 that
night. I followed to the backstage area where Jeremy spent some
time warming up before playing.
It took about 10 minutes for them to set up their equipment on the
stage. Then, a one of a kind sound check that consisted of their
lead vocalist yelling into the microphone, each guitarist playing
chords and finally Jeremy hitting his drums. Each band member took
their turn of checking the sound on their instrument and yelling
towards the back to the sound tech, letting him know how it was
sounding.
During all of this back and forth, it was obvious the crowd was
ready. For many people there, this wasn’t their first Hatewaker
concert. I recognized a man with long hair and a white tank
top-like shirt who had greeted Jeremy while he was loading his
drum set inside earlier in the night. He yelled to Jeremy
“Hatewaker! Can’t wait to see y’all play!”
Jeremy’s gospel background in music may seem very contradictory compared to the type of music he plays now. But the genre of music isn’t really the most important thing for Jeremy.
“I’m open to anything because I love to play… I like to entertain people. That’s really big. Performing anything, basically.”
Jeremy’s main goal for his music is to try and make a living out
of it. His hope is to get famous enough to generate a steady
income from playing show. But if not, he hopes to become a music
teacher.
Currently, Jeremy is working as a substitute teacher. He just
recently enrolled in classes and begins this coming spring
semester.
“I want to be a teacher to teach someone how to do it, because I couldn’t do it.”
