We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Fernando Jaramillo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Fernando, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
At a very young age I knew that I liked music, I would dance all over the house, I would ask my dad to turn on the radio (or la-la, how I used to call it) as soon as I would get in the car.
First I wanted to be a guitar player, but life started showing me drums, and I liked it better!
At the age of 7 my parents came home with a toy drum, I didn’t do much with it, but then my older sister’s boyfriend brought a vinyl from the band Rush, the album was called “All The World’s Stage”, important thing to mention is that I was born in Santiago, Chile and back then we were under a dictatorship and having access to that kind of music was very rare.
In that album there’s a drum solo from Neil Peart, and once I heard it I knew I wanted to be a drummer!
At the time, my neighbor’s older brother got a drum kit, and we would spend hours watching him play.
At the age of 9, my parents moved to Los Angeles CA, I was already building drum kits with whatever I would find. I remember I would use those metal cookie boxes and drop a few coins on top so it would sound like a snare drum.
My mom’s sister, who lived in Los Angeles and is a psychoanalyst and a painter, asked a colleague of her’s that was also a jazz drummer, for advice on a drum kit, he was kind enough to let me have one of he’s kits, and that is when it all really started.
I had my first teacher, he was great, he asked me to choose a song, so I said Tom Sawyer by Rush… he said, not there yet buddy! So we both agreed to do Jump by Van Halen. He wrote the drum charts with me, explained all the value of the notes, and drum notation, while having fun playing to the Van Halen song.
He made it a game, it was fun, I wanted to play every song that I liked and spent countless hours doing that.
The way I see music, is that it is a language, so the way to learn at the beginning is to copy, same thing we do when we learn how to speak, we just copy. At the beginning is all fun and like a game that you are trying to figure out and get better at it, I guess that’s why we call it “playing drums”.
We moved back to Chile when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I kept playing to records but also my parents put me in a music school, so that was where I started learning more theory and things start to get a bit more challenging. I always took the difficult exercises as a challenge, I wanted to nail them and it made me proud to do so.
At the age of 16 I started playing with local bands in Santiago, that’s a game changer, because now you are part of a team, now it’s not just about me, it’s about a collaboration in service of the music and the song, you have to listen to the rest of the band and have eye contact, just like you would do if you are in a soccer team for instance, you have a duty and you are part of a team, so you work together for a common goal.
As drummers we are in charge of the tempo, the dynamics, the energy, and we have to pay attention to all those things. At least for me, I learned all those things by playing in bands, no teacher talked to me about it.
I think it helped playing to songs in my early years, because I could hear and copy what the greats were doing, whether I was conscious about it or not.
In Chile I was always part of bands, and was not really making a living only from music, so I decided to move back to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue music as a full time career.
Quickly I realized that I needed some others set of skills, like learning songs fast and learning different styles of music, some of them I was very unfamiliar with.
A good example of unfamiliar music was when once I got approached by a music director for a Persian singer, I’m a rock drummer at heart, and more specifically a progressive rock drummer, which is a style that is more complex. So the music director said that if I could do progressive rock, I could definitely do Persian music. I’m not sure if I agree with that, but I gave it a chance.
First of all, I had never even heard of Persian music and when I first heard it I thought it would be a nice challenge for me.
To understand music from a different place, you have to understand the culture, and I didn’t know anything about Persians. So what I did at the beginning was to listen to a lot of their music, and then, just like I would do when I started as a kid, I would play to it and trying to match the feel of it us much as possible.
I found some similitude with the chilean folklore music, so I approached it that way at the beginning. The band members where very helpful on giving me tips and directions.
I think that in the end I play my interpretation of it, and they seem to like it, as a matter of fact, I’m on tour with a Persian artist right now.
It’s important to find your voice, your sound. We all start by copying, but later you have to have your own voice on the instrument, unapologetically.
It ends up being a combination of things, what you listen to, who you studied with, your own personality, what you are interested in, sense of humor, etc.
When I’m seating behind the kit, I feel that I’m truly myself, with all the virtues and defects, a constant work in progress.
I consider myself an advanced student, constantly learning about the craft, and that’s the beauty of it, it’s a never ending process.
The importance of practicing and learning the craft is that you have more tools to express yourself with your instrument, and when you get an idea in your head, you can actually execute it. And also, when somebody else has an idea for you to play, you have the tools to do so.
Fernando, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m a Grammy awarded drummer, born in Santiago, Chile, and living in California now for over 16 years.
Started playing drums at the age of 9 and professionally when I was 16 years old.
I have toured and recorded with Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys), Beto Cuevas (La Ley), All4One, Kamran & Hooman, Sami Beigi, Leila Forouhar, Trope, Exsimio, among others.
I have a studio in beautiful Santa Paula CA, where I do most of my work when I’m not on the road. I’m also a sound engineer, so I make sure I get the best sound possible from my studio.
Having the support and representing brands like Sonor Drums, Paiste Cymbals, Remo drumheads, Innovative Percussion sticks, Warm Audio Microphones and Preamps, Nord, and Westone is very important because they have become part of my sound.
Nowadays, most of the recordings are done remotely, so I have clients all over the place!
Benefits of having a home studio are that I can take a bit of time with the songs and work on the parts and arrangements, I approach every song that I get to record like it’s my song, I take it very personal, so being able to live with the song a bit longer is good for me.
Another great thing about having a studio, is that I already know my room and how it sounds, and how to make the best out of it, what mics work better, the position of the kit, etc.
Now, going to a studio and record has lots of other benefits, the fact that I only have to focus on playing and not engineering, the fact that most of the times you get to track with other musicians in the room, and there’s magic on that.
And also, sometimes the pressure of getting it done as quickly as possible brings the best out of me.
Having my studio at home allows me to collaborate more easily, so if you have a project, please don’t hesitate to send it my way!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I feel like music, and drumming in particular has been sort of a calling for me. I have always been inspired by it, when I’m playing it’s a different kind of energy that happens to me, or through me.
I remember my first live concert I attended to in my early teens was Jean-Luc Ponty, with Rayford Griffin on drums.
What I felt that night was incredible, and in that moment, I felt I wanted to inspire people the way I was inspired.
Touring Mexico with my band Exsimio from Chile early 2000’s, after a show in Chihuahua, I was walking backstage after the show and a kid, maybe 12 years old was just staring at me, so I greeted him and he said “you are my inspiration”, that’s when I felt I was in the right track, what Rayford Griffin made me feel, was probably what I made him feel, one of the most amazing compliments I have ever received!!
So, inspiring is the goal or mission I think. This has become more evident now that I’m a father, I want to be able to inspire my son. Inspiration is the greatest gift I have received, and hopefully I get to inspire as many people as possible.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Great question, in order for us to make music, we have to be able to make a living, we all have bills to pay and families to feed. Live shows is a way for us to make money, and it’s also a fantastic experience, where artist and audience get to interact, we feed of each other’s energy, a great audience always makes a great show, so go out to live shows!
Unfortunately, in Los Angeles at least, more venues are disappearing, so it’s important to support, to stop this from happening.
Streaming services have made very easy to access music, but what artists are getting payed is very little, and lets be honest, they don’t sound good, at least not as good as the albums are meant to be heard. So instead, download the high resolution mixes… or even better, buy vinyls, or whatever physical form is available.
I remember listening to albums from top to bottom, multiple times, I would always find something different every time.
Listen to music for the sake of listening to music, sit down and take the time to listen to a full album, from top to bottom, that’s how the artist intended it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jaradrums.com
- Instagram: @jaradrums
- Facebook: @jaradrums
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-jaramillo-3a15728?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: @jaradrums
- Youtube: @jaradrums