We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jonah Hernandez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jonah below.

Jonah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue music professionally was when I started playing shows, which was when I was around 15 years old. After I realized that I could do what I love and get such a genuinely positive response from my peers and strangers, I knew it was something I was good at, so I just went with it. I haven’t looked back since and now it’s part of what I do for a living.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I first got into music when I was around 9 years old when I first started playing guitar. That quickly escalated into me trying other instruments like drums, piano, bass and I even started learning how to scream by the time I was 10 years old, even though I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually, I started playing in industrial bands when I was around 15 years old and that eventually led to playing shows in different cities/touring regionally and nationally. After the shows slowed down, I took a few years to not only learn music production but I also realized that I was really good at the business side of being in a band, so that’s when I decided that it was time to take on band management and start my own company, Black Mass Music Group (which is still active to this day) and I quickly was able to pick up a few clients and help develop them into established, nationally touring acts.

Now, present day, I’m still playing shows, managing clients and doing music production under the BMMG label. What sets Black Mass Music Group apart from other management companies is that we are by the scene, for the scene and offer a variety of services that can cover different grounds of multimedia which include band management/artist development, music production, ghost writing/songwriting, photography/videography and general marketing for our clients. With us, anything is possible and we can get you exactly where you strive to be.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I’ve learned throughout the years that I’ve had to unlearn is simple: you can’t just sit there and wait for things to happen.

The main thing behind this is that I’ve seen so many bands and artists that think by playing gigs every weekend or by making a post on Instagram every couple of days, or by releasing a song on Spotify without any marketing, will somehow get them in front of the right people and launch them to stardom. I’ve even been that person – playing countless shows to no one, frustrated and wondering why I’m not making a ripple, why no one has “noticed me” yet, and the hard truth about this is that no one actually cares. No one will care about your creation until you give them a reason to care; it’s all about selling yourself. Until I started really engaging with people, reaching out more first, networking beyond social media, it all started to come together once those connections started to form. With this mindset, I’ve worked with some of my idols and have become aquatinted with other artists that are way beyond my level who have also helped me get to where I am today. Some of them I’m even fortunate enough to call my friends and peers now.

Opportunity rarely knocks – most times, you have to be the one who knocks first.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect about being an artist is really just building that personal connection with the listener.

If I can make you feel something, or even if you just give me the nastiest stank face while jamming my stuff – that is the biggest reward for me.

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Image Credits
Benjamin Zietlow, Israel Mendoza, Jesse Castillo