Perhaps the most valuable tools in any artist’s arsenal are their name, their voice, and their own identity.
But those things aren’t always fixed or firm, and some artists change styles, names, and even their whole musical identity multiple times throughout a career in the search for something that feels more personal or more closely aligned with the vision and the voice that they’ve been searching for.
In the case, of OKC-based musician and songwriter Jose Hernandez, there have been a few full musical lives lived before finding one that finally feels like the appropriately personal and creatively open-ended identity that he’s always wanted.
Beginning his musical journey in OKC’s underground hardcore scene in bands like Harp and Lyre, Hernandez eventually felt the pull of more intimate and introspective acoustic songwriting and left that scene behind to explore a more folky style under his own name.
Jose Hernandez: I guess when I first started out, I really wanted to just kind of be the singer-songwriter guy and just kind of writing stories about whatever I was, you know, either going through and originally it was really more like I kind of wanted to kind of release myself from that part of my life and start something new.
And I think that's why I was really into that kind of music, and wanted to write like that, to like kind of figure out what that really means to break away.
Brett Fieldcamp: But breaking away meant developing something new and purposeful over time, eventually building a backing band for his solo music alongside close friend and pianist Kendrik McKinney.
And as that band began to evolve and strengthen as a musical unit, Hernandez found himself once again newly invigorated by another sharp left turn in his sound.
Jose Hernandez: Just really getting into jazz, like, really digging into this crazy stuff that I wasn't really used to. And I think that really influenced, like, kind of an excitement.
I mean, it was mostly I was just, like, I just want to play something different. And they were completely into it, because, you know, I think they were also getting bored.
I mean, we were all just kind of like in a funk. And then once that I started writing more of that stuff, it kind of made more sense to kind of be a band. And not just me.
Brett Fieldcamp: That band became J + The Bishops, a jazz-infused marriage of indie rock and R&B that produced a number of singles and some steadily building buzz before – like so many other acts – crashing into 2020.
On the other side of the pandemic era shutdowns, the members of J + The Bishops had each begun exploring other bands and projects, with Hernandez reinventing himself once again as Challo.
Named after a family story steeped in his own Mexican heritage, Challo was a more singular and independent expression, incorporating a new kind of electronic minimalism into his soulful songwriting and allowing him a space to more directly confront not only his musical identity, but his cultural identity as well.
It was a level of honesty and vulnerability that he’d never presented so openly in his other musical identities.
Jose Hernandez: That is who I am, man. I mean, I'm a first generation Mexican American, so yeah, I mean, all that means something to me, so I want to make sure that I'm completely honest.
Brett Fieldcamp: But then something unexpected happened.
After being unknowingly featured by a popular music influencer on Tik Tok, a track by J + The Bishops went viral overnight, propelling the group to hundreds of thousands of plays and to a sudden national notoriety more than three years after they’d disbanded.
Hernandez and McKinney scrambled to assemble a new band of Bishops and to recapture some of that indie-soul appeal on which the band was built with new singles and new work.
Jose Hernandez: That kind of like pushed us back into this, and me and Kendrik had to kind of take over.
I learned a lot of things, you know? I think there was a point where I was like “This is it. This is what I've been waiting for all my life.” And then when I realized that doesn't actually equate to anything real, that does not equate success, it really was like a “Oh, wow. This really was less than I thought it was going to be.”
The doors that I imagined were going to open did not open.
Brett Fieldcamp: Instead, what that experience gave Hernandez was a clearer understanding of the true realities of success and of the importance of a supportive, tangible community removed from streaming numbers and follower counts, but also a newfound confidence in his own creativity, be it through J + The Bishops, Challo, or whatever new identity he might assume as he continues to evolve.
Jose Hernandez: And I'm also not the same. I'm not the same person I was back then.
So ultimately, what I want to do is have the freedom to do whatever I want when I want.
Success, I think, is having the ability to still do this, still enjoy it, still perform the way you want to perform, do the things you want to do and having the freedom, and all the while maybe breaking even. I think that's success.
Brett Fieldcamp: You can follow along with the different avenues and identities of Jose Hernandez and his music by following J + The Bishops and Challo on Instagram.
For On the Scene, I’m Brett Fieldcamp, now here’s J + The Bishops with “White Vans.”
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