If you’ve ever attended one of Mason Jar’s music nights then chances are you’ve heard of Hermano Kuya. With a name literally meaning “brother brother” (hermano meaning brother in Spanish and kuya meaning brother in Tagalog), this band’s fraternal chemistry radiates through with their music and stage presence. 

“I will say we consider ourselves a Mexican-Filipino band. Right now we’re working on different projects with different genres and we just want to play things that just sound nice and not tie ourselves to one genre” says founder of the band, Ísaias Hernandez. 

When the predictable question, ‘What influences your music?’ was asked, the difference in answers from David, Rafa and, Ísaias brought up another question, how does a group beaming with their own respective uniqueness come together to form one song? Citing influences from Soda Stereo to Ritchie Valens to Juice WRLD, the answer to the question lies in their differences. 

“We all have a different style”, says singer Rafa, “And whenever we have an idea we’re not afraid to bring it forward and we just take it from there and run with it and that’s how we get a different feel, different genre for, like, every song we have.”

“We all butt heads and in the best way possible because we are always constantly arguing how, not really arguing but kind just debating, on how something can be better if maybe with a different influence,” says guitarist David, “And because of that, that’s how we have different songs like Sunflower_fields.dmg come together because there’s some melodic aspects with it.”

And, after writing, practicing, and performing music, their energy has to be spent being students as well. 

“I feel like it’s been very good for,I guess, mental health as well,” says David, “A lot of stress builds up and unfortunately there can be a lot of outlets for stress and there’s a lot of things that can develop because of it.”

“You have your work and studying and that would be our main priority but then there’s also family and friends, right,” says Rafa, “You have to find a way to balance that in there too and then you’re left with your passion in the end which is for music. And sometimes, you don’t have time for it and you want it to be the first thing on your priority because it’s your goal so balancing it has definitely been a learning curve.” 

As for the future, Ísaias says that “Hermano Kuya doesn’t want to sell out, we wanna buy in” with the intention of going into the future creating more original music and growing their fanbase. 

More of Hermano Kuya’s music can be found on their Spotify.