“I’ll never forget why I started: for the love of music.” — Lewis On The Track
Lewis Hernandez — the twenty-two-year old producer from Santa Barbara, California known as Lewis On The Track — has the mind and skills to quickly become one of the most sought-out producers in music today.
“More Than Thugs” — the official comeback anthem for Cleveland, Ohio hip-hop quintet Bone Thugs-n-Harmony — was released in May 2015 in advance of the return from the legendary group. Produced by Lewis, the song is an immediate classic hit and showed the musical world at large just how sonically talented the young producer is and will continue to be.
Lewis On The Track is poised to make major noise now and in the future, with a varied sound and multiple skills setting him apart from contemporary hitmakers. While perfecting his craft in his Santa Barbara, California studio, he took the time to speak on his breakthrough hit, humbleness, hunger and his future.
LEWIS ON THE TRACK
- From Santa Barbara, California
- Twenty-two years old
SELECTED PRODUCTION
ON COMING UP
It’s crazy because before I was producing, I was rapping. I didn’t have anyone making me beats. The people around me that were was charging just like everybody; everybody has to eat. I was in my situation where I wasn’t in a position to really pay nobody, so I just figured I’ll just teach myself.
Then four years later, as time goes by I’m kind of learning. Hours in the studio; days, nights. Long nights. Weekends while people are partying, I’m in the studio for hours at a time, sessions at a time. I’m talking about go-time. I just started getting better and better at it. I just got comfortable to a point where I’m like, “OK, people need to start hearing this. I need to start getting this out.”
ON PROCESS
I just go into the studio and vibe out. I don’t even go in there with a specific idea or nothing. I just go and play — whatever comes, comes. If I don’t really like it, I kind of switch it up. Or I’ll just mess around; literally go in there with an empty mind — whatever my hands play, they play.
ON “MORE THAN THUGS” TRACK
That happened so random. It was crazy because I made that beat like six months prior to that session. I have a hard drive full of beats — a gang of them. I look at it like my studio before I moved was a garage. Literally, like a beat-down garage. We had two monitors, Pro Tools and a MIDI keyboard. We never had these crazy-ass Avalon’s.
People think you need all that but you really don’t. It’s all what you do with it. I’ve seen some crazy stuff be made off a little toy pianos for kids.
Nowadays people kind of lose the humbleness and think they need a big, million-dollar recording studio to make these records. In reality, you can use a home studio and make the same kind of quality. It’s not the equipment, it’s what you do with it. I feel like people really lost touch with that — they really lost the humbleness and the roots.
That beat was one of the ones that just sat in my hard drive for a long, long time. It’s a real trip how that got placed with Bone Thugs. As far as I was concerned, the beat actually was supposed to be sent to Mary J. Blige for one of her projects. I guess it didn’t make it — we didn’t meet the deadline. We had emailed it a little too late or something.
I was just going off on beats and that just happened to be one I made. One day I guess it was arranged for Bizzy Bone or something — he just popped into the studio session. Someone had called a friend of mine and was like, “Hey, Bizzy Bone’s coming to the studio. Open it up, whoopty-whoop and work on whatever he wants to do.”
And he ended up getting on the homie’s song, and the next thing he said was, “Play a beat” and I was the only dude in there that made beats. The first beat I played was that “More Than Thugs” beat and right away he’s like, “That’s the one. Set that one up.”
He immediately went into the booth and just did his thing; he just did that off the top of his head. That was the Bizzy Bone part; that’s what you hear him doing. Me being there witnessing that, I flipped out. I grew up listening to Bone Thugs and “Tha Crossroads” back in the day to like, “Ok, now I’m here.
I was honored to be in the same studio, but I wasn’t star-struck. I was just trying to learn off him, trying to see how he works.
He went in there, did his thing and tore it up. He brought in one of his engineers, Eugene On The Sound — shout out to him. He engineered the session and that was a wrap on that.
That studio session happened in Burbank; at the time I was working my nine-to-five in Santa Barbara and I had to go back and work. The next thing you know, there’s a session — Krayzie Bone and Layzie Bone are on it. I come back to the studio, the record gets played for me and I was like, “Oh shit. This is crazy.”
It just goes to show how hits just kind of happen, they’re never really planned. I’m dumb for not recording those moments. That’s movie-shit that was happening.
And for sure a special shout-out to everyone that was a part of making that record happen.
ON “MORE THAN THUGS” VIDEO
They had kind of planned it. There was a show going on, everyone was running around like, “Let’s just hope the video gets done.” It was actually a show out in San Diego and that’s where the video shoot took place.
We shot and did everything there. We just went out there with nothing, just in hopes of getting the video done and it happened. Everything was in a hurry, everyone was moving. People were scrambling. It was a cool show, it was pretty big; there was a lot of people there. The video, the performance — everything got done in one night.
I’m just happy I was able to be a part of it.
ON STAYING HUNGRY
I’ve made a couple placements and I’m honored and I’m blessed, but I’m still hungry. I’m still not satisfied. I still want more. I don’t want to stop — I want to keep going because I know this isn’t the end of the road for me. I know there’s still way more to accomplish. I know this is just the beginning. If this was my first toe-dip into the water, imagine when I’m waist-deep. One thing I told myself is I just really want to remain humble.
A lot of people switch up and a lot of people change; they get a little piece of money, they get a little piece of shine. They get their ten seconds of fame and they automatically switch up. They got to carry this ego; I don’t want to be that. I want to be the guy like you can come see me walking down the street and say what’s up to me.
I never want to let this change me. I’m still hungry.
ON GOALS
I really want to tap into radio. I want to get on board with radio, push for radio records. This new wave of music is dope. I can make all that stuff, too. I can do a little of everything; it’s not just one particular style that I do: I can do an R&B beat, I can do a trap beat, a little bit of everything. I just want to tap into different markets.
One of my goals is to be on the radio as much as DJ Mustard is. I want to hear “Lewis On The Track” as much as I hear “Mustard On The Beat”. I know it can happen. I want to be up there just as much as he’s on the radio. That motivated me; that’s inspiring to see someone like that just go. That dude’s all over the radio. The key is he’s real consistent — he don’t stop.
I was watching an interview and he said, “I keep going because I know there’s someone out there grinding ten times harder than me.” That’s real shit.
I feel once people start changing up, they kind of just lose it and fall back. The ego can kill everything — it can kill your career. People won’t want to work with you like, “That guy’s a dick.” “That guy’s this.” Or, “This guy’s that.” You want people to be like, “Who’s this guy? Oh, he’s cool. I went to the studio with him, he was dope. You should reach out to him. I can’t wait to go back.”
ON SELF-BELIEF
I was just going and making beats. It really didn’t click into my head like, “Ok, my sound is getting there. My quality of work is getting to that point where these records are sounding good. These beats are sounding real good and they can be something.” I didn’t really start realizing that until there was this dude — I guess he works with Nick Cannon’s group or something, somehow linked in with them — he actually e-mailed me and reached out. Like, “Yo, bro. You got that Mustard sound. Your sound is dope; if you can do that, you’re going to blow up.”
I kind of sat back like, “What’s this dude talking about?” you know? And then he’s like, “No, bro I was going down your Instagram and looking at all your videos and that shit’s crazy.” I thought he was just trying to pump me up. Next thing you know, he starts e-mailing me like, “Hey, send me some beats. Send me some beats. I’ma do something with you.”
I never really thought anything of it and I just kind of kept working. I wasn’t going to rely on it — I wasn’t going to get all pumped on that. So I just kept working and working. Then slowly and slowly, stuff started happening; people started vibing with my music.
I started saying, “Maybe this dude was right — I’m getting there.” Then I reached back out to him like, “Hey dude, is that e-mail still the same?” And he was like, “Yeah! Send them through. I’ve been waiting.” And I was like, “You know what? I just been so busy trying to perfect my craft.”
Because I feel like there’s always room for improvement. And he was like, “No worries, I ain’t mad at you. I knew you’d get back to me.” He was vibing out to the records I shot him. That kind of made me realize this could all be something.
ON ARTISTIC INSPIRATION
I grew up listening to a lot of R&B records. A lot of R&B records are dope and there’s a lot of producers out there that don’t get enough credit. Even producers now in today’s music — they don’t get a lot of credit. I think there’s a lot of producers out there that should be mentioned that are dope that are behind a lot of records that are getting put out.
Like TeeFLii — a lot of people don’t know he produces and he’s dope. He’s real dope; he should be given way more credit than he’s given. He’s a real dope producer. There’s a lot of producers.
You just kind of listen to everything; for a minute, you’re stuck on one record and you’re like, “Oh, this dude’s sick!”
Then you listen to another dope record and you’re like, “Who is this? Who made this?” So you just kind of grow fond of a couple people. I feel like Nic Nac and the newer dudes are pretty dope. Jahlil Beats. Reazy Renegade, Ty Dolla $ign. There’s a lot — too much to mention.
ON ARTISTRY
I kind of started looking into videos just to see how they’re made. I feel like I may want to get into that but I don’t want to get into anything soon. For the most part, music has just been all I do. That’s been real heavy.
It’s just work and music, literally; when I’m not working, I’m in the studio. I feel like you let a day go by when you don’t make anything, another dude made four or five beats. Making beats comes with a vision that no one can see but the producer. I can’t explain the feeling I get when I hear people enjoying my hard work come out of speakers.
ON NEXT MOVE
I will never let the taste of success trick me into thinking I’ve made it. I’m working on a record right now. I want to shoot a video to it and I want to put it out as a comeback-type of thing to show people that I can do it. I produced the record and for the first time I’m actually kind of singing on a song. I kind of want to throw a verse of me spitting so I’m spitting, I’m singing and I did the beat.
I feel if you have multiple skills to offer, it separates you.
I just want to take it all in and I want to learn everything. I want to shoot a video to it and I want it to be done right, so people will be like, “Who’s this kid? We need to get on board with him. He’s working.”
The people that I’ve played the record for, they’ve really tripped out. Their eyes opened up like, “This is you?” And I’m like, “Yeah, it’s me.” It’s crazy to get that reaction. It’s something new, and it sounds like the radio stuff that’s going on now — like the stuff Ty Dolla $ign and Chris Brown are doing. I kind of did it my way and threw a little switch in there.
You might as well get with wave — if not, you not really flowing. I guarantee you if they heard some of this stuff, I feel like they’d be quick to get on it.
