Rising Music Star Joe Hermes On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry
An Interview With Ming Zhao
Slow down — I have always felt like time is running out, even when I was 17 years old. The right band, the big gigs, they all take time to develop and if you’re in too big of a hurry. You will crash and burn and probably burn out. This happened to me and my post-high school buddies trying to make it in the Hard Rock scene.
As a part of our series about rising music stars, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Joe Hermes.
Joe Hermes discovered his passion for music while growing up in a little country town a couple hours south of Chicago. He remembers playing air guitar and singing along to Bon Jovi songs at family gatherings, which many people still remind him of to this day. Raised in a close-knit family, his father taught him business while his mother instilled faith and compassion into Joe and his siblings.
By grade school, Joe knew he wanted to make music his career when he heard Metallica on a Pizza Hut jukebox with his friends. He played in bands throughout his teenage years, cultivating his edgy blend of rock, modern country and soulful sounds. A high school football standout, Joe attended Quincy University on a scholarship before graduating from Eureka College. He went on to receive his Master’s Degree from Illinois State University.
In 2019, Joe returned to the music industry with a new band and a professionally produced EP. His plans came to a screeching halt with the entrance of the Covid-19 global pandemic. With the lack of shows to promote and the diminishing goals being met, the beginning of 2020 challenged Joe almost to his breaking point. In June of that same year, he was introduced to Grammy Award winning producer and manager, Dale Oliver, through a mutual friend. They began meeting with songwriters and pushing through all the obstacles that stood in their way.
Joe worked closely with country music’s Bucky Covington, developing his first single “Stronger than Whiskey.” The song was released in summer 2021, launching a successful radio tour with live on-air performances across Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. “Stronger than Whiskey” charted for 25 weeks on Nashville’s famous Music Row, debuting at #143 and landing at #81.
Later that year, Joe opened for various country music headlining acts including superstar Craig Campbell and The Voice’s Kinsey Rose. He also got to showcase a more edgier side, opening for rock n’ roll bands Black Stone Cherry and Head East at the McLean County Fair in Illinois.
Joe’s newest single “Whiskey Fixer Upper” (written and produced by hit songwriter Dan Couch and Grammy-winner Dale Oliver) was released on May 20, 2022.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in a small country town 2 hours south of Chicago called Heyworth, IL. My dad spent his days building a business and my mom took care of the home and watching over my brother, sister and I. Riding dirt bikes and four wheelers, fishing and jamming music with my friends was how I spent most of my recreational time and, of course, Church on Sundays. I did ok in school — playing Football was where I excelled in high school and into college. Once in college, I found a Sports Science and began to excel in those classes, going on to earn a Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology. It wasn’t all smooth sailing. I was suspended (twice) in high school, left college (twice) and spent some pretty dark days figuring out that I wasn’t immune to the hard reality of street drugs while playing in a metal band for several years. Luckily, my family and my faith helped me pull myself up and go on to earn those last 2 years of undergrad and onto some successful professional ventures in College Athletics.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I used to love hearing music playing at family gatherings — especially when I would see my family and extended family having fun and singing along to songs they liked. That was pretty special to me. Showing emotion is not “taboo” or anything with my family, just not the easiest thing to do it seemed (until a good song came on of course). At that time, it was a Bon Jovi song that I can remember really hitting home amongst many other great titles.
It wasn’t until I was at a birthday party at a local Pizza Hut with my friends in the 6th grade when a Metallica song came on the jukebox and it just grabbed me. I went home and told my mom I wanted a guitar and began learning how to play guitar with my best friend at the time. Watching, learning and studying the songs and the rock ‘n roll lifestyle, the fun jamming with my schoolmates…all set in hard by 7th grade. I knew playing rock ‘n roll was something I had to do.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
There is a phrase that people use “All in God’s Time” and I found this to be unusually true with most things in my music career the last 4 or 5 years. If I’m going to be honest, I was at a breaking point in my life late in 2017 — my marriage was very strained with my 2 year old son at home, my family business was going through enormous growing pains, my drinking was through the roof and my stress was on another level. So, with some guidance from my parents, I sought a counselor to try to figure some things out. 20 minutes into the very first session, this guy told me it seemed I never dealt with the death of our baby girl (whom we lost 5 years prior and in the last few weeks of pregnancy). I told him he was wrong and that is all I had been doing for the last 5 years was “dealing” with that. But, I did listen to him and went home that night and I asked myself to be completely honest about how I felt about losing Bella. In 15 minutes or so, I wrote a song called “Otherside.” After that, my life literally just started getting better overnight. A month later, I had a door open from someone in the Nashville music scene and offered me a chance to come down and start building demos and networking. It was like God was saying “There you go Joe, now you are being honest with yourself — now you go write music with some purpose.”
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
“When visiting on a headliners tour bus after a show, don’t leave your bag on their bus cause it will be in a new city tomorrow.” I would say this probably will be one of the funniest things. Right now, it’s just embarrassing… because happened to me last week. So the lesson is, no matter how “fanboy” you are when visiting other artists, keep track of your crap when leaving a venue!
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
The most recent song release “Whiskey Fixer Upper” has been very exciting to watch. I have a great team in place pushing and tracking this song as it is making its way into the world. It is a bit of a different song for me — more fun and up-tempo and it will be exciting to see how far it goes on the Music Row charts and the radio stations picking it up.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
1 — The same thing over and over gets boring. Why would you want to watch or listen to the same thing day after day?
2 — You don’t learn anything new without diversity. That doesn’t mean you will like it all, or at least at this point in your life, but at least you have been exposed to a world bigger than yours and you never know when something different can strike a chord with you.
3 — The art of music, film, and television are always trying to tell a story. You can learn so much about different people and culture through the different genres of music and film without having to learn it firsthand. As a songwriter, often I feel like we are all trying to write the “same song” and we just all have our own twist to it.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
- Slow down — I have always felt like time is running out, even when I was 17 years old. The right band, the big gigs, they all take time to develop and if you’re in too big of a hurry. You will crash and burn and probably burn out. This happened to me and my post-high school buddies trying to make it in the Hard Rock scene.
- Have Faith- You don’t have a crystal ball, just trust that the right opportunities will come at the right times.
- Define Success- What is success in the world of music to you? Success is not just getting the multi-million dollar record deal, but that could be a success for you. If that is your only definition, you are going to feel very unsuccessful for a very long time or even forever. Set smaller goals and achieve them. So long as you are working toward a goal beyond where you are currently at, your life is going to have purpose and feel overall successful. I had to re-evaluate my definition of success once I started spending time around Nashville and seeing the immense amount of talented, hardworking artists putting in the time every day. Most of them without any record deals!
- Build Bridges, Not Fences- While competition can help breed success, music is not a competition. Treating other musicians or bands as the competition or the enemy only hurts yourself. Finding ways to network and expand your reach with other musicians is the way to move forward. I am guilty of it as much as the next artist: Why did they get the show, the publicity or the player I was after? But just because it didn’t happen now, doesn’t mean that it won’t. So keep your ego in check and your arms open.
- Learn to enjoy it — Working hard at your goals is great, but learn to enjoy the moments when they come is where working hard pays off. Become addicted to that! Those moments on stage or in the studio are fleeting so learn to let it soak in when you can and keep chasing for more. I have been guilty of the gotta work harder, longer mentality and I can get stuck there and drive myself nuts.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Remember why you do it. Sure ,it is full of a lot of hard work, disappointments, with little rewards at times…but, when it stops being even remotely fun, stop doing it. Stress kills! It is better to pause and re-focus than to push on and burn out.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Compete with yourself! Challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort zone, to be a better person, to go back and finish unfinished goals, set bigger goals, to not settle for less, take pride in what you are doing today! I feel like if you keep the competition to your own ideals, then it doesn’t really matter what others are doing.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
In 2002, I put the guitar down and stopped writing music all together. I began messing around with the acoustic guitar in 2007 and met my soon-to-be wife at that time. She heard me playing around the house and convinced me to go play an open-mic in town. I was terrified to get on a stage all alone with just me and the guitar and some songs that I wrote that year on the couch. It was the best thing to happen to me as it started me down the path I am today as a country rock singer songwriter. So, my wife (and her support for the last 11 years) would definitely be the person I attribute this answer to.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The harder you work, the luckier you get” has been my mantra for some time now. I learned this from my dad and have applied it in everything I do. It amazes me over and over again that if you just keep working at something, things can happen even you didn’t see coming.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
Aaron Lewis would have to be that artist. He is a hard rock artist who shifted to a solo country artist after many years in the music business. I watched Aaron rise to the top in both arenas despite different hurdles, he would be an incredible one to just sit and listen to on how he has managed through those waters and kept himself together and motivated along the way.
How can our readers follow you online?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoeHermesMusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joehermesmusic/
Website: www.joehermesmusic.com
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
