image – Kerrie Geier

Suicide Silence – Hernan “Eddie” Hermida

Suicide Silence have become a staple in the deathcore scene, having taken up much the mantle for other bands who have followed in their stead. Metal Obsession recently had the pleasure of speaking with vocalist Hernan “Eddie” Hermida. We discussed the new album, how Eddie found his place in the band after tragedy, and getting a bear hug from Phil Anselmo.

Hey Eddie, this is Jonty for Metal Obsession in Australia, how are you at the moment?

Hey, what’s up, man? I’ve been great, thanks for asking!

Excellent, I just wanted to start off by congratulating you on getting number 1 on the rock and metal charts on the Australian iTunes.

Thank you, man. I was just talking with the boys about that over here, we got a message from big John (Howarth, Nuclear Blast) with a big picture of the chart itself. We’re very, very, very excited, and we’re very proud for all the love from Australia, thank you to all the fans.

Is it so crazy that we’re so far away but you still manage to get all these chart positions so high?

[laughs] Right? Luckily we have our ear to the ground wherever we go. We’re always there watching and making sure. Well, you could call us the ‘Sandy Claws’, I guess you could say. Nah man, it’s a very big deal for us. We’re so humbled by this whole reaction from the crowd; all of us were expecting something so different. The fact that the response has been bigger and better than ever is astounding, I can’t find any other way to say it.

Yeah, well I was going to say along those lines, you’ve had some massive shoes to fill, what do you think you personally have brought to the frontman role?
Really big feet, man. Really big feet. But you know, man, these guys didn’t pick a guy that would was just gonna sit back and collect on anything. You know, I put in my 2 cents and I put it in hard, and I make sure that I’m giving 150% to these guys and to the movement, the cause and the music. I love every second of it man, and that’s the biggest thing; I’m hanging out with my friends and I’m sitting with them staring at me right now while I’m doing an interview. We’re all chilling on our day off here at Mayhem, you know it’s one of those things where I feel like I belong. It all feels good, so why not give it everything that you’re feeling? When the feelings are positive, you get to give that positivity back.

You said before it’s like a movement. Suicide Silence has such a crazy fan base. What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you so far while you’re with them?
Craziest thing that’s happened to me so far is getting a bear hug from Phil Anselmo at a show we were sharing with Down, with a cigarette in hand while we were listening to Portal, headbanging drunk and I headbanged so hard that I put my head into his cigarette. He said, “Oops, sorry”, then he realized that saying ‘sorry’ was a pussy move, and said “fuck that, you’re gonna tell stories about this” and gave me another one! That’s probably been the craziest thing that’s happened to me, thus far. That and getting over my fear of snakes in the video: I’m holding a 12 foot, 91 pound Burmese Python. That’s another crazy thing I’ve done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ehCh4WNivQ#t=41

Congratulations on overcoming that fear!

[laughs] Thanks, man. And meeting Uncle Phil, man.

On the ‘You Can’t Stop Me’ video, it definitely affirms that Suicide Silence have a sense of humour, what was the inspiration for the clip?

You know, we kind of wanted to just break up the heaviness of the whole thing man. It’s kind of our way of telling fans, “Hey, it is a big deal, we get it. We get that we are all missing our good friend, and we are all missing our inspiration and our heart, especially in this band. But it doesn’t mean we can’t turn around, and put a smile on your face and have a good time I think.” That’s the message we’re trying to put out with this record, saying “even though things are looking down, there’s a way of misinterpreting things and changing them around in your way and being positive about things and through that, finding the inspiration to keep moving forward and keep trucking along.” That’s pretty much the whole message in our art these days.

Cool. Along those lines of positivity, ‘Don’t Die’ has some incredibly personal lyrics. I’m assuming they’re directed to your fans?

Absolutely man, that song and ‘Inherit the Crown’ are both poignant songs and I want the kids who don’t know who I am to understand that I’m here for a reason man. I’m here because we all come from the same place, deep down, we’re all drudged over by life and in the end, I’m still here and I’m still kicking, and I’m still going hard. If I can do it, then anybody can.
You say that people are still kicking, the Suicide Silence moshpits are pretty much legendary; what’s been your favourite show with the band so far?
Well, it could be all of them. It’s hard to say, because they’ve all been massively good. From the smallest club, to the biggest club, they’re all packed, they’re all going absolutely nuts. But, I’m going to go ahead and say Brisbane; my first show with the band, and Download festival are going to be my favourite shows. Strictly because of how nervous I was before going on stage, and how the crowd helped me get over being nervous and by the set I was just crushing everyone, and that’s how a show should be you know? So I’m going to go ahead and say my first show ever with Suicide Silence and my show at Download are two of my favourite shows on Earth.

So do you still get nervous going on stage since the reputation of the band obviously precedes you, do you still have that fear that you’ll get on stage and won’t live up to their expectations?
It’s not quite that fear, it’s not that anymore. I’m not afraid of the general response, I really think that people are generally being loving and accepting of the whole thing so that’s the attitude I go up there with. What I do get nervous about is the normal nervousness I get before I go on stage, it’s a scary thing going up there in front of anybody and act like a fool. Like, you’ve got to kick your head around and headbang; on a very basic level it’s pretty scary. But you know, that’s what warming up’s about, that’s what practice is all about and I go up there and slay it; that’s what I was born to do, and that’s what I do.

Well on practice, has it been difficult learning an entire discography of lyrics, or did you know them beforehand?

No man, it’s been really difficult. You know, it’s like learning a script because every song has its message and its action behind the message; everything has its poignancy. For me it’s about learning where the songs come from, I have a much harder surface to grab onto you know what I mean? You have to really delve into it, and go searching and find your own meaning in those words, and it’s part of becoming a singer. The whole voice behind music is the fact that you can have an emotional grasp on everything, and emotion isn’t an easy thing to manipulate.

Since you have to put your own personal spin on the lyrics, you must have a favourite song to play; is it an old one or a new one?
Is it an old one man, I love playing ‘Unanswered’. It’s such a fun song. It’s really crushing right off the bat and the song is an anti-religious song; it’s a call-out song trying to punk God and I respect that.

‘You Can’t Stop Me’ out now via Nuclear Blast Records

Suicide Silence seems to have a lot of themes alongside questioning religion, has there been any fans that have come up and lost faith with God or with the band because of that?

Not really, kids haven’t come up to me and talked to me about lyrics yet because I feel like they don’t think I’m deserving to be talked to about them I guess? But I figure that if these kids start learning the new stuff and they get a little ballsier and they’ll come up to me and start talking to me about things. I welcome it man, I want everybody to be able to derive the most out of my music.

Alright, cool. Just on a different tangent, All Shall Perish is a highly successful band in its own right. When was the exact moment you knew you were going to be leaving?
It wasn’t until the day I decided to tell Suicide Silence ‘yes’, man. I was tossing back and forth with the idea for a long time. It was a pretty difficult decision, not a spare of the moment type of thing.

Ah, fair enough. Now you’ve got 4,000,000 likes on Facebook, can you give us any hints on the special video you’re promising fans is?
Uh, special video we’re promising fans… I don’t know anything about it, I think the video was the one we released for ‘You Can’t Stop Me’.

Oh okay, it just says on your Facebook that you’re releasing something, obviously you haven’t been told about it!
No! I haven’t been told anything, so I guess they’re just moving onto things without me!

[laughs] Well, I obviously won’t ask you anything more about that, so what do you think about the effect of torrents in the music world today?
Oh man, it is what it is. People are people, and they’re gonna do whatever the hell they want, and in the end it doesn’t change the fact that I need to write music and put it out there, you know?

So it’s more about helping out kids than the money then obviously.
Yeah man, absolutely. If I was here for the money, I wouldn’t be here you know what I mean?

Alright, what sort of position would you want Suicide Silence to eventually find itself in, in the scheme of the band?
I just want us to be able to truck forward man, I just want us to move together as a unit and not lose sight of why we’re all here. Not lose sight of the things we’ve had to overcome, and to know that we’re all here because we all worked our asses off. Everyday, just continue to make it bigger, stronger and better until we can’t do it anymore.

Awesome, and finally, after hitting up Soundwave this year, surely there’s an album tour in the works for us?
No plans yet, but we are working towards possibly doing something worldwide and Australia will definitely be on the list of places to go.

Alright, thank you so much Eddie, and congratulations on all the achievements with the new album!
Thank you man, we love Australia a lot and the response to this record has absolutely humbled me ten times more.

Purchase your copy of ‘You Can’t Stop Me’ now via JB Hi-Fi.

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