< >Wade Fernandez
Winning last year's NAMMY for Best Male Artist of the Year took Wade Fernandez by surprise. "I'm a father first and foremost and never did or will feel comfortable being put in a role that is larger than life. I thought that award was for those who dream of winning and not for those who just love to play." When he came home to his children, he set the award/trophy down and began to play with the kids until he heard the doorbell ring. It was a friend at the door coming by to see what he won. Wade had trouble finding the NAMMY award until he looked down on the floor where his four children were playing. There was the NAMMY transformed into a water tower between the toy train tracks.
Ancestry: Native American
Language: English
Genre: Rock
Albums
Awards, Nominations & Submissions
| 2007 | Best Music Video | Commodity Cheese Blues | Nominee |
Videos
Group Members
- Wade Fernandez
- Bryan Mir
- Matt Liban
- Jeno Somlai
- Dave Adler
- Matt Meixner
Biography
Winning last year's NAMMY for Best Male Artist of the Year took Wade Fernandez by surprise. "I'm a father first and foremost and never did or will feel comfortable being put in a role that is larger than life. I thought that award was for those who dream of winning and not for those who just love to play."
When he came home to his children, he set the award/trophy down and began to play with the kids until he heard the doorbell ring. It was a friend at the door coming by to see what he won. Wade had trouble finding the NAMMY award until he looked down on the floor where his four children were playing. There was the NAMMY transformed into a water tower between the toy train tracks.
"That put the whole award thing into perspective for me. If it could be useful for my kids, then it was worthwhile. I decided it could be used as a good thing to open minds, knock down barriers, and support my growing family since it is easier to do those things with a bigger audience."
Wade's first audience was the forest where he grew up on the Menominee Reservation. The first music he heard was the sounds of the natural world, the powwows, the annual 49 at his neighbor's house just through the woods, his parents record collection containing the Beatles, the Stones, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding, and his musician uncle that turned him onto blues, jazz, and r&b.
"My parents were open minded they liked from Hank to Hendrix. So I would go into libraries and check out anything and everything that I had never heard regardless of style and take it home to feed my ears. A healthy balanced diet and open ears gave me the ability to perform and enjoy many styles and put me in demand as a musician."
After several years of playing other artists songs, playing on other artists CDs and touring internationally, Wade was considering calling it quits. "Something was missing, my heart wasn't into it anymore."
That was until he received a phone call from a promoter who asked if he would open for recording artist Bill Miller. Wade agreed and said he would bring his band, play his original music and sell the CDs at the show. He hung up the phone and realized that he had only 2 and a half months left to borrow money to make a CD, find a band, and write and record his first songs. The day before the concert, one thousand copies of his new CD arrived on his doorstep along with his career as an original artist.
During the process of making that 1st CD, Wade had some incredible things happen that showed him that he was on the right path. "When I started to express myself through songwriting, it was as if I turned on the faucet and let out all those who came before flow through. It had happened before when I was just playing guitar but only in spurts. This time it was so powerful that things would come to my mind and then come true shortly after. For example; I thought about Jackson Browne coming up to our reservation and then a few months later I was not only opening for him on the Honor the Earth Tour when they came up to the rez, but also on invitation, jamming with him during his show.
Since Wade's first CD, he has toured internationally many times, recorded 5 more CDs, and has been broadcast on TV and radio internationally. Performances over the years range from rocking at Woodstock '94 to playing at a country festival near the Arctic Circle. Besides being a well-developed songwriter/composer, vocalist, guitarist, and native flutist, Wade is also an educator, actor, producer, and what he believes to be his most important role, a husband and proud father of four young children.
"Life is what you make it but when you have children or are influential to youth, you have the ability to contribute to the making or breaking of their lives. So we must use our gifts wisely in a good way that will serve the people ."
The music and life of Wade Fernandez echoes his words. From growing up on the Menominee Reservation to touring around the world, his life and music continues to reach out while his roots remain firmly grounded.
