Countless children grow up wanting to be rock stars, and Herbert Hernandez was no exception. As a child of many talents, he found himself naturally drawn to both visual arts and to music - as well as having an interest in sports and movies. But this also meant that he had lots of options available to him. During high school, his older brother Darwin taught him how to play the guitar, which Herbert had a natural propensity for. But he wasn't ready to commit to music as a career.
Even with Darwin's support, Herbert stayed focused on his studies along with practicing music. His mother and father didn't object to him playing guitar as long as he kept his grades up, so he did. He left high school as an excellent student with diverse interests and activities and moved on to the University of Santo Tomas to earn his Fine Arts degree with a major in Advertising.
While at UST, Herbert founded the band Moonstar88 - you may have heard of them. As one of the most popular bands in the Philippines, Moonstar88 marries pop music with alternative rock to serve up dozens of hit songs. Darwin became Herbert's manager and later went on to found the music and events management and production group, Soupstar Entertainment, which manages several OPM bands. Darwin is a talented musician in his own right, and composed the Moonstar88 hit, "Torete."
By the time Herbert had graduated from UST, he had added Songwriter to his resume after writing "Sulat" in 2002. But even with a booming music career, Herbert continued to pursue the visual arts, taking on freelance graphic design work creating album covers for several bands. It wasn't long before he was noticed by a top advertising agency (JWT Manila) and brought on as a visualizer/designer, doing brochures and packaging designs.
For several years, Herbert Hernandez balanced advertising and music as he learned about both industries. He received promotions in advertising and moved on to the new agency DM9 JaymeSyfu DDB as Senior Art Director before being promoted to Creative Director. For the first time in his life, he considered giving up on his music career in order to better focus on his advertising career.
It was around this time that he wrote the mega-hit "Migraine," which has been streamed more than 94 million times.
While he was still at DM9 JaymeSyfu DDB, Herbert also joined 6cyclemind, another nationally renowned pop/rock band managed by his brother. He continues to play guitar and tour with them today. Talk about not giving up on music!
As Herbert embraced his music career, his advertising career was taking off. He has worked with some of the largest clients in the world, earned dozens of awards, and created numerous viral and instantly recognizable campaigns. After his six-year stint at DM9 JaymeSyfu DDB, he moved on to Young & Rubicam for five years, where he continued his upward trajectory and became Executive Creative Director under one of his idols, Badong Abesamis.
Also while at Y&R, Herbert found a way to merge his music career with his advertising career and bring the two worlds together. He started Lakihan mo Logo ("Make the Logo Bigger") in 2010, which he describes as "a commercial break for people making commercials." Lakihan mo Logo is a concert series featuring bands made up of Manila-based ad agency talent, with the simple goal of giving ad people an outlet for their stress. They have performed 58 concerts over the years, and some of the participants have been signed as actual recording artists. Hernandez also put together 12 "Rockovery" concerts to raise money to cover the medical bills of seriously ill members of the advertising industry.
In 2017, Herbert and Badong were faced with a difficult decision. Another advertising agency was scouting either of them or both of them. Rather than continue on in the corporate world, they decided to branch out on their own and found their own advertising agency. GIGIL was born.
GIGIL is an ideas company that the two formed to solve the unique problems that businesses face. With their nearly four decades of collective experience, Herbert and Badong attracted clients right away - before the agency even officially had a name. But despite the interest in the agency, the immediate reality for Herbert was that going his own way came with a pay cut. And with a wife and children to support, he faced some of the common challenges that entrepreneurs do. Luckily for him, he had music to fall back on.
As GIGIL took root, Herbert relied on the earnings from his tours to supplement his income, which allowed his family life to continue without disruption. And although GIGIL is now well-established and thriving, Herbert continues to balance his day job with touring at night. It's a tall order, but he wouldn't have it any other way:
"It's really a blessing to be able to do this. I don't think I can live without one or the other. I feel that I owe it to God to continue these things given all the gifts He has given me. I just want to show that while there are people who are specialized in their fields, there are also people like me who are able to do many things too."
Here's to more beautiful music.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of musictimes.com
