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An Interview with Sal Hernandez - Current Member of the Concord Blue D


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I'm a FMM of The Velvet Knights, having marched in the early 90's. Nowadays, I am a sommelier and restaurant professional who has a popular blog about food, wine, restaurants, and men's fashion. Every now and then, I will write about something that is not-related to theme of my blog, including topics on drum and bugle corps. I've always been a fan and loved the activity since I first saw a drum corps show in 1987. Recently though, I thought it would be fun to interview a current member of a drum corps and feature them on my blog. As it turns out, I know someone personally in The Concord Blue Devils, and he was gracious to accept my invitation and answer some questions.

An Interview with Sal Hernandez of the World Champion Concord Blue Devils - Part I

The interview is long, and will be broken up over four parts over the next four days. Sal and I talk about a wide range of topics, including the 2013 and 2014 seasons with The Blue Devils, what he thought of the Carolina Crown show from 2013, being on the field at retreat on finals night this past year, discussing some of the so-called "controversies" with The Cadets, what he thinks of Drum Corps Planet, whether they read DCP while on the road, and other fun stuff.

Have a read, make comments on the blog and here if you would like, and most of all: ENJOY! Sal is a fantastic young man and is excited to see what you all think of this interview!

Remember, there will be four parts over the next four days. I'll be posting a link in this thread for the upcoming parts each day this week.

Edited by bernie_VKpit
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Hope you all enjoyed reading Part I of the of my interview with Sal Hernandez of the Concord Blue Devils. Part II is up now on the blog.

An Interview with Sal Hernandez of the World Champion Concord Blue Devils - Part II

Sal talks about his 2014 season experience with the Blue Devils, when in the season he knew they were going to win, and the so-called "controversy" of The Cadets leaving the field quickly after retreat on finals night.

Enjoy everyone!

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Hm I hope this will put some of the whole "BD's show wasn't that hard" stuff to rest. By his description, it sounds like it was a pretty physical show.

Also he expressed my views on Cadets leaving early exactly as I would:

"I did hear about this. I read one of the posts, which I believe was by George Hopkins (Director of The Cadets) in which he said something along the lines of it being a Cadets tradition and wanting to leave so that the champion can perform their show one last time. I respect the Cadets for being strong in their traditions. That being said I feel like at some point, traditions need to change. It’s really hard to imagine that after a summer full of blood, sweat, and tears, when it’s all finally over you can’t congratulate each other on a great summer. Traditions aside, at the end of the day we are all kids who love being around each other. I know that there was probably a feeling of embarrassment or disappointment, but like I said, when all is said and done, no one cares! That’s the beauty of it! When else will you be surrounded by so many people who love what you do! Who have been doing the same thing as you all summer long? I think it’s a shame, because in the public’s eye The Cadets tradition seems like they are just being bitter. They didn’t do anything ‘wrong’, you know? It just came off as rude to a lot of people and it’s kind of hard to be taken any other way."

Edited by Cappybara
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Thanks for the great comments guys! Here is Part III of my interview with Sal Hernandez. Today he talks about "old school vs new school" drum corps, Blue Devils shows of the past, electronics/amplification, and our very own Drum Corps Planet!

An Interview with Sal Hernandez of the World Champion Concord Blue Devils - Part III

Thanks for reading everyone! Let us know what you think!

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From part I (emphasis mine)

My freshmen year of high school, one of the graduating seniors had what I thought was the coolest jacket ever. It was his Impulse Drum and Bugle Corps member jacket. I remember thinking to myself how awesome it looked, and how much I wanted to march in the summer. At the time I was a saxophone player and never played anything but sax. I knew that it was something that I wanted to do, so the summer going into my sophomore year I learned baritone so that I could march baritone for fall season as well as what would eventually be my first season of drum corps. I was only fifteen and had no idea what to expect, but I loved it!

HOPKINS....ARE YOU LISTENING HERE????

Edited by 84BDsop
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From part I (emphasis mine)

My freshmen year of high school, one of the graduating seniors had what I thought was the coolest jacket ever. It was his Impulse Drum and Bugle Corps member jacket. I remember thinking to myself how awesome it looked, and how much I wanted to march in the summer. At the time I was a saxophone player and never played anything but sax. I knew that it was something that I wanted to do, so the summer going into my sophomore year I learned baritone so that I could march baritone for fall season as well as what would eventually be my first season of drum corps. I was only fifteen and had no idea what to expect, but I loved it!

HOPKINS....ARE YOU LISTENING HERE????

Gibbs........are you listening here ???? (pretend it's in CAPS, red and BIG)

you know, G7 killing Open Class

come on, Gibbs is just as ev@l as Hoppy but never gets the credit

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Gibbs........are you listening here ???? (pretend it's in CAPS, red and BIG)

you know, G7 killing Open Class

come on, Gibbs is just as ev@l as Hoppy but never gets the credit

Hop's been pushing woodwinds far longer than Gibbs...hence why I named him.

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