Caught Up
Jessica Hernandez is a singer-songwriter — but not THAT kind of singer song… Read Full Bio ↴Jessica Hernandez is a singer-songwriter — but not THAT kind of singer songwriter. She has Latin roots, but we're not talking Selena or Shakira here. She's got soul (Hernandez does come from Motown, after all), but is not cookie-cutter contemporary R&B diva. She can be as heartfelt and melodic as any pop singer out there, but she doesn't sound like a one of them. So if you're trying to peg Hernandez — good freakin' luck. Our advice instead is to just sit back and enjoy the kind of rare, genuinely individualistic artist that eschews any conventions and stylistic parameters and instead covers a lot of ground — and all of it well. "I AM all over the place — everything from my fashion taste to my food taste to my choice of friends and groups of people that I associate myself with," says Hernandez, who in less than three years has vaulted from late-blooming music-maker to a bona fide leading light in her home town of Detroit — and beyond, thanks to buzz-generating performances at South By Southwest and the Bonnaroo Music Festival. "I've never really been very distinct, so I think there's a lot of different influences coming from a lot of different places at all times. I'm just trying to make sense of everything that's going on in my head and then make something cohesive that people can relate to and connect with." Take a listen to any of the music Hernandez is making with her band, the Deltas — the songs from her debut EP, "Weird Looking Women in Too Many Clothes," or the material she's been recording on for her first full-length album — and you'll hear that mission is being accomplished. In spades. A Hernandez song weaves through gypsy style violin and New Orleans-flavored horns, funky rhythm patterns and strikingly detailed dynamics. Her tunes boast a rich, three-dimensional, cinematic cascade, running from gentle and serene to dramatic, swirling crescendos that convey beauty in their near chaos. The linchpin for all that is Hernandez's voice, an evocative and flexible instrument saluted by Chicago.com as "pristine and clear" and by the Michigan Daily as "throaty and confident." Real Detroit Weekly dubbed her a "powerhouse chanteuse," and it's that ability to convey a broad range of emotions with equal depth and impact. "I'm trying to create songs that can make people feel really sad and really happy at the same time," she explains. "I really like a lot of darkness and a lot of Gothic style and things that are very eerie but have a real soulful, beautiful element to them. That's something I think is really intriguing, and that's what I'm trying to explore." She's only been doing music full-time for a few years, but Hernandez has been steeped in it her entire life. Growing up above her parents' bakery in Detroit's historic Mexicantown district, Hernandez was surrounded by sounds ranging from the indigenous music her grandparents brought with them from Cuba to her father's love of classic rock and her mother's taste from punk and New Wave from the Clash to the B-52′s, the Cure and A Flock of Seagulls. "I just had all these things coming from all different places and really loved and appreciated all of them," says Hernandez, who embraced heavy metal and hardcore as a high school student and also gravitated towards Kate Bush, Tom Waits and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds as well as the gypsy hybrid approaches of Gogol Bordello and Man Man. Hernandez never learned to play an instrument but kept her voice busy in musicals such as "Pippin" and "Brave New World" and in a professional youth choir she joined during middle school. She also attended Michigan's Blue Lake fine arts camp and honed her theatrical chops in forensics tournaments. "I've always been passionate about music," she says, "but somehow along the road I convinced myself it was an unrealistic career choice, and I talked myself out of pursuing that as a living." Instead she attended Columbia College in Chicago to study fashion design but ultimately fell in with the musical crowd. One classmate studying producing and engineering recruited her to sing on one of his projects and pointedly asked, "Why aren't you going to school for music?" She was part of a talent contest-winning trio, and during her sophomore year Hernandez moved in with a folk musician who began teaching her to play instruments. Eventually she undeclared her major and began studying "a little bit of everything — music theory class, theater class, business class, testing waters a little bit to see if anything grabbed me before I stopped going to school." Ultimately Hernandez decided the best education would be found out of the classroom, so she dropped out after her sophomore year. Her subsequent travels took Hernandez to Kansas City to work with one of her Columbia associates, back home to Detroit, to Chicago again and then a return to Detroit, where she found the burgeoning independent music scene to have more nurturing potential than anywhere else she'd lived. She'd worked up a solo act by then, but a September 2009 booking at Detroit's popular Dally In The Alley festival inspired her to put together a band, and the show was so successful that the Deltas was born. "It was almost like a happy accident., Since then we've kind of just kept going full speed ahead," says Hernandez, who's also rooted herself in the Detroit music community by establishing a new venue, the Bakery Loft, as well as the Whole Detroit Soup meal program that raises money to help artists finance their projects. Hernandez feels that "Weird Looking Women in Too Many Clothes" and its five songs — produced by Eric Hoegemeyer and Ben West in the Detroit area's Rustbelt Studios — offers merely a sampling of her musical range. "It reflects a lot of who I was and who I am and all of the different sides of my personality — the weird, poppy, bubblegummy kind of stuff and then the really sad stuff and the weird gypsy stuff," she says. "I think it was really important for me to release something like that and get all that energy out there and say, 'This is everything that's been inside me.' Now that I've done that, I feel like I can keep moving ahead." Hernandez already has some four dozen songs written for her first album and hopes to add another dozen before beginning the process of winnowing down. And, fortunately, there's been no shortage of inspiration.

Caught Up
Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas Lyrics


Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴  Line by Line Meaning ↴

Take all the money
You can keep your lovely times
I was left on the corner
With my heart unsatisfied
I've got colder playing to myself
I came to take my things don't need your help
Call out the orders
With your hands all burned and broke
on your own
with them shoulders
holding all them things you broke
You can keep what you owe me
just as long as i can go
stand apart when you told me
what was ours was all your own
I got caught up lying to myself
I came to take my things don't need your help
I got caughtup lying to myself
I came to take my things don't need your help
Take away the pictures
and lock away the promises
Creep into a funny place
open all the things we had before
Take away the pictures and lock away the promises
If the others weren't coming out
I would stil be fighting for your time
If the others weren't coming out
I would still be fighting for your love
I got caught up lying to myself




I came to take my things don't need your help
I got caught up lying to myself

Overall Meaning

"Caught Up" is a song about a breakup and the aftermath of it. The singer is angry and hurt, but also trying to move on. The opening lines "Take all the money, You can keep your lovely times" indicate that perhaps the relationship was all for show, and the love wasn't genuine. The singer was left on the corner, heartbroken and unsatisfied.


The chorus "I got caught up lying to myself, I came to take my things don't need your help" suggests that the singer was in denial about the state of the relationship, and didn't want to accept that it was over. They want to take their things and move on without any help from the person who broke their heart. The lines "Take away the pictures and lock away the promises, Creep into a funny place, open all the things we had before" indicate that the person is trying to forget about the relationship and move on, deleting pictures and memories.


Overall, the song is about the struggle of moving on from a relationship, and the difficulties of accepting that it's over. The singer is trying to be strong and independent, but also struggling with their emotions.


Line by Line Meaning

Take all the money
Take everything you want


You can keep your lovely times
I don't want any of our memories


I was left on the corner
I was left abandoned and alone


With my heart unsatisfied
I was never fulfilled emotionally


I've got colder playing to myself
I've become more isolated and emotionless


I came to take my things don't need your help
I don't want your assistance in leaving


Call out the orders
You demand everything from me


With your hands all burned and broke
You've been through hardships and struggles


on your own
You've had to endure things alone


with them shoulders
You've had to carry a heavy burden


holding all them things you broke
You're responsible for all the things you've damaged


You can keep what you owe me
I don't want anything that you owe me


just as long as i can go
I just want to leave


stand apart when you told me
I separated myself from you when you betrayed me


what was ours was all your own
You took everything that belonged to us


Take away the pictures
I don't want any memories of us


and lock away the promises
I don't believe in any of the promises you made


Creep into a funny place
I've become mentally unstable


open all the things we had before
I've reopened old wounds


If the others weren't coming out
If other people weren't involved


I would stil be fighting for your time
I would still be trying to win back your attention


If the others weren't coming out
If other people weren't involved


I would still be fighting for your love
I would still be trying to win back your affection


I got caught up lying to myself
I was deceiving myself


I came to take my things don't need your help
I'm leaving without your assistance


I got caughtup lying to myself
I was deceiving myself


I came to take my things don't need your help
I'm leaving without your assistance




Contributed by Oliver W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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Comments from YouTube:

GodsPsychosis

Good song, great album... love the diversity of the band and them being able to successfully strike different moods between Garage Rock, RnB, and Soul. And seriously that voice is soo damn awesome...

KodenameKrusty

I've now watched 3 of their videos in a row and have now become hooked on Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas

Tom Beazley

+KodenameKrusty samsies

Kandra Jones

i saw them last year at peddlers jamboree in boonville mo. finally hearing there music on here. first band i've heard with a trombone; really unique.

TheSasquatchNation

She is killer live

Jess! I hope to see you again soon! Loved seeing you at Pub Rock! If I see you in Michigan, I'm buying you some more shots...

47 mmot

TheSasquatchNation I'm seeing her tonight open for Robert Randolph. Never heard of her but sounds good

CaptainAmazing01

Seriously, my new favourite band.

Susan Hanlon

Wow! I missed the live act when I could have seen them in St. Pete (my son's band  at the timewas opening act) - now on Letterman Monday night - so I will get to see. Great stuff!!!

Dorian Storer

pretty good. new artist added to work playlist

gee78mack

Amazing in concert - kicks serious ass - she's playing tonight here in her hometown of Detroit. CAN'T WAIT! 

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