Jessica Hernandez —of the Detroit-based band Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas— loves to tour these days, but she didn’t always. The first few times she piled into the van with her bandmates and hit the road, it was rough. They would drive long hours to far away cities, only to play in front of a (literally) empty room.

Slowly over time, those rooms began to fill up as fans caught on to the band’s retro soul-meets-pop sound. Seeing all their hard work pay off made all those tough early tours worth it. Jessica visited us at our Latino USA studios to tell us some war stories from life on the road in a sweaty van full of dudes.

Photo courtesy of Big Hassle Publicity