Carolina Moment: Man creates devices to ‘amp’ up musician inspiration
By Matthew Yates
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Not far removed from downtown Asheville, there’s a small shed in the backyard of a home. You can’t really see it from the street.
A tall fence was built, not necessarily for privacy, but more to keep the energetic dogs that roam the back yard from getting loose and running all over the neighborhood.
The dogs keep Anthony Hernandez company as he opens the door to the shed he recently built.
While most homeowners may dedicate a structure like this to lawn mowers, shovels, and other devices meant to keep lawns in shape, Anthony’s is filled with tools meant for other means.
“Yeah. Marla amplification. Some people say Marla amps. Sometimes I refer to the company as just Marla,” Hernandez said.
Before the existence of the shed, Hernandez was born in Burlington, N.C., and loved to boast, “Home of Biscuitville. The best biscuits in the entire world!”
The passionate biscuit fan grew up around the area and, at a young age, couldn’t help but be a little jealous when his older brother traded a skateboard for a guitar.
“I would sneak into his room when he wasn’t around, and I would play his guitar. Broke a string once, and I had to, like, run to my parents. Like, hey, I broke my Alexis’s guitar strings,” Hernandez said.
He replaced the broken string, hoping to fend off the anger of his older brother, “then I realized, like, oh, there’s more to it than just strumming and making noise. How do these things work? And that really got me into a lot of, really understanding the instrument, not just the art you make with it.”
Early on in High School, he joined a punk band called “Change the Channel”.
“And then I started playing more, heavier and aggressive music, and then, kind of took a step back and did more kind of like, post-rock, kind of more straightforward rock and roll stuff,” Hernandez said.
He continued with music ventures and began going to college when a lead foot eventually changed his plans.
“Around that time, I was going to college while also working at a restaurant and working at a music store. Had this really, really cool passion for speeding. Whenever I was driving, lost my license, so I couldn’t drive to college. I couldn’t drive to all my other jobs. The only thing I could do was essentially just ride my bike to the music store,” Hernandez said.
That led to a career with a music instrument retailer, opening stores in the southeast, which brought him to Asheville.
“Throughout that time, I kind of stopped playing music. I actually built a few amps just as kind of like a hobbyist. But when I went from working in music retail and started working in business development for the company that invented the synthesizer here in Asheville, I got more and more into electronics,” Hernandez said.
Following that interest, he began building amps, and then HeyDay music had some empty cabinets lying around.
“They asked me, hey, can you build some amplifiers to put in these cabinets so we can just sell them as like full-fledged combos, a finished product?” Hernandez said.
Once those amplifiers began selling, he thought he could do more.
“So I realized I was on to something, and the way I was pricing products and seeing that velocity and knowing that there was an amount of customers who were waiting for the next one to show up at the shop so they can run in and grab it and let me know I was on to something and that’s when I started kind of branding stuff it under my dog’s name, Marla,” Hernandez said.
Marla was a “black lab mutt” who Hernandez describes as his “ride or die” bestie for twelve years.
“She was way more deserving of a company’s name than I was. Especially a company that’s all about making other people happy,” Hernandez said.
Marla passed away in 2022.
“You know, it’s like the spirit of a dog, if you will, is to just wag their tails uncontrollably and spread their joy. And that’s what Marla was all about. So that’s why I named the company after,” Hernandez said.
Nowadays, Marla Amps can be found everywhere from bedrooms to big stages.
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