In our November issue, singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Spider Cherry, a fixture at bars and clubs in the South Palm Beach County music scene for more than a decade, discusses his recent opportunity to join rock legend Sammy Hagar on the latter’s international tour. It was a breakout moment this past summer for the hardscrabble local musician, but what does it mean for his future?
We continue the conversation with Spider Cherry, aka Nathan Mercado, as he speaks about his path forward with original musical, and his desire not to be pigeonholed as a covers artist.
How has the money from the Sammy Hagar gigs started to make a difference in your life?
Money is always king, I guess, because it helps you do things, but I try my best to save as much as I can for the future. The money I make, I try to put back into my stuff, because I’ve got a new single out called “Cradle Eyes.”
Obviously, money is important. I don’t know any man who would say it wasn’t, but I’m very blessed with the opportunity I’ve got. It recycles itself, basically. It pays for my new music videos, my new production, for all the things I need. It’s been a big help.
Have you released an album yet of original music?
I’ve got a couple of singles out—“Little Bit Shy” and “Feel My Noise.” I’ve got a bunch of stuff ready to go. I’m just trying to work out the best way to put it out.
I watched the video for “Feel My Noise.” I thought it was really funny, but it also has something to say about the attention economy and the parts of life that we’ve started to neglect; is that right?
I find that most of the tracks I write have a deeper meaning. Every song means something different to someone else, potentially, but “Feel My Noise” is basically the attention to the phone away from the family life, or it’s the dog trying to get the attention of the girl, but the girl’s in love with the phone. And she doesn’t see what’s going on around her, and there’s a lot of surrealness to the reality, and at the end, the dog is just a normal dog.
It’s kind of like the empty room at the end is the empty soul of the girl, because, at the end of the day, if you’re watching everything through a lens of a mobile phone or an iPad, you’re not really getting the reality of life. So that’s kind of the meaning of the song “Feel My Noise.”
And when you play shows locally here in South Florida, is it just you, or do you have a band with you most of the time?
I tend to have a couple of guys, mainly. The setup changes, but normally I have at least a drummer with me. A lot of the times I play the bass, the piano, and sing. When I say bass, I mean keyboards; one is bass.
I normally have a drummer and a guitar player. … I’m putting together my original project, which is going to consist of more people in the band now. So that’s basically next to come. The transition from cover musician to original musician will be the next stage of my development.
So you’ve mostly been playing covers at your local gigs?
I’ve made a living from covers, for sure. That doesn’t mean I haven’t written my own stuff; it just means that I haven’t concentrated on it. It’s just the way the economy is, right? So I just chose that lane. I had, unfortunately, some hardships in management throughout my life, and some things turned me away from the music industry, just because of some of the people, unfortunately, I dealt with.
From moving forward now, this is the one thing I’ve always wanted to do that I’ve never really concentrated on, and now is the time to do it. The transition is trying to move from covers to originals, and break free from playing cover bars into bigger shows.
I know covers are definitely where the money is. It seems like the reality of the economy in South Florida, especially.
It’s a kind of a catch-22, unfortunately, and it makes me a bit mad, to be honest. It’s kind of like, if you’re looked upon as a cover musician, somehow that’s reflective that you can’t be an original artist, you know? And it’s so silly, because, like, The Beatles were a cover band. All these bands that became big were because they understood other people’s music. Now everyone thinks that if you play other people’s music, it’s kind of a lesser thing.
Obviously, most people don’t think that, but it’s just kind of reflected in some kind of fake reality that if you do that, you’re not this. If you’re this, you’re not that. And so I feel like I always wanted to turn the tide on that. It’s kind of why I’ve always wanted to not stop playing my cover gigs. Why should I? Why do I have to give up this income of earning so that I can then do this?
This Web Extra is from the November 2026 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
