A Look Back at Oscar Isaac’s 90s Ska Band Phase

Back in the day, Oscar Isaac wasn’t charming audiences with characters like Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens or fighting mutants as the very blue villain Apocalypse in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse. Prior to his movie star life, Isaac was a musician who went by Oscar Hernandez. Of course, his musical chops are no shock to those who saw Inside Llewyn Davis, but most probably don’t know that his genre of choice was…ska.

Screen Crush reports that in Delray Beach, Florida, Isaac was part of two ska bands: The Worms and Blinking Underdogs.

SC dug up one of Isaac’s old performances from 1996 at Ray’s Downtown Blues in West Palm Beach. (He’s the one wearing the suspenders and the white undershirt.)

And though SC may have had to do a little bit of legwork to dig up this video, Isaac is not ashamed of his ska band past. Last week, the Guatemalan-Cuban-American actor was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, explaining how his band technically opened for The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones.

But in 2001, Isaac’s music career went on hiatus after he was accepted to acting school at Julliard in NYC. Since graduating in 2005, he’s been consistently working as an actor with a steadily rising profile. But although he’s gotten a lot busier in recent years, Isaac still tries to play shows and write music on the side.

Below, take a look at Oscar Isaac, the musician: