Music has always been part of our family life – not in any formal structured sense; it’s music for enjoyment and coming together. That’s been the soundtrack of just about every family get-together, particularly on my Dad’s side.

Jeremy Fernandez at the 2025 Logie Awards. Photo © Stephen Blake Photographic

I began playing the piano when I was seven. Studying an instrument where I grew up in Malaysia is almost an expectation academically. It sits alongside your regular school studies, so a lot of people learn to play piano. My parents thought it would be a good fit for me, so they bought a piano. I remember it being shipped in and landing in the lounge room. I had some lovely piano teachers starting out, and my mum learned to play alongside me as well, so that was fun. As I advanced through the grades, I had a teacher who took it very seriously. He was a concert pianist who taught in his spare time, and that was no fun at all. It was music for the pursuit of perfection, which made me fall...