By Owen Hynes

At just age 16, Australian Grammy-nominated music producer and DJ Paul Fisher, who goes by the stage name “FISHER,” was traveling the world as a sponsored professional surfer.

However, as Fisher entered his 20s, his motivation to regularly compete in surfing competitions began to fade while his love for house and electronic music continued to grow and his hobby of DJing started to evolve into a realistic career aspiration.    

Attempting to jumpstart his music career, Fisher began DJing at the after parties for various surfing competitions while he was on tour.

In an April 2019 interview with Billboard, Fisher reflected on the early stages of his DJing career and explained what crowd-reading strategies he uses while performing.

“When you’re first starting out as a DJ and trying to make a name for yourself, that’s where you learn how to read a crowd real quick … Nowadays, I always pick someone in the crowd; the first smile I get, the first connection, and I’m just always back and forth with them,” Fisher said.  

After spending the early years of his music career as part of the electronic music duo Cut Snake alongside fellow Australian surfer Leigh Sedley, Fisher embarked on his solo career as FISHER in 2017.  

In June 2017, FISHER released his debut single “Ya Kidding” on techno-house producer Claude VonStroke’s label Dirtybird Records.

FISHER followed up his debut single in November 2017 with the EP “Oi Oi,” which included the popular house tracks “Stop It” and “Ya Didn’t.”

With three prominent house tracks already released before the end of 2017, FISHER’s mainstream status in the electronic music scene did not arrive until July 2018 following the release of his hit track “Losing It.”

Paired with his classic tech/house-inspired horns and sounds as well as a catchy drop, FISHER’s “Losing It” instantly rose to the top of electronic music charts and caught the attention of hit artists like Skrillex, David Guetta and Tiësto.

“Losing It” reached number one on Billboard’s US Dance Club Songs chart and was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.    

Since July 2018, FISHER has taken full advantage of the success stemming from the release of “Losing It” and has quickly climbed up the ranks of electronic music DJs.  Backed by his crowd-packed performance at Coachella 2019, three nights of sold out Los Angeles shows with fellow house artist Chris Lake and many more massive feats, FISHER has clearly solidified his place in the electronic music scene.      

In an April 2019 interview with EDM.com, electronic music duo Phantoms provided their own insight regarding the future of the electronic music industry going forward and commented on FISHER’s rise in popularity.  

“House music is having a big resurgence right now. Who knows how long it will last, but we’ve definitely noticed a much wider audience appreciating more refined and less aggressive electronic music … Seeing a crowd of 5,000 people get down to FISHER and Chris Lake for three hours was definitely an exciting thing to see,” Phantoms said.  

Music fans should pay close attention to FISHER, who recently released the long-awaited follow up single to “Losing It” titled “You Little Beauty” on May 10, as the producer and DJ will be looking to build upon his successful year in 2018 throughout the rest of 2019.  

Listen to FISHER’s new song “You Little Beauty” here and the rest of his discography on Spotify here.  

Featured Photo Credit: Courtesy of FISHER’s Facebook page.

Owen Hynes is a sophomore journalism major and can be reached at ohynes@terpmail.umd.edu.