Jeremy Fisher

Young guy from Vancouver who despite being a fine singer / songwriter also has a schtick. He used to bike from gig to gig and whenver possible still does. Wisely his management hasn't made too big a deal out of it. I mean who wants to be known as the bike guy if you're trying to be known as a musician? Okay, you're right: plenty would. I think that's why I liked Fisher better than most. He lacked desperation.


February, 2005

As Jeremy Fisher took the stage at Centennial Hall on Saturday February 4th, it was a little like the proverbial Christian wandering into the arena wondering what the deal was with all the lions. Fisher was doing the opening act thing for Canadian Idol boy Kalan Porter. An opening slot at a concert is a lot like the cold call list at a telemarketing company. The responses can range from indifferent to unspeakable with a slight stopover at loathing. Sixteen hundred pre-teens are waiting with breath bated see their love-object and this OTHER guy shows up?

It could have gone very badly but it says something about Fisher and his songs that he pulled off an impossible task. “It went great!” he laughs over the phone from his Victoria home. “They were a great audience. They really were” he adds with just a little disbelief. “I wasn’t sure what his audience was going to be like. From what I could gather it was a lot of people for whom this was their first concert ever. They were clapping along and singing along and it was really pleasant actually.” Fisher pauses as he mulls over the memory before adding with a chuckle, “I loved it!”

Hamilton-born Fisher hasn’t done things the wham-bam way that Porter has however. Fisher had been doing the busking thing while writing and recording bedroom for some years all the while making a name for himself in his adopted city of Victoria. Convinced that it was time he decided about two years ago to get down to recording a full-fledged album.

“I was living in Victoria all that year working full-time in a bike shop” he explains. “I spent all of our savings recording the album on weekends in Vancouver. The whole time we were applying for grants and stuff like that to help things out. I kept telling my wife something’s going to come through. I used to say ‘It’s an investment, it’s an investment!’” he laughs. “We just spent everything we had. I can’t believe she let me do it!”

Then the dominoes started to fall. He got the ear of the head of Sony Publishing who promptly arranged for him to get signed to the label itself. The album he recorded during those weekends in Vancouver was released with only a few new additions. For those who’ve seen Fisher’s solo live show ‘Let It Shine’ is a revelation. The disc is littered with hook-laden pop gems from the opener ‘Lemon Meringue Pie’ to his current single ‘High School’ which has struck a chord with radio programmers and live audiences alike.

There are basically two things Jeremy Fisher is almost never without: a guitar and a bicycle. Put simply, if he could Fisher would ride to every gig he plays. To be certain he basically did for much of his early career. In fact on an early trek across this country (he’s crossed it twice) he and a friend found themselves marooned in Regina with a bank card that wouldn’t work. The resourceful Fisher borrowed a guitar from someone and busked his way to a meal or three. “That’s when it clicked for me” he recalls. “If I had a guitar with me all the time, I could travel all year round and never go hungry. I wanted to be fed and dry when it was raining. Those were my only concerns in life.”

Regardless of his mode of transportation, the road will be Fisher’s home for the coming year. His current trek brings him to London two times in the next month, Feb ?? opening for Sara Slean at Fanshawe’s Outback Shack and a solo gig at the London Music Club on Feb. ??. In the spring he’ll be back with his band in tow.

Earlier in the interview I had jokingly asked if opening for Kalan Porter made him envious for that kind of instant success. It was more of a statement than a question but Fisher came back to the question regardless. “In this last year I’ve had so many breaks that for me to envy anybody would be so ungrateful” he laughs. “I’ve been playing music all my life. The job at the bike shop was on the only job I’ve ever had that hasn’t been music related. Every little bit of it is a piece of the story.”