Music
FISHER: From Global DJ to the World’s Most Unlikely House Husband
The decks, the festivals and the chaos can wait. FISHER opens up on life at home, fatherhood and finding a different kind of high away from the DJ booth.
In 2002, on Australia’s Gold Coast, 16-year-old Paul Fisher spent his days surfing, hanging out on the beach, and bouncing between the area’s endless parties. Born and raised in the region, he looked like any other local teenage surfer – living for the next swell and the next event. But, at night, one thing set him apart from the pack: his love of house music.
My manager texted, ‘I don’t know what you’ve done, but you’ve broken the internet
“I was one of the first surfers to start throwing house [music] parties,” Fisher recalls, “because a lot of the surf scene music back then was [Californians] Pennywise, Blink-182, a lot of the punk bands. When I started playing house music at these parties, people were either like, ‘What’s this?’ or, ‘Turn this shit off.’”
Australian DJ Fisher in his element djing
© Guille Gastileo
As his surfing took off, Fisher’s off-kilter sense of humour started getting him noticed as much as his surfing did. He became infamous for his stunts – from riding a penis-shaped surfboard to fronting his anarchic interview series Fish Tales.
At Coachella, people were climbing under the tent to hear my song
Then, when he retired from competitive surfing in 2012, Fisher unleashed the full force of his riotous energy on clubland, focusing on DJing and music production. The mononymous Fisher was born. His breakout single, Losing It, released in 2018, turned him into a global phenomenon almost overnight. The track landed Fisher a nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 2019 Grammy Awards, along with the number-one spot on the US Dance Club Songs chart and a rocket ride up the DJ Mag ‘Top 100 DJs’ list.
Australian DJ Fisher and his live show
© Guille Gastileo
His wild streak followed him off the decks, too. At the Grammys in February 2019, he dropped an F-bomb thirty seconds into his red-carpet interview, live on air. His music videos leaned into the same chaos – most notoriously Just Feels Tight (2021), which saw him lead a full thrust-powered aerobics class in nothing but white underwear. Onstage, Fisher built a persona to match, cackling, sprinting across the decks, and hurling himself at the crowd with the same energy he once reserved for a heavy shorebreak. Bucket hat, open patterned shirt, shades on at 3am – it became a uniform for a man who never seemed to stop having fun, on camera or off.
I’m not thinking about me any more; it’s all family
Now, after more than a decade in the music business, the 40-year-old DJ hasn’t just endured, he’s become one of dance music’s greatest and most respected headline acts. Currently ranked seventh in the DJ Mag list, and the world’s number-one house DJ, he’s built a career that shows no sign of slowing: sold-out shows on every continent, and tracks racking up more than half a billion streams. This summer sees Fisher return to Ibiza for year two of his Thursday night takeover of the island’s newest hyperclub, [UNVRS], a season already being talked about as one of the all-time great Ibiza residencies. From a Gold Coast kid being told to turn off his music, to the most-booked, most-talked-about DJ on the planet – it turns out he was playing the long game all along.
Australian DJ Fisher relaxing with a smile
© Gianni Gallant
But for all the public spectacle, the biggest shift in Fisher’s story didn’t happen on a stage at all. Somewhere between the parties and sold-out shows, dance music’s naughty little brother became a husband, and a father of two young daughters. The man who once shut down Hollywood Boulevard for a street rave is now the one on nappy duty between tour stops. The question hanging over Fisher’s new chapter is simple: what happens to the party when the wildest man in dance music grows up?
Losing It didn’t only make record numbers in 2018, it crashed onto mainstream radio in a way that’s incredibly rare for a house track. How did that happen?
Fisher: It was so quick. The song came together in maybe two to four hours. Then I got a call from the guys who run the [electronic music stage] Do LaB at Coachella – it was weekend one of the festival and someone had pulled out of a 3pm slot. I just said, “Yeah, I’ll do it.” Driving out to the desert, I played the track for my wife and my manager. Both went, “Holy shit, this is gnarly.” So we got to the stage at Coachella and I said, “Film it, let’s see the reaction.” I pressed play, flicked my wrist and looked out at the crowd. What happened on that dancefloor in that moment was euphoric. I’ll never forget it. I don’t think I’ve had a reaction like that since.
That clip is now legendary online…
Fisher: I woke the next morning and my whole life had changed. My manager sent a message saying, “I don’t know what you’ve done, but you’ve broken the internet.” From that moment on, it was just the craziest thing ever. I got put on the line-up the next week at Coachella, which is unheard of. People almost couldn’t get in – I think it was an 8,000-cap tent, and there were 13,000. They almost didn’t let me play. People were climbing under the tent to hear the song. Suddenly it was an international hit, it was on the radio everywhere – a dance record with three words in it. I still don’t know what to say about that. It was magic.
More than a decade on, what’s an international DJ lifestyle like with two kids under two years old?
Fisher: They’re in it with us. We’re all going on the road this weekend: Norway, London, then Creamfields. I’ve got my headline show in London on Saturday – an early one, 7pm – and I wanted my family there, just to give [eldest daughter] Bobbi those experiences at this age. She’s the funniest character you’ve ever met, and I think it’s because she’s always around my friends, around adults. She’s pretty much on our schedule – last night she didn’t go to bed till 10pm, and she sleeps all night and gets up full of beans, calling out for my friends. She loves being around people; she’s vibrant.
How do you structure family life around your touring schedule?
Fisher: The most important thing for me and my wife was not to change our schedule, but for the kids to also be on it, and to try to get them to enjoy that. It’s working so far. My wife’s very social, too, so we always have people here, and our friends are pretty hands-on, so they help out. When I go away, I get videos of people who’ve come from Australia on holiday, or who live on the island, hanging out with Bobbi and [youngest daughter] Andi. It makes us happy, and you can tell the kids are, too.
Australian DJ Fisher smiles and holds a can of Re dBull
© Guille Gastileo
Was your own upbringing similar?
Fisher: Yeah, your mum would drop you at the beach at 6am and you’d be down there till 6pm, surfing all day, and all the older guys would look after you, and you’d get shouted food. That’s what I’ve always wanted for my kids: to be safe with the people around them, to have that energy around them. It moulded my personality, and I want to do that for my kids. I feel like we’re on the right path with them.
Do you still have the same love of house music as you did as a scrappy teenage surfer?
Fisher: I do. I just did a show in San Francisco – my biggest headline show – and I was stood on stage looking at these kids at the front, thinking, “Wow, I would love to be there right now with my friends.” All these groups partying, having fun, hugging, smiling, and my music was part of the deal – that’s everything for me. That’s what keeps me going out, getting inspired, or just going and having a mingle and a dance with my wife. Even though it’ll make me tired, it’s worth it.
The life of a DJ is more physical than many people think. Do you find yourself having to train your body for big seasons nowadays?
Fisher: Mate, just the travel alone on the body is so intense. I just did a trip from Ibiza to Canada, Canada to Vegas, Vegas to Florida, and didn’t see a bed for two days. I do training and ice bathing. Coming from a surfing background and always being active and in the water, I need that release. The gym for me is where I can switch off, get a little pump in, feel good about myself, then get on with the day. It helps with my thinking and clarity more than anything else.
How does an ice bath help?
Fisher: It sets my stress levels down, and it’s a challenge every day. It never gets easier, and I like those little challenges. I can’t surf in Ibiza – there’s no waves – and mostly I go to cities and not surf spots, so I’ve got to do something to switch off. I know I’m a cliché, but everyone has their thing, and that’s mine.
Australian DJ Fisher loves to express himself
© Gianni Gallant
If your kids get to 18 and want to follow you into the music industry, what would you say to them?
Fisher: I think about this. Bobbi might want to create music, same with Andi – they’ve been around music from the start. Honestly, I’d tell them to go out and find their people. If you find the right people who want you to win, and who want to win with you, you’re going to be all right. It’s the people who don’t have the right people around them that suffer.
Is that what you’d tell yourself at 18, too, if given the chance to go back to before everything blew up?
Fisher: I got a piece of advice when I was coming up. Someone said to me, “You never get that feeling of breaking out twice, so just enjoy that elevator ride.” When you have a hit like Losing It and all of a sudden your world changes, not many people get to experience that feeling. If I could talk to myself back then, I don’t think I’d try to give any advice. I’d just tell that kid to enjoy the ride.
Do you think about that ceiling much now – the idea that you might not get that feeling again?
Fisher: I’m still dreaming and still working. Obviously the goal is to get bigger, and for as many people as possible to enjoy my music, but life has shifted now – I’m not thinking about me any more. It’s all family, 100 per cent. It is different to 10 years ago, where I had the freedom to be wild, go party and do what I wanted and be careless in that kind of way, to be more free. But nothing’s better than what I have right now.
How does life look different now to those days?
Fisher: The other week, I was playing on a Thursday night in Ibiza, had to finish at six in the morning, had to be at the airport at nine. I went straight home, but there wasn’t time to sleep. My daughter woke up and we watched the sunrise together outside, then my other daughter came and curled up next to me, and my wife came out and we had a coffee. I’d just played in front of 9,000 people in a club, but my kids didn’t know that – they don’t care, because they don’t know. Sitting there with them, watching that sunrise? That was by far the most euphoric feeling of the night.