By: JoAnn Snavely

In the last edition of “Spotlight on Rising Stars,” the music industry is constantly evolving. There are always new sounds to be heard, new instruments to be invented, and new songs to be written. This week, I took on 2 of my most exciting interviews yet. Meet these two musicians who are working their way to be the next big thing!

Meet Baby Fisher and Medium Build.

Baby Fisher

‘Baby Fisher’ is the assumed pseudonym for 17-year-old, LA-based musician Sam Fisher.

I got to speak with Fisher just hours before the release of his newest single, “Don’t Cut Your Hair.” 

In an effort to visually set the scene- Fisher entered the Zoom in what I assume is his childhood bedroom. The purple and lime green walls had dragonfly decals flying throughout the room, his acoustic guitar was lying on his bed, and Fisher sat with a vintage Trucker hat and denim jacket that he later explained was hand-made,

Sam Fisher has always been surrounded by creativity. His mother, an NC native, is an author, and his father is a producer.

Because of this, his creativity was fostered and nurtured in ways unimaginable from an early age. Thanks to that nurturing, Fisher had a love for words from a young age, “I focus really hard on lyrics. My mom’s an author, my dad uses words for his work, and both my parents were word-heavy, my whole family is. I really wanted to focus on what I say, so I dove into Bob Dylan, I dove into poetry and everything like that… That’s my main thing- what I say and how I say it.” 

It was clear that being an artist was in his blood. However, he would stumble (both literally and figuratively) into the actual music “scene” when he was around 12 years old when he and his friend went into a Blues bar for a drink of water. Fisher was then introduced to not only the Blues scene but to his passion to pursue it professionally as well: “I walked into a blue’s bar with one of my friends, and I met these 70-year old session musicians, and they were like Elvis’ players, and they played with the Beatles, and Etta James, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and all of the greats, and I’d been playing guitar [for] 4 months at the time. They kind of took me under their wing, and I played with them 3-4 times a week… for about 2 ½-3 ½ years… I sucked, but they put me on stage with them; I played blues, and I learned everything there is about Blues… That’s my roots. I come from Blues”. 

A few years later, he found himself in lockdown as the rest of the world did,. Many of us picked up hobbies during COVID, but instead, Fisher took his beloved hobby mainstream –through TikTok. Fisher posted a handful of miscellaneous acoustic covers of different songs trending at the time, initially gaining little to no traction. Until one day, it all changed, “I started posting on TikTok when I was 14; it didn’t do well until I was about 15–then it did well.”

From there, his career spiraled (in the best way possible). Fisher became connected and signed to Atlantic Records, got scheduled for an array of recording sessions, and began to make those childhood dreams a reality.

Although social media is what helped form his career, he finds he struggles with it, “social media is the hardest part of my job, that’s because I suck at it. I’m horrible at marketing- I have a team that markets for me… I’m so bad at running my socials. I don’t hate doing it, but I like making music. I don’t like being an influencer. I like making music. And I’m not an influencer; I’m an artist who promotes their music, but I like writing music, and social media’s just part of the industry, and there’s no way around that.”

Fisher reflected on the quick transition that occurred because of his overnight rise to fame, “the transition was insane to me. It was really quick… I went from writing acoustic songs in my bedroom… and in a month, I was thrown into the dumpster fire that is the music industry. I went from writing little acoustic songs in my bedroom to writing big rock hits in studio sessions with producers that I didn’t know were big, but apparently [they] were. To be honest, there wasn’t a transition period. It just happened. I kind of wish that I had some time to learn instead of being thrown head-first into the deep end, but I didn’t. I’m very fortunate to be where I am, and I wake up every morning and can’t believe I get to do what I love. It feels amazing.”

Continuing with his rise through social media, Fisher felt there were many pitfalls to social media– primarily its effects on society; “I think there are downsides, and the downside is people have such a short attention span, they look at one thing then they forget about it five seconds later, but it helped my career. It made my career, first off. I [relatively] blew up on Tik Tok…when I was 15, and because of that, I got interest from labels and whatnot… But it’s great. It’s free marketing; that’s all it is.”

Although that transition was rough, it was no secret. He was making music and was beyond happy to be doing so. But, next came the easy part–choosing a name: “it’s a funny story. When I was 12, my best friend was this 18-year-old kid–which wasn’t the greatest idea at the time. But, you live and you learn. He was taking me to all these different places that I shouldn’t have been going to, and I was such a baby–I was 12. So he called me Baby Fisher…It kind of stuck; no one really called me Sam past 5th grade…Baby Fisher stuck, and it means something to me.”

Fisher currently has a small but mighty discography– although it primarily consists of songs written years ago. Fisher finds himself writing about any and everything, “Music is every single part of my life, I wake up, I work (on a good day) 14 hours a day… music is every little thing I do, I barely see my friends, I barely see anybody, I just ??? to music and to some people, it [music] is just 5 minutes a day… and that just blows my mind that some people aren’t so connected to music.”

“Music makes me feel a lot; music makes me feel in a way nothing else does, whether that’s making music or listening to it. Music makes me content, and it means everything to me.” 

He finds his connection to music unique and much larger than just music. At his core, Sam Fisher is a creative, with an emphasis on “create,” “I’m always creating; I make my own clothes; I made this jacket; I made the pants I’m wearing. I have to be creating…I don’t like rest. I always have to be doing something, whether with friends or thrifting… I just have to be doing something, ut I’m always writing. I keep journals, I write poetry, and I literally write everything.” 

When it comes to his musical writing process, he takes a more unique and classic approach: “I have a type-writer; I write all my music on a type-writer. It’s strange, but I love it. I have the same one as my favorite author… I’m always writing something; my mom’s an author, it just comes naturally. It’s in my blood.”

As far as what he writes about? He writes about even more classic themes and concepts, “What do I write about? To be honest, mostly women who hurt me…I like writing songs about women. It’s fun, and it’s easy inspiration… But I like writing about other things. I write about my life, I write about childhood ending, being taken away too soon, things like that.”

Taking it back a bit, I wanted to zoom into the why. The ‘why’ behind the career path he’s chosen, the root of his passion, “it’s so simple, but it’s just so hard. I’m not sure what inspires me to make music- it just does… It’s what I have to do, to be honest. There is nothing else I am comfortable and okay with myself doing. It is just what I HAVE to do. I can’t live any other way.”

So much more goes into inspiration than simply wanting to make music; Fisher quotes Bob Dylan, James Brown, Ice Cube, The Strokes, and Jim Morrison, in particular as career influencers.

Being so young and creating such mainstream productions is no easy feat. However, there seems to be upsides for Fisher, “I think it’s more impressive because I’m younger than most, but that’s just because I started young…To be honest, I got really lucky. I walked into a blues bar- that was not my doing, and I met my manager- like I randomly posted a video, and it blew up… I just got really lucky.” 

Whether dumb luck or sheer talent, it seems it was meant to be for Fisher,  “I hated high school- I was a horrible student, I was God-awful to teachers, I was such a d**k, I got sh***y grades, I never did anything;I just couldn’t do it. And I feel so beyond fortunate that I was able to leave high school early.”

You can tell the sheer happiness and joy he gets from making music. When he discussed some of his most rewarding moments as a musician, he humbly reminisced on working on a set to record music videos, great interactions with fans, and studio sessions

Throughout the interview, you could tell he was passionate about his career, but during this portion of the interview, it was even more noticeable, “I love what I do. It just makes me so happy.”

For Fisher, he noticed that it wasn’t all just sunshine and rainbows. There are obstacles, and he’s experienced his fair share. Whether it be challenging shoots, learning to hone in on his emotions, or learning to let go of the fears of failure or feeling less than others, Fisher wasn’t immune to those obstacles.

Although he experiences these issues, he continues to push on because his craft means so much more to him, “I’m going to do it, I’m going to give it my all, or I’m not even going to try. Give it 200% every day, try your hardest. Every little moment you have to put effort into it. If you’re not going to give it everything, why are you even trying.” He explained that he goes into every session with one goal, “we don’t make demos. We make records, baby.”

Baby Fisher released his debut single, “This is the End,” this past December. His most recent single was released this past Friday. Although these songs were released quite recently, they are quite a few years older. Fisher explained that they were written when he was around 14-15 years old. Many of these songs written thus far maintain the same thematic meanings about love, life, and everything in between.

Fisher is preparing to tour with The Scarlet Opera on their Comedy Tour this April throughout the west coast, be sure to catch him if you have the chance!

Be sure to check out the audio edition of the interview linked below to hear more about his background, the story behind his latest single, what’s to come, and so much more!