The singing Fisher man

It is 9pm on a Wednesday in Austin, Texas. It's the first night of South by Southwest, the music industry's most important and influential annual event. New Zealand musician, ex-Goodshirt front man Rodney Fisher, is on a small stage just off a very plush hotel reception area. He and his five-piece band are tuning their instruments. Rodney is appropriately dressed, given his whereabouts, wearing a black cowboy shirt and cowboy boots. "I could never wear this shirt anywhere else, it's so glam," he jokes. As he fidgets with his bottle of beer, Fisher's broad smile hides some pretty major nerves. This is the first time he has performed his solo material outside of London. Well, North London to be precise, where he has a residency at one of the local pubs. His American debut is not the biggest of gigs, there's fewer than 30 people in the room but, in Austin, it's all about quality, not quantity. South by Southwest runs for four days, during which more than 1500 hundred musicians perform at 70 venues. Given the sheer volume of music on offer, many musicians perform to empty rooms. Among Fisher's crowd are Liam Finn and the New Zealand-born, now London-based, DJ Zane Lowe as well as various other festival bookers, radio pluggers and media.




There's also a handful of other Kiwi musos here, supporting their mate Rod. Fisher was selected from thousands of applicants to play at South by Southwest. And, although his audience may be small, it has to potential to be career changing. He describes his sound as "country folk. It's melodic and got a real richness to it. But the core element of all my songs is they are singer-songwriter songs, they are my opinion, I'm putting it out there," he says. Fisher's journey to Austin began almost four years ago with the end of Goodshirt, the hugely successful band he started with his brother Murray. As Goodshirt was winding down, Fisher met Hamish Clark from Breaks Co-Op, who was looking for a guitarist to tour with them in Europe and asked Fisher to step in. Afterwards Fisher decided to hang around in London and see if he could make it as a solo artist. It hasn't been easy. By day, he works in a clothing store, at night he gigs at small venues. He spends the rest of his time writing and recording. Someone giving him plenty of encouragement is New Zealander Lowe, arguably the most influential radio DJ in Britain, who says Fisher is naturally gifted. "He is a supremely talented singer/songwriter and is becoming a great performer in own right, he goes from strength from strength." Lowe says Fisher must now focus on getting his music heard. "With any musician who is really good, it's about finding a wider audience to connect with that music.