He made his name as visual percussionist and now DJ AFISHAL (Huddersfield musician Michael Fish) is now travelling the world performing and also producing and remixing for other stars. But EMILY RALEIGH discovers that wherever he goes he’s always thankful to the teachers back in Huddersfield who set him on his way.

His incredible percussion skills mean he has travelled the world gigging in some of its most glamorous places.

Yet visual DJ AFISHAL is forever thankful for his Huddersfield roots and those who nurtured his skills to make him what he is today.

The 30-year-old who studied music from the age of five at Wellhouse Junior School is now revolutionising the live Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scene.

Real name Michael Fish, the 30-year-old was born and raised in the town and studied music from the age of five at Wellhouse Junior School.

He attended Colne Valley High School, Greenhead College, Kirklees Music School, now Musica Kirklees and Huddersfield University, where he studied music production and first met Mike Stewart, who has since become AFISHAL’s tour manager.

After hitting more than 150 million views on YouTube in 2017, AFISHAL has major plans for the months ahead, all focused around the visual way in which his music is performed.

AFISHAL (Michael Fish) from Huddersfield

He performs using a visual DJ rig he designed and built himself called The Tremor. This gives AFISHAL the ability to control sounds, lights and graphics all completely live at the hit of a stick in an incredibly visual way. After 10 months of making prototypes, wiring, soldering, moulding plastics and endless programming he launched his instrument back in 2013 and has gone on to pioneer this new visual way to perform electronic music.

With countless big names from the EDM scene reaching out to collaborate he’s gone viral time and time again all over the world and now tours with the show internationally, finding himself performing in a different country every week from Miami to Bali.

He said: “I’m excited to be working with some of the Top 10 DJs in the world, making creative remixes of their tracks and having them released on major labels.

“Afrojack personally asked me to remix his track Lost, as well as make a video with him of us performing it live which will be released later this year. I performed my Avicii remix live on Swedish National TV in January and major Facebook pages like UniLad, keep sharing my videos. I’m blown away by the response on social media.

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“I’m currently working on a project to remix Mashd and Kutcher’s new track which is a remake of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. I also have a single being released with PBH & Jack Shizzle on Spinnin’ Records in April this year. I’ll also be working closely with multi-platinum producer DJ Fresh on some exciting projects.”

Away from live performances and music production, AFISHAL is harnessing his technological expertise to launch his own LED stick range as well as an exciting new app.

“I’ve been developing an app with my team for the past year,” he said. “It replicates what my visual DJ rig (The Tremor) can do on stage and will enable fans to remix tracks and graphics on their phone, to upload creative videos online as well as being able to perform visual DJ shows in their own home. There’s also a visual DJ ‘VR game’ coming out in 2018. It’s like Guitar Hero but based around my concept of DJing. The game will feature my name and branding, I’m really excited about that too.

“I’ve also teamed up with Xylobands who produce wireless LED wristbands. Our collaboration means that I can bring live interactive lighting performances to crowds of thousands. My ambition is to take this concept to the SuperBowl one day.”

AFISHAL (Michael Fish) from Huddersfield

But despite spending huge amounts of time collaborating and creating with peers across the world, AFISHAL’s roots remain firmly in Huddersfield.

“As well as being constantly on tour across Europe, Asia and America we’re currently spending about five days a month at home, and I always love coming back to the town,” he explains.

“Matt Delaney was my drum teacher pretty much right from the start and one of the main reasons I stuck at it and practiced so much. He not only taught me to play percussion from about age seven to 19, he also conducted several of the bands I was a part of. Matt was a big influence on me and an amazing teacher, I owe a lot to him.

“I’m fortunate that I get to travel the world performing and I take with me all of the skills I have learned from my time at Huddersfield University, including production, composition, live performance, web design, graphics and even contracts.

“I’ve learned a lot from my education and life in Huddersfield, and in that sense the town follows me everywhere I go.”