Canadian-born, Panama-based music producer and visual artist Fise was 14 when he started DJing, purely out of a love for music.
"I would DJ in my bedroom probably like most others," he says. "Pretty quick after that I began DJing in clubs in Panama where I grew up. I would play every Thursday and Saturday at the Hard Rock Hotel club which was THE place to go clubbing back then. But again I was 14, my mom told me 'you can go BUT I need to go with you,' I didn't care so she would come with me and drive me an hour and a half each way almost every week for a while. She’s always been super supportive and a really good mom."
"Producing was a little different," Fise adds. "I began really producing around maybe 16 but it wasn't until Martin Garrix came up to me in 2015 at an after party I was DJing at and told me he liked the set and wanted to know if I was releasing music and I wasn't really taking it seriously yet. That really lit a fire under me to stop playing local clubs and take my art and career a little more seriously and focus on the bigger picture."
Fise describes his sound as dark aggressive clubby mid tempo.
"I always liked that deep aggressive sound and sets that take you on a ride from insane aggressive to deep club tracks," he says. "That’s really what I strive for. Honestly one of my biggest inspirations was always Rezz, so to have most of my releases now coming out on her label is such an honor."
His latest release is "NEED 2 KNOW."
"‘NEED 2 KNOW’ was actually started in the studio with EDDIE," Fise says. "He came to visit and we were working on finishing 'DAMNED' which is now released, another one that is still to come and then there was 'NEED 2 KNOW.' First thing I made from N2K was that aggressive bass that rumbles the whole room. After that I knew this was gonna be one of those deep but aggressive club tracks."
As for gear: "I actually don’t use much gear for producing. I have my Macbook Pro 16, Genelec 8351Bs and an Apollo 6x audio interface and that’s it. I’ve tried buying gear in the past and yeah it’s fun but really you can do everything inside of ableton, you barely need VSTs. I obviously use serum, soundtoys, valhallaverb, and I’ll play with distortion plugins. But really I’ve actually found distracting yourself with VSTs and gear, although it's fun and can spark some ideas, for me it’s way more productive to just sit with your laptop and ableton and just play with things and focus on what you can do with the least amount of stuff."
Looking ahead at the coming months, Fise says that he'll be chill but active.
"The coming months are pretty chill in the studio working actually," he says. "Working on new music solo and with some really good friends. Also new visuals for myself as well as for REZZ and another top industry artist I don't think I’m able to share yet. However we will have something to announce hopefully soon for early 2025 that has me incredibly excited. Big bucket list item so keep an eye on that!"
