Fish was born on 26 June 1986, in Reading, England.[2] He grew up listening to soul music, such as Whitney Houston and Luther Vandross, because of his mother. He started getting into rock music at age 12 and played in a nu metal band at age 14,[3] citing Deftones, Slipknot and Korn among his formative influences.[4] When Fish was in college, he began exploring electronic music with a couple of friends.[5]
Career
2010–2013: Worship
In 2010, Fish was a member of the electronic band Worship, along with Tim Alexander, James Johnson and Tom Mayo, bedding live performance with electronic elements. Worship posted their first song onto YouTube titled "Collateral" in November 2010.[6] Worship released their debut single, "House of Glass" in October 2011.[7] An album titled Nothing Is Sacred, which contains songs recorded by Fish with the band between 2010 and 2013, was released on September 2, 2019.[8]
In 2012, Fish began working with the rock bandBring Me the Horizon on their fourth studio album, Sempiternal.[9]Oli Sykes was a fan of Fish's previous work and invited him to add some electronics on the album.[10] This expanded into Fish helping out with the writing process.[9] After the album was finished, Fish joined the band on tour.[9] In early 2013, Fish officially left Worship and became a full-time member of Bring Me the Horizon, becoming a key creative member of the band, contributing keyboards and songwriting.[11] Fish was named Keyboardist of the Year by Alternative Press following his work on Sempiternal.[12] The same year, he produced and engineered Robin Trower's album Roots and Branches.[13]
Fish performing in 2014
Fish had worked with American band Machine Head twice, contributing to the writing and string arrangements for their 2014 studio album Bloodstone & Diamonds[14][15] and post-production for their 2018 studio album Catharsis.[16]
In September 2015, Bring Me the Horizon released their fifth studio album That's the Spirit, the band's first fully self-produced album, with Fish handling production duties.[17] Fish felt that the band "had artistic freedom to explore different styles of music" because of this, helping to evolve the band's sound from metalcore towards a more experimental and electronic-driven direction.[18] Their sixth studio album Amo was released on 25 January 2019. Fish again took up production duties for the band.[19]Amo reached number one on the UK Albums Chart.[20]
Along with Bring Me the Horizon bandmate Oli Sykes, Fish worked with Halsey as a co-writer and co-producer on her 2020 track "Experiment on Me". This song was created for the movie Birds of Prey and appeared on the movie's soundtrack.[21]
On 30 October 2020, Bring Me the Horizon released Post Human: Survival Horror, an EP that was intended to be the first in a series of "Post Human" records. Fish took up a co-producer role with Oli Sykes this time, while Australian composer Mick Gordon made additional production contributions.[22][23]Post Human: Survival Horror became the band's second number one album.[24] In late 2023, Fish took some time away touring with the band,[25] and on 22 December 2023, the band announced that they had parted ways with Fish; the split was described as amicable, with both sides expressing appreciation for their years of collaboration.[26] Bring Me the Horizon released Post Human: Nex Gen on 24 May 2024, which featured contributions from Fish.[27][28]
2023–present: Independent production and songwriting career
After leaving Bring Me The Horizon, Fish transitioned into working full-time as a producer and songwriter.[29] producing for both established and emerging artists, including Babymetal, Poppy, Halsey, Amy Lee, House of Protection, Architects, Good Charlotte, and S10. He has occasionally performed live with artists he has collaborated with, including S10.[30]
In 2023, Fish engineered "Theorem" by Puscifer from their album Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired.[31] The same year, Fish and Kane Churko co-produced the track "Make It Out Alive" by One Ok Rock.[32] After leaving Bring Me the Horizon, Fish started working with Canadian heavy metal band Spiritbox.[33] He worked with former Fever 333 members Aric Improta and Stephen Harrison for their project House of Protection, producing and co-writing their debut EP Galore, which was released on 13 September 2024 through Red Bull Records. Fish also worked with Architects around the same time, producing and co-writing the song "Curse",[34] and "varying the energy and color of their sound";[35] on recruiting Fish at Germany's Rock am Ring festival, band drummer Dan Searle saying "We had this big chat with him, like, ‘What would you do next? Be honest? Where would you take it? What are we doing right, what are we doing wrong? Lay it on us", saying "he had something to prove coming out of [Bring Me the Horizon] and we had something to prove to ourselves. So, it worked".[35]
While being interviewed at Download Festival 2024, British pop-punk band Busted revealed that they were working on new music with Fish.[36] Fish made a surprise return to the stage on 15 October 2024, performing vocals as part of House of Protection's first show in London.[37] Fish produced and co-wrote Poppy's sixth studio album Negative Spaces, which was released on 15 November 2024 through Sumerian Records.[38] Fish once again worked with Stephen Harrison as part of the album's writing process.[39][40][41][42] In 2025, Fish also worked with Good Charlotte around the same time, producing and co-writing the song "Rejects".[43]
Equipment
While performing with Bring Me the Horizon, Fish used a setup called the Stormtrooper. The Stormtrooper was built around Apple's MainStage software, which was controlled by a pair of Arturia KeyLab II MkIIs and an Arturia BeatStep.[44] Fish used the BeatStep for "a lot of one-shot button stuff" and playing sounds that would be difficult to re-create live.[45] It also included some additional percussion. Before changing to the Arturias, he used various Nord and Akai keyboards.
In a live session for Triple J as a member of Poppy's backing band, Fish used a much more scaled-down setup. He only used one Arturia keyboard and removed the BeatStep and additional percussion entirely.
Musical techniques and impact
Fish plays a number of instruments, but "never really felt tied to one." He cites Trent Reznor, Brian Eno, James Blake, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day and Deftones as early influences on his guitar playing. He later switched to bass guitar because he felt that he wasn't "good enough on guitar." Before joining Bring Me the Horizon, he played keyboards in Worship.[10] Once Fish joined the group, critics noted how he influenced the band's progression in sound and music production.[46][47][18][48][49] He credits Radiohead as the band that got him into electronic music.[18] Fish uses Pro Tools to write songs and engineer multiple layers of instrumentals, sounds and vocals. He tends to write out parts that fit a certain track and blend it all together.[18]
Fish considers himself a musician but not in "the traditional sense."[45] He has spoken about his musical ability stating, "I'm a good musician in some senses, but I'm not particularly a good player. I don't think you necessarily need to be held back by your piano or keys ability, you know what I mean? I think your creativity is the most important thing... As long as you can make some music that you think is cool, and people connect with it, then that is way more important to me."[45]NME described Fiash as “one of the most in-demand producers in the rock and metal world";[50] on being called a "super-producer", Fish said:
"I’m not bothered about any of that stuff… as long as you keep your standards high. With every project I take on, I want to try and immerse myself to the point where I feel like I am the artist. When I’m working with Poppy – I’m Poppy! If someone hates it, it hurts me too. I want to come away and feel like I’ve given it everything. This is my fucking baby as well,” he concludes. “That’s how I feel about Architects too… I’m an equal when we’re in the studio. I’m emotionally invested in every project and the artist’s career – I want to see them win."[50]
Artists across the heavy scene have lauded the influence of Fish's production style on their music: Oli Sykes crediting Fish's work on the Bring Me the Horizon album Sempiternal as making Fish "one of the leaders in terms of composition".[51]LouderSound calling the album “the most influential metal album of its generation",[51] and Kerrang! praising the "fresh songwriting input" Fish brought to the album;[52]Dan Searle saying saying Fish "had something to prove coming out of [Bring Me the Horizon to work with Architects] and we had something to prove to ourselves";[35] and Poppy calling Fish "such a creative force [who] is very good at tracking performance [and has] an appreciation for heavy music and more saccharine pop music”.[53]
Personal life
Fish lives in West Berkshire, England, and is married to his wife Emma, a former member of a Dutch girl/boy band XYP, who performed additional vocals on "Happy Song" from Bring Me the Horizon's album That's the Spirit.[54] They have two children.[1]
In August 2016, Fish and Oli Sykes climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity at the Pediatric intensive care unit at Southampton hospital, after his son Eliot had suffered a brain haemorrhage and been cared for at that hospital unit.[55] Fish and Sykes raised more than £50,000.[56] In 2023, Eliot ran a mini-marathon to raise money for the same cause.[57]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
