Long Lake #58 singer to perform at Toronto Blue Jays home game
By Rick Garrick
TORONTO—Long Lake #58 singer Natasha Fisher is looking forward to performing the national anthem at a Toronto Blue Jays home game in August.
“It’s pretty exhilarating because I one day want to perform my own music in front of a crowd that size,” says Fisher, who grew up in Thunder Bay but is pursuing her music career in Toronto. “Everything happens for a reason, so I feel blessed to have that opportunity.”
Fisher says her cousin, Classic Roots, an electronica and Pow Wow techno musician who has been her mentor since she was a young girl, pointed out the opportunity to sing the national anthem for the Blue Jays on National Indigenous Peoples Day.
“I was supposed to do it [then], but it got changed to sometime in August,” Fisher says. “At that time, they were looking for a First Nations person to sing the national anthem because there was going to be a lot of First Nations children in the audience because they had just given a large donation to help kids on reserves learn how to play baseball. So it was a really cool opportunity.”
Fisher released her first single, Lie to Me, along with a music video featuring Indigenous dancers that was filmed on Mt. McKay and the surrounding area, in 2017. Her music is available on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify and her music videos are posted online.
“I had the opportunity to kind of clash these genres together and make what we called then Aboriginal-influenced pop rhythm and blues,” Fisher says. “I got a lot of traction from that and that really started me on this journey of releasing more and more music. I’ve just been continuing to record and make new music and keep up with my fan base ever since.”
Fisher says her latest song, B.S., is about the frustrations of dealing with an ex.
“I get my creativity and ideas for songs from everything around me, whether its people, places or things,” Fisher says. “I just enjoy writing.”
Fisher first began singing in church in Thunder Bay, where her parents Anita and Roma Fisher are senior pastors at the Faith City Church.
“I grew up in church and I grew up always singing and always being surrounded by music,” Fisher says. “I started song writing at a very young age and ever since then it just progressed from a thought to a dream to a passion to a realistic goal, so now I’m just happy to be doing what I love.”
Fisher recalls performing at a Christmas recital when she was seven-years-old.
“I just remember being so nervous, but it was exhilarating and nerve wracking in the best sense,” Fisher says. “So ever since then I was always reaching to perform at more places.”
Fisher also performed with her sister Hannah Fisher in a group called the Fisher Sisters at local events in Thunder Bay and travelled with Classic Roots to perform for elementary school children during workshops at some northern Ontario First Nation communities.
“It really moulded me and shaped me into the person I am and the performer I am today,” Fisher says about the performing in northern communities. “It gets more fun every time I go up to a new community, and I just love being able to inspire youth and other people to pursue music and their dreams in general.”