Meet Mike Fishkin (i Like To Just Go By Fish)

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mike Fishkin (i Like To Just Go By Fish). We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mike, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.

Throughout my career one of the biggest compliments I’ve received is how generous people see me as. I remember in middle school/high school and even most of college I was never really included in anything. Weather it be an invite to a group outing or party or anything, I was never the first to get invited, included, or given a chance. When I started my show I was so stoked with the amount of artists that were reaching out to be on the show that I wanted to be able to give everyone a chance. For years I’d have multiple bands on my show (trying to match up smaller bands with bigger bands to give the smaller band a chance of being seen by a bigger audience) and that’s how I made a lot of my friends, from doing these interviews. Most of the smaller bands I had on at the time ended up breaking up by now but a lot of them had a member or 2 who went on to join a bigger band or work in big position in the music industry and through that still have been able to work together all these years later.

I’ve been super fortunate that a side gig has been DJing at bars and events. While I know I’m not the best DJ in the world I always knew the events would be cool in one way or another so I would (and still) make sure I send out invites to friends so they have some sort of plans! Back in the day I used to have my table and bottle reserved for my friends or any artists I had on my show recently (so no one had to spend money) and doing that almost every weekend helped expand my network a ton and have some great stories for on air.

Another fun thing I like to do every year is throw a private holiday party/fundraiser called The Fishmas Spectacular. This will be my 10th year of throwing the party and it’s evolved from a dive bar in Manhattan to a 500+ person party in Hollywood. My idea to throw it comes from that I meet/work with so many incredible people throughout the year that I want to be able to buy everyone a drink or 2 for a night with incredible entertainment. The last few years has been open bar and have had performers such as but not limited to Simple Plan, Phantom Planet, Smallpools, The Ready, The Summer Set, JAX, Rebecca Black, Set It Off, The Wrecks, JXDN, Yung Gravy and so many more. The most rewarding part of the party has been the friendships that have come from it and being able to team up with charity, CAA Foundation, and in 2024 we raised over $4K for the foundation

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m currently the VP of Events & Marketing at idobi Radio. It’s awesome to be able to be in an executive position with the company I started out with as an intern. Every day operations for me include seeking out events for idobi Radio to be a part of, creating our own events, finding new talents and finding new and creative ways to get the word out about our brand.

One of the first big projects I got to work on as VP of Events & Marketing was idobi Radio Summer School which was a huge success last summer. It featured 6 incredible up and coming artists an spanned across the whole US. This was started to help fill the void of up and coming summer tours that Warped Tour left us with. Getting to be a part of a lot of the marketing conversations and help bring activations to life was very very exciting for me. One of my favorite things I was able to bring to life was a Photobooth that was at every stop which saw huge lines and was a huge win on the backend for idobi.

From then on it’s been very exciting being able to brand live shows, release parties, and more as idobi Radio and team up with incredible brands such as but not limited to The Vans Warped Tour, When We Were Young, Frogtown Brewery, Veeps and more.

Being able to see people in person reacting to what we’ve been doing on air is the biggest reward. I can look at numbers all day but I don’t get to see the faces of the listeners when they hear a new song for the first time.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

As someone who came into the music industry with no connections or idea what to do, some friends were kind enough to give me all their wisdom and take me under their wing.

Knowing your place – I was taught from a very early age on to know your place, no matter where you are. As simple as it sounds knowing things like if you’re invited backstage/their bus to interview the band don’t take their booze without it being offered to you, don’t bring friends along unless it’s to film you, or the biggest one don’t over stay your welcome in their personal space.

Do what you love – Starting my show in 2013, Pop-punk was not really in the forefront of most people’s minds and a lot of people would ask me why I was still working in a scene where it was bands “we listened to in high school”, and I was doing it because it was the music that raised me and the music I loved. In time most of the bands I grew up listening to had a giant resurgence and I was able to work with them during it. I went from hearing “play more hip hop” during my DJ sets from 2018-2020 to now hearing I don’t play enough Pop-punk/emo

Be authentic – If you’re doing something for money, just stop doing it. People are able to tell if you’re passionate about your product or not. Especially in entertainment it doesn’t pay to be inauthentic.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

One of the most impactful things my parents did for me is support me. From a super young age I was doing child modeling and one day apparently started to hate it so my Mom said “ok you don’t have to do this anymore” and never forced me. From then I didn’t think about anything in the entertainment field till I was about 15 and heard my favorite band on idobi Radio and around the same time heard an ad on a local radio station saying I could be a TV star. Even though the TV star ad was kinda BS my parents still signed me up so I could experience it and even brought me out to an acting competition in Las Vegas one summer. Not only did they take me to Vegas they would drive me into New York City for every audition I got so I never had to take the train alone and it felt like a team. I never did anything too exciting in that field but the support meant the world.

After I heard my favorite band on idobi Radio, I started helping the show I was listening to out with grabbing new music and guests. My parents were super supportive of me staying in my room every Wednesday and Sunday. Any time a band I liked was coming to town my Dad made sure if I asked him for tickets he’d find a way to get me in even if it was sold out. When I started my show my parents were the most supportive people in the world, they made sure there was no noise at the house (I did my show out of my room) when I was interviewing a band or live on air, helped me buy new gear and would drive me to the airport or train station whenever I needed to for traveling. To this day my Mom still listens to my show almost every week live. Now it’s amazing that I’m able to get my Mom into her favorite artists shows and sometimes I even get to be her +1!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Pics 5&6: @themainemanny
Pic 3: @jacobspreng
Pic 4: @maxamillionpolo

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