PUNK PAPA: Business owner balances lifestyle, family

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Brent Fisher didn’t find much of a place growing up in Mid-Michigan.

So he built his own.

Fisher, who grew up in Ithaca, is co-owner of Justice Records, 617 N. Mission St. On his right wrist is a tattoo reading “Straight XXX Edge,” illustrating his choice of the drug-free and alcohol-free lifestyle.

“There is an abundance of hicks and bros in this town, man,” Fisher said. “I wanted to be the opposite of everyone else. They drank so I didn’t.”

Fisher, 24, said he was first introduced to the hardcore punk scene when he was 14 or 15 at local shows.

“I used to go see my friends’ bands play,” he said. “And I just got sucked in.”

It wasn’t the music that first drew his attention, but the sense of community, which he is trying to integrate into his own Mount Pleasant business.

“I really wanted to open a (do-it-yourself) venue in town,” he said, “and that is why we opened the record store.”

Fisher’s business partner Rorik Brooks said originally Justice Records was a means to an end in terms of funding a venue.

“We wanted a venue, but we had to find a way to pay the rent,” the Shepherd resident said. “So we landed on the record shop.”

Fisher said one of the main reasons he and Brooks wanted to open a venue was to give teenagers a place to go and hang out with their friends instead of just conversing on Facebook.

“When we were kids, we would call each other and go somewhere,” Brooks said. “Not creating a community in an imaginary world.”

Justice Records doubles as an all-ages venue where admissions are based off of attendees’ donations, usually around $5.

Fisher and Brooks said Justice Records doesn’t attract as many teenagers as they hoped, but it might have to do with the Internet.

“Kids are getting together online now, instead of going out and going places,” he said. “We want to bring some of that back to Mount Pleasant.”

Fisher funded the opening of the store with the help of Brooks, a small business loan and by working at a factory in Alma for about a year.

He originally wrote a business plan for a record store while President George W. Bush was in office, but said it wasn’t until last summer he and Brooks started seriously looking into opening a store.

Alisha Fisher, Brent Fisher’s wife, said her father also quit his job to start his own business, so it was something she knows how to support.

Since his teenage years, Brent Fisher said he has toned down his hardcore punk attitude, still holding true to his straight edge philosophy.

“I’ve toned down a lot, I don’t hate people who drink, I just don’t drink,” he said.

Alisha said she does not adhere to the same philosophy. She occasionally drinks, but won’t do anything else, especially smoking or other drugs.

The Fishers have a two-year-old daughter named Taegen, and are expecting another child soon.

Taegen can usually be found at the store with her dad if Alisha is working. She’s often seen there banging away on the store’s drum set.

“She has a pretty good time there, she likes to play the drums, but it usually doesn’t last too long,” Alisha said.