Deezone.com

After kicking around his native Canada as a singer-songwriter for five years, Jeremy Fisher placed a homemade video for his poppy melancholy track “Cigarette” on YouTube a year ago. Within three months, more than 2 million music fans viewed the film, which features dramatic stop-motion animation.

“What was great about the video is that it was my personal art project,” says Fisher, who performs Saturday at Local 506 in Chapel Hill.

“I didn’t have to have a marketing meeting. It was done just for fun, and I think that comes across and [is] why it did so well. I wasn’t following a particular trend. I was just following what was on my mind.”

The tune was simply the soundtrack, but it helped 31-year-old Fisher, who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, establish himself as a musician in America.