Cannons

About Cannons

Cannons started in Los Angeles around 2013 when guitarist Ryan Clapham and drummer Paul Davis began making demos together. They brought in Michelle Joy as vocalist and the trio locked into a sound that borrowed equally from 80s new wave and modern electronic production. They weren't trying to reinvent anything, just build moody synth-pop that could work at 2am or during a long drive.

Their early releases came out slowly. The Night Drive EP dropped in 2017, establishing their aesthetic before most people were paying attention. They followed with Shadows EP later that year and Blue Hour in 2018. These weren't generating much noise outside their immediate circle, but the songs had this patient, brooding quality that stuck with people who found them. Michelle Joy's vocals sat in a sweet spot between detached and vulnerable, which turned out to be exactly what their instrumentals needed.

The breakthrough happened the way a lot of things do now, which is to say gradually and then all at once. Fire became a sleeper hit years after its release, picking up traction on streaming platforms and eventually landing in TV shows and playlists. The song is almost aggressively chill, built around a hypnotic guitar line and a beat that doesn't rush anywhere. It connected with people who wanted electronic music that felt intimate rather than designed for festival crowds.

In 2019 they released their first full-length album, Night Drive, which gathered some of their earlier EP tracks with new material. Heartbreaker became another defining track for them, following the same formula of restrained production and melancholic hooks. Then came Fever Dream in 2022, which included Purple and Bad Dream. By this point they had an audience that knew exactly what they were getting, and the band delivered without overthinking it.

Purple in particular showed they could write a straightforward love song without sanding off what made them interesting. The production stayed minimal, giving Michelle Joy's voice room to carry the emotion without drowning it in reverb. Bad Dream leaned into slightly darker territory, while Loving You proved they could do something sweeter without losing their edge.

They've been touring steadily and their live shows translate the recorded sound pretty directly. No elaborate staging, just the three of them recreating what works on the albums. They've built a dedicated following that spans people who discovered them through Fire going viral and others who were there for the early EPs.

Right now they're in that comfortable middle zone where they can headline mid-sized venues and keep making albums without pressure to suddenly become arena-sized. Their 2023 album Heartbeat Highway continued their trajectory without any major reinventions. They've found their lane and seem content to stay in it, which honestly makes sense when the lane is this well-defined.

Their shows are intimate and precise, anchored by synth work that demands attention. Crowds tend to be respectfully locked in rather than rowdy. The energy is hypnotic more than euphoric—people actually quiet down to listen rather than talk through it.

Known for Fire, Heartbreaker, Bad Dream, Loving You, Purple

See Cannons Live