For Cannons, It Was All A Fever Dream
The post For Cannons, It Was All A Fever Dream appeared first on Consequence.
Cannons have been having dreams.
Bad dreams, good dreams, dreams of the fever variety — all dreams are welcome, when it comes to the Los Angeles trio’s dedication to making it in an industry that loves to reward sameness.
Alternative rock radio is in a bit of a weird place right now. Throughout the last year and a half, the artists that have topped Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart and garnered significant radio play are either Imagine Dragons, Twenty One Pilots, a band with a 20+ year history, or a band desperate to reclaim the popularity they had ten years ago. Needless to say, there’s a big lack of originality swimming throughout commercially-accepted Alt Rock Lane.
But every so often, a band breaks through offering something different, fresh, authentic, and cleverly positioned against the grating chug or frustrating generality of the most frequent charters. Lately, that breakthrough rightfully belongs to Cannons, who burst onto the scene in 2020 with the undeniable “Fire For You.” And Cannons are continuing to rise on Billboard‘s Alternative charts with “Bad Dream,” the driving, hazy lead single from their upcoming third studio album Fever Dream (out March 25th).
Cannons create blissed-out dream pop that’s indebted both ’80s era synthwave, and Drive‘s cinematic, neon-soaked soundtrack, equally riveting as it is relaxing. Their recent success definitely comes as a surprise to the band, which is comprised of singer Michelle Joy and multi-instrumentalists Paul Davis and Ryan Clapham, but they’re mostly feeling blessed that they were allowed to quit their day jobs after signing with Columbia Records in 2020.
“To be able to make this our full-time job is absolutely our dream,” Joy tells Consequence over Zoom. “It was super, super surreal to have such success over the time period that we have had.”
The cinematic flair of Cannons’ sound comes from a couple inspirations points — of course, all three members share a love of film and the stylized sonic environments that come with it. But Joy and Davis find that the best compliment they can get is how their music can perfectly soundtrack a night drive through city lights. Songs like “Hurricane,” and the gorgeous “Tunnel of You” are active, widescreen trips, evoking both the desert, the beach, and every California vibe in between.
Cannons may be ascending quickly in the music world, but all three members are feeling as grateful as ever. “It’s a cool thing because our parents, they don’t know social media, they don’t know festivals… but they hear us on the radio,” says Davis. “That’s how they know you made it!”
Ahead of the release of Fever Dream, Consequence caught up with Cannons to chat about their current headlining tour (grab tickets via Ticketmaster), radio successes, cinematic influences, and more. Check out the Q&A below.
You’re about a week away from the release of Fever Dream and are currently on the road—what is it like releasing an album while on tour? How are you feeling?
Michelle Joy: We’re really excited about Fever Dream. We’ve been playing a lot of the songs off our new album on tour, which we’ve gotten some great feedback on so far. We’ve been playing some of our favorites, which aren’t out yet, but will be soon. Like, “Tunnel of You,” “Strangers,” and a few songs that are already out, like “Purple Sun.”
Paul Davis: Yeah, like “Hurricane,” “Bad Dream” too. I feel like this album is a long time coming for us. It’s nice to finally get it out there!
Joy: Mmhmm. And we titled it Fever Dream because that’s kind of what the past few years here have felt like for us. The only thing that’s really kept our spirits up over the past couple of years is to just write, to continue writing. So, yeah. This is just a compilation of our feelings and emotions of the past couple years. I really hope that people can find a part of themselves in it and relate to it and connect.
Tell me a bit more about your journey up until this point. What was it like having a song of yours go viral, not just in the pandemic, but in your second album cycle?
Joy: There have been so many changes for us—we’ve been together for ten years now. And we started out just kind of making music for fun, which we still do. And we only started to learn how to really step forward properly on our own because people wanted more music, they wanted it on streaming platforms, they wanted it everywhere. So, it was kind of a DIY project.
Davis: Still is, kinda. I think we were fortunate to have a fanbase pretty early on too. So, it was a lot easier to just keep going and just keep playing because people kept coming to shows, people kept wanting more music. So, we were just like, “let’s keep this going and see how far we can take it.”
Joy: And then once the pandemic hit and our song “Fire for You” blew up when the world was closed down, we started to gain all these fans and we were lucky enough to start working with Columbia [Records]. And once everything started opening back up, then we finally were able to have an agent and a solid team behind us to help push our music in new ways that we definitely couldn’t have done before, because touring is expensive and making music videos and getting yourself out there is tough. Especially since we were all working full-time jobs and stuff for most of the time that we’ve been together.
Davis: Yeah, just to pay our rent, basically [laughs].
Joy: So, it’s been really cool over the past, you know… how long has it been? Two years? A year and a half?
Davis: Yeah, it’s been two years since “Fire for You.”
Joy: To be able to make this our full-time job is absolutely our dream. It was super, super surreal to have such success over the time period that we have had. We are very grateful!
As someone also from Los Angeles, I feel like LA makes its way into your music quite a bit. What role would you say Los Angeles and California has in Cannons music?
Joy: I’m going to let Paul answer that, because you grew up there.
Davis: Yeah, I grew up in LA, or just outside of LA. I’d agree, you kind of hit the nail on the head. LA is just a vibe, you know. So, it’s like… When I, at least when I produce music, I chase a feeling. So, if it gives me that gut feeling, then I know that it’s on the right track. My favorite compliment is when people go, “I love to listen to your guys’ music in the car, just driving down.”
Joy: Yeah!
Davis: And that’s like my favorite thing in the world.
Joy: Yeah, like, city lights and a late night drive.
Davis: …Or on a beach at sunset. Because Los Angeles is more than just a city, it’s also the beach, it’s the mountains too. You can do anything in California.
Joy: It’s very scenic and the music I do feel like is cinematic too, in a sense. Which is probably why we, from the start, have gotten a lot of awesome syncs. I think the first couple of months we started releasing music, we already had an HBO sync. And this was only music that we put on SoundCloud, so [laughs], we were able to get an HBO sync and a Kendall and Kylie Jenner bathing suit line sync.
Davis: It was for Topshop!
Joy: Yeah, sync for Topshop…a lot of people seemed to connect with it instantly.
Speaking of that cinematic sound, are there any films in particular that really influenced the sound or the visual language that you guys wanted to explore for Fever Dream?
Davis: Well, for the sound, I’m a big fan of Scarface.
Joy: Oh, I love Scarface too.
Davis: Brian De Palma movies, Scorsese movies and stuff like that. I think there was a little bit of that in Fever Dream, I would say. And I’m also a big SciFi fan. So, I think it kinda melds between all those different genres. I think this album has a lot of that. A lot of melding of genres.
Joy: And visually, too, I know we’re inspired by a lot of ’80s films. There were a lot of films that we watched specifically for music video inspiration. Before we shot the video for “Hurricane,” we were getting our ideas together, and the director and I watched Firestarter with Drew Barrymore. She’s super young but fantastic in that movie. She’s got all these super powers and it’s awesome—but yeah, lots of different ’70s and ’80s movies we were inspired by visually and sonically, because that’s the music that we like to listen to too.
Last year, you released the Cannons Covers EP, which featured covers of songs by Bruce Springsteen, The Isley Brothers, Harry Styles, Kings of Leon, and The Neighbourhood. How did that EP come together — did you have any history playing those songs before recording them?
Joy: We started out wanting to just release some music while we were working on the album. We didn’t want to share anything from the album yet, but we wanted to keep our YouTube channel going and whatnot. So, we decided to work on some covers. And our connection to each cover is different. The first one we chose was “Golden” from Harry Styles. I don’t know why we exactly chose that. I mean, we had…
Davis: I think we were just looking at the Harry Styles album and were just like, “Let’s try and do a Harry Styles song.” And that was one where I felt like, “oh we can definitely put our own twist to this one.” That sort of thing.
Joy: Yeah, because at that time, before the pandemic hit, we learned that Harry Styles was a Cannons fan. And we hadn’t listened yet—hadn’t dove into his music too much. But he invited us to one of his shows. So, we went and were like, “He’s fucking amazing.”
Davis: He is amazing. Like incredible.
Joy: Yeah, so we got into his songs and we really liked “Golden” and then decided to put a Cannons twist on that one. Bruce Springsteen we all love. The Neighborhood we’ve listened to for a while. Isley brothers, we also felt like we needed to represent.
Davis: The only one we had an idea for ahead of time was the Kings of Leon one—we had done a version of it like four years ago.
Joy: We put it on Instagram.
Davis: Yeah, and we never actually released it or finished it, to be honest.
Joy: But people would go back to that video on Instagram all the time and be like, “where’s this song?”
Davis: “Finish It!”
If you were to do a second covers EP, what would be on it?
Joy: Whenever we do start working on covers again, we were actually talking last night about what we would do—our manager, Max (Collins) is in Eve 6, and he has a side project called Fitness, and we thought one of their songs would make a cool cover. It would be all in the family too, since our live drummer is actually the drummer of Eve 6!
I didn’t realize there was such a connection between Cannons and Eve 6!
All: Yeah!
Davis: We actually got to play at the same exact festival last year. And it was funny because the time slot that they put for them originally was at the exact same time slot as us.
Joy: But we share the same drummer, so…
Davis: Yeah, we had to split it up!
That’s great for the drummer. Two gigs!
Joy: Exactly.
Davis: Double payday!
One of the first things that really stuck out to me about Cannons is how much they play you guys on the radio—the first time I ever heard a song of yours was while listening to KROQ, driving in Los Angeles. And now, “Bad Dream” is making its way to the top of the Alternative charts. What is it like having big alternative radio hits in the streaming era?
Joy: Yeah, it’s interesting. Cannons has been getting so much love just through radio and every single time I’ve gotten in the car since “Fire for You” started blowing up, I either hear “Fire for You,” I hear “Bad Dream…” whenever we’re traveling, I hear it. I hear it in the airport. I hear it everywhere. So, I’m just like, I’m pumped every time!
Davis: Yeah, on SiriusXM too, they love us there.
Joy: Yeah, it’s a really nice feeling.
Davis: It’s kind of a cool thing because our parents, they don’t know social media, they don’t know festivals… but they hear us on the radio.
Joy: Then they know.
Davis: They know you made it! [Laughs]
Joy: Yeah, it’s a different feeling.
Davis: I think we have a lot of old school temperaments, too. So, maybe that’s why our music lends itself to radio.
How has this current tour been different than previous ones? Has anything surprised you? Or have any audience/fan reactions or stories stuck out to you?
Joy: Yeah, it’s really cool for us because this is our first headline tour. So, in November and December, we went out on tour opening for lovelytheband. And there were a lot of Cannons fans that came out. We were surprised. But, it still wasn’t our headline tour. So, the first or second show in with our headline tour, I started realizing, wait, these are all cannons fans, they know all the words to all the songs. So, when I get tired on stage now, I’ll let them sing and they know all the words, and I love that.
That’s great!
Joy: Yeah! Last night, we had two fans dress up—one was wearing a gold robe and the other was wearing my outfit from the “Hurricane” music video. And I’m like, people are dressing up as us? People are dressing up in their sparkly clothes in general. People are just getting into the Cannons world before they come to the show, and I love it.
Davis: Michelle is now a superhero.
Joy: People are dressing like they are going to Studio 54 or something when they come to a show. And it’s like a whole experience. I feel like a candy show now.
Can you speak a little bit more also about some of your outfit choices and your style before getting onstage?
Joy: So, originally, my parents, they met at a disco, right? My parents grew up listening to a lot of ’70s funk, ’80s disco music, and all those artists, they really put their shine on when they went on stage. When you think about Earth Wind and Fire, they didn’t just go on stage with like jeans and a t-shirt. They put on sparkly stuff, gold stuff. It was a whole visual and sonic experience.
And so, I really wanted to definitely bring that to the stage for everyone. And make everyone feel like they’re in this Cannons-verse. Everyone’s tired of their sweatpants and their hoodies, you know what I mean? After the past couple of years. So, I think people wanted a reason to get dressed up, and they like to see the whole show. And we started working with this stylist, our stylist Lynn Allison. She’s really helped us develop our look together as a band and put the shine on, ‘cause I like being sparkly and bright.
Davis: I love to sparkle.
Joy: Yeah, and I feel like the guys are loving it now too. They got shiny shoes!
Davis: It’s like you said, Earth Wind and Fire and The Gap Band, they went out there and they looked like their music.
Joy: Yeah. They look like the sound. And it puts me in a different mood too, when I get on stage and I feel really good and I feel like we look like we sound.
Continuing with the new record, and some of the new themes that you are exploring, how has writing lyrics changed for you writing this album?
Joy: Since the world has changed a lot, that’s obviously been reflected in the lyrics and whatnot. I know, in the beginning, when everything was incredibly uncertain and I wasn’t sure if… I don’t know how long anything would last, that’s definitely where the lyrics for something like “Bad Dream” came out. There was no one to tell anyone that, “Oh, everything is going to be okay” or anything.
So, I didn’t want to portray this fake thing. Sometimes, when things are messed up or very sad and stressful for me, I like to hear from other people, “Yeah this is shitty. This sucks.” You know? Not, “It’s all going to be okay.” Nobody really knows. And it feels kind of fake. Yeah.
Davis: It’s more like a “we’re right there with you” kind of thing. We all share the same hardship, all at the same time. So, it’s nice to connect that.
Joy: I think that there are definitely more avenues for us to dive into, lyrically, with uncertainty and also, once things started opening back up, people started feeling like they’re going to make their comeback into the world after spending so much time alone inside. That’s definitely where lyrics for like “Hurricane” came from. Which is like, stepping into your own strength. Going out there and giving whatever you’re doing the best you can.
From the new album, which songs are your favorite to play live?
Joy: Ooooh, that’s hard.
Davis: Actually, for this one, it’s been “Purple Sun.” Because the audience just goes nutty for this song. I guess it’s just really fun to play.
Joy: I do love “Purple Sun” and it’s gonna have to be tied with “Tunnel of You” because there is something about that live that just feels like it brings you into a different world for a little bit. It takes me to the beach, the island vibes.
Davis: That’s why the album is going to be like a journey.
Joy: A journey, yeah. “Tunnel of You” takes me out into the desert at night in my head. It’s midnight, open road, walking under the moonlight vibes.
Fever Dream Artwork:
For Cannons, It Was All A Fever Dream
Paolo Ragusa
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