“I’ve always gravitated toward music that sounds like something I haven’t heard before,” says Michelle Joy, vocalist of the mellow electro indie three piece, Cannons.
The Los Angeles band’s sound centers around grooves that have a nostalgic glimmer to them. Coupled with the group’s dreamy stylized visuals and photos, the music puts off a clear vibe that remains firmly independent of most alt indie groups playing right now.
In the midst of Cannons’ second national headlining tour, they’ll perform at Las Vegas’ Life Is Beautiful Music Festival the weekend of September 22nd-24th.
“That’s always our goal when working on songs: to create this nostalgic element that makes people feel that they haven’t heard this before.”
Joy’s own path to fronting a group whose star is still rising follows a more modest path. As a high schooler she enrolled in a radio class, where she says as a teen who didn’t have a job yet, borrowing CDs from the radio station’s collection allowed her to hear different bands and musicians that she may not have had a chance to listen to otherwise.
“It was definitely indie music that I was listening to and taking home – every Elliott Smith record that they had. I liked a lot of the slower indie rock back then.”
Following going to college in her home state of Florida, Joy moved to Los Angeles and first came into contact with guitar player Ryan Clapham and keyboardist Paul Davis after leaving an ad on Craigslist. The three would form Cannons together, and following the release of the song “Fire For You” in 2019, the group found themselves on an upward trajectory of progressively larger and more ambitious shows, along with writing new music that would take the production levels to a more full sound.
On the heels of their full length Fever Dream, Joy says she finds herself becoming more comfortable fronting the group across larger stages.
“Every tour that we do I find myself opening up more and feeling more like the stage is my home.”
She laughs, “As someone that used to have major social anxiety and sit in the back of the class, that was probably my worst nightmare at the time.” When pressed a little more about placing an ad looking for others to start a band, she reveals, “To be honest, I thought I could make music with the guys from my bedroom. I didn’t realize that there would be this whole other part, and that people would ask us to start playing shows, and that we’d get a number 1 and we’d go on all these tours. I had nooooooo idea…”
While she finds it funny in hindsight, Joy admits that she took it as a personal challenge to overcome.
“I didn’t know how to navigate at first. I couldn’t find any books on it,” she laughs. “It was all a kind of learn-as-you-go kinda thing, and I learned a lot!
“Now I’m having the time of my life, and it’s something I couldn’t have imagined for myself or for Cannons. And I’m just super grateful!”
Michelle Joy and Cannons will perform Sunday evening during the 3 day Life Is Beautiful Festival.
More information on Cannons’ headlining tour can be found their webpage.
