Cannons discuss how their lives have changed since Netflix success

Los Angeles-based trio Cannons are busier than they could have ever imagined since their hit single, “Fire for You,” took off after being featured in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever in 2020.

Vocalist Michelle Joy, guitarist Ryan Clapham and keyboardist/bassist Paul Davis stopped by WDET’s Studio A for a chat before their co-headlining show with The Knocks at the Majestic Theatre last month. The group discuss how their lives have changed since “Fire for You” broke, playing live shows during a pandemic (including the bonkers fact that Lollapalooza was their first post-2020 show), their new album Fever Dream and more.

“So that was actually our first show, coming out of the pandemic and coming out of a time where our song, ‘Fire for You,’ blew up,” says Joy. “So we hadn’t played any concerts at all, since we had had the number one with TV and song charts. I’ll just be honest, we were terrified.”

Cannons formed in 2013 after Joy put out a Craigslist ad looking for a band that needed a singer. Clapham and Davis responded to the ad and Cannons was formed shortly after that. The band self-released their debut EP Up All Night in 2014. While they had their music used in film and TV prior to the meteoric rise of “Fire for You,” they were never prominently featured like they were in the Mindy Kaling-created series.

“It was definitely shock, because we were used to like, being a band that gets a lot of syncs,” says Joy. “I know that something about our music does feel very cinematic. And it works well with film and TV and stuff. But we’re used to the songs being kind of quiet in the background and like small portions of them being used.

“So when we found out that Never Have I Ever, which at the time was (the) number one Netflix show (at the) height of the pandemic, when they used ‘Fire for You’ at the most important part of the entire show. And they use the whole song, and that it reached number one on Shazam. I think all of us were just kind of looking at each other, like, ‘What the heck is happening right now?’ It was very surreal and exciting, but it took a while to sink in.”

While it would be reasonable to think Cannons felt even more pressure to follow up on the success of “Fire for You,” that really wasn’t the case as they worked on their latest album Fever Dream, which was released back in March.

Davis shares: “We went about it the same way we do every other record, maybe with like a little bit of the thought of, ‘Oh, what Netflix show can this go on?’ A little bit, but we never really had music in that way. We just kind of write what’s in our hearts. And if we like it, you know, if it’s something that we would physically listen to and buy then that’s what we try to do.”

Cannons are currently enjoying a well-deserved break after wrapping up their co-headlining tour with The Knocks. Listen to the entire interview at the top of the page.