A decade waiting for tonight
Cannons talks about their first headlining show in Mexico City, how they sustained the tour without Paul after his accident, the album that their own fans took a while to accept, and hearing “Fire for You” on the big screen.
Cannons have been building pop at night for years, made of warm synthesizers, glowing guitars and a voice that sounds like a dark room with neon lights. Since they began sharing their music on the internet, Mexico City has been one of the cities where they are heard the most, and yet they had to wait almost a decade to play their own show here. With Everything Glows Already shooting live for months and “Fire for You” has become a song that never stops growing, the band arrives at the West Pavilion of the Palacio de los Deportes on October 24 for their first night as headliners in the capital.
Indie Rocks!: How are you? What a thrill to talk to you again. I don’t know if you remember, but we had already talked. Where are they? In outer space?
Cannons: Yes, I’m in outer space. In fact, last time I was also in outer space.
IR!: We had the interview a few months ago, I think in April, so it’s an honor to be here again. A lot has happened since then. Last time we talked about their set at the Corona Capital, the first time they played in Mexico City, and I remember telling them that I would love to see a show of theirs as headliners. And in a couple of weeks we are going to experience it. How do they feel?
C: We can’t wait. Super excited. It’s always a lot of fun playing our own shows, because everyone is there to see us. And especially because, from day one, since we started sharing our music on the internet, Mexico City has been one of the cities where we are listened to the most. So for years and years we wanted to go play and meet our audience.
IR!: We are crazy about you, I’m sure it’s going to be crazy. Also, the day we spoke was the day of their show in Dallas, right before they went on stage. And I understand that there you, Paul, had the accident, which must have been a very stressful and worrying situation for you. Everything went well. Looking back, what did you learn from that experience as a band?
C: I don’t know, what did they learn? What happens is that we can step forward and try to support whatever is needed. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing like a Cannons show with all three of them. Clear. We miss Paul very much.
We continue with the tour because we know that our fans plan these trips a year in advance, they ask for days off from work, they do all these things. They fly from Brazil. They take incredible trips, they drive 45 hours. We wanted to present ourselves in any way we could, even though Paul was at home having surgery and recovering. We tried to keep the show going. We miss Paul dearly and were excited to get the three of us back on the road. It was difficult. But we said: okay, we can do this. Let’s make sure Paul can be calm, not worry about anything and recover.
I’m sure Paul’s experience was different.
I was just happy that we started the tour and then finished it, because we had a little break in the middle. That gave me enough time to recover. I recovered pretty quickly.
He recovered very quickly. It was a miracle. Now we wrap it in bubble wrap when we take it on tour to make sure nothing happens to it.
IR!: I think the community they have built with their music is beautiful, because the fans asked about this. I saw on social networks how they asked how Paul was doing, and that speaks a lot about that community. It’s good to have you here, Paul, and we’ll also have you at the Mexico City show. Also, the time we spoke, Everything Glows He had only been outside for a few days. Now it’s been more than six months. How do you feel about that album today? How has the public received it, what has it been like to take it on tour?
C: Brilliant. Live shows feel great with these songs included. The public has received them dancing and singing all the lyrics. There are some songs that I feel really raise the energy of the show. They sound beautiful live. I feel very proud every night we play some of them. This is a lot of fun to play and mix on set. It feels fresh.
IR!: I have seen videos and it seems incredible to me how they interpret the music, and also the light they have. It is very atmospheric. Yesterday I was talking to Kneecap, who shared the idea that, before you release an album, the baby is yours, and once it comes out it is open to be judged, interpreted and much more. The last time we talked you also told me that the key is to make music for yourself. What is the process of releasing an album like for you? Does it change when the album is already out?
C: A little bit, because I feel like when they listen to our music, your first work is always what people compare the new album against. But as you say, we write because we like it. And on this album we took risks and tried new things that I think elevate us creatively as musicians.
I would say it was a bit of a strange experience, because we always want to grow as artists, we always want to experiment and try new things, because we don’t want to stay the same forever. That’s very boring. So we tried new things, and there was a big base of our fans that didn’t know how to take it, or maybe the album just needed to grow on people at first. When we launched it, there were a lot of people, I think very devoted fans, who didn’t know how to accept some of the changes. And I thought: I know that with time they will like it. And so it was. It was kind of weird seeing our album grow on people in real time.
Personally, growing up, and I’m sure everyone does, when you start listening to music and you get into an artist and something sounds relatively different in your head, you’re like, what is this? But those albums almost always end up being your favorites. At least it happened to me.
IR!: How beautiful that you have seen that reception and how the album is growing among the fans.
C: I think there’s something for everyone on this album as well. Starts different, ends different.
IR!: I agree. That’s also why I’m so excited to see the show. And “Fire for You” continues to grow until it becomes a classic. Congratulations. He went from that Netflix series that was huge in 2020 to being part of Spider-Man. It’s crazy. How did that happen? What was it like receiving the news, and then seeing or hearing it on the big screen?
C: Super amazing. We first got a request for the movie through Sony and, of course, we approved it, but we didn’t know if it was confirmed until a couple of days before the movie came out. When we got confirmation we were on tour, I think in Portland. It was crazy, because we found out about six months before, and every two months we asked: are they going to use it? Nobody knew. They couldn’t tell us. And we didn’t want to tell anyone so as not to salt it. Fingers crossed, exactly. I hope they use it.
I think Marvel is super secretive about everything, so they wait until the last minute to tell people. But it was very cool to hear it in the cinema and then see our names in the credits at the end of the movie. I’ve always dreamed and hoped to have a song in a feature film, so it’s literally crazy that the first song of ours used in a movie is in the highest-grossing movie of all time. And they wrote our last names correctly in the credits. That was good.
IR!: That was very good. Congratulations, it is a huge achievement. How did you deal with uncertainty? They mentioned that there were months when they had no idea.
C: I don’t know. Just cross your fingers. We got it out of our heads, asked questions from time to time, and tried not to get too attached. Personally, I did think about it a lot, but I tried not to.
GO!: The last question. If you want to take the opportunity to say something to your fans in Mexico before the show.
C: Clear. I would say: let’s fill this show. Bring all your friends, your family. It will be our first time together in Mexico City, our show as headliners. We’ve been waiting to do this here for a decade. I want it to be a very special night. Bring everyone. Bring all your cousins. To grandma.
IR!: What a pleasure to talk again. See you at the show, I’m going to be on the dance floor going crazy. Thank you so much.
C: Thanks to you. See you next time. Bye bye.
