The Story of Light The Cannons: From The Band Itself

Riffs, top hats, low flying pigs and bubble pistols: the story of Light The Cannons

It started small.

Originally conceived as a session project, I'd planned to find a small group of musicians to flesh out and eventually perform a small batch of songs I'd written.

That didn't exactly go to plan.

The last few years since the band’s inception have been so full of amazing moments and memories that I now can't conceive of doing it all as just me.

As I'm writing these words, we have just released our debut EP. It's called ''Welcome To The Family', and despite the song’s subject matter, this thing we've created is absolutely that – a family.

The EP itself distills everything that makes us who we are; four distinct personalities unceremoniously slamming our various influences together to create a record that we love.

Of course, we needed a release party, and it was everything we could have dreamed of, and so much more besides; clouds of bubbles, low flying inflatable pigs and bananas, the absolute best audience we have ever had - and sweat. Oh my god, the sweat. My guitar was so slick with it that at one point I was genuinely concerned it was going to fly off into the distance, cursing me for putting it through this ordeal.

And that was before I jumped into the audience, dropping my pick and detuning the poor thing, thus having to finish our heaviest song with my fingers. Ahh, live music. I love it.

A one hour set felt like about ten minutes, and there is no way the four of us are going to forget that night, ever.

Speaking of which, at this point I probably ought to introduce you to the other three lunatics that are daft enough to play music with me.

Firstly, Henry, our drummer. Can usually be found wearing a rather fetching top hat and sunglasses combination, shredding drum sticks to pieces like some sort of overly-caffeinated beaver.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the guy is an absolute powerhouse behind the kit; his technicality, creativity and raw power give him a style that is all his own, and the parts he wrote shot the songs into the stratosphere.

I met him via an English speaking musicians Facebook page. We actually posted on the same day, but neither post was approved for 6 months. I’d all but forgotten about it, but they eventually were; he replied to my post and I replied to his at the same moment. To say the connection was instant would be something of an understatement. We spoke constantly, meeting up a few weeks later for an adult beverage (or three), and we got into a rehearsal studio as soon as we could.

It was in the studio that day that I realised something; this thing needs to become a fully-fledged band. I think when I asked him if he was up for it, I said something to the effect of "be the Taylor to my Dave?" (What can I say, I’m a massive Foo Fighters fan, and the musical chemistry we discovered we had from the word go reminded me of Dave and Taylor)

We met Anni, our singer, when she was (literally) working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.

Ok, I’ll admit I’m playing fast and loose with that reference purely for the purposes of a cheap joke, maybe I’d better unpick that a little. It actually isn’t a cocktail bar, more a local bolt hole that my partner Amy and I frequent more often than we perhaps should. And there certainly weren’t any cocktails involved. But I digress; we’d heard her belting out tune after tune on more than one occasion whilst she was working (that section of aforementioned reference is right, at least). I do mean belting, by the way; to say Anni has a hell of a set of pipes is no exaggeration. When she sings, she is absolutely show stopping.

I'll never forget Serena, our bassist’s, audition. She impressed us for a few reasons, but I do remember hitting the first bars of the first song of the session and turning to Henry to see that both of us – at the exact same time - had ‘holy sh*t’ etched on our faces. Her energy was infectious, she was note perfect, and she was into the music. Oh, and she had learned far, far more of our material than we had asked her to.

AND, as part of the audition process, we’d asked people to come up with a bassline for one our new (at the time) songs. What Serena came up with was so mind-bendingly brilliant, it hasn’t changed - what you hear recorded on the EP is what she played that day, note for note. (Incidentally, the song is called Turning The Tides, if you choose to have a listen).

The way she plays is hypnotic; her basslines slither all over the place with melody, groove and personality. And, in the same way as Henry, her basslines lifted the songs to another level entirely.

But now, I’d like to take you back to the beginning.

Not long after I’d met Henry, COVID happened. This was, with hindsight, both a blessing and a curse; whilst we were hungry to get out there, it gave us time to focus on writing a set of songs and getting ourselves ready to step onto the stage for the first time.

That first show eventually came, a livestream organised by a local venue. An odd experience, chiefly because we didn’t have the audience in the room in front of us, but as a chat stream on a screen in front of the stage. It was like being able to read the minds of the audience. Which was only mildly terrifying.

A couple of smaller shows later, we managed to book a show at a now (sadly) defunct cult venue here in Hamburg, a tiny sweat box under a railway bridge called the Astra Stube.

It was a sweltering June evening when we played there, and by the time we took the stage, the club was rammed. The crowd were with us every moment of that set, jumping up and down, screaming and cheering when we finished a song; the first time we had ever experienced anything like that. We were hooked.

There's a photo of me mid set kicking about somewhere, my head thrown back mid-riff, drenched from head to toe in several litres of my own and everyone else's sweat, having the time of my life.

Following that show, momentum gradually began to build for us. We booked more and more shows across the city. We started noticing a few regular audience members, who have since become friends. We befriended a few other really great local bands (which eventually led to Amy and I creating our own booking agency, Purple Lemon Music) that we've since played regularly with.

It never ceases to amaze me the reaction we seem to get whenever we play. I suppose part of it, and I’m just plucking this out of thin air, is that I feel like our music has a pretty wide appeal.

Our songs straddle a wide musical chasm. They run the gamut from fast, driving, hard rock, all the way to slower, pop-tinged tracks via just about everything else in between. Think of our musical output like a Ryanair flight; you expect to arrive in one place, but instead you’re plonked down ungracefully somewhere vaguely in the vicinity.

Lyrically, we’re similarly chameleon-esque. Just plucking a few examples at random, we talk about mental health, social commentary, politics, love, war, and kinky sex (bet you didn’t see that one coming).

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the name -

Light The Cannons was inspired in part, and by no means ripped off from, the cover of Green Day's 'American Idiot'. I love the juxtaposition of the heart and the hand grenade; of love and of strength (in the don’t mess with me sense). It was a statement of intent, and I wanted something that conveyed the same idea that was memorable at the same time.

The vague nautical connection was an intentional bonus; a nod to the spectacular port city of Hamburg, Germany, where we’re based.

Our EP, 'Welcome To The Family' feels like the triumphant result of everything we have worked for the last few years. It’s the transition from the first chapter of the Light The Cannons story into the next. And our protagonist ends the first chapter on a high, ready to take on the next part of the adventure.

Which is good, because believe me, we are just getting started.

Written by Chris Hughes, a member of Light The Cannons itself!

Would you like to find out more?

You can find Light The Cannons on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook and Spotify.

Photography by Julian Vornfeld and Nini Lelashvili (@the_liquid_sun on Instagram)

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