Sitting in his room staring at his phone, an idea strikes junior Knox Cannon. Grabbing his guitar, a pair of cowboy boots, and jumping onto his bed, Cannon unlocks his phone and opens TikTok, and decides to hit record. Covering a song by the Pixies, “Where’s My Mind”. The next morning was like any other morning for Cannon until he opened TikTok. Flooded with thousands of likes and comments from friends and strangers, that one video became the catalyst for a career in the music industry.
Beginning by just performing for family and friends, Cannon now has the opportunity to pursue a more public career.
“My plans for the near future are to start making more music and start marketing the release of my debut album,” Cannon said.
Cannon, who has an undying love for music, has been playing the guitar since middle school. He is now a member of Bowie’s Varsity Guitar and Varsity Tenor-Bass Choir.
“Growing up, I listened to a lot of musicians who inspired me to start playing the guitar,” Cannon said. “More recently, Dominic Fike and Harry Styles have inspired my decision to start focusing on a career.”
With support from his family, and an increase in social media followers, Cannon has had more confidence and hope for a career.
“My parents are as supportive as they can be,” Cannon said. “They don’t know much about the music industry, but they provide me with the tools I need to produce my music.”
Since October 2022, Cannon has continued to post TikTok’s, covering a variety of songs, including ‘Sparks’ by Coldplay and ‘Cherry Wine’ by Hozier. Alongside his popularity on social media, Cannon has begun to receive comments praising his skills.
“Amazing, fabulous, talent right here,” a TikTok user commented on his cover of “Where’s My Mind,” by Pixies.
Cannon has even received comments from notable people, such as award-winning actress, McKenna Grace.
“It really just started out of nowhere,” Cannon said. “My friend and I sat down one day to hit record, and now I have over 150 thousand followers.”
Cannon and his friend, Hudson Ingram, a junior at Regents High School, started to post content on Instagram and TikTok together in late 2022.
“We get together every once in a while to film a TikTok or just play our guitars together,” Ingram said.
Ingram and Cannon have only known each other for a year, but have quickly formed a special bond.
“We realized we both have a shared interest in music,” Ingram said. “From there on it was kind of an immediate connection.”
Ingram has already released music himself, but when it comes to writing and composing the songs, Cannon takes a part in it.
“Whenever we get together to play or film a TikTok we end up writing at least part of a song,” Ingram said. “I remember the first time I ever played with him. We wrote an entire song that night.”
While Cannon has always had a passion for music, he has stuck close by his guitar. Recently, he has decided to branch out of his comfort zone and try something new within the music world.
“I joined choir this year to improve my voice for, hopefully, a future music career,” Cannon said. “As well as preparing myself to release my own music with vocals.”
So far, Cannon has learned different warm-ups and breathing techniques that are useful in choral music, but also for any singer in general.
“Choir has not been everything I was truly expecting,” Cannon said. “However, it’s still turned out to be a helpful tool.”
Junior Bubba Infante, a third year member of Bowie’s choir, has been observing Cannon since he joined the tenor-bass choir this year.
“Choral music really broadens your voice and your diaphragm as a person,” Infante said. “It could possibly mean he can reach a range in his music that he wasn’t able to before.”
Bowie’s Choir had their first concert on September 28, where Cannon made his first public debut in singing.
“I think it will be a really good experience for him,” Infante said. “It gives him a taste of what it’s like to perform live, even though it’s in a group setting.”
Cannon is hoping within the next two years to be able to perform by himself at different public music venues in Austin.
“Currently, I’m looking at trying to book a night to play at Emos and other local venues to get more exposure and also just be able to perform live,” Cannon said.
Trying to break into the music world is a challenge, but Cannon is prepared and ready to give it a shot. While he’s working on producing music for his debut, he is still actively posting on his TikTok account, and providing content for his fans.
“Producing all my own stuff, while posting on social media is a lot, but it really is important to me and what I want to do,” Cannon said.
More recently, Cannon has produced more intimate videos on his social media platforms. These videos are less staged and resemble more of a one-on-one interaction.
“His videos being less produced without the spinning camera, and cowboy boots, is really nice,” junior Jayla Neal said. “It makes me focus on the music and his talent rather than a whole production.”
Through the rest of this year Cannon will continue to work to further his involvement in the music industry.
“Recently I’ve been using a platform called ‘Logic,’ it’s similar to GarageBand but more advanced,” Cannon said. “While I don’t play an instrument other than the guitar, using the software on Logic I’m able to produce a better backing track for the songs I’m working on.”
While singing was never something Cannon shared with the public before, he is currently working on a single “Find another” where he not only will be playing the guitar, but also adding in some vocals of his own.
“I’m trying to focus on pop-rock music,” Cannon said. “Something you would hear on the radio, something anyone could enjoy and listen to, more like the music I grew up with.”
In the upcoming months, Cannon plans to begin marketing and continuing to gain exposure for his music that is coming out in November.
“I’m going to start to sing along with the guitar covers that I’m already doing,” Cannon said. “I’m going to mainly market on TikTok, Instagram, and Spotify, but there will eventually be access to my music on all platforms.”
As the end of 2023 creeps closer, so does Cannon’s debut single, and his big break into the music industry.
“Its hard to find people that are as interested as you in that world, Knox has made it less of an isolating thing for me and more interactive,” Ingram said “Its really refreshing, and I’m really excited to see the feedback he gets when he release his song thats truly full of passion.”
