Coming Down from the Laneway High with Ruby Cannon
Photography and Styling by Sara Regan - HMUA by Ruby Higgins - Wearing Love Mami and Bonniee
Earlier this year, I found myself venturing out in a search for new sounds and lyrics to listen to. Spending time as a creative in the music industry, has taught me the importance of supporting smaller local artists, especially after the incredibly long drought from live gigs in 2020-2021.
Throughout my time meeting new people on set, networking and making friends, I came across a lovely extra on a music video set who was roommates with singer/songwriter Ruby Cannon. At the time, Cannon began to appear across social media platforms after being announced as JMC Academy’s artist for Laneway 2023 in Sydney. This announcement convinced me to listen to her small collection of three singles. I knew then I had to meet Cannon. Her unique voice and continual effort to find her sound was reflected through her music and I love that she wasn’t afraid of trial and error.
Photography and Styling by Sara Regan - HMUA by Ruby Higgins - Wearing Love Mami
I had the lucky opportunity to do a photoshoot with Cannon earlier this year and we are so honoured to have her featured as our first interview for Unsupervised Mag. Fresh from her festival debut at Laneway, Cannon reflects on how her experience was “more than (she) could have imagined”. Sharing the lineup with HAIM, Joji, and Phoebe Bridgers just to name a few, she recalls how it felt rather wrong to be considered an “artist” next to them. Despite knowing that she has well and truly earned her spot at Laneway, I could understand her self-criticism kicking in despite being in one of the most important moments of her career. Cannon loved the opportunity to meet artists like Julia Jacklin and the Jungle Giants, but also being able to watch headline sets side stage, again whilst feeling like she “wasn’t allowed” there. Being a concert/festival-goer her whole life, the concept of being a performer or even backstage at a festival is something she only thought happened in cool stories you read in books or watch on the big screen.
Cannon knew music was her thing “since (she) could talk”, no matter what anyone told her to be. This was “never a decision I made, it was always just a thing that I was doing” she reflects. “Logically if someone told me about the life of being a musician and what it entails, I wouldn’t have chosen this” but “it’s who I am”. Cannon’s father played a huge role in her upbringing and musical journey. Being a singer/songwriter who is “crazy on guitar and harmonica”, it made perfect sense that he introduced her to music by the likes of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Fleetwood Mac as well as having taught her how to play the guitar - “I was obsessed”.
Photography and Styling by Sara Regan - HMUA by Ruby Higgins - Wearing Love Mami and Bonniee
Fast forward to the beginning of Ruby’s music career at JMC Academy where she studied, Cannon became a qualified songwriter thanks to the help of her mentor/lecturer Chris Pickering. “He knew what I was going for and could understand what I was expressing, I just didn’t know how to create it at the time so Chris taught me how to do that,” she says. Now finished at JMC, everything she has learned has led to her upcoming single ‘I Don’t Love You The Way Your Mum Does’ (out May 10). “This is probably the first release where you can hear the sound I’m going for,” she says while smiling - almost felt like a proud mum moment.
