Quannnic

Quannnic (born 2004 or 2005; stylized in all lowercase) is an American musician. Initially presenting a digicore sound, they began releasing music as Quannnic in 2021 and released their debut studio album, Kenopsia, in February the following year. A track from the album, "Life Imitates Life", unexpectedly became viral on TikTok and charted on Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs. Quannnic's second studio album, Stepdream, was released in November 2023, and they later co-headlined an American tour with Jane Remover. On Quannnic's musical style, sources mostly described it as shoegaze, with Kenopsia mixing glitch elements and Stepdream emo.

Career
Originally from Florida, Quannnic has played guitar since they were six. They initially presented a digicore sound. According to Eli Enis of Stereogum, "As a young teenager self-producing music in their bedroom, quannnic picked up a decent buzz making bleary, blown-out pop-rap songs in the same world as artists like d0llywood1, quinn, and angelus." However, by 2021, they felt creatively constrained by that sound and began shifting towards more rock-oriented styles. That year, they started releasing music under the name quannnic. Their debut studio album, Kenopsia, was independently released in February 2022. In early 2023, a track from the album, "Life Imitates Life", suddenly became popular on TikTok. By November, the song had been used in 16,000 clips on the platform, and it charted at number 23 on Billboard Hot Hard Rock Songs with 525,000 official streams earned in the U.S. On Spotify, it had 30 million streams by December. On its popularity, quannnic said: "It was just really weird to me that something I made when I was 16 could get this much attention now. It impacted the way I make music. It got a lot more stressful." The album was later reissued by deadAir Records.

In November 2023, Quannnic released their second studio album, Stepdream. Quannnic co-headlined Jane Remover's 2024 U.S. tour, which began in February of that year. Quannnic played at the Sick New World Festival on April 27, 2024.

Musical style
Quannnic's profile at NTS Radio describes them as an indietronica and shoegaze artist, while their profile at AllMusic says they blend shoegaze, lo-fi, noise, and electronic bedroom pop. Philip Sherburne of Pitchfork described quannnic's music as containing much Auto-Tune and "post-everything bedroom beats", which "restored some of shoegaze's crystalline detail in their sparkling, digitally rendered high end". Eli Enis of Stereogum said that quannnic's music has an "artificial rumble" comparable to Parannoul's computerized sound in To See the Next Part of the Dream. Quannnic has named Superheaven as an influence.

Although quannnic employed various digital instruments on Kenopsia, they prefer using a real guitar to create their shoegaze elements. Eli Enis of Stereogum described Kenopsia as a mix between shoegaze, the glitchy elements of digicore, and Deftones-like nu-gaze, with a singing akin to emo-rap. Jordan Darville of The Fader wrote that it "embraced glitch-pop and the anime intro electronics of Porter Robinson", being similar to old songs by Jane Remover. Singaporean band Sobs chose Kenopsia as one of their favorite albums of 2022 to Brooklyn Vegan, with member Celine saying: "Indie rock melodies glimmering with autotune over a gloomy hyperpop-meets-shoegaze backdrop. Perfect record for the post-internet music consumer". Kristen S. Hé of Junkee said that "Life Imitates Life" could be "mistaken for a lo-fi Deftones cover"; quannnic said that the track was inspired by that band and Paramore, and Enis highlighted its "grungy" elements.

Enis found Stepdream to be influenced by Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley and felt that quannnic "swerved in a more collegiate singer-songwriter direction" with it. Similarly, Darville wrote that the album shows quannnic's capabilities "as a songwriter of brooding guitar-based jams". He felt that, "[b]eneath the foggy textures and hazily cooed lyrics, there's a real sense of stakes on Stepdream, like its songs are quannnic's last, best chance to define [themselves]". Leor Galil of Chicago Reader said that Stepdream is inspired by alternative rock subgenres such as emo and shoegaze. Abby Kenna of Ones to Watch said that, with the album, "quannnic refines their unique perspective, blending their influences that reach from metal to folk while keeping their voice and emotional turmoil consistent."