Israel Cannan

Israel Cannan Having chanced roles in celebrated soap operas Home & Away and All Saints, followed swiftly by a role alongside fellow Australian up and comings Lachlan Buchanan and Xavier Samuel in coming-of-age surf drama “Newcastle”, singer/songwriter Israel Cannan decided to return to his first love. The son of a guitar teacher, Cannan’s diversion into acting came to life through his sister’s desire to act rather than his own. While he concedes that he wouldn’t rule out a return to the screen, Cannan took the brave decision to walk away from his burgeoning career and re-assess hopes and dreams.

Israel Cannan He explains, “I had already done a lot of travelling. The year before I did the journey around Australia, I was in the States for 3 months and the UK for 2 months, I had travelled around those places and tried to immerse in what was happening. I spent a bit of time at some recording studios and some venues. It was in London actually that I had the vision to come back to Australia and start accumulating some recording gear for myself. To record my own album, you know.”
Though inspired by his journeys thus far, it was when he started working on some of the songs he realised that he craved something more. While he didn’t crave further inspiration, he realised that the travel had led to a growth in him as an artist. “I started demoing and the more I was demoing, the more I wanted to go and test it out. Then I had a friend who was wanting to travel and spend time in the country and he had a van and I said well, why don’t we do it together and I will play my music in the street and that is what we did.”
The journey would prove to me more fruitful than he had envisioned. Having busked his way around Australia, Cannan had had his eyes opened and his heart was ready to reveal what he wanted to say. “20,000 km later, many relationships and friendships formed, songs sung and memories made, I came home and finished off what I had started before the trip with the recording. That was what inspired the album, that whole journey.”