Quannnic is the name used by Florida musician Nick Quan, whose intense productions utilize elements of shoegaze, lo-fi, noise, and electronic bedroom pop. An early signee of deadAir Records, Quannnic began releasing music in 2021, building up a cache of underground singles ahead of his 2022 debut album, Kenopsia. The song “Life Imitates Life” rose to viral success and entered Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart a year later. Quannnic’s second album, Stepdream, was released in November 2023.

Since launching Quannnic in 2021, Quan has kept a low public profile, relying on word of mouth and underground buzz to draw attention to his music. Early singles like “Replica” and “One Second of Sympathy” established the project’s eerie mix of sequenced synthesizers, hushed vocals, and harsh guitars that fell loosely under the shoegaze banner, but spun out in a range of different directions. Working with the deadAir label (Jane Remover), Quannnic released Kenopsia in February 2022. Over the next year, the album gained traction, led by its viral standout “Life Imitates Life” which climbed onto various global charts throughout 2023. Meanwhile, Quan began releasing singles like the blistering “Comatose” and the rugged indie rocker “How to Hold a Knife” which were eventually included on the project’s follow-up, Stepdream, released in November of that year.