holy smokes this band blew up

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]I did not expect this band to explode like this. Did I really help this band explode? Today we are talking about the wicked alt rocking band from Los Angeles. Today we are talking about Clarion. Clarion is a band from Los Angeles, California. A three-piece master class unfolding in your ears every time you listen. Like I said two seconds ago, I did not expect them to blow up the way that they did. My first encounter of Clarion was when I made a video on underground bands on my YouTube channel and I was reacting to a bunch of different bands that I was finding on Spotify just doom scrolling. As I was doom scrolling on the Spotify, I found Clarion and my goodness. The reason that I clicked on them is because their cover art for their self-titled EP looked awesome and it kind of reminded me of the band Julie. All of you guys watching this video know of Julie. I talk about the band relentlessly. Talk about them all the time on this channel, on every platform that I have. But if you do not know Julie, this is Julie right here and this is some of the artwork from EPs, singles, whatever music that Julie's released that reminded me of Clarion's EP cover art. So in that underground video, I gave them a spin and by spin, I mean a click and a listen. Genuine reaction on the channel. They had about 17K monthly listeners or so and I thought to myself when I was looking at their profile, I was like, okay, I can talk about this band because they don't have a massive massive following. You know what I'm saying? Because sometimes if a band has a lot of monthly listeners, I don't really put them into a underground band video because a lot of people already know them. So I try to mix in some bands that have barely a thousand monthly listeners and some that have like 10K or something like that. I listened to their most streamed song at that time which was Hello Juliet. Loved the song. Loved the song enough to make a clip about it and post it on TikTok, on YouTube shorts, on Instagram reels and it was one of my most viewed clips surpassing 2 million views across all social media platforms, over 150,000 likes on all platforms. I was perplexed for a moment, but quickly moved on with what I was doing at the time, which was just listening to bands. Not that Clarion is a forgettable band. No, no, no. I was just moving on to like, you know, making more music videos, you know what I'm saying? So, thought it was a dope song, dope clip, let's go. Posted it, thought it was awesome. I'd say about 6 months later or so, I go back and check their monthly listeners just cuz I was curious. I could not believe what my eyes were seeing then, and I still cannot believe it now. Over 2 million monthly listeners. What the hell? Now, this is not necessarily something I care about with bands, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested to see what the public perception lies on bands with songs. Do they enjoy the music? What songs do you people prefer? Stuff like that. I'm not one of those guys that, you know, if you don't have enough monthly listeners, I'm not going to listen to you. I think that is utterly ridiculous and very stupid.

[00:03:06]Because there are bands with millions of monthly listeners and a hundred monthly listeners and a thousand monthly listeners that all sound good. You just got to find what you think is good, and that's mainly what I do on this channel.

[00:03:19]I just talk about music I [ __ ] with.

[00:03:20]Anyways, back to Clarion though. I remember around the time I made the clip, I have the mutual that has a record label or connections to one, and he was telling me how Clarion sounded so good on the clip that he wanted to go check them out in Los Angeles live in action because bro probably wanted to sign them, something like that. And that's the only time that's ever happened, you know? Uh I've or my encounters with my mutual friend, I think. That's the only time bro said that about a band. So, I was like, oh [ __ ] This band is so sick and for real.

[00:03:54]Let's go." Now, I do not think that I am the main reason why this band has so many supporters and so many listeners.

[00:04:00]Hell to the no. But, I do think me making that clip spread the word. And then, the songs just caught on fire. After me posting that clip, I would see a bunch of people using Hello Juliet as a main song for a bunch of different [ __ ] on TikTok, like compilations of stuff, awesome movie edits, stuff of that nature. I was like, "Oh, man. This is literally a universally loved type of song." The music carried over and resonated with millions of people, 45 million streams on Spotify, at least.

[00:04:32]Insane. This is without a doubt the biggest explosion I've seen from a band that I covered early on. And I'm not some sort of music horse whisper. I simply post music I'm into and I think others would enjoy. Now, if we get into the music, they have huge guitars.

[00:04:48]And by huge guitars, there's just one guitar because this band is a three-piece. And I wouldn't call them shoegaze like people would want to label them. They got some riffs reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr. more than anything to me.

[00:05:01]And as a trio, they sound so humongous, punching you with these riffs of fuzz.

[00:05:05]But, they also got this fast-ass pace on most of their songs that I'm really into. It's like once they hit flow state, they are never going back, going full speed 100 mph at all times. Vocals as well, though, low-key give me chills, bro. They give this sorrow energy but towards someone that has done a person wrong, like a hate you right now type vibe. So, I'm going to make this song about you and a lot of people are going to sing this song as well. This next section isn't a one-v-one battle of the bands type of situation. But, like I mentioned earlier, I thought the self-titled EP artwork looked like a Julie vibe, which initially caught my attention. But, the two bands make different vibes of music. Both three-piece bands that sound huge, so there is that similarity. Clarion does have a faster pace, like I said, but the vocals also remind me sort of like early 2010s indie music vocalage. Like some vocals that would remind me of playing early 2010s FIFA, something that would be on a FIFA soundtrack. That's what I like to label it as. Julie utilizes more of like this dual vocal approach, but you know, it's not always that, but it is they do have two singers. Both awesome bands, to be honest. This is just me finding some differences and similarities, but equal glaze for Clarion and Julie. Clarion doesn't have the biggest discography in the world by any means, but the quality they've produced since 2024 is incredible. The growth in songwriting, instrumentals, and direction is captivating. They have two EPs, one being their self-titled Clarion EP, and the other being Blue Fairy. They recently released that EP, Blue Fairy, in March. And I truly believe their recent work, Blue Fairy, is the best stuff they've done. Six songs of unfiltered badassery. I've talked about how the band has this very fast pace that doesn't really end on all of their songs, but there are some moments on this EP that kind of slow down a little bit, and they kind of own that moment. It's not like they haven't been here before, they know what they're doing, and that's what I love about them because they can go into different spaces and find something that is relatable. Capture that relatable feeling and then make it sound awesome with the guitars, the drumming, the basslines. I love to see the support that Clarion is getting right now because at that time I thought they were a dope band, but if you asked me, would this band be freaking explosive and have millions of monthly listeners? I would be like, probably not, dude. That that doesn't sound realistic, which to be honest is kind of giving hater energy, but if I'm being honest, I was just like, okay, if I had to see the vision, I feel like Clarions would have been a band with like at least 200,000 monthly listeners, but that's probably it unless they have another hit song like "Hello Juliet". But, they have completely surpassed anything I would have like imagined. So, I'm kind of silly and I think it's honestly like some of the coolest [ __ ] ever. Whenever I see a band go from literally 18K or something like that when I first listened to them to 2 million plus monthly listeners. That makes no sense. Recently, I talked about me being at a Julie show and someone actually mentioned Clarions to me at that show saying I put them on to that band. And then I was like, dude, it's insane. I remember telling bro, like, dude, it's insane. They have millions of monthly listeners now. That [ __ ] is wild. So, yeah, shoutout Clarions for shutting me up and all the doubters or whatever. I don't even know if they had doubters to be honest. They kind of hit the ground running right when they dropped their self-titled EP. So, I don't talk about Clarions often unless they tour or have a new song or something and then I mention them in a TikTok / reel, right? Update people on music and stuff. It was about time I made a video solely on the band and their recent work. Where do they go from here? I don't know, but if we're being honest, we know it's going to be peak.

[00:08:56]Still no album at this moment in time, so we can only imagine how peak their album's going to be. It's going to be insane. When did you guys discover Clarions? Was it through me or was it just on TikTok? Let's be real here.

[00:09:10]Let's be real.

[00:09:11]You did not find it because of me. So, ignore that part of that question. If you are unaware and wanting to catch Clarions on tour, they're on tour like right now. So, go support if you can and have a good time and say Dump Toes sent you here.

[00:09:26]Like and subscribe. Keep the music alive. Clarions will never die.