Set It Off

Cody Carson and Dan Clermont met in their high school marching band and started a group that later merged with one built around Austin Kerr and Zach DeWall, forming Set It Off in Tampa in 2008. Carson had been studying classical clarinet at Oberlin Conservatory when a YouTube exchange with All Time Low's Alex Gaskarth led to an invitation to sing onstage at a Cleveland show, prompting him to drop out and put his tuition money into the band instead.

The lineup went through several drummers before settling on Maxx Danziger, while a run of self-released EPs and singles between 2008 and 2011 built Carson a following through his own YouTube channel. Equal Vision Records signed the band in 2011 and reissued the EP Horrible Kids.

The band moved from its pop-punk and post-hardcore beginnings toward a more polished pop-rock sound, leaning on piano, strings and other orchestral touches alongside guitars. Carson's training as a musician and his wide vocal range shape arrangements that often follow a narrative, theatrical structure.

Cinematics, released in 2012, was the band's full-length debut, and Duality and Upside Down carried the shift toward straightforward pop songwriting further. Set It Off signed to Fearless Records in 2018, releasing Midnight in 2019 and Elsewhere in 2022 before leaving the label in 2023 to go independent, issuing a self-titled sixth album in 2025.

The band has toured steadily across the United States and internationally since its early days.