He was also a part of Big Rude Jake's back-up band in the late 1990s (he later quit, stating there are only so many shows one can do dancing around in a flesh-coloured zoot suit with a trombone).

Cranley was one of the original line-up of Broken Social Scene after the band was expanded from the core members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning.

Cranley and Seligman's compositional style is to repeat a riff or tune until something develops, and then Campbell and Amy Millan will write lyrics.

Cranley does string arrangement on the song, "My Favorite Book" and also does bass, guitars, percussion, mandolin and many other instruments for the band's album In Our Bedroom After the War, released in 2007.

Cranley has recently been involved with Montreal hip-hop act Da Gryptions alongside friends from the music scene.