With a foundation in Canadian roots rock and a penchant for crafting noisy guitar jams, Cuff the Duke’s unique blend of genres has consistently escaped the confines of simple classification, earning them an honoured place under the umbrella of “alternative.”
Six albums, a pair of JUNO nods, countless miles clocked on the road, including sharing stages with iconic acts like Blue Rodeo, Hayden, Sloan, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and Calexico. Then, poof! A ten-year vanishing act, playing only a handful of shows in that time. But like all great tales, theirs has a twist: Cuff the Duke has reemerged from the shadows.
The band’s comeback album, “Breaking Dawn” is a deeply personal exploration of frontman Wayne Petti’s journey with mental health. Petti, who has spent the past 8 years working as an artist manager for renowned acts like The National, Owen Pallett, Broken Social Scene, and Jennifer Castle, found himself struggling with the idea of balancing his roles as both a manager and an artist.
“I struggled with the idea of working with incredible and inspiring artists in that capacity and still being an artist in my own way. I finally realized that the only thing stopping me was ME. There are no rules about how one can and cannot be creative. I realized that it didn’t matter to me how it came out and who listened to it; all that mattered was that I allowed myself to create something just because I finally felt that I needed to.”
The songs on the new album reflect Petti’s process of coming to terms with his mental health, capturing the various stages of his journey. The musical interludes throughout the record serve as a representation of the ever-present anxiety that Petti has learned to navigate. At the same time, the songs themselves offer a sense of relief and catharsis.
The theme of addressing ongoing mental health issues is prevalent across the album. Lead single “Got You On The Run,” a track that, sonically, encompasses the spirit of Cuff The Duke, is also an analogy for Petti running from his own anxieties.
“When I wrote, “I add it up day by day, the over-under odds I play and when it hits, I can never say but oh I got you, I got you on the run,” I knew that the song was going to be about how my anxiety had a way of creeping in at unpredictable times, or at least it seemed that way — the sense of always being chased by those feelings because they weren’t being addressed.”
On “Leaving It All Behind,” Petti comes to terms with his decision to put the band on hiatus, which meant abruptly not playing music anymore and how that left him scrambling to figure out his next move.
“I felt like I failed because music would no longer be my sole focus. The line “I bought the lie that I told myself, now it’s coming back to haunt me” reflects how young musicians can become overconfident, believing their success will never end. But every artist faces ups and downs, and when reality hits, it can be a nightmare. Saying, “I’m getting ahead of it by leaving it all behind,” was the headspace I needed to be in, to move forward as one chapter ended and another began.
Across the twelve tracks, Petti faces his demons head on. Whether it’s the metaphor of setting out to find one’s way and one’s self and ultimately feeling completely lost at sea on the track “Ballad of The Breaking Dawn,” or his coming to terms with his own mental health on “It’s Alright”: “We find peace when our heads are clear, out of the fog that looms round my fear.”
Recorded over two years, the album showcases the band’s growth and maturity, both as musicians and as individuals. The collaborative effort of Petti and his talented bandmates (Paul Lowman, Andrew Johnson, François Turenne, and Thom Hammerton) has resulted in a work that is deeply personal but distinctly Cuff The Duke.
Poised to once again cross musical borders as effortlessly as a game of hopscotch, their return is not just another chapter in their discography; it’s a homecoming celebration of their enduring legacy, and the love of getting together with old friends and playing music.
