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 honored 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 10-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 eight 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. – Wayne Petti
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 he has learned to navigate. At the same time, the songs themselves offer a sense of relief and catharsis.
Originally written about a woman sailing out to sea in search of her husband, who was a sailor and didn’t return from his last trip because of a storm, Breaking Dawn’s focus track, “Ballad of the Breaking Dawn,” serves as a basic metaphor of setting out to find one’s way and one’s self and ultimately feeling completely lost at sea.
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