Cuff the Duke: Country nomads
Singer Wayne Petti talks about their new label and member changes
Chelse McKee Volunteer Staff
With an upcoming tour and a third album in the works, Cuff the Duke is quickly becoming a member of royalty in the Canadian indie music scene. However, the music industry isn’t all glitz and glamour.
“I make way less than minimum wage being in a band,” said Wayne Petti, the lead singer of the band, which is synonymously known as the blue-collar representatives. Matt Faris, Dale Murray and Paul Lowman round out the group.
Ever since Cuff the Duke’s first album, Life Stories for Minimum Wage, the band has impressed countless fans and critics all over Canada and America.
The group’s self-titled second album possesses a more pop-influenced sound than the country noise they’re known for. But without abandoning their original country roots, they still hold on to some folk ditties, one of which is the critically acclaimed “The Ballad of Poor John Henry.” The song revealed more than the band’s solid grasp on country music: it also introduced a new female vocalist to the scene, Isla Craig.
Although the song was written with a female voice in mind, the band’s producer, Paul Aucoin, formerly a member of the Sadies, suggested that Petti take a vocal part as well.
“It’s probably one of the first duets of all time where the male sings the higher part than the female,” Petti said about Aucoin’s decision.
Aucoin and Petti have been kept busy outside of Cuff the Duke as well, with the mostly instrumental band, the Hylozoists.
“The trick is if you just [say the name] two letters at a time. I had to learn how to say it, too. It took us a while. I was like ‘maybe we should change the name,’” Petti said about the tongue-twisting name.
The Hylozoists was originally created by Aucoin as a more east coast band but soon expanded across Canada. The group has become a crossbreed of many of the underground bands of Canada, including members from Cuff the Duke, the Weakerthans, the Sadies and the Fembots.
The Hylozoists, whose new album will be in stores this June, will be joining Cuff the Duke and the Fembots this month for the tour through Canada.
Although Cuff the Duke has had an incredible year, they have also had their share of downfalls: percussionist Matt Faris broke his wrist, the band’s original label, Three Gut Records, shut down, and one of the founding members, Jeff Peers, left the group to join Anagram, a Toronto-based band.
“We grew apart. I think [Peers] was feeling the need to go in a direction that we weren’t going,” said Petti.
Due to Faris’s injury and as a result of the surgery required, he will not be involved with the upcoming tour. He will, however, be helping to write for the new album being demoed this spring.
Since the folding of Three Gut Records, Cuff the Duke has been signed to Hayden Hardwood’s record label, Hardwood Records, which is an extension of Universal.
“They work really hard and certainly get [the album] in more stores than Three Gut was able to,” said Petti. “It’s always a nice thing to know that your music’s out there at least.”
While Cuff the Duke is becoming a big part of independent music in Canada, they still have trouble finding support in mainstream media.
“There’s very few outlets for [independent music]. Mainstream radio doesn’t support as many Canadian bands as they used to,” said the musician. “MuchMusic. There’s no support there. [MuchMusic] used to pride themselves on not being MTV and being the station that played videos, and now they’ve turned themselves into what they used to hate. I find that the Americanization of Canadian culture is becoming really gross.”
Cuff the Duke will be playing with the Hylozoists and the Fembots at the West End Cultural Centre on March 23.
