An Offbeat by CFUV artist interview
Photo courtesy of Devours.
This is an excerpt from a conversation with Vancouver-based singer-songwriter and producer Jeff Cancade, A.K.A. Devours. Originally aired May 20, 2025 on Chatter on CFUV.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Who are you as an artist?
I consider myself to be an experimental pop musician and a producer. Devours is my singer-songwriter, diaristic confessional project.
Growing up, what was your relationship like with music?
I’ve adored music since I was a kid. I discovered MuchMusic when I was 10, and watched it religiously through my teens. I put out my first album, which was a rap album, when I was 13. It’s the worst thing you can imagine.
Who are your biggest influences?
I grew up in Nanaimo. At that time, no bands would come through town. All of my exposure was FM radio and MuchMusic. I was inspired by Timbaland — like everything that he did with Missy Elliot. You can hear it in the way that I program percussion.
Do you ever go back and perform in Nanaimo?
Yeah, and it is so humbling every time. It’s tempting to hold on to that angst of being like, “I escaped this lame place.” But places can change for the better, and it’s actually kind of great now. It’s so young, queer, and creative.
What song from Sports Car Era is particularly meaningful to you?
The title track ties everything together. The song’s pretty raw. It touches upon getting squeezed out of the music industry, aging, and ageism. This city has changed. Venues have changed. There’s a whole new generation of kids now playing shows in Vancouver. A lot of my friends aged out, and it’s been a fascinating few years. I tried my best to encompass that.
What’s your favorite song from Sports Car Era?
I really like how “Swordswallower (Zendaya‘s Fortress)” turned out. With all of my music, I sit down at a piano and write the song front to back acoustically. The challenge is, I really like all of the songs to start with, and by the time I produce and sing on it, I often have this sad moment of, “Oh God, I hate my voice.” But with “Swordswallower”, it sounds the way I wanted it to in my head.
Can you tell us the story of the ‘Gaylien’?
The ‘Gaylien’ started as a joke. I went bald when I was 31 or so, and was like, “I’m gonna look like an alien.” With this alien head and big eyebrows, a friend of mine was like, “you should call yourself Gaylien.”
The first albums were an arc where I left the planet and escaped judgment and trauma. I wanted to create a world that was accepting for all gays and artists. Homecoming Queen is the fourth album. I put it out at the beginning of COVID, when I moved back in with my parents. The album is about having to return home and face the things that you ran away from. Sports Car Era is a reference to the midlife crisis. It’s about reintegrating into the world as a 40 year old musician, and dealing with expectations. We’re in the arc right now — on Earth, trying to make it work. We’ll see if I go back to space.
