Devours is Nanaimo’s Second Biggest Export

Devours is a dude from Nanaimo, BC who channels the spirit of Sign ‘O’ The Times-era Prince while adding his own eclectofunk style to it. But instead of singing about AIDS and gender bending, he’s into Kelly Kapowski and bondage; and instead of playing with a sprawling band of misfits, he’s making things up alone in his bedroom. His full length debut LP, 21st & Main, contains nine songs that are equal parts quirky as hell, and booty-to-the-floor danceable.

The man behind the music, Jeff Cancade, has followed a winding path to this current project. After short stints in Victoria and Montreal, he settled in Vancouver, where he pays the bills by composing music for television and film. He began writing songs as Devours for an artistic escape from the daily grind, but the film soundtracks left their mark. His new album is heavily influenced by 90s blockbusters, like The Fifth Element and Speed, which carry a massive and energetic sound that Cancade finds both inspiring and nostalgia-inducing. This is especially clear on the song “Kelly Kapowski”. With its smooth saxophone and big early-90s drum machines, it could have been the theme song for Baywatch Nights or Die Hard in another lifetime.

The album offers a collage of sounds and styles as it jumps from spastic pop to electro punk, to something resembling shoegaze, but Cancade’s high energy and engaging personality keep it grounded throughout. Take opening track “Bondage,” with its helium vocals and candy-coated pop hooks, and listen to it transition into the next track, “Fuck Aging,” a noisy stomper that tears down everything “Bondage” built up. Then there’s “I Still Look Up To Her,” an explosive slow jam that would make Tom Krell proud. We spoke with Devours recently about the writing process behind 21st & Main, his wide range of influences, this music scene in Vancouver and Nanaimo, and writing scores for weird television commercials.

Noisey: With all the moving around, when did you get started with Devours?
Devours: I grew up in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and eventually moved to Victoria to go to University. I lived in Montreal for three years in my early twenties, where I worked crappy Anglophone jobs and recorded/released music as a solo artist. I released a lot of music in Montreal, one project was dark minimal mostly-acapella stuff, a bit similar to what Majical Cloudz are doing nowadays, and another project was lo-fi grunge, but nothing really caught on with people and I didn’t fit in with the scene that well.

I moved to Vancouver in 2010 and started Devours at the beginning of 2011, so I’ve been pursuing this project for about three and a half years. I moved here to start over and redirect my efforts towards composing for TV and film. I have been a freelance composer for a while in this city, and it has been a roller coaster ride. I was saying yes to anything just to pay the bills, so I ended up making music for some pretty random stuff, like Chinese hair extension ads, Crossfit testimonial promos. I’m grateful for those gigs, but I needed an artistic escape, so my music for Devours started getting more and more alternative.

So did you study composition in university?
No, I studied psychology. Moving to Montreal and being exposed to the city’s diverse music scene was my education, in a way. I used to be able to read music, but I do everything by ear nowadays.

How do you push yourself artistically to make music for something like a crossfit or Chinese hair extension ad, which you almost certainly don’t care about?
Making commercial/corporate music is actually a fun challenge! It’s its own unique art form in a way, trying to come up with something “safe” but “fresh and progressive,” as well as pleasing a business client who doesn’t really understand music and can’t explain what he/she wants in musical terms is not easy. Freelancing has been great for me, though. I have always been kind of a loner musician, and this gives me a chance to collaborate with people.

So what’s the difference between Devours and your previous solo projects?
My lyrics for my former solo projects were all really personal, and making lyric-free instrumental music limits me a bit, so I really try to make Devours personal and unique in every way that I can. I am a die-hard fan of CanCon and have followed Canadian music closely since I was a kid, so I basically see Devours as my chance to contribute something to the CanCon legacy.

What kind of instrumentation do you use?
My music is MIDI-orchestrated, I make it all on my synthesizer, and I incorporate quite a few samples into the mix as well, like movie samples, 90s pop songs, Foley FX, obscure things that I can find online. A lot of the percussion is actually sound FX, warped to enough of a degree that they sound like drums.

You like bumping up the vocals an octave or two. Anything behind that?
I don’t actually sing at all on this album. Some of the vocals that I sample are from famous pop songs, so I tried to pitch/warp them enough that they wouldn’t be dead giveaways.

What pop songs you are using? What do you like about sampling vocals?
This album samples Deftones, Ace of Base, Beach Boys, Ciara, the Offspring, Zuckerbaby, and a handful of others. I recorded close to 20 songs for Devours before releasing my EP last year, and I was singing on quite a few of them. I eventually had an epiphany where I realized that my voice was holding my production back, and that I don’t have a strong enough voice to be a lead singer.

Tell me a little about the Vancouver electronic scene. Where do you play gigs? Any cool acts readers should check out?
I listen to a lot of local music, but most of it is punk/grunge. In fact, I don’t really listen to a lot of electronic music in general. Hybridity Music and 1080p are a few great local electronic labels. Fox Cabaret, Electric Owl, and Fortune Sound Club are a few popular venues. There is a ton of great music here – White Lung, Dead Soft, and For The Lions are my current obsessions. I used to perform in Montreal, but I haven’t played live in Vancouver yet. A proper release show for the album is currently in the works.

What about Nanaimo? Was there anything happening there, music wise, when you were young?
Nanaimo is a nice city for nature-lovers and young families, but it isn’t an exciting place for young musicians. I witnessed almost no concerts growing up, and played music mostly by myself. I used to make cassette tapes with my sister and best friend, where we would pretend to be radio DJ’s. The tapes contained a ton of music from different “bands,” although the dozen-or-so bands were actually all of our side projects. I listened to a lot of Enigma growing up, and their early 90’s recordings were probably my biggest influence outside of pop radio.

Greg Bouchard is a writer living in Toronto. He’s on Twitter.