Devours left no crumbs at Woodstove Festival

Jeff Cancade (he/they) has been creating and performing as Devours for roughly a decade, most recently at the Woodstove Festival in Cumberland. (Heather Watson/CHLY 101.7FM + DIG FM)

Woodstove Festival took over the Village of Cumberland the weekend of November 7th-9th, for the 9th year running, this time selling out in a record four days. Nanaimo-born artist Jeff Cancade returned to Woodstove for their second time this year, under their stage name Devours, performing confessional electropop inspired by their own inner city queer experiences.

Cancade spoke with CHLY and DIG FM outside one unconventional venue (The Abbey Studio), ahead of his second Woodstove 2025 performance. (Heather Watson/CHLY 101.7FM + DIG FM)

“Cumberland is totally amazing, I love coming here. This is my second time playing the festival; I performed in 2023, and last time I performed in a place called Alley Cuts, it was a hair salon [or] barber, it was tiny and there were maybe like 80 people crammed in there. And then this time I performed in a post office, tonight I'm performing at an abbey and it's very unconventional, these spaces. I don't really know like the lore or the background of Cumberland, I'm sure these spaces aren't all venues, and I think this place, this little town, converts all of their spaces into venues and yeah, it's magical. It's clearly a success story, I mean, I think this festival sold out within like three days this year. So it's amazing,” Cancade said.

As the festival expands, it isn’t without growing pains. While remaining positive about Woodstove, and their experiences at the festival, Cancade shared that there was a mishap with the schedule not showing their two performances this year. The error was fixed, and despite the limited information both Devours shows were at full capacity, with groups of people waiting outside with hopes of getting in.

“Yeah, so two years ago [at] the festival I had a great time, everyone was really supportive and friendly. This time it feels like the festival's grown a little bit more, like the roster is just so humongous this year, which is exciting. You know, there are so many volunteers, there is some catering and food and stuff. This time I think there was a little bit of a mishap on the app that Woodstove created to track the schedule, I was left off,” Cancade laughed, “I was left off of it, but we're getting it sorted out right now, and I got to play at the post office last night and it was packed with people, so yeah, Woodstove is great.”

Cancade ensured everyone had a good time at their show; even those who didn’t fit inside. (Heather Watson/CHLY 101.7FM + DIG FM)

Cancade said when they’re performing, it’s like they’re hosting a party; they like to keep an eye out and make sure everyone is having a good time. They proved their point at their second gig of the festival, at The Abbey Studio, keeping the doors behind the stage open for those stuck outside to listen in, and even engaging with them and including them in the performance. 

Producing and performing as Devours in Vancouver for the past decade, Cancade has released five albums so far as a singer, songwriter, producer, and “DIY musician.” Music for them is sacred, and has been a means of self-expression and understanding when other options weren’t available.

“I think that I honestly needed therapy when I was growing up gay in Nanaimo, and I didn't have it or didn't seek it, and so music has always just sort of been like my 'dear diary' sessions. I released a lot of music and wrote a lot when I was a teenager, and so I think it's just like self-expression, and it's one of the only things that can really make me cry. I don't know, it's always been really powerful, I feel like it's very sacred and I think that in my twenties and thirties I really wanted to make it as a big musician and get to sort of commodify my music. And I've recently entered my forties and I'm sort of going back to how I was as a teenager, where I just wanna make it for fun and I'm focusing a bit less on like branding and all of that stuff,” Cancade said.

Cancade explained that they’ve always had a close emotional bond with music, not just their own but others’ too. That emotional connection is prevalent in their lyrics, which are raw and real.

“The music is really, really personal, a lot of the lyrics are personal; I think that I need to sort of like flick a switch when I'm performing and sometimes when I'm performing I just sort of like you know, gauge if the audience is into it, if people are dancing, if people are safe in the audience. I'm thinking a bit less about the lyrics more so and more about just the experience and trying to do a good job live. But yeah, when I'm writing it, it's cathartic, it's emotional,” they said, “but yeah, it's not just for my own music, it's for other bands as well. I've always had a really close, emotional bond with music, I think.”

Cancade also spoke to their experience as a queer artist, and what it means to them to be creating distinctly queer art.

Cancade said when he started playing as Devours in Vancouver about ten years ago, the music scene was very straight and it was hard to find his place, but since then the number of trans and queer artists has grown. (Heather Watson/CHLY 101.7FM + DIG FM)

“It's important, you know, I've grappled with that a lot over the years; I think that Devours is the first project I've had where it's been defiantly and explicitly queer. A lot of the lyrics aren't using universal language, they're just speaking directly to my community, and I think that that's been tough 'cause I'm sort of limiting my reach as a musician. But I've had a few people over the years tell me that my music has helped them come out of the closet, and to work through some personal stuff about [their] identity, which is huge,” Cancade said. 

“I grew up in a time where I didn't really have role models. Like there would be a few like famous gay musicians, but they would just make very universal songs that didn't actually speak to what we were actually going through. It's hard to say, even nowadays a lot of people in my generation just wanna listen to Lady Gaga or straight female pop singers. And so it's hard, I don't have a huge audience for what I'm doing. But yeah, it's important to– the world is changing and it's very colourful and queer now, more so than I ever thought that I would get to see in my time, and so there's a lot more stories to be told for queer people and I'm trying to do it,” they said.

Cancade said that telling stories from a perspective outside the traditional cisgender heterosexual beauty standard is powerful.

“I think that for the most part, the people who we see in the limelight, they're often like Hollywood, really good looking people. And I think that I'm not that person. Like I'm covered in fur, I'm short and bald and I'm aging, and I think that I'm making music for people who are living real lives in big cities, who don't have like tons of fame or money or like a major label making them look hot on MTV, you know what I mean? And so I'm just trying to make songs about body image, and bottoming, and what it's like to be in a city where you're constantly struggling to survive 'cause it's too expensive. And so, it's not necessarily universal, but I've had some people tell me that it has meant a lot. It seems like Devours has a cult following at this point, and I'm very proud of that. I try to just tell honest stories,” they said.

Despite coinciding with the festival’s drag show, Devours had no shortage of people attending their second Woodstove performance this year. (Heather Watson/CHLY 101.7FM + DIG FM)

Cancade said that the queer music and art scene is growing, especially in bigger cities in Canada, but also in smaller places like on Vancouver Island. But, with the rising popularity of drag, Cancade said it can still be a challenge to draw an audience to their own stage.

“I feel like drag is where it's at, like people wanna see drag. This has happened at a number of Pride festivals I've played at, where I might have an audience of like 30 people and then like 300 people are just watching drag right beside me, of drag artists just like lip-syncing to Beyonce,” they said. “And it is what it is, I try to not be too jaded. Making independent underground music, it's a tough sell always, and a lot of people just want the glow of drag, and it's fine. Drag is cool, but– yeah.”

As it turns out, Devours is not so far from drag in their own right. 

“That's a really good question 'cause I didn't even realize it for years; I basically am. You know, like I'm wearing makeup and I'm dressing up,” they said. “For every album cycle I kind of come up with a new look and stuff, and didn't even realize it for years, but I'm like, ‘am I actually drag? But actually making all the music myself?’ I guess so!”

Jeff Cancade’s queer electropop music, under the stage name Devours, can be found across streaming platforms.

“I'm actively trying to get myself off of Spotify right now, but yeah, you can find me on Instagram, on Bandcamp or YouTube. It's streaming everywhere,” Cancade said.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with DIG FM.