Premiere: Mistaken For Wayne - Whitefish

Written By Jeff MacCallum

Mistaken for Wayne is the musical moniker of Wade Montpellier, a Sudbury, Ontario small-scale organic farmer who writes songs that sound as organic as the crops he tends. We first caught wind of Mistaken for Wayne with the release of his 2024 EP, This Time of Year, and now we are very excited to deliver an exclusive premiere of his debut album, Whitefish, which arrives wherever you get your music tomorrow.

This is an album of reclamation, an album of coming home, and most importantly, an ode to Northern Ontario. Small town imagery, crisp blue lakes, farms that go for miles create a visual backdrop for stories that highlight the complex emotions we all feel when returning to the place we grew up. The lyrics gain extra punch from the band which is composed of Wade Montpellier on vocals and guitar, Olivier Palkovits on lead guitar and backing vocals, Jonathan Danyliw on bass and backing vocals, Dylan Kelly on drums, and Matthew Wiewel on pedal steel. Together, they craft a folk/country hybrid that isn’t afraid to stumble into rock territory when the moment deems it necessary.

We invite you to check out Whitefish in its entirety below. If you enjoy what you hear, please consider supporting the artist by pre-ordering the album via the button in the player.

Jeff MacCallum

Jeff MacCallum is our founder. He created Cups N Cakes simply because he had a love of local music. Soon the platform grew beyond the confines of his scene in Edmonton to include all of Canada.

"I did it all very DIY. Everything you see was me learning on the fly. I'm a carpenter not a musician, or a journalist, or a publicist... I'm a carpenter and a weird crazy music fan that thought he could do something fun that might benefit something I care about"

Over the years, MacCallum's commitment to elevating Canadian music earned him a spot as a Polaris Prize Juror, a WCMA Juror, a consultant for music festival curation, and a dear friend to independent music in Canada.

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