Dust Cwaine - Twin Lakes
Self-released
Released on September 23rd, 2025
Blending drag performances and music comes as no surprise. Anyone who has ever stepped into a drag show will be quick to pick up on the artistry of lipsyncing. And anyone who has been paying attention to drag will take note of how deeply it has influenced mainstream pop culture at large. Though I know it happens outside Ru Paul’s drag race songwriting competitions, it is seldom that I come across drag artists recording and performing their own original music locally. Instead, it is paying tribute to pop icons, as in the case of an elaborate laser-filled Beyoncé mash up performance by Kendall Gender of Canada’s Drag Race fame which took place at The Birdhouse during Pride. I’ve also had the pleasure of watching drag artists perform covers of songs, for instance, getting to watch InFortuna perform Thalía’s “A Quién Le Importa” and Mœnia’s “Ni Tú Ni Nadie” at a cabaret hosted at Mexico City’s Somos Voces (Incredible bookstore / bar / community resource / you name it).
With this context, it is a delight to see one of Vancouver’s finest bless us with a sophomore release. Dust Cwaine (aka. I-am-not-giving -more-than-this-drag-name-cuz-I-am-not-a-cop) is a powerhouse in the Vancouver scene who grew up in Cranbrook, British Columbia and lived in Calgary, Alberta during the COVID-19 pandemic before returning to Vancouver as their rightful place. Dust Cwaine has a considerable following tied to their almost decade long drag career, but I want to stress that the fact that they are just as much a musician shouldn’t get buried under the layers of make-up, mascara, and blush. Their relationship in music has deep ties in the Vancouver and Calgary scenes as Dust Cwaine’s music has featured work and collaborations with the likes of Tea Fannie, PLEASEBENiCE, and Helm Studios’ Josh Eastman.
Dust Cwaine’s music has gone from softer more acoustic sonic palettes to more alternative pop rock angles to their sound. Their prior releases have included their debut record Arcana (2022) and an EP 17 (2023). In these records, you can really get a sense of the lead up their sophomore album Twin Lakes. Written with longtime collaborator and producer Josh Eastman, Twin Lakes is an album centered around vulnerability and its complexities, sometimes delving into the harsher aspects of the past and the ways they might linger in the present. The way this album approaches this autobiographical storytelling is by way of vignettes depicting childhood survival, accountability, toxic relationships, and unconditional love which builds on the “navel-gaze pop rock” that characterized their prior releases. In this way, the album is a dialogue between Dust Cwaine’s present and past which is offered over to us as the audience.
Twin Lakes kicks off with a titular track which spells some of these key themes for us over pop rock groves with lush chorus reverbed guitars and lively backing vocals, which really makes an earworm out of the chorus’ lyrics: “I don’t wanna go back to Twin Lakes.” This is followed by a much softer take in “Burn After Reading” that explores the guardedness and withdrawal that Dust Cwaine had leaned on to get by, refusing to open up or yield her own inner life. The composition between the bridge and the final outro brings the most lively parts of pop rock together into a track that moves from the echoing self-reflective weightlessness of the bridge’s vocals over to an energetic chanting to wrap up the song. “Violent Heart” keeps this softer twinkly sound going within a song that celebrates the joys of child-like openness to the world while also hanging on to the contradiction she is left with over time characterized by the titular “sweet violent heart.” In “Brooklyn” kicks off with a heavy tremolo guitar that builds the ambiance for another distant guitar and thoroughly filtered drums that lead into the verse that yearns for a kind of placeless love which is hard to pin down. Even when it is said to be in Brooklyn, there is this fantastical admission about how far away it is and how they’ve never been there. The song gets more robust as it goes on: once the first chorus kicks in, the drums become fully bodied; and as the track goes into the later half of the song, more instrumental elements are included to build in the dream-like ambiance of the track. “The Acolyte” is the only song where a different producer comes into the mix, PLEASEBENiCE (aka. Iris Yakymyshyn) who has made incredible hyperpop, rap, and rock music across her career. Starting with a dynamic guitar and acid bass intro, the track brings the album’s pace into something much faster with drum parts that go into double time as song goes on.
The album breaks into an intimate interlude with an evocative instrumental ambience that clears the space for Dust Cwaine’s spoken word lyrics about resilience and moving on. This is followed by a track that remains just as reflexive with “Tiger Lily,” a heartbreakingly open letter where Dust Cwaine becomes their own mother speaking to their younger self to express unconditional love as well as providing encouragement for the challenges ahead. Perhaps this is one of my favourite tracks in this album, as lyrically and instrumental is effective through and through. In this process of regression, starting with a sample of a baby laughing, “Starman” (NOT THAT ONE) leans more into this dialogue that Dust Cwaine is facilitating with their younger self, watching themselves grow up and adoring this child’s loving tender nature. The single “Little Plans” follows this up with a highly energetic pop rock song which holds tight to a sense of youthful direction in life while also admitting to the ways that things didn’t go as planned. Truly another highlight of the album. On that note, “Jupiter” takes all of these misadventures into a track that craves more out of life and preserves some underlying optimism in spite of all of what we’ve heard so far. The album ends with the incredible “Take My Stories” which thematically and through leitmotifs comes back to the beginning, looking back at the whole picture where Dust Cwaine sees the way that others have taken advantage of them and built their own narratives about Dust Cwaine’s life. There is a kind of resignation in the vein of “say what you want,” while also the album itself acting as owning up this story as their own.
Overall, Twin Lakes is a thoroughly emotional journey. It feels confessional from beginning to end, admittedly teasing the tension between Dust Cwaine’s impulse to let others into their life and their stories while also generously offering them to us in a theatric approach to pop rock. The album is an evolution from everything else they have done in past releases, and it is only brought to a stronger cohesion by the narrative and thematic focus. Dust Cwaine is absolutely a thoughtful musician, and this is the kind of musician that you will see in major stages such as Rifflandia Music Festival where they recently performed.
