Dust Cwaine’s Aromantic Love Song Broadens the Boundaries of Pop

Image Credit: Chase Hansen

By the time “INNUENDO” rolled out of Dust Cwaine’s consciousness, they had been struggling with writing for months. The single hit them at the most unexpected time: in a Save On Foods in Cranbrook, where they stopped with their cousin on a trip to scatter their father’s ashes.

“As I was walking to the Save On Foods, I had this flashback about going there because of my first boyfriend when I was 18, who worked at the deli,” says Cwaine. 

“I would go there to pick him up after work, we would smoke some bongs, he had this shitty little car, and we would drive to the woods and get really high. It was an extremely horny time,” they laugh. But at that point, they weren’t sure about “the way romance works.” Their identity as an aromantic person was only unearthed two years ago, so looking back on that relationship felt surreal to Cwaine.

As they stood in the dairy aisle, the entire song came to them, and they got so excited they accidentally flung their phone across the room. Cwaine sent the lyrics, once they were eventually written down,  to their producer at Helm Studios, who was overjoyed to describe the single  as “a pop song that doesn’t have any cliches in it.” Afterward, Cwaine kept running with a 2000s rock-pop sound.

Not everyone will be able to connect with the song, but “INNUENDO” helped Cwaine gain some much-needed closure. “Going back and looking at my past relationships and writing about them from a perspective that’s a little bit more honest and silly gives me an opportunity to make amends for myself and understand that situation from a different perspective, with my lens of aromanticism,” they say.

Image Credit: Chase Hansen

“INNUENDO” is also a jumping-off point for their work with Helm Studios, a non-profit based in Vancouver, B.C. that uplifts marginalized performers across the country. Cwaine started making music with Helm shortly after their dad passed away. The project became a place where they could process grief. Their relationship with Helm Studios’s Josh Eastman kept them positive and excited through that project, allowing Cwaine’s potential and style to reveal.

“INNUENDO” brings Cwaine, the artist, to life in the studio. It was the first song they recorded together with Eastman and the first time they had ever stepped into a sound booth. After redoing the entire track, they discovered Cwaine’s pop-rock style, inspired by acts like Matchbox Twenty, Liz Phair, and Counting Crows.

With the twangy guitars soft strumming, the song is tender and sweet, featuring twinkling xylophones and bouncy percussion. Its nostalgic lyrics compliment the sentimental feeling behind “INNUENDO,” the opposite of what listeners might expect from its title. Unlike Cwaine’s other work, which was more inspired by their love for drag and pop, this track is an ode to the singer-songwriters they grew up loving.

The single cover art still heavily features their drag face, though. It was created by Chase Hansen, an artist whose aesthetic is self-described as “Y2K biker bitch riding the Excess Express.” Cwaine and Hansen started collaborating on drag in 2016, but they’ve been friends since 2008. The vision they had for this project was different from everything they had done in the past, as Hansen got the final say on the aesthetic behind “INNUENDO.”

The result was beautifully maximalist and glamorous from top to bottom, covered in lace, beads, and sequins.“My drag face in and of itself is excessive,” says Cwaine. “It’s the eye makeup that is larger than life, and I think Chase wanted to do something that rivaled my own face because we often took photos of me in nature.” While that created great juxtaposition, the style of “INNUENDO” matches Cwaine’s attitude, artistic mission, and drag.

Image Credit: Chase Hansen

“We never explored something that was so large and extreme, that rivals my own makeup … and that’s also why he decided to edit my face so much and move things around and add extra,” they say. Cwaine feels like “INNUENDO” is the single that will introduce them as a fully realized musician, and they’re excited to see what comes next. To stay up to date with their music and career, follow them at @unicornriverchild on Instagram.

Aly Laube is a multimedia journalist and editor with a passion for amplifying underrepresented voices. She is also a queer, mixed race woman living with chronic health conditions.