There’s a lot to process when Jeff Cancade talks about what he’s out to achieve with his solo project Devours. So it’s somehow appropriate that the Vancouver-via-Nanaimo singer begins a dissection of his new album, Iconoclast, with “I don’t even know where to start.”

That doesn’t stop him from quickly diving right in on an art-star electro-pop record that’s packed with bass-overdriven synths, emotive vocals, and art-pop percussion.

“I suppose a major thing is letting go of heteronormativity and all the normal straight trajectory of how we expect our lives to turn out,” he says, on the line from his apartment in Vancouver. “And it’s about embracing being part of a minority group and living as an alternative person, in a way.”

Looking back, he was nowhere near as bold on his debut full-length, Late Bloomer, which he released in 2016.

“I wanted to make that record very universal,” Cancade recalls. “I wanted to get on the map and try to see if I could play some shows, so the lyrics were pretty broad. I think that, with this album, they are way more gay and defiantly queer. It was a really good step for me to just own myself more and not try to appeal to everyone.”

Still, making Iconoclast instantly relatable to everyone is that Cancade knows what it’s like to be plagued by self-doubt. If you’ve ever found yourself standing in front of a mirror knowing that you’ve got the strength to make it all better, you’ll appreciate lyrics like “I am more than a failure to launch/And I’m sick of feeling hopeless,” from the album’s neon-buzzed title track. 

Cancade’s journey hasn’t always been an easy one. The artist has dealt with self-esteem issues related to everything from embracing his sexuality to the daunting challenges that come with trying to carve out a career in music. Born into a strongly Catholic family in Nanaimo, he graduated from the University of Victoria with a psychology degree, and then moved to Montreal to try to establish himself as an artist.

“My sister, who I’m very close with, was living in Montreal, going to McGill [University],” Cancade says. “She was like, ‘Jeff, you seem confused. You should just move here for a summer and try and find yourself.’ ”

During his three years back east, which started when he was 22, he released solo DIY music that no one ever heard, and remained unable to crack a scene that he desperately wanted to be a part of.

“My music was a little weird, and didn’t sound very much like Devours,” he says. “I had a few projects—one was called Souvenirs From Fiji that was kind of a noisy, grungy bedroom thing. Those projects weren’t super on-trend—and I just feel like I wasn’t cool.

"I had some of the musical ability," Cancade continues, "but it was like I didn’t have the fashion down, and I didn’t understand the aesthetic very well. Also, I feel like I was trying to write music that was really personal, but as a person and an artist I wasn’t quite there yet. I hadn’t lived enough, hadn’t been through enough. I hadn’t even come out of the closet yet. I don’t think that I knew myself well enough to be making the kind of confessional music that I was trying to make.”

Cancade moved back to Vancouver at around age 25, at which point, he says, things began to change for him.

“In my earlier 20s I didn’t have very much confidence as a singer and didn’t think I could be a frontperson,” he says. “In a few bands that I played with, I played the drums. I was trying to be Phil Collins and it wasn’t working.”

The initial Devours EP, Avalon, found him creating the music and then cut-and-pasting vocal samples to complete the songs. By Late Bloomer he was becoming secure enough to show the world what he had as a singer. With Iconoclast, he believed in himself to where he was ready to step up and make a statement.

“I do have a shy side, so I think it’s taken quite a while for me to own who I am,” Cancade confesses. “I guess in terms of my body and my sexuality I have a lot of insecurities that I’ve tried to work through. And I’m working through them in a very public way—through my music.”

Given his Catholic upbringing, interviewers sometimes focus on numbers like the driving, Casio-blipped nightmare “Beyond Love and Beneath You”, with lyrics that include “I was a liar on my knees for you.” Thanks to endless support and love from his parents after he came out, Cancade downplays the religion angle, noting that he’s happy to see people believe in whatever they choose to.

More interesting to him, in songs like the electro-soul meditation “Gimp Mask” and the careening art-pop banger “Taxidermy the Musical”, were delving into things like queer identity, putting his own spin on toxic masculinity, and exploring ever-shifting attitudes toward sexuality.

“ ‘Taxidermy the Musical’ is special to me because I feel like it kind of sums up the album and the major themes that I wanted to get across,” Cancade says. “I’m not the boy next door, and I never will be. This album is about owning your sexuality, and owning who you are.”

Going deep on issues was something he was more than willing to do on Iconoclast.

“I feel like there’s still quite a bit of internalized homophobia, just being in the gay community for eight years now,” Cancade offers. “The gay community is fantastic in Vancouver. I was specifically part of the bear community and still sort of am. And I feel like there’s still a bit of misogyny—like an obsession with masculinity and trying to seem more straight. When I was starting to write the album, I was very frustrated dating people who were obsessed with that.”

If you’ve seen Cancade’s promo photos for Devours, you’ve perhaps noticed a penchant for cartoonishly thick, drawn-on eyebrows (often accessorized by black Xs on his hands and an upside-down cross on his forehead).

When it comes time to elaborate on the visual side of Devours, he, perhaps tellingly, has a pretty good idea where to start. 

He notes that the way he looks is a response to those who expected him to wear flannel and look more masculine.

With Devours, it’s often about turning negatives into positives—one of the greatest signs in life that someone is looking forward rather than dwelling on the past.

“That’s part of why I have these feminine big eyebrows and I wear pink Keds,” he says. “My style is very masculine-meets-feminine—it’s always been a real mix of the two. It’s subversive. And that’s what a bunch of lyrics on the album are about.”

Devours plays the West 4th Khatsahlano Street Party’s Coast Capital Vine Stage at 7 p.m. on Saturday (July 6).