It all began quite accidentally a few years back in the town of Oshawa, Ontario. Wayne Petti and Jeff Peers got together to make some noise on a four-track in Jeff’s suburban bedroom. Soon, Wayne and Jeff decided to put together an entire band. They recruited Paul Lowman (bass) and Brad Fudge (drums), and Cuff the Duke was born. The group managed to turn heads as a live act early on and found themselves in Toronto; at venues they’d only dreamed of playing.
Life Stories for Minimum Wage was released on Toronto-indie Three Gut Records on October 15, 2002 to rave reviews. Critics heralded the efforts of the four young lads as “intense” and “timeless.” Emphasis was placed on the mature aspect of the album. Quite a surprise considering all of the members were only 21!
Relentlessly refining their craft, Cuff the Duke were invited to “special guest” by the likes of Kathleen Edwards, the Constantines, Royal City, the Hidden Cameras, Broken Social Scene, the Weakerthans, Blue Rodeo, Gord Downie, Nick Cave, and Billy Corgan’s band Zwan.
Cuff The Duke experienced their first full-fledged tour when they joined the Sadies through Western Canada in the Spring of 2003. Directly after their return, Matt Faris, an unknown mystery man from Guelph, was recruited as Brad Fudge’s replacement on drums. In October of ’03 they toured Canada with Sloan and then began to concentrate on the writing and recording of their sophomore album.
A highlight of 2004 was joining Hayden as his opening act, AND back-up band (The Elk-Lake Serenaders) for several months of live engagements in the USA and Canada. 2004 and early 2005 however, over 100 live shows aside, was primarily dedicated to the new album…self-titled and scheduled for release on July 26th on Hayden’s Hardwood imprint, distributed and marketed in Canada by Universal.
Source: http://www.paquinentertainment.com/bio_print.asp?ID=21
