Dust Cwaine’s latest single, “Twin Lakes,” the title track from their upcoming album, is a beast. After the upbeat T4T synth-pop vibes of “Little Plans,” they’ve swung hard in the opposite direction, serving up some seriously introspective rock that’s gutsy and still mesmerising.
Dust co-wrote this one with producer Josh Eastman (you might know his work with Kylie V and Turunesh), and they’ve built “Twin Lakes” on this killer lo-fi foundation. Eastman’s production is pure genius, creating a beat that, as Dust puts it, “echoed through the chest.” The rhythm pounds like a nervous heartbeat, and it’s the perfect match for what the song’s really about—that crushing feeling of being alone with your complicated grief. You know that feeling of sitting by yourself next to a lake, battling your demons? Yeah, the production makes you live every single second of it.
This track rips straight into Dust’s personal history—we’re talking about their rural childhood in the Kootenays, in a spot locals call Twin Lakes. The song tackles that brutal double-whammy of growing up in the middle of nowhere while feeling like you don’t belong with anyone around you. And if that wasn’t heavy enough, their dad passed suddenly in 2020. “Twin Lakes” is the sound of catharsis; it’s where Dust imagines finally calling out a parent for old wounds. But here’s the thing: this isn’t a pity party. It’s a fierce act of healing, burning and Dust’s raw voice powers the whole track, mixing moody pop-rock vibes with that confessional punch that’s become their thing.
The power of the song is amplified by its stark, striking music video, directed by Luke Beach Brown and filmed at the Britannia Mine Museum. The choice of an industrial backdrop brilliantly adds this gritty, visual poetry that perfectly matches the song’s weight. This is music with purpose—honest, gripping, and transformative. It marks the powerful beginning of an album-long journey back to the place that shaped them, and if this single is any indication, that journey is one you won’t want to miss. “Twin Lakes” is available now on all major streaming platforms.
As a fixture in the Vancouver drag and music scenes for nearly a decade, Dust Cwaine has made a unique style they call “nostalgia pop-rock navel gaze.” With “Twin Lakes,” they have perfected it.