Jake Vaadeland takes home the 2025 Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year on March 30 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver for Retro Man… More and More (Expanded Edition) — a project rooted in rebellion, warmth and honesty. (photo/ The JUNO Award)

By Kenneth Cheung

LOCAL TALENT

‘Retro Man’ finds his way: Jake Vaadeland reflects on humble roots and JUNO win

Apr 2, 2025 | 5:24 PM

When Jake Vaadeland decided to trade the classroom for the road, he was met with more skepticism than support.

“I had quit public school and started schooling myself,” he said. “And instead of doing school work for the majority of the mornings, I was writing those songs about my experience with school.”

“A lot of the naysayers and people telling me to make sure I focused on school and not music and made sure I had the opportunity to go to university afterwards and then [said] I throw away my chance and just hit the road instead and become a slacker like that,” he added.

That unlikely path led the retro country artist to Canada’s biggest music stage.

Vaadeland took home the 2025 Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year on March 30 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver for Retro Man… More and More (Expanded Edition) — a project rooted in rebellion, warmth and honesty.

tariff buzz

Tariffs, low prices put squeeze on Sask. honey producers

3h ago

Politics

Saskatchewan and Canada still at risk from tariffs, not much being done from Sask Party: NDP

16h ago

Rural Camp Series

Saskatchewan Selects shine spotlight on smaller communities

16h ago

“I was the most surprised I’ve ever been, or the most excited, I should say, that I’ve ever been,” he said. “That’s the biggest award we’ve gotten. One of the biggest that we can get that I know of.”

The Juno Awards, presented annually by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), are Canada’s premier music honours, recognizing exceptional achievements across genres. Since their founding in 1971, they’ve evolved into a national celebration of Canadian talent.

Raised in Cut Knife, Vaadeland said he felt his hometown cheering him on.

“We had a lot of people rooting for us back here in my town of Cut Knife… and all the surrounding,” he said.

Vaadeland said when his name was called to the stage, instinct kicked in.

“I was surprised, but I am an entertainer at heart, so I immediately switched into entertainment mode and at that point my goal was to get up on that stage and accept it and make the best speech possible,” he said.

“I did everything at that moment to contain my excitement and focus more on making sure that that dead air didn’t happen and that my speech went over well.”

While many albums are recorded in state-of-the-art studios, Retro Man came together in basements, bed and breakfasts, and hotel rooms while Vaadeland was on the road — and that, he says, is what gave it its character.

“That’s just the way things were recorded back then,” he said. “And that’s the album that ended up getting a JUNO.”

He believes the album stood out because of its simplicity and honesty.

“It makes for a much warmer sound, a much more natural sound, and just very real down-to-earth music,” he said. “You can make some mistakes, but that’s OK because they’re not mistakes — it’s part of what people want to listen to and it adds extra feeling and emotion.”

The title track, Retro Man, was born out of being mocked for his throwback style.

“It’s just my confidence to continue to do that even though people were making me feel like quite a weird person dressing the way that humans have been dressing way longer than we’ve been dressing the way that we dress now,” he said.

Other tracks, like House and Pool, push back on the idea of a conventional life.

“I’d rather starve to death than go to school to be able to get a house and a pool and then by the time I retire… I’d probably end up having heart failure, so I won’t be able to use the pool anyway,” he said.

As recognition grows, Vaadeland is also making waves as a semi-finalist in the SiriusXM Top of the Country competition — and he’s encouraging fellow Saskatchewanians to cast their votes. (click here)

Read more – Jake Vaadeland represents Sask. in SiriusXM’s Top of the Country semi-finals

“That is a big deal. It would help us out a lot with the reach that we have and our ability to get more of our music onto the radio,” he said. “Better partnership with SiriusXM and really be able to get out more and bring our music to more audiences that really want to hear us.”

And for young artists considering a similar path, he offers simple and sincere advice.

“I hope I can really encourage a lot of other young people to really find what they like to do and what makes them happy and how they can be confident and really just stick to that and go for it.”

—

Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com