As a homegrown Mission-original band, Alex Rake and the Leaves have been hammering out folksongs for the enjoyment of the Fraser Valley punk scene as well as for fellow campers at the Mission Folk Festival. Since the first days of their formation, Alex Rake and the Leaves draw from a multitude of inspirations, such as Neutral Milk Hotel and Bob Dylan in the midst of a divorce. After the release of their last album in 2019, the band has been gripped by challenges of illness, worldwide pandemics, and everything else in the kitchen sink that life could throw at them. Now, as Alex Rake and the Leaves make their comeback after 3 years of silence, they are incredibly excited to return to the Mission Folk Music Festival to share their new songs from an older, wiser perspective. A weirder, louder one, too.