10 Things We Love about Dylan Sinclair

JUNO Award-winning singer-songwriter Dylan Sinclair caught up with New Wave Magazine in the leadup to the release of his anticipated debut album FOR THE BOY IN ME, releasing September 27th.  The album reflects on the 23-year old’s upbringing, considers his musical background rooted in the church, explores his Guyanese-Filipino roots, all while blending the sounds of his various musical influences - mixtures of R&B, rap, and gospel from the 90’s and early 2000’s - with the distinctive sounds from Toronto, his home city, to create an eclectic and memorable debut.  “In a world where men are not encouraged to be vulnerable, FOR THE BOY IN ME disregards that, choosing to tell it like it is.”  

FOR THE BOY IN ME  is a 12- track record executive produced by Five Stone Records alongside co-founder, producer and manager Jordon Manswell, who also led production on previous EPs Proverb (2020)  and No Longer in The Suburbs (2022).  After giving a glimpse into the evolving musical world the independent artist has sonically crafted with his  lead singles  ‘LEMON TREES’ , ‘I LO<3 MY EX’, and ' FOREVER’,  the Toronto-based artist unveils nine more songs that complete the record, cementing his place as one of the most promising up-and-coming voices in the industry. Set against a backdrop of striking architectural visuals, this is a cohesive record that guides us gently through growing pains, adolescent trials, and childhood nostalgia. 

To get to where he’s headed, Dylan Sinclair first considers where he’s from. With a renewed confidence surrounding his craft that has rooted him deeper into his journey of artistry, his first full-length creative output is an audible representation of the spiritual and emotional transformation from boy to man. As Sinclair’s sights expand onto new horizons, the foundation for his promising future established, he stands in full confidence, eager to embrace what lies ahead with the same dedication and zeal that has led him thus far. 

We love the run of projects you've put out so far.

We’re two years removed from No longer in the Suburbs - what space have you been in musically, and what’s the timeline span that these songs were created in? 

I’m in a headspace where I want to continue to expand my artistry - I’m making a lot more music. Before, I was going through the process of growing up and creating music from that - now, I feel more dedicated and serious about my craft - that’s how I’ve approached my day to day during this time. 

It really is during the past two years that the album has been created  -  there are  a couple songs that I had made right when NLITS had come out, ‘NARCISSIST’ being one of them. ‘LEMON TREES’ too.  

We love the title of this album.

Talk to me through the reason you named your first album- For the Boy in Me’

I was writing the project, it was just me and my team in the studio, talking about the feelings I was channelling, where I'm coming from, and who I'm writing for. From there, the title kind of rolled off the tongue. I was coming from a very youthful and playful space - there were a lot of feelings of nostalgia I felt at the time.  As I went on tour, I started to feel closer to myself and I wanted the music to reflect that - it’s an ode to the younger me, and his voice. An ode for me to continue to articulate myself as best as I can, especially lyrically. I made these songs by being as honest as possible and saying what I’d usually be uncomfortable saying - and yet finding a way to say those things regardless.

We love your vast creativity.

It’s fair to say you took more of an alternative r&b approach with your lead singles ‘LEMON TREES’ and ‘I L0<3 MY EX’.  Were you tapped into artists who are different from your usual influences and inspirations ?

Definitely. I’m always trying to experiment and do something exciting. When I wrote those songs, I was definitely in that headspace of experimentation - I was listening to a lot of rap music - I’m very much influenced by that Timbaland,  Pharrell, and Neptunes sound, and that will always come out in what I do. 

There's times that I want to put on my R&B cap and be like, ‘Okay - I’m going all the way there’. People can call it whatever they want, but my influences are very broad - I listen to a wide array of genres for songs like ‘I LO<3 MY EX’ and ‘LEMON TREES' to happen.

We love the way you value your creative process. 

On GOLDEN, you talk about being far from home - I know you recorded this project across a few locations - LA, Toronto, New York, and the Muskokas as well - how important is location to your creative process ?

Very, very important. I wanted to travel and see the world, because as I continue to grow up I realise how crucial that is in the journey of self discovery. Gaining more context and more experience is what allows you to grow into a wiser self. There were times I was travelling and not even necessarily making music, but just writing a lot. That song (‘GOLDEN’) specifically, is very personal to me. I went on tour, I was away from home and getting homesick - with going on tour, there's the excitement of  exploration and being away from home, and there’s also those times where you feel a little homesick. That kind of makes things hit closer to home, and it’s something I feel pretty often. 

We love the production on this album.

This album to me feels so cohesive, it feels like a journey, we have more upbeat tracks that we have just spoken about, then we have interludes, and then the gospel-tinged tracks as well. In terms of how you wanted the album to feel, how did you achieve that with pairing up each song with the right production ?

I think after going on tour and seeing what can translate from a studio recording into a live setting, I became very mindful of the ballads and range of different tempos and and energies that can exist throughout an album. An introduction track like ‘SWEET LIFE’ leading into ‘LEMON TREES’  - those tracks are more like bops. Everyone wants to go to a show and have a good time, but then there's also those very intimate moments where I want to showcase my vocals and let people meditate on what it is that I’m saying, or what I've been through. Maybe it's relatable to someone that's listening and their personal experience. I’m very big on range, and having both of those moments. 

Similar to growing up in church, you have the offering song, where there's more energy, and then you have the prayer song where it’s time to meditate, and internalise what you’re hearing. Then you have the processional at the end of the service, which is more about celebration and entering the week full of energy. 

Although that’s not how I ended my album, I think having those different moments throughout a project and not making it feel too all over the place is crucial production-wise.  I can be very much of a perfectionist when it comes to  production and order, so my team and I have to draw a line at a certain point and be like “Okay, this is it - we’ve got what we wanted.” That’s why I’m so grateful for my team because they tell me when to chill - as an artist it’s so easy to run in circles with the idea of perfecting a song. With this being my first album,  I really did my best to make it feel exactly like what I wanted it to be, and I feel like we got there in the end.

I know the album creation process is not straightforward or streamlined.

Was it hard to narrow things down, do you think your team helped hold you down with that?

I made a lot of songs to get to these twelve,  and a lot of tough conversations took place concerning which ones to include. There were certain songs where I thought, ‘Do I really want to share this with the people?’  I would think it’s a beautiful song - but it'd be so intimate and so vulnerable.  In the end I thought, ‘No, we’re going there. My team definitely had conversations with me which gave me the confidence to share those sides of myself, and even so, we were all pretty much in agreement -  When you know the project is done, you know. 

We love how a few of the songs on this record have got two parts to them.

(BACK TO MAKIN' LOVE, NARCISSIST, FOREVER ) At the end we have these pockets of time where there’s a switch in production - is that you exploring your breadth of sound as an artist, or is it just going off the hook in the moment?

To be honest, that’s us just having fun in the studio. ‘NARCISSIST’ and ‘FOREVER’ were both just the first part for a long time before they became the version you hear on the album. I also started dabbling in production in my room by myself a lot more at that time. 

I remember when I did ‘FOREVER’, I was in my room and I wanted a key change that went into ‘GOLDEN’ nicely. I played around, and that was like the first beat I made by myself. Then Jordon (Manswell) said, “Oh wow, we need this.” He polished it up a little bit and then we used it on the track, just like that. 

With ‘NARCISSIST’, a jam session piano moment we had in the studio turned into a whole second part of the song. 

I  love a two part song - the first song I ever made in 2017 was a 6 minute song -  I couldn’t commit to a certain vibe, and it was a similar situation where it started off with a bit of a bop to it, and turned into a ballad. 

I love moments where there's like an album within a single song, and I really love that we did that multiple times on this project . 

We Love the visuals on this album and how simplistic, yet striking they are.

What's the story behind the album cover, and your visualiser for LEMON TREES? Were you inspired by something specific, or were visuals something you came up with yourself? 

The creative direction was done by a good friend of mine, Ryan Fanseda from FANG. (a design and production house based in Toronto.)  We’ve worked on a lot of videos in the past together, ‘Black Creek Drive’, ‘Pleasure’, ‘Open’,  and ‘Open - Remix’ -  pretty much every video since ‘Black Creek Drive’.  I really enjoy working with him every time, and this time around, I gave him the role of leading the creative direction.

 He recently graduated from Waterloo University with a degree in Architecture. With his architectural background, we were both very keen on and agreed that we’d take the ‘less is more’ approach, and considering the music on this album is very full and playful - we wanted to explore that juxtaposition visually. 

So we created this set -  it’s a stage, or its’ a wall, it's whatever you want it to be. I love the world that it created itself, its own kind of universe.  It’s a set of visuals that you would look at and wonder - ‘how did this happen?’ 

I’ve always been intrigued by architecture, and my love for it has only grown over the years. The way that our minds can be so 4D, and think and process things in layers was something I wanted to delve into visually, so I was really happy with the result of those visuals. 

We love your love for your city, Toronto, and how you stay grounded no matter where you are.

It’s such a proactive place pushing out so much talent. Obviously we have yourself, Charlotte Day wilson, Savannah Ré who you've collaborated with,  Jessie Reyez, Jon Vinyl, and then obviously DRAKE and PARTYNEXTDOOR, amongst others.  How does it feel to be a part of a city that's pushing out so much talent on a regular basis, and where do you think you fit in the midst of that? 

There's a lot of talent coming from my city for sure. In terms of where I fit in, I kind of just do me, as a lot of us do. I think that's a Toronto artist thing - everyone is in their own lane, and there's very little conformity happening.

A lot of my favourite artists are from Toronto as well, and I think the quality of our artistry has to do with those long cold winter  months we go through where we spend a lot of time inside -  you’re by yourself, and you really get to think through things alone.

Sitting with yourself like that does something to develop your artistry - I think it really allows you to figure out who you are while set apart, rather than trying to conform to something while existing within a bunch of noise. That's the beautiful thing about the artists from my city.

MK: We definitely have that in London as well, the long winter months…

DS: Yes, yes, and your artists are just like that as well. I’m just a big believer in niche over mainstream - not that there’s anything wrong with mainstream, but I love when an artist can carve out their own lane and move up that way, and that's always a very beautiful journey to witness. 

We love your insistence on collaboration.

You’ve kept a tight team around you throughout your career. How important was the art of collaboration on this album - I think I hear Rowena Fysyx on some ad libs as well? 

Rowena Fysyx is on the album, yes - There's also a new artist on there, Jules Castro.  She's put out a couple of songs, but I had both of them do some background vocals, along with another artist who hasn't put herself out yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing her doing her thing as well. 

It’s three of those talented singers on the background vocals, for ‘BACK TO MAKIN’ LOVE’, ‘LEMON TREES’, and ‘NARCISSIST’. 

Collaboration was very important for me on this album, and it was actually also important for me to keep it very tight, so I could establish a sound, considering this is my first full length album.  I also still had fun with it, but I believe in cohesion on a project. I want to feel free, knowing that it's going to feel like one thing when it's all done.

As well as those three talented singers, my main collaborators were  Jordon Manswell, Bryan Allen, Zachary Simmonds, and Ace-G, who’s a monster production wise. Those four have been main collaborators amongst others throughout my other projects as well, but we kept it even tighter this time around. 

We love your attributing your family as being influential to your artistry.

When I think of this title for the album, FOR THE BOY IN ME - what comes to mind is the saying, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. You’ve mentioned how figures like your Father and grandfather have been integral in your upbringing and in your artistry as well. When you see the boy in you, do you see them as well? 

Oh, one hundred percent. I can’t not give credit to them.  My Dad gives me pointers with my music all the time. I'm so heavily influenced by what he has to say, and his voice is one I genuinely care about. Every once in a while, he’ll pat me on the back and be like,  ‘good job man’, which means a lot. 

I played him a couple songs off the album, especially the ones I knew he’d like. He heard ‘FOREVER’ and he was just like ‘wow’. 

We love how FOR THE BOY IN ME promotes and normalises vulnerability being expressed by men.

Are you doing this in the hope that you speaking to your younger self will ensure that the boy in you stays true to himself?

Absolutely. Naturally, through getting older,  I’ve always experienced those growing pains, which flow into the music naturally and come out when I get on the mic. As much as I do it for the boy in me, I also approach things that way because it’s the dynamic that I have with the people close to me in my life, and I do it for them too. They always encourage the value of me saying these things and being vulnerable as a young male artist. It makes them feel heard and seen, and I’ve always known that that's what they need from me, so in service to that, I’ll continue to approach my music in that way. 

You've been doing this since you were 15,  but you’ve achieved a lot more in your short time than a lot of people can say they have - 100 million streams, a Juno award, your own headline shows - what would younger Dylan think if he saw you now? 

Wow … he'd be like - "crazy."

Though I’ve got a lot more to accomplish, I’ve always been very ambitious and passionate about whatever it is that I'm doing.

Before, it was sports, or the word of God. Now, it's music, artistry, and creativity that I'm standing firmly in. I always think about my younger self and how I can be a role model to him and his voice, and I’ll carry on doing so. 

We love how you want to make classics and not just hits.

As well as wanting this album to establish its own place in history, what’s next for you in your journey of artistry ? 

I want to establish myself as a performer, and get those performance reps - going on to doing more shows is a huge thing for me. I think the live aspect of what I do is my favourite part of it, the connecting with the people, because I'm not a huge social media person and there's always been the pressure from certain voices for artists to do more of that.

I want to explore that in my own way, but connecting in real life is so major to me - it’s  such a big part of what I do.

I want to release more music - my confidence in the studio has gone up quite a bit since making this project. I feel more articulate, established, and creative.

Shoutout to Matt Bernett and my band -  he does a great job of arranging live sets, and we go back and forth with what we want the finished product to be, even with visuals, and down to the feel that the live aspect gives. Everything in a live show needs to be a part of its own world. I want to pull you in, out of  your personal stuff and whatever you're going through, and take you into this experience of what I do, so I'm glad that translates. 

All in all, I'm just trying to master the art of life, and keep going. 

FOR THE BOY IN ME is out now on all streaming platforms - take a listen below :