Daniel Caesar

“My mom would say I'm a good kid... but I put them through a lot. I was rejecting religion and, not permanently, also kind of rejecting the things that they'd taught me, and just trying to think for myself.”

“There were songs that we cut out after we chose the name, because 'Praise Break' turned out to be an underlying concept that I didn't know was there.”

“Before I moved to the city I spent every Saturday sitting in church wishing I could be living on my own, doing what I wanted.”

“We had some Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross, but there's a lot of hip-hop and other black music that I just never grew up on. My parents didn't listen to anything other than black gospel.”

“I ended up having to leave home to make the music I wanted to make, and to find myself. As cliche as that sounds; I like to think I'm getting closer.”

“Female energy is very comforting and beautiful.”

“I'm transitioning from being a starving artist. My producers had success outside of the Daniel Caesar brand, so they invested money, time and resources. They funded the first video, and a lot of other things that I'm so thankful for.”

“Love songs are kind of like hymns if you think about it. Gospel songs are basically songs of adoration about God, or whatever you want to call Him.”

“I think every religion is founded with good intentions, but with any good thing, there's a negative use for it.”

“Pseudo' was about, how after moving to Toronto I saw a lot of inauthenticity. A lot of fake people that aren't about having real moments. Real conversations.”

“Pulp Fiction's insane. I haven't watched it in so long because there was a time where I would watch it like 30 times in a row.”

“Although I have my sights set globally, I'm from Canada.”

“I want to have a catalogue or a share in a company. I'm trying to take my family's name from lower-middle class to aristocracy. I have my sights set high.”

“I can do what I want, when I want. I want to go to this place, I pick up and go. It's nice. I've just never been inclined to do anything that's too crazy. But I still have to work, you know. Some days I don't feel like going to the studio. But I still have to.”

“You can't reminisce too much. Because you've got to keep pushing forward, you know?”

“The first song I ever wrote was in grade eight.”

“Real power is being able to take care of yourself. My job is to make art, but I aspire to do more than that.”

“I sing to myself more than anything. I'm always chastising myself, telling myself to be better, or comforting myself.”

“Being from Canada, we're in a unique position to fund the music and then, because we own the masters, reinvest the profits,” he explains. “I live still very modestly and I spend a lot of time living at my managers' houses. We all believed in it, but I've had a lot of help.”

“There are a lot of things that are part of the music business that I'm very bad at. Organization, being on time - the stuff you need in order to function in the regular world.”