Toronto-based singer, songwriter, guitar & piano player, and producer who just received his first gold record. He has had many notable collaborations in addition to his own catalogue of music. He has also composed music for film projects and at one point in his career even was the front man for a rock band. He is currently recording new music, which will be released during 2021, and is also opening a new recording studio this year. He also spent four years living in Los Angeles.
"I do compose for film, so, it's nice to kind of experiment with things that aren't necessarily just always about reality."
"I've taught piano as well and normally most piano teachers don't take students until at least around six years old, just also 'cause their hands are so small too and just the physical requirements of playing piano. But, my parents, it was just before my fourth birthday and they brought me to a school and they said, 'Look, can you just try him out? ... If he sits there and he's disciplined enough, let's keep him in it'."
"You go through the stages of loving music and also hating the practicing."
"My parents were a little hard, I guess, compared to some parents. In the summers I was practicing up to six hours a day."
"I had a bunch of people in the industry saying, 'Oh, you need to find, like, your kind of niche, 'cause you're kind of all over the place.' And I never agreed with that, that statement. Because of my upbringing I've always listened to so many different styles of music and life has led me to work with so many different genres of music in different capacities."
"I had gone down to Nashville and I had gone out to L.A. as well and I just, I don't know, there was something that told me I need to just kind of break out and expand out."
"We basically wrote the basis of the song with Kai, and then somewhere down the line it was, like, through her label there was the opportunity to pass it along to Diplo, who basically took that song and kind of made it part of his own and his style and genre."
"With this whole pandemic it's kind of hard to gauge when I can get back on stage and to actually kind of play a lot of these songs so I'm leaning towards just kind of releasing a few singles. And over here, as of right now, we're pretty much on a lockdown, so even just trying to record a music video or do any sort of collaborative work has been difficult."
"There are songs that sometimes I just have an idea as a voice note on the phone and then all of a sudden I feel inspired to just kind of finish it and things just come really quickly, the recording happens really quickly. Other stuff I'm just unsure about how to kind of tackle it, especially sometimes when it comes to production, just 'cause I have so many ideas all at once as well as I'm working on other people's projects too."
"One of the other larger collaborations was, I worked on the arrangement for... when Miley Cyrus did an unplugged show with MTV and she had Madonna as a guest... Basically, the two songs that they sing, I was involved in creating that mashup and the arrangement for that."
"She Made Me Do It"
"Till the Day I Die"