Daniel Caesar
photo: raph_ph · cc by 2.0 ↗Ashton Simmonds, who records as Daniel Caesar, grew up in Oshawa, Ontario, singing in his father's Seventh-day Adventist congregation before leaving home as a teenager to pursue secular music in Toronto. His self-released EPs and the 2017 debut album 'Freudian' fused hushed, guitar-led bedroom R&B with the choral harmonies and devotional feeling of the gospel he was raised on, yielding the breakout single 'Get You' and the Grammy-winning duet 'Best Part.' His intimate, unhurried take on soul made him one of the defining voices of late-2010s alternative R&B.
Caesar has named Stevie Wonder among his influences and has said he grew up hearing Wonder's records at home. The debt turns up in his warm, chord-rich romantic soul, where he leans on lush, jazzy voicings and stacked harmony vocals rather than a heavy beat.
listen forPut on Wonder's 'Knocks Me Off My Feet' and sit with its tender, gliding piano-and-voice devotion, then cue Caesar's 'Get You' — hear the same unhurried, harmony-stacked adoration, a love song built on softness rather than force.
Caesar has cited Frank Ocean as an influence, and the kinship is audible in his sparse, guitar-and-space arrangements and the way he lets a soft falsetto drift over a nearly empty track, prizing atmosphere and confession over polish.
listen forThrow on Ocean's 'Thinkin Bout You' and notice how the falsetto floats above that hazy, minimal backing, then play Caesar's 'Japanese Denim' — the same weightless, reverb-soaked guitar mood and vulnerable head-voice ache.
Caesar has named Kanye West among his influences, and it surfaces most in his willingness to fold full gospel-choir arrangements into secular R&B — the sacred-meets-personal ambition West chased on his gospel-leaning material.
listen forCue West's 'Ultralight Beam,' with its organ hush swelling into a massed gospel choir, then play the back half of Caesar's 'We Find Love' — the arrangement lifts an intimate breakup ballad into choral, gospel-tinged catharsis the same way.