
Jaena Velten
3 Feb 2025
In his debut album, Toronto-based singer-songwriter Dylan Sinclair touches on his Filipino roots and weaves them with 90’s R&B nostalgia. ‘FOR THE BOY IN ME’ contains 12 tracks and plays like a collection of soulful love letters blended with vulnerable melodies – letters to old lovers, to new ones, and to life itself.
Born in Toronto and of Filipino-Guyanese heritage, Sinclair often reminisces on early memories of singing karaoke with his family as being the main inspiration behind his artistry. In an interview with F Word Magazine, he linked his creative process directly to the feeling of belting out bridges and singing along to R&B legends as a family ritual. “Even down to the way I write my songs,” he reveals, “I’m very mindful of that karaoke experience.”
With a musical father, grandfather and uncle, Sinclair’s ability to keep his finger on the pulse of contemporary soul music can only be explained by having been immersed in it his whole life. In an age where artist management has turned into a competition of who can release the most TikTok viral catchy soundbites first, the achievement of Sinclair’s album is in its slow pace. As the artist himself intended, the record is like “a brain or heart massage”.
The album was crafted around the song “Golden”; a track he wrote on a friend-getaway in Fort Erie according to ColorBloc Magazine. Drawing inspiration from Usher’s storytelling and vocals, alongside his love for the Y2K/R&B era, Sinclair channeled old school soul-musician excellence to tell a tender story to his modern audience. In the album, he explores themes that listeners may or may not relate to (e.g missing one’s ex and reflecting on who we become when we fall in love) but it doesn’t really feel like the relatability of his tales even matter. The tracks are so unapologetically vulnerable, touching on moments and emotional experiences that often go entirely unspoken, that the album feels both deeply personal and universally important. This is precisely what makes it so heart wrenching and special.
Some personal standout tracks include: IMY, NARCISSIST?, FOREVER and GOLDEN. According to CBC, Sinclair notes that LEMON TREES was a fresh and nostalgic gateway into the album that was years in the making – “I get to really sing my ass off on that one.”
Whereas hit songs often play like fiery explosions of extremes, whether that be in romance, revenge or rising up the ranks, Sinclair’s ‘FOR THE BOY IN ME’ identifies, isolates and nurtures the mundane, and deeply personal; turning them into a form of creative expression that starts from inside the artist. Whichever direction the JUNO Award-winning artist intends to take us next will have one thing that remains certain: this album was made for (and by) the boy in him.
Edited by Romy Brill Allen