Myles Lloyd — Canada’s hottest R&B artist picking apart life with pure honesty

There must be something in the water in Canada. Its repertoire of musicians who go on to dominate the charts grows year on year. In recent decades, the country has become not only famous for ice hockey, breathtaking views, cold weather and maple syrup, it’s also now bejewelled by names like Justin Bieber, Jodi Mitchell, Drake, The Weeknd, Celine Dion and Grimes. 

And soon, Myles Lloyd will be another name to add to that list. 

The 24-year-old musician joins me on Zoom from his bedroom — a framed picture on the wall behind of his 4-year-old self in full ice hockey gear. His face is hidden slightly by his cap as he talks about how he keeps busy in his hometown. Myles says he spends most of his time snowboarding or getting coffee with friends. Even though his love of sport is already more present in our conversation than music, it’s little more than a hobby — it’s creating irresistible, mellifluous sounds that Myles does best. Plus, sport was never really his dream.

“I was always into sports. I think it was making my parents happier than me. I remember singing and watching all these videos like, man, I could do this. But I never really pulled the trigger,” the musician says. 

Myles’ latest release, Forever, Yours — an eight track project that does justice to all of the musician’s inspirations —  is the latest addition to his discography; a body of work that has already seen the artist reach international acclaim and generate excitement that goes beyond the border.  

Forever, Yours wears its influences, like The Weeknd and Michael Jackson, firmly on its sleeve. The sentiments behind the tracks, notably the realisation that you cannot ever fully let go of the past (an almost backtrack on his previous project Goodbye), come through between the punchy sounds that Myles is becoming famous for.

“When I’m writing, I put myself in weird states. I put myself in the future. I feel like I’m really there,” Myles explains. “I don’t know if it’s a problem that I have… a lot of my songs are ‘I hope this doesn’t happen’ or ‘I know you think I’m like this but I’m not’ — it’s me foreshadowing and getting in my own head about a lot of stuff. If you listen to the songs, it’s always about the future. It’s like a fear. I fear this stuff will happen.” 

HUNGER sat down with Myles Lloyd on a snowy day in Canada to discuss Forever, Yours, letting go of the past, and why he swapped sport for music…

Growing up, who were your inspirations?

It was weird, because in the house it was a lot of Prince, Elvis, Michael Jackson. My dad got me one of those little iPods. It already had all of the songs on it. I remember that it was a bunch of Usher, One Twelve, a lot of Michael Jackson.  A bunch of R&B in there. I would listen everyday. 

So did a lot of what you listened to come from your dad? 

He was a dancer. He used to do hip hop dancing. I think a lot of the rhythm came from my dad. My mum hates to hear that. 

Haitian music has been a big thing for you too, right? 

Yeah, Haitian music is groovy. It gets you up and moving. That’s the part of music I like. No matter what music you like, you can listen to Haitian music and just start feeling it. That’s what I like. Even if you don’t like the song. 

What aspects of Haitian music do you pick apart and try to incorporate into your own work? 

I think a part of all the music I really like, I take the melody. It keeps your brain moving, so you don’t get bored. I hate getting bored listening to a song. 

What was your first ever memory of good music? 

I used to have this Michael Jackson VHS and I would watch that movie over and over. I think it was like an hour, two hours long. I would be singing to the TV, changing my clothes to match what he’s wearing, copying his dance moves. I was probably around eight or nine. 

What were your ambitions when you were just starting out?

I don’t think it was anything. It was just to have fun, to have that thrill again that I had in sports and try something new. Waking up, I couldn’t wait to go make a song. Playing sports, I couldn’t wait to go and play the game. 

Does it feel like you’re achieving your ambitions? 

Yeah, I’m just having fun. But now the competitive side comes in a little bit — trying to be the best. I don’t know if that will take away from the fun in the long run, but right now, I’m still having fun.

A lot of good artists come from Canada. Has that added to the pressure or has it just been more inspiring? 

Way more inspiring. It’s weird actually. You look at the charts and stuff and it’s all Canadian. Me looking at that, I’m like, we can really do this. 

You explore a range of genres in your music. What do you like to pick apart from other genres and bring to your own? 

It’s the feeling. When I’m in the car, shuffling through random playlists, if I get a feeling, then I go back and talk to my engineer and producers and say ‘when this happened at this time in this song, I felt so good. So let’s replicate that feeling. Maybe get the same BPM and the same key.’ I do that a lot. 

Do you normally feel like you achieve that? Do you think that feeling is something that truly can be achieved through something like adjusting a song’s BPM? 

I think there’s no right or wrong. Everything works. Sometimes the best way is not even thinking. I’ll go into the studio and be like, ‘I want this, I want this, I want this’, and it just doesn’t work. I’ll make a whole new thing, without thinking, and that becomes amazing. Music is… You do what you do. 

 I understand that for Goodbye you wanted to leave the past behind. What was it that you wanted to move on from? 

Just the negative people, negative energy, past relationships — everything that was clouding my mind in the past, I just made a song about that. But with this project, I try not to talk about anything in the past, but it’s more that you can’t forget about it. That’s why I named it Forever, Yours — you can’t just live through moments and then expect to erase them from your mind. I say Goodbye first, but I’m, Forever, Yours. 

Is Forever, Yours kind of a backtrack on your previous opinions of how you should think about the past? 

For sure. It’s telling myself it’s alright, just live through it and move on. Keep on pushing. 

Is stuff you write normally centered around love or breakups or friendships…? 

All of it. It’s just being honest. Everything that happens in my life. I put it right in. I leave nothing out. Even for my next project, they’re all just what happened in my real life. 

Is that sometimes quite difficult to face – writing from this place of constant honesty? 

I think it’s easier when you’re honest. If I was trying to make up a lot of stuff, I think I’d have some trouble. Being honest, it flows. It just happens. To make it easier, I talk to the person I’m with in the studio about the situation and then we kind of just break it down and then put it out. Nothing really makes sense at first, and then I talk about it. 

In light of that, do you find yourself writing from a place of sadness or happiness?

I think I get happy once I make a song that’s sad. I feel like no one really makes happy music. When I’m happy, I just live through the happiness. When I’m sad, I write about it. Maybe one day I’ll write about being happy. But when I’m happy, I live in the present, but when I’m sad I go back and reflect, put it in a song and get it out.

Who is it that you’re talking about when you say they bring out the monster in you? 

I leave it open to interpretation. ‘You bring out the monster in me’… it wasn’t more of a negative thing. It was more, ‘you bring out who I really am’. If that’s negative to you, then alright, but you bring out the monster in me. 

Myles Lloyd’s latest album, Forever, Yours is out now…