Just
a year-and-a-half after his first-ever concert , Daniel Caesar played five sold-out nights at Toronto ’ s 1,500-capacity Danforth Music Hall . That , quite frankly , is unbelievable . It was a fitting end to 2017 , which , for Caesar , was a year like few Canadian artists have seen .
Caesar is , without doubt , Toronto ’ s new superstar , following in the footsteps of Drake and The Weeknd . In April 2017 , the 22-year-old native of Oshawa , ON , released his debut LP , the hauntingly beautiful neo-soul record Freudian , which reached the Billboard top 25 in both the U . S . and Canada . That was followed by a sold-out American club tour , a hit collaboration with hip-hop star Chance the Rapper , appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Late Late Show With James Corden , and two Grammy Award nominations , including Best R & B Album . Along the way , he earned praise from the likes of Stevie Wonder , Chris Martin , Mary J . Blige , and Rick Rubin . Caesar ’ s heavenly voice , vulnerable songwriting , and subdued guitar playing made even Barack Obama swoon ; the former president listed the Chance collaboration “ First World Problems ” and Freudian track “ Blessed ” among his favourite songs of the year .
As Caesar passed one milestone after another in 2017 , it almost felt like the triumphant act in the script of a Hollywood biopic . Life was not so celebratory for the young artist only a few years earlier . Raised in a deeply religious household of Seventh Day Adventists , Caesar was kicked out of his home as teenager , moved to Toronto , worked dead-end jobs , and lived nearly-homeless , sleeping on friends ’ couches and park benches while finding hope and relief in music . So it ’ s almost odd that by December , given his meteoric rise in the preceding months , selling out five nights at The Danforth didn ’ t even seem surprising . These shows were a homecoming and Caesar was returning as the conquering hero .
“ I did Danny ’ s first show at the Mod Club in [ April ] 2016 ,” recalls Cam McLellan , Caesar ’ s FOH engineer . “ I got a text from Riley Bell , who mixed , engineered , and mastered the album , and I worked with him at Revolution [ Recording ] on Protest the Hero ’ s Volition . Riley was the assistant engineer and then , when he started working with Danny , he said , ‘ I need a front of house guy and it ’ s this guy , Daniel Caesar , and it ’ s his first show ever and it ’ s sold out .’ I was like , ‘ How the hell do you do that ? How do you sell out your first show ?’ So I signed up , I did the Mod Club , the guys were happy with me , and a year-and-ahalf later , I ’ m still here .”
It was an extremely fortunate break for McLellan , being brought in on the ground floor of a soon-to-be superstar ’ s career , particularly considering most of his professional work at the time was studio-based and as a musician . “ Just a year-and-a-half ago – it ’ s wild ,” McLellan marvels , looking at the trajectory of Caesar ’ s – and therefore his own – career from that first show to now .
“ When Cam contacted me about [ the Danforth shows ], he was on the U . S . tour … and there was serious buzz ,” adds monitor engineer Mike Rowland , whose credits include runs with Marianas Trench , AFI , and Theory of a Deadman . “ Cam would tell me , ‘ Yup , just sold out another show ,’ and that kind of thing . He ’ s been going nowhere but up .”
As the Danforth shows began to take shape and grow in scope , through necessity , Rowland took on the duties of de facto production manager . Compared to the minimal production Caesar toured with through the U . S . and western Canada , which was just him and a four-piece backing band , the five Toronto shows were a significantly bigger beast . They included the addition of a custom-built stage , organ player , four backup singers , and a 12-person choir , plus surprise guests each night .
“ It seems that the rise has been so quick that the team built around him has put fantastic emphasis on what they ’ ve already achieved , but when it comes to a live show , this was a hell of a step up for them compared to what they ’ ve done before ,” says Rowland . “ They were on a [ Behringer ] X32 rack that they could kind of set and forget through the U . S . and that worked really well for them , which is great . Then when this gig came up , all these emails started coming through with comments like , ‘ Oh you know , so the choir …’ to which I ’ d respond , ‘ Hang on , there ’ s a choir now ? OK , cool .’ Bit by bit , these little pieces of information were coming through and by the time we got close enough that we had to finish the audio advance … I seemed to get a grasp on what was happening and we set it up ready to send to different vendors .”
It was clear to Rowland , though , that he would go with VER Toronto . It was important to work with a company with which he had a good preexisting relationship and that knew his workflow . “ Especially under the timeframe and the budget constraints , which there always are – no matter the size of the gig , there is always a bottom dollar amount that you ’ re happy to spend and not spend . So with that , VER were the people we went to and they pieced it all together . It was a big jump when you look at what they went from . From an X32 rack and five mixes , we ’ ve gone up to an [ Avid ] S6L with Pro Tools integration and a Waves server and I ’ ve got 14 in-ear mixes and [ what ] was eight wedge mixes – I ’ ve got it down to three on these shows because we got it to the point where they were so content with their in-ears that they didn ’ t need the wedge support . So that was good , but it ’ s really busy .”
A pair of Avid ’ s new flagship live consoles , Venue S6Ls , at monitors and FOH were a welcome addition for Rowland and McLellan . “ We had Profiles on the quote and that ’ s what we were going to go with , but that quickly changed when our input list exceeded 56 ,” says Rowland , noting that from the initial discussions , the number of inear mixes grew from five stereo mixes to 14 in addition to the initial wedge mix count .
“ I spoke to VER and said , ‘ What do you advise ? I know Cam loves the Avid approachability and wants to stick with something familiar , considering the scale of the show , which is fine , but are we going to run into any troubles using an S6L ?’” recalls Rowland . ” I called Cam and said , ‘ Look , we ’ re going to have to change our game plan here a little bit with regards to how many inputs and mixes we have . Do you want to go Digico or the S6L ?’ and we went with the S6L and haven ’ t looked back . It ’ s definitely exceeded my expectations on every level .”
For McLellan , having worked extensively with Avid ’ s Pro Tools in the studio for a decade , he always preferred the familiarity of the company ’ s Venue SC48 and Profile desks . “ So walking up to the S6L for the first time , it was a good amount of difference in it , but it ’ s still the same thinking behind the console as it was for the former two ,” he says . “ So after getting a bit of a crash test on it , I just fell in love . It
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