On The Road with Sadboi: A Toronto It-Girl on Music, Identity, and Going Global

“Hi, my connection might be a little bad, so I might be cutting in and out. I’m just on tour right now.”

The phone call is slightly crackly, but after a few attempts at connecting the call, Sadboi’s soft, airy voice drifts clearly through my phone receiver – an unanticipated contrast to the determined and alluring vocals that deliver songs like Slide, Potential, and her latest release rosa.

“I’m making my way to Texas right now.”

At the time of our call, the alternative multigenre artist Sadboi is halfway through touring with Coco & Clair Clair on their North American Tour and on route to Toronto for her performance at this year’s Porsche Scopes – the global multidisciplinary platform that brings together innovators and groundbreaking creatives across the arts and tech. Currently occurring in 9 different countries, Porsche Scopes hosted its celebration with Toronto’s creatives on the cutting edge this past week on October 24th-26th. Porsche Scopes’ selection of Toronto artists, designers, performers, and curators brought together three evenings of brilliance for the city’s creative scene.

Toronto-raised artist, SadBoi took to the stage at the event on the 24th. With her set at Porsche Scopes this past week, attendance at this year’s New York Fashion Week, her appearance on the North American leg of the Girl Tour, and recent new single releases teasing a fresh project, 2024 has been a pretty good year for our certified SadBoi. This publicly hailed It-girl of the Toronto nightlife scene is going global and we are here to follow in her footsteps. 

Sharing makeup secrets and getting personal about music, Tumblr, and growing up in Toronto, the multifaceted trendsetter, Sadboi, takes time from her travels to chat with us.

Your sound is… everything. It’s incredibly fresh but for people in Toronto it also feels slightly nostalgic—the way you mix a lot of different genres, like dancehall, baile funk, and alternative R&B.

Thank you. I mean, for me, I’m always going to have certain elements, like my Caribbean elements, because that’s just how I was brought up. But I also think a big factor is that everyone I work with is from somewhere (so, like, Bruce is also from Brazil, which explains the funk) and me just being a fan of different types of genres—that’s just kind of how I combine everything. I don’t really put too much thought into it. I just really love music—all types of music—and the people around me are the exact same, so we try to incorporate that as much as possible.

You’ve been able to live in a few different places… Actually, I wanted to ask—I know you moved out to Atlanta. Are you still living in Atlanta, or did you move back to Toronto?

I travel back and forth between the two.

Oh, OK, cool. So, I wanted to ask specifically how the Toronto nightlife, culture, and just growing up there influences your music. But I’m also interested to know, traveling back and forth, how Atlanta influences your music as well.

I’d say… the culture in Atlanta—I don’t know, there’s a difference from my experience between the two. But it’s definitely just experiencing the culture in Atlanta and the music. Growing up in Toronto, I was always going to the underground parties, and I was always a fan of the DJs, like Nino Brown, especially her party Yes Yes Y’all. I still go to that.

I love Yes Yes Y’all.

Yeah, Yes Yes Y’all is amazing. I was always drawn to the like, “if you know, you know”. That was the first time I really heard DJs that could mix different genres together. When you go to clubs, sometimes they don’t really mix genres, but, like, the parties that I went to growing up, I would always hear a variety of different sounds, artists, and new stuff. So it played a big role and has a big part to play in my music now, just seeing what people react to at parties.

In addition to your sound, your style is also amazing. You just released a song called Fashion Week, coinciding with your attendance at NYFW where you even walked a show this year. Was that slightly autobiographical?

I mean, growing up, I always loved fashion. I was always drawn to things that were a bit left of center. I was a big fan of Tumblr, and I would always be online, looking at clothes or how people take their photos, and just trying to come up with ways to do the same thing in a way that felt unique to me. So, I always had an interest in that. In terms of the song Fashion Week, I actually wrote it before even knowing I would attend [New York] Fashion Week. I wrote it a month prior, but I was in a situation where I felt really down because it seemed like everything was happening for him, not for me. I was in a weird place, so I was like, ‘OK, well, I know good things are about to start happening for me. He’s just an asshole.’ So I basically manifested it, really. I was like, ‘OK, well, you’ll see me at Fashion Week if you’re coming.’ It was just to cheer myself up, to make myself feel good, and then I ended up manifesting it. So, yeah, it was obviously about my love for fashion and stuff like that, but it was really based on that situation I was in and wanting to feel special in a way, like that girl.

Are you into manifesting?

Yes, yes, I am. A lot. I feel like it’s really important. I feel like, also, when I do, it just kind of uplifts me. It’s really weird, like, just the idea of talking to yourself… but it really does help me. Before, I was like, ‘What is this? I don’t get it.’ But now I’m, like, heavy on it, so, for sure.

Not to put you on the spot but, your name. You used to perform under the name Ebhoni before taking on the persona SadBoi. Did that transformation in name transform you as a person?

I feel like when I changed my name, everything started to become a bit more clear as far as, even branding, and who I am as an artist and what I want—what I want my music to sound like, how I want to dress, and how I’d like to carry myself. I think it all just kind of came together. But my name originally came from my heartbreak. I was writing a song about a guy, and I was so scared to say his name, so I just kept calling him Sad Boy. In the beginning, it felt like it was such a sad story because I was also going through a breakup, but it ended up becoming, like, an empowerment thing. I don’t really know the best way to explain it, but it just felt like once I changed my name things just came together, and it all started making sense. It also aligns with who I am, not only as an artist, but as a human being.

You’ve previously spoken about how you worried that by having your name be SadBoi instead of SadGirl, everyone would assume you were a guy (but it sounded better).

Haha.

I need you to know that calling the guy you’re talking to by some nickname based on his shitty personality is the most girl thing to do ever. And then to reverse and claim that name as your own? Girl, 100%.

OK, thank you. I appreciate that. That was, like, one of my biggest fears.

You like to make music that you need to hear in the moment. A lot of your music, like your name, comes from personal stories. Is there a specific track or project that you worked on that was truly a form of personal therapy?

I want to say, like, my whole BARE CHAT project felt like a personal therapy session, but the one that’s really special… I feel like that song would definitely be Slide. I think the whole project was honestly personal therapy, but Slide was definitely the song that I wrote to get myself out of writer’s block.

You’ve also spoken about struggling to fit in when you were growing up. I really resonated with that. There’s that subsection of more alternative Black girls who grow up in Toronto that just don’t quite fit in and I’m just so interested in how that also formed your identity now. I know you were on Tumblr but I need to know: were you a Paramore girl?

I was! I still am, that’s so funny you said that, and I still use Tumblr. A lot of my inspo comes from Tumblr, to be honest with you.

I love that.

You’re right. Growing up in Toronto, it’s like… sometimes it’s just so strange because it feels like there’s not really people that understand you. But I don’t know, I found a lot of stuff through Tumblr. I just really loved posting on Tumblr. That was my safe place. And then when I got to high school, like I said, coming across, like, kids that were into the same things [as me]—that’s how I got introduced to the parties I spoke about, and the people, and the fact that there’s this big underground scene in Toronto. I just didn’t get introduced to it until high school, which was, like, a breath of fresh air because middle school was the worst time for me.

Yeah, as of recently, not just in Canada but also in the States, more Black artists are coming forward and pushing or exposing those more underground scenes and more alternative approaches to Black culture. I just think you’re so inspiring, especially for girls growing up in that scene.

Thank you.

You’re performing at Porsche Scopes in Toronto this week. Who are you excited to see perform?

I get there the day of my show, which is unfortunate ’cause I did want to see DVSN and Naomi perform. But I am really excited to see Moonshine; I love Moonshine. I’ve done a few things with them like I did Boiler Room with them, and I’ve been to their parties, so I already know what that’s gonna be like. Bea I’m really excited about as well. Bambi’s parties I love too. I feel like it’s going to be a huge link-up. I’m really happy to be a part of Porsche. I feel like it’s important. It’s really cool that they’re bringing a bunch of different artists together who aren’t afraid to be themselves.

After Porsche Scopes, what’s next for SadBoi?

Well, right now I’m working on my next project. There’s a few things going on, but I would say that’s the biggest thing right now—new music and that project.

A personal question: I really like how you do your smudged eyeliner—like, the tears look. How do you do that?

I have two ways, so this is gonna sound so stupid. I put on mascara, and then I blink really hard so it smudges. Then I take—you know the eyeshadow brush that’s really thin and almost looks like a paintbrush? I just wet it and put it on top of the smudged mascara.

That’s so smart.

Yeah, or I’ll take the end of the mascara stick, put dots, and then wet it with the smudge brush. Then it looks like tears.

Oh my gosh. Thank you! I’ve literally been trying to do that kind of look, but I’ve just been smudging my eyeliner. It doesn’t have the tear effect. Don’t mind if I end up looking like you, haha.

You’re good! Just use the eyeshadow brush—don’t put on too much, but press it into where the mascara is, and it’ll look like tears.

OK, OK. I’m gonna try that. I absolutely love your makeup look! Do you mind if I share that makeup trick with people, or should I keep it secret?

No, I don’t mind. You can share!

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Hannah Verina White is a Montreal and Toronto-based writer. She has a deep love for the melodramatic and nostalgic, both of which influence the way she writes and the subjects she chooses to write about.