When Canadian producers Matthew Burnett and Jordan Evans first met Ashton Dumar Norwill Simmonds over a decade ago, they had no idea he would go on to become the Grammy-winning, platinum-selling singer, songwriter, and producer Daniel Caesar.
All three of them connected in the same Toronto-area high school within a small clique of fellow producers and artists. Today, Evans and Burnett manage Simmonds, serve as his executive producers, and run the independent label, Golden Child Recordings.
Needless to say, their relationship has become more complex, but because they’ve known each other since the first steps of their music careers, they see the human beings beneath the titles and the success. This perspective is key to Evans and Burnett’s management philosophy.
“Being a manager is very much taking care of the person first. If you don’t take care of him, there is no artist,” Burnett explains.
“I liken it to being a coach,” Evans adds. “He’s got to go out and perform. How do we make sure he’s in the best headspace to take on the world? It could be one performance. It could be embarking on a new album rollout. Whatever it is, we’re thinking about the entire process.”
Simmonds is currently in the midst of his world tour surrounding his latest album, Son of Spergy (2025). In a tour cycle, he’s pushing both his creative and physical muscles, performing as many as five nights in one week, but also constantly trying to refine and improve the show to be its best.
Burnett and Evans often discuss how Simmonds feels “led” to do something. As in, an idea comes up and he wants to follow it. That’s where his managers come in.
“He relies on us to be the rational minds,” Evans says. “We have to give room for the inspiration, but we also have to bring the ideas to reality. How practical is this? Is this something that we can seriously consider, or is it not possible? He depends on us to be that for him, so he has the freedom creatively.”
For their first tour after Simmonds released his debut album Freudian (2017), Evans and Burnett were indulging all of Simmonds’ grand ideas. When the show is at its best, more people want to come, which makes more fans stream the music. It’s a positive feedback loop… until they had a budget meeting when the tour wrapped.
“We went big, and we went wrong,” Burnett says with a laugh. “We’ve learned since then to have financial context of what you’re spending in real time, instead of just adding these things because they make the most sense creatively.”
With Simmonds at a much higher level of stardom, they now have a team to whom they can delegate these various tasks so they can focus on managing and producing. Once this tour comes to a close, it won’t be long before they’re all working on new music. In that situation, everything is still person-first. To take an album from ideas in Simmonds’ head to final masters is a long, meticulous process. Many artists get burned out before the end or hit creative roadblocks, but with Evans’ technical precision and Burnett’s musical background, Simmonds has comprehensive support in the studio.
“If we’re building an album, that’s a year-and-a-half process. It requires thinking long-term, and also giving space to allow the story to develop,” Evans says. “We know it’s gonna change and adapt. We’ve gotten used to his flow. He needs the room to let the ideas unfold.”
After over a decade of working together, building their entire careers essentially from scratch, it’s only natural that Evans, Burnett, and Simmonds have developed deep personal and creative familiarity. However, Evans and Burnett’s production work goes far beyond Simmonds. Not as commonly now, but they’ve contributed to works from Drake, Childish Gambino, John Legend, Ellie Goulding, and dozens more. Most recently, Burnett worked with R&B sensation Giveon on his latest album, Beloved (2025).
While they are not nearly as familiar with any artist compared to Simmonds, the person-first approach still applies. They might not know every phase of an artist’s journey, but they can still treat the music as an expression of a person rather than a commodity to be traded and sold.
“If we haven’t known this artist for the last decade, we know the importance of knowing the artist as much as we possibly can in that short amount of time,” Burnett says. “If the song’s gonna stick, it has to be something that you feel connected to. The conversation’s different. Whether it’s a body of work we’re executive producing, or we’re coming in just for a single session, having the mindset to care as much as possible so that you both love what you guys are coming out with.”
And to all the newer artists out there who think that finding a team like Evans and Burnett is going to be a one-way ticket to becoming the next Daniel Caesar, both of them caution against running too quickly into professional relationships. When asked at what point an artist should seek a manager, their answer is simple:
“When there’s business to manage,” Evans says. “If you’re developing yourself creatively, you should be thinking about who you can build with creatively. That could be a producer or a visual artist, but you should be thinking about that first.”
Once the art is leading to business opportunities such as royalties, performances, and record deals, then a manager could be the right call. “A manager can’t come in and do magic and give you a career. So I think it’s better to focus on the things that you need to focus on, which is your music.”
And when the time is right for a manager, being a part of the music community, even if it’s just in high school, can spark the right relationships to grow.
Harry Levin is a freelance journalist with credits in SPIN, Billboard, MusicTech, Grammy.com, Los Angeles Magazine, and more. His musical journey began 20 years ago with a Led Zeppelin CD. He played jazz trombone through college, produced large-scale electronic music events, and now spends his professional time writing and editing.
