The Opener: bronclair’s intuitive raps find beauty in the mundane

The Opener is The FADER’s mini-interview series with exciting new artists we think you should know.

A good bronclair song is like a slice-of-life anime, maybe Neighbourhood Story or My Dress Up Darling. Though his melodic raps might seem low-stakes, the Canadian musician intuitively understands that sometimes nothing feels more daunting than living: Is this fit hard enough to wear outside? Does she like me or not? Will I ever be happy?

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Across his incandescent singles and mixtapes, bronclair leads with his feelings, crooning and cartwheeling over a startling breadth of instrumentals. His 2025 EP the crow with producer 19thou (OsamaSon, Drxop) feels leagues away from his work with lakepine (a frequent Feng collaborator), but whether he’s rapping over a jerk beat or an ambient one, bronclair always finds a novel way to twist his flow against expectations. That makes it easy to see why artists like Lucy Bedroque and xaviersobased have tapped in to collaborate with the rising rapper, but my favorite songs are bronclair on his own, typically over a beat by Rabi or Liv. A star doesn’t need any help to shine.

The FADER caught up with bronclair over email to chat about Pride & Prejudice, PinkPantheress, and naming his song “Intermezzo” after Sally Rooney.

What’s the coolest thing to do in your hometown?
It’s always so peaceful so I like to walk around a lot, it's a nice change of pace from Toronto and one of the coolest places to walk around would be by the escarpment we have. You can pretty much see the rest of the city and there's also cool hiking trails as well.

Tell us about the first album you bought.
The first album I ever bought was Scott Pilgrim Vs The World's movie soundtrack on iTunes when I was like 10 or so. I remember having a dream about watching that movie before I saw the trailer, and when I watched it I had some crazy deja vu so I got some pretty good memories associated with both the movie and every song from the soundtrack.

What was the last movie you watched?
I rewatched the 2005 adaption of Pride & Prejudice, even though I watched it for the first time in February of this year. I really fuck with slow burn love stories like this especially if each are quietly yearning for each other like Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth do here. I could probably go on for a while about how this movie makes me feel but just know I really love it.

When you’re not making music, how do you spend your free time?
I try to live my life in the present moment as much as possible, so I'm always doing what would immediately make me feel happy or just at peace or something. Whether it’s going out with friends or my girlfriend doing fun stuff or I'm just on the game at home talking to my friends, or just helping out around the house. To be real though, I'm probably just listening to music and relaxing a lot too.

What’s a motto you think everyone should live by?
Some variation of "Focus on yourself" or "Don't stress about what others got going on". I'm not the best with mottos honestly, but basically the less you compare or think about whatever somebody else got going on the better. It's genuinely just distractions and will keep you in some negative thought loop you dont even realize you're in until it's too late.

Explain a lyric of yours that people misunderstand.
The opening lines of my song “Intermezzo” are:
"Back - Backbone, nigga fuckin shut up/ reflect on what you been sold and don't you stutter, she like my Intermezzo, I think I might just call her ... (cont.)"
And basically I'm just saying that people in my life or the voice in the back of my head is itchin at me telling me to stand up for myself and get a backbone, but I'm kinda over people telling me what to do. So I tell them to reflect on what I already am and stop stressing abt what I got going on, and at the end of the day I got a girl who likes my “Intermezzo,” so I should focus on that.
An Intermezzo could mean multiple things, but in this instance I was kinda thinking about chess, which in chess an Intermezzo is defined as a "sudden or unexpected intermediate or in-between move that interrupts a player's tactical sequence." And I feel like I'm the type of person that can get so spontaneous people don't really know what I'm doing, but it works anyway and it fucks with their whole expectations or something along the lines of that. I named that song after a book by Sally Rooney... Go read it.

What’s a song you’d want to remix?
“Another Part of Me” by Michael Jackson. It definitely would not be a vocal remix... I have no idea what I would do with it but I just love the vocal delivery on that song so much, so trying something with just the acapella would be cool even if it ends up sucking haha

What’s the best thing you’ve bought for $100 or less?
Probably the game Deltarune. My friends been begging me to play it for years and I finally actually gave it a chance and I love it. I was a huge Undertale fan when it came out, I only really put off Deltarune because I wanted to wait until a lot of the chapters were able to play at once. I kinda hate waiting.

Tell us about your favorite accessory.
I bought a replica of Sora's crown necklace from Kingdom Hearts that I wear pretty often. Even if it’s just under a shirt and it isn't visible I still like to have it on. Kingdom Hearts means a lot to me, and I like to be reminded of it and the good memories I have with the series when I wear the necklace. Probably sounds nerdy but that's the vibe we on I can't even lie to you.

Best advice you’ve gotten.
It all kind of boils down to some variation of "follow your heart". I feel like my musical intuition is very strong. If I release a song, it's because I felt a strong emotion telling me this is the one that needs to be out. I feel like a vessel for music sometimes that way.

Worst advice you’ve gotten.
Anytime I have had somebody tell me to follow some type of industry standard instructions on how to do music it always fails miserably, so I can never listen to anybody telling me to be on that timing. Especially if they haven't been doing that shit themselves.

What’s the ideal level of fame?
There is probably some famous person out there who got to retain their mind and soul and reap all the rewards and benefits of being super mega ultimate famous without losing their mind and empathy. If something along the lines of that could happen to me It could, maybe, probably be some level of cool, but realistically I am lowkey a super reserved homebody and would rather be famous enough to get free shit and get my flowers and rich enough to fuck off somewhere in a beautiful foreign land and still retain my level of popularity and respect without having the stress of dropping music 24/7. This was the most non-answer ever, sorry.

Describe your perfect afternoon.
Being somewhere that feels like home with friends and family surrounding me. Good food, good conversation etc etc. Or maybe it's just me by myself in some type of flow state being able to record songs without interruptions or maybe I'm watching a really emotional movie or playing the best part of a game I'm really into.

What’s something you’re looking forward to?
Touring, maybe. It sounds very fun and I'd love a real chance to perfect performing live and I want to give my fans sick memories! It does also sound very daunting and exhausting, but I'd thug it out just to give everybody a great show.

What’s the best concert you’ve attended?
Hands down probably this Pinkpantheress show I was at in Chicago last Halloween. The choreography, style, performance... Just everything bro. She’s genuinely top of her game and I think some of these other artists could learn a thing or two from her shows, seriously. You can tell the level of effort put into everything that's going on. Lovely.

The last thing you wrote in your notes app:
These questions...... and probably some lyrics.