Dax knew almost immediately the first line he wanted to write for “To Be a Man” when he heard the beat of the track.
In a new interview for Rolling Stone‘s The Breakdown, Canadian artist Dax and his producer Lex Nour give an inside look at the making of his hit song, which earned him a collaboration with none other than Darius Rucker.
“I walked in the room and [Lex’ said, ‘Man, I got something crazy for you,’” he said, recalling when he heard the track for the first time. “The first thing I said was, ‘I can’t hide myself.’ That’s how it started.”
Dax also explained that he writes music from four perspectives: what he’s going through, what he’s avoiding, what I see, or what I’m trying to manifest.
“For me, ‘To Be Man,’ I thought I was doing a lot of things I wasn’t being appreciated for it. I was seeing my future self after 40 years of not feeling appreciated,” he said, later adding, “It was a culmination of 29 years of life. My poetry background helped me with piecing things together so you could read the text like a book.”
Dax explained he tried to “not rush” his music and wanted to “make each word perfect” so that everyone who listened could embrace its lyrics and “go into the world” with a strong perspective.
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“The beat gives a vibe where you can talk about something deep, vulnerable, and relatable, and he likes that,” Nour explained, adding that he typically shows Dax a beat before he decides whether or not he “vibes with it.”
“To Be a Man” was featured on the artist’s fourth album, What Is Life?, which was released in August 2023, alongside the hit “Dear Alcohol.” The singer followed up the album with a new duet version with Rucker. He also was joined by Phix for “Narcissist” earlier this month.