Daniel Caesar talks ‘Never Enough’ title, production and the hiatus that came before it all

On Friday, fans were blessed with Never Enough, Daniel Caesar‘s first album since Case Study 01. He came up with the title after repeatedly saying the phrase, as well as a coincidental moment he experienced when abroad.

“I’d been saying it a lot,” he tells Variety of the album’s name. “And then one day … I was on a boat ranting about something never being enough. Then this other boat just floated by, and it was called Never Enough. That was an interesting name for a boat.”

“I was in the south of France … and I started talking with the people on the boat and found that they were from [my hometown of] Toronto,” he continues. “I was so far away from home and met a family from Toronto on this boat. It just felt like a synchronicity moment.”

Never Enough marks Daniel’s third studio album. It sees him take on more of a producer role, which he says he’d “been itching to do.” “I’m still stepping into it. I still needed guidance; I still needed people around that I trusted to bounce ideas off of,” he adds. He says it was initially daunting to produce alongside Raphael Saadiq, but notes the singer is the kind of person who “makes you feel comfortable.”

After a nearly four-year hiatus, Daniel says he’s learned that “it’s never over ‘til it’s over.”

“During COVID, it kind of felt like the world had moved on. If I’m not doing COVID radio or getting on Instagram Live … you feel like the world is going to move on, and then you don’t have a platform anymore,” he says. “If every time you make something, you put your all into it, and people like it, there’ll be someone there to listen when you come back around.”