Sometimes it’s impossible to put an artist into one succinct category or genre, and that’s okay. Freeman Young is the perfect example.

The Surrey, BC, artist – who once described himself as “pop with an urban touch” – has a sound as varied as his influences, which range from D’Angelo and Jai Paul to Radiohead and Nickelback. Young’s voice, a velvety-smooth texture imbued with a tender soulfulness, has landed him in the R&B realm in the past. But in an interview with Noisey, he warned, “You don’t want to pigeonhole yourself. Especially for Black artists, it’s important that you don’t corner yourself too early.”

It’s that flexibility and imagination that’s given Young a freedom to explore like he does on the Brotha Jason collaboration, “Brother,” where he flexes a more rap-like cadence; or when his singing takes centre stage on the grooving Raiel and Isaac Shah joint, “Wrong Turn.”

Outside of those tracks, Young’s music is hard to find online at the moment. Young, who garnered attention in 2016 with his debut album, Young, has since wiped the release from his Soundcloud and other streaming platforms. But the suspense is leading to something.

In 2017, he explained to Discorder Magazine that he removed his music because, “I’m just on something else now. I think you get a clearer understanding of what you want to communicate as time goes by… You can’t get nostalgic or too sentimental, even if it is your art, even if you put everything into it, it’s about what’s next.”

In October 2018, he made his next big step: signing to Republic Records. In an Instagram post, he shared the “wildly surreal” news adding that he’ll “be back sooner than later.” With any luck, 2019 could finally be the year that we receive a grand re-introduction to Freeman Young – because the little that’s left of him online has left us craving for more.