The last time Durand Bernarr spoke with Billboard, just days after he took home his first career Grammy for 2025’s Bloom (best progressive R&B album), he wasn’t planning a new studio album — just a deluxe edition of his recent award-winner.
“We thought that we were only doing seven additional songs — two remixes, five new records — to make it 20 altogether,” he explains. “During the recording process, there were just so many ideas coming out. And I already wanted to do something for the “heated fellowship” side of things, because being spicy wasn’t the topic of Bloom. We were planning a deluxe, Blooming, and another EP for the end of the year, but eventually decided, ‘Why don’t we just do another project?’”
And just like that: the Cleveland-bred, powerhouse vocalist entered his BERNARR album. Corralling an all-star team of A-list R&B producers and songwriters, including Raphael Saadiq, Bryan-Michael Cox, Johntá Austin, Troy Taylor, James Fauntleroy and Sevyn Streer, BERNARR expands the Grammy winner’s soulful, gospel-informed soundscape with splashy flourishes of yacht rock, P-Funk, house and Miami bass. After prioritizing platonic relationships on Bloom and holding space for emotional connections beyond lust, Bernarr turns up the heat across the set’s 17 new tracks, including lead single “Wild Ride” and “Bloom.” (“Yes, I have a title track for the previous album on this new one,” he quips. “I finally was getting spicy a little bit!”)
Born Bernarr Durand Ferebee, Jr., the powerhouse vocalist has delivered a true time capsule of the different musical eras that raised him. Make no mistake: he’s a true Junior.
“I was going to title my rock album BERNARR,” he reveals. “But when I saw the album cover, I heard so many of my aunts and homegirls in my head saying, ‘You looking just like your father!’ This look and sound really do encapsulate Bernarr. And with the heavy hitters [involved], I had to do the lean. When our ancestors did that lean, they meant business!”
He’s talking about his pose on the album cover, which is reminiscent of the one on Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Luther Vandross’ Give Me the Reason and Teddy Pendergrass’ It’s Time for Love, or just any classic ‘80s R&B record. And Bernarr isn’t merely gesturing at R&B greatness by tapping into that iconography — he fully achieves it across the full spectrum of rhythm and blues. Whether he’s linking up with Big Sean for the bass-rattling “Waiting” or delivering a potentially definitive R&B power ballad for the current era with “My Life,” Bernarr hits every note with impassioned precision. There’s no coasting or phoning it in for him post-Grammy win. If anything, that gilded gramophone was simply the key to unlock his next gear.
Below, Durand Bernarr goes deep about the making of BERNARR, being embraced by and working alongside his R&B heroes and how he turned Altoids nutritional facts into his dad’s favorite song from the new record.
What was your first post-Grammys studio session like?
I hopped in [the studio] two days after, so there really wasn’t any time to truly process. This go-around, we definitely had more writers and producers in the space. I cut two songs with Big Sean, and he’s been really supportive and excited about working together. We actually met when I did background for him when he did Jimmy Kimmel in 2024. But, generally, these sessions didn’t feel different. I got my heater, blanket, incense, weed and wonton soup, and we’re ready to create!
“Am I Okay?!” is such an arresting second single. How did that one come together?
I was on the phone with Branford Jones of They Have the Range, and he had Donnie Scantz on the line, who told me he had a song for me that was originally a Miguel record. Miguel wrote and recorded the first verse and hook, but he hadn’t touched it since 2020. I cut it not too long after that call, and it was one of the first songs I did when things started morphing into a different project. It’s a genuine check-in with yourself.
You highlight two era-defining songwriters, James Fauntleroy and Sevyn Streeter, as featured vocalists. How did their dual talents impact the way those records came together?
I’ve been wanting to work with James [Fauntleroy] for the longest, and “Wild Ride” was the first beat he played out of the pack. That composition allows me to land in certain places and really live there by design; it scratches this itch in my brain that feels really good. Fauntleroy wrote to the arrangements that I came up with over my first few passes, which I thought was really dope.
Sevyn wrote the top of the second verse of “Am I Okay?!” with my homegirl, Kolesta “Choklate” Moore, another writer on Bernarr. She also did “10,000 Lifetimes” with me, which is my take on how ‘90s R&B singers would close their albums with a gospel song. Except this one is about my parents. I remember telling some of the writers, “Bugs Bunny is my spirit animal, but I don’t want to be him on every song.” As singers, we’ve been arranging like rappers in terms of cadence, but I don’t want the notes to be a distraction. I want you to be able to focus on the note and let me live on those notes. And I wanted to make it a duet; it’s definitely giving Disney/Pixar.
I feel like “AYO” is a message a lot of people need to hear and internalize.
Bad days happen; it’s not going to be sunshine and roses all the time. That doesn’t mean life is out to get you, or that someone is conspiring against you. There doesn’t have to be some big prophetic theory; sometimes life just happens — and the devil didn’t do it either.
I want to remind people that it’s okay for things not to go the way we wanted to. And it’s okay to have accountability because sometimes we want to blame something else for something happening. But no one’s to blame; it’s just life.
What song demanded the most from you?
The Bryan Michael-Cox record, “My Life.” I’ve never recorded a song that I didn’t have any intention of singing live. I’m always considering where to place breaths and whatnot. Troy [Taylor] was very particular about the inflections he wanted, so I was pleased to be able to deliver. I’ve never punched an entire record so that we can get everything right all the way through. I was literally out of breath before I got to the chorus, and I was getting frustrated. They had to remind me like, “Durand, you’re not going to be singing this song; the audience is going to take it away from you.”
What were some of the most interesting things you learned from your collaborators?
It makes me feel very necessary and anchored where I’m supposed to be. I have made enough noise being myself that I have garnered the attention and respect of OGs and legends who have been in my playlists. Raphael made “Sugar Family” just for me the night before we got in the studio. I’ve made this joke on social media, but times are so hard, like — daddy cannot do it by himself! We need a sugar family! I also cut some stuff on a song for one of his projects. His excitement made me even more excited.
What was the last song you added to the track list?
“Sleep.” [Laughs.] My team was trying to change my mind because they wasn’t feeling it! I feel like I’ve been doing a solid job giving the people what we need to in order to really take us to the next level. But this record is for me; it expresses how I’m feeling, how I’ve been feeling, and how I know I’m going to feel. When I hear it, I envision myself on the open road, half my body hanging out the window. It’s the shortest song on the album, which was intentional because I also don’t get that much sleep!
What was it like playing this for your dad for the first time? What songs did he gravitate toward?
“I Found Myself” was the one for him. He loves the whole album, but there were a couple that made him come to me personally, like, “This is amazing.”
When I’m trying to come up with melodies, I’ll take something like a tin of Altoids and read the nutritional facts off of it. Troy was like, “In the 30 years I’ve been doing music, I’ve never seen anyone read lyrics off Altoids to create a melody.” We eventually replaced those nutritional facts with the words we wanted to tell the story with, but that’s been my thing to get the creative juices flowing. I started doing it during these sessions, but I’ve been doing it outside the studio forever because it’s really just me stimming.
