How do you top a year in which you win your first GRAMMY Award and raise your profile to the highest it’s been in your career? Well, if you’re indie R&B darling Durand Bernarr, then you strike when the iron is hot and announce your next project. The singer-songwriter is doing just that by letting it be known that his next album, BERNARR., will be coming at us in May.
Though we had an inkling that something was afoot when he dropped his single “Wild Ride” in March, the upcoming album comes as a surprise. And it apparently came as a surprise to Durand, too. The sessions for the set initially started out for a deluxe edition of his GRAMMY-winning album BLOOM. They soon blossomed into something more, and he decided to go with the feeling.
“Originally, we were just gonna go with the deluxe five additional new songs and two remixes, and this music that came out of trying to only do five was way more than that,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “We were like there’s no way. Let’s just do something else, something fresh. And even with the 28 ideas that I came out with in the first two days, it was a lot. We were really trying to narrow it down and it’s so good.”
And there’s even more in store as, in addition to James Fauntleroy on “Wild Ride,” the set has been confirmed to feature collaborations with Raphael Saadiq, Vic Mensa, Khalid and more.
As for the sound, Durand told the LA Times that it will be a culmination of his influences. “I’ve really blossomed into this human being that has all of these different layers and dynamics to them, and yet, all of it is cohesive all at the same time,” he said. “It’s a time capsule of the music that I’ve been inspired by, from yacht music to alternative rock to funk. I mean, The Midnight Special with Chaka Khan and Rufus, all of those things that I was raised on, but I’m bringing my approach to it.”
It sounds like BERNARR., like Durand Bernarr himself, is going to be an experience. We’ll find out exactly what kind of experience it will be when the set arrives on Friday, May 1st. Pre-save the album now on numerous digital streaming services.
