Last year,Durand Bernarrwas hitting a new career peak and a case of burnout.
But now he had just a month to crank out a new project.
In need of new ideas and perspectives, he pivoted from his usual way of making music.
Usually I am writing by myself.
But I needed something different.
In the end, only two songs out of 15 were solely written by Bernarr.
I wanted particular sounds, but I was open to other ideas people had, he says.
You never knew who was going to be in the room.
This was the first time that I worked with people to this degree, he adds.
It was really just a lot of the homies pulling up.
It was just time to have that conversation, and people were ready.
I went on X and I asked, How would yall like me to do love songs?
Everybody just went up.
Bernarr sings every vocal part to that song, from the soprano section to tenor, in between poses.
Fun fact, its the song the rapper sampled from: Grace Jones 1982 cut My Jamaican Guy.
Bernarr, a Virgo, is not really into the whole zodiac spill.
I identify as asparagus, he says jokingly.
Yet he lives up to the archetype of that sign, being detail-oriented and studied in his craft.
Completed leans fully into the rock aesthetic, seemingly nodding to Prince with a powerful guitar solo.
featuring T-Pain is a feel-good track, with plenty of dance potential that could find itself viral on TikTok.
It really encapsulates how I feel about the people in my life.
Its a soft landing to the end of the project.
Bernarrs first lessons of music came by way of his mother and father, who home-schooled the young Durand.
His mother, a piano teacher and vocal theory coach, was the music director at his church.
My environment was very musical.
Different perspectives are the root of his game and the root in whichBloomblossomed.
I look at the people in our lives as flowers, he says.
I hope that it would inspire people to really lean into their village.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Styling byVINCENT SMITH.
Assistant Styling byDEVONTAE GOODWIN.
