Some people talk about romantic love in their music, but in Durand Bernarr‘s third album, Bloom, he discusses the love found in platonic friendships. In an interview with Billboard, he says the movie Waiting to Exhale inspired his new album.
“Exhale encompasses [Bloom]. When you have friends to wish you well, you’ll be able to breathe regardless of what’s going on,” he says. “Revisiting that movie inspires me; the relationships those women had with each other were so powerful. Regardless of what they were going through in their own lives, they were always able to come together and lean on one another. There’s other love besides romance. I wanted to decenter romantic love and talk about platonic love.”
Speaking of friendship, Durand says one of his longtime friends, Dr. T. Anansi Wilson, helped come up with the title of the album. “We were talking about growth and being in environments that help evolve and enhance who we are. He sent me a whole rundown of what ‘bloom’ means, and it clicked,” he said. “And I love a good one-word praise, that’s why there’s a lot of one-word song [titles] on [Bloom].”
Durand also discussed having more brains and hands involved with Bloom than any other LP and explained his decision to include songs that are more than five minutes long, saying, “I had way more to say than 140 characters.”
Of his visual plans for the album, Durand adds, “It’s gonna be flowery.”
“I have visuals in mind for ‘Jump,’ ‘No Business’ and ‘Generous,’ in particular. I feel like ‘Completed’ should just be a live performance somewhere,” he says. “I don’t even think that needs a video. Let’s just cut right past all that; all we need is one good take of the audio.”
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