Who Got Next? Introducing Durand Bernarr...

Let’s get all of the obligatory introductory stuff out of the way.
He was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.
He was home schooled until the age of 17.
He’s only 20, but he’s musically light years ahead of his time.
His favorite collabos, living or dead, would be Kelis, Sarah Vaughn, Erykah Badu
and Billie Holiday.
He has a serious love jones for L.A’s New Wave group J*Davey.
And his favorite color is yellow.
But follow me, it really isn’t about ANY of that.
It’s about his voice.
And the runs. The runs and that sound.
Thank God for YouTube!
It was there that I first saw him.
It was his rendition of ‘It’s so cold in the D’ that caught my attention.
He’s the cover king.
He will take what you think is your song and make it his own.
He has personality for days. He’s your younger brother.
He’s engaging and wise. I liked him immediately.
His name is Durand Bernarr.
“My real name is Bernarr Durand. I just switched it around”.
He tells me on a Sunday afternoon, 30 minutes after the interview was supposed to start because he had to shower and do his push-ups.
Bernarr, already a superstar!

Simply put ,when he opens his mouth to sing beautiful comes out.
It's the kind of sound that makes you spontaneously clap your hands.
It's that first bite of chocolate.
It’s your mama’s fried chicken.
It’s the freak um’ dress.
It’s that dude that you’ve been loving for so long…FINALLY loving you back.
It’s just… right.
His runs from top to bottom are effortless. And he was NEVER vocally trained.
No one should be singing like this in their bedroom.
It’s singing at it’s best. it’s Kim Burrell, and Donnie and Bilal and em’.
It’s pretty. It’s ridiculous!



A flip video camera and the accidental discovery of the Youtube channel was the birth of ‘Alcohol Harmony’, a name he gave himself because as he put it “Alcohol is the pain. It’s the struggle. And the harmony is the music that you use to get away from that problem.”
He has quite the following. Not yet famous, but on to big things.

A virgo, and a self proclaimed perfectionist, Bernarr's been singing since the age of 3. He's also written close to 400 songs. He will be releasing a 7 song EP on itunes, and a mixtape of cover songs like Kanye West's 'Flashing Lights' & John Mayers' 'Slow Dancing In A Burning Room' next month.

His favorite vocalists range from Maxwell to Ella Fitzgerald, from Jazmine Sullivan to Donny Hathaway. He says “I love Maxwell because he’s a niche artist. He has his own vibe. I want to be able to be myself. I want people to hear me and say ‘wow, I love that!’

When asked which producer he’d like to work with I could hear him smiling when he said “Brooke D’leau of J*Davey. The Neptunes. And I would love to work with Gnarls Barkley.”

Where will he be in the next 5 to 10 years?
He says he wants to have a family. I want him on my radio…