Onra

“When I listen to stuff and I think it sounds good, I just trust my ears,” Bernard says, explaining his ubiquitous approach to finding inspiration for new tracks. “There’s not really a special recipe that I’m looking for. I just do whatever I want. But then I like to do conceptual albums, so that helps me to find a direction for the whole project. Once I have that direction set in mind, I exactly know what I’m trying to look for, so that makes it easier to find samples.”

Bernard’s latest release sees a departure from the more exotic compositional tastes of his Chinoiseries. For him, it’s all in the name; a return to roots, a revivification of the great sounds that inspired his teenage love of music.

“You know, I’m 34 now, so I was trying to go back to when I was 15 in ’96. The kind of albums I was listening to at the time gave me this special feeling that I’ve never, ever found again in any new music coming out. I really missed that feeling of listening to a whole album. It’s just that whole aesthetic of it that inspired me to do this album the way I did.”

Dissecting those old tracks and his love for them, Bernard has tried to recreate the classic ’90s feel, while adapting and making it his own. For him, it all boils down to a recipe for good hip hop. “It’s mostly the voice; obviously I’m going to have to love the beat, so good drum programming, good bass, beautiful samples… [there] could be a little filter in there and a couple of vocal samples. There you go, a good hip hop track.”

Speaking of the voice, one of the major drawcards for Bernard’s latest LP is his work with vocal artists such as Chuck Inglish, Daz Dillinger, The Doppelgangaz and Suzi Analogue. Collaborating with vocalists was relatively new ground for Bernard, but he adapted quickly.

“It’s my first time doing this kind of project; it’s definitely something I’d do again,” he says. “There was less pressure on me because I knew I could count on someone else to complete the track, so I actually really liked working with vocal artists.”

When it came to choosing who to work with, Bernard says he simply looked for the people who best fit into his vision. “I knew what I wanted, in terms of what kind of vibe I was going for. All those artists, they just came up pretty naturally to me. I exactly knew, with this or that person, what I was going to get without spending too much time explaining what kind of vibe I was going for.”

With the LP finished and set for release, the next step for Onra is a launch tour, which will see him play five dates across Australia including the Red Bull Music Academy showcase at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid LIVE. For Bernard, that means a lot of preparation.

“I’ve been busy doing videos for the album a couple weeks ago in New York. Now I’m working on my live set because of my tour in Australia, so I just have to find a way to play those new songs in my set. The tricky part is to include those vocals in my set and the guests not being here onstage with me – I think it’s kind of tricky to keep people entertained.”

Bernard actually has a long-running relationship with the RBMA, going back around seven years.

“Since I was a participant in the Red Bull Music Academy 2008 in Barcelona we’ve cooperated on many different types of events, be it club shows or festivals. Sometimes I gave a lecture in Moscow or Brazil. I think we’re trying to establish a partnership.

“I hope I’ll be able to come back [to Australia] every year for a while, because I really love to play here,” he says. “I think maybe it’s just that I have lots of interested people in Australia that want to see my live [show]. I’m trying to represent them the best I can. I think I’m a good example to tell people, ‘Anyone can make it.’”

From his relatively humble origins as a bedroom producer to international tours and sponsorship, it’s a hard to argue with him. Already looking beyond Fundamentals towards his next release, Bernard has plans to supplant his analogue equipment with software and change the way he creates music. When asked what advice he has for up-and-comers, Bernard has this to say: “Really, the best advice I could give is to keep on being yourself. It sounds super clichО, but I think there’s a lot of talented musicians but not too many artists, actually. So, I think if people just really try to express themselves through music, in the purest way, I think that will be to their advantage.”