When Durand Bernarr took the stage at Revelry’s New York event last September, he wasn’t a Grammy winner yet.
He was still the fiercely independent artist who had spent two decades building a career on his own terms, winning over audiences one performance at a time. Fresh off the release of BLOOM, Bernarr joined High Times ahead of his Revelry appearance for a conversation that touched on cannabis, creativity, chosen family, and the long road that comes with doing things your own way.
Months later, he would take home the Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album. Looking back at that conversation now, what’s striking isn’t how accurately Bernarr predicted his success. It’s how little he seemed concerned with it.
At the time of our interview, Bernarr described himself as someone still operating outside the traditional music industry machine.
“I’m still independent,” he said. “I’ve been really working from the ground up, really building and grinding. Twenty years in, now we’re nominated for a Grammy.”
The statement lands differently today. The nomination eventually became a win, but Bernarr’s focus wasn’t on awards. It was on community.
“It’s important for people to have community,” he told High Times. “Reach to the people to the sides of you and figure out how you can make some magic.”
That theme runs through BLOOM, the album that would ultimately earn him Grammy recognition. Bernarr described the project as “my love letter to my friends that have become family,” an intentional effort to celebrate the people who help us grow rather than centering romantic relationships alone.
“I love myself because of you, and I need to share that,” he said.
For anyone familiar with Revelry, those ideas probably sound familiar. Since its inception, Revelry has carved out a space where cannabis intersects with culture, creativity, and connection. As the event returns to New York this year to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the emphasis remains less about transactions and more about relationships—between brands, artists, entrepreneurs, and the communities that support them.
Bernarr embodied that spirit before he ever stepped on stage. Asked about cannabis and creativity, he described it not simply as a personal ritual but as something inherently communal.
“It’s a communal thing,” he said. “It’s a thing where we can share, and we can bounce ideas off of.”
That perspective also showed up when discussing his now-legendary Tiny Desk performance, a career-defining moment that introduced many listeners to his theatrical stage presence.
“Representation is very important,” Bernarr said. “I know that there is some little boy out there who was acting just as colorful as mine when I was little, and he’s seeing that, like, ‘Oh wow, we can take up space.’”
In hindsight, the conversation feels less like an artist chasing recognition and more like an artist already fully aware of who he was. The Grammy simply caught up.
A year later, Durand Bernarr’s words feel remarkably consistent with the path his career has taken. The awards arrived. The audiences grew. The spotlight got brighter. But the philosophy never changed. Community. Creativity. Independence. Showing up. Doing the work.
As Revelry returns to New York for its 10th anniversary celebration, those values remain at the heart of the event and the culture surrounding it. Last year, attendees got to witness Bernarr before one of the biggest milestones of his career. This year, his story serves as a reminder that the most meaningful success rarely happens overnight. Sometimes it takes 20 years, a community that believes in you, and the courage to keep going long enough for the rest of the world to catch up.
