Sixteen-year-old Parisian pop singer Bera loves American music and he’s taking the United States by storm.
Considering the Republic Of Georgia his home, Bera is often referred to as the “Georgian Dream.” And he’s living out his dreams alright!
Bera’s been working with some of the hottest producers in the game, including Rodney Jerkins and Rob Fusari.
GlobalGrind caught up with the busy singer to talk about his inspirations, his love for Tupac and of course, his new album.
For everything Bera click, here.
Check out the exclusive interview below!
What inspires you to create music?
Actually life, which may be a pretty basic answer, but life. Love, people around me, the love of my family, the love of friends and the love of music. Then life in general. Things that happened to me, to my friends, my entourage, things that I see on television. Pretty much everything.
So who are your greatest influences?
Oh, I have a lot of them because, you know, I listen to pretty much everything. I come from the classic music, I’m classically trained. I play the violin, the piano, and also the drums. So I would say that classic music is my first influence. Then I really love jazz, so Ray Charles is my greatest influence ever. He’s my first favorite musician. I also love Michael Jackson. He’s like a big influence for me on the pop side. I listen to a lot of rap music, so I’m a big fan of Tupac and Biggie.
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How does being from Paris affect your music or has it all?
I was still very American music-wise. I was always listening to American music. Maybe the lifestyle, but my ears always wanted American music because the quality was always in the States to me. But I still like some French artists, the lifestyle and the culture. But music-wise, I’m very American.
Who do you dream of doing a collaboration with?
I love a lot of artists today. I would love to collaborate with Usher. I really love his music. I’d love to collaborate with Beyonce. I’m telling you these names because they are my dreams. I’m not trying to be arrogant. I’m just telling my favorites.
You said that your first lyric that you wrote was in a dream.
Yes, I wrote my first song in a dream exactly.
What exactly did you mean by that?
I had a dream that basically a man was my favorite rapper and I think it was Tupac, so I told him ‘Hey Pac I’m your biggest fan and I know all of your songs’ but actually in my dream I forgot the songs. So to prove to him that I was his biggest fan, I tried singing one of his songs and when I woke up I realized that I just made up a new song because I forgot Tupac’s song (Laughs).
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Did you record that song? What song is it?
Yes, I recorded that song actually. That’s the first, first, first song I wrote down. Actually I don’t think it will come out because I was what? 11 years old? (laughs) It’s not really genius when I look back, but it was my first song so I still love it!
If you were on a deserted island and could only bring 3 albums with you, what 3 would you bring?
OK. I’ll probably bring my album … because I work hard. I work hard so I’ll take my album with me. I won’t say my album. I’ll take All Eyes On Me by Tupac, Thriller by Michael Jackson, and it depends on the island, but I would take Barry White … on an island, Barry White is nice (Laughs).
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You worked with Rodney Jerkins. How was that? Can you speak on the experience, because he is one of the most famous producers ever.
Actually my dream came true because we did stuff on Michael Jackson songs. Rodney was also one of the favorite producers of Michael. He worked a lot with Michael Jackson. It was just amazing, unforgettable, I can’t even find the words to describe Rodney. He is more than a genius to me. He’s really more than a genius. He would make every song in 15 minutes, 10 minutes. The best work he did was Michael and every single smash he created, he made the song in 30 minutes, 20 minutes. The working process is very unique with Rodney. Also, he’s a great personality; he’s very humble and down to earth even though he’s a legend. He’s a great person also. I just learned a lot with him. When you’re with a genius like Rodney, you try to remember every second and every single note from the song and everything.
If you could compare your sound to any two musicians, who would you say you’re a mixture of?
You can definitely feel some Michael influence in me. Even if I’m singing, I still have a little Tupac influence inside of me, with the flow. I can sing and I can have notes, but I still have a little bit of Tupac in me, I think. Even with the feeling, like the way I approach the song. I’ll mix three. I have a bunch of songs that are for relaxing, feel good music, so for those I would say Barry White.
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That’s a good mixture.
Yeah, I made a whole album called Late Night Cruise Music ’cause when I finished the main album with Rodney Jerkins, with singles, club songs and the music that we like today, then I just flew to Georgia for one week, for holidays, and to Europe. I was there and I knew I had the singles, so now I can do whatever I like. I didn’t care, we just made 8 songs in 7 days. We were in the studio everyday, 24/7. We came up with the project Late Night Cruise Music, which is just the feel good music. You just cruising in your car. Any generation is going to like it. This is not playable in the club, this is not a smash hit. I just made it for myself. But then everybody kind of liked it, so we’re shooting two music videos this Friday. Very exclusive information and the song is going to be called “Black Diamond.” That’s the only up-tempo on the project.
What would you say is the greatest difficulty that you’ve had so far in the process of making music?
The choreography maybe because, I’m not really a dancer and I had the chance to work with Usher and Chris Brown’s choreographer, Fly Styles. I started working with Fly and he works with such great dancers, so of course he asks for a lot. First he was tough with me, he pushed me, but now I’m just very thankful and grateful because even though I’m not a dancer, I found myself on stage because of Fly. He really helped me find myself on stage even though I’m not a dancer.
What projects are you working on?
We are making the video for the song “Don’t Worry.” We’re making the video for the song “Black Diamonds.” The main single is going to be called “Light It Up” and we’re shooting a big video for that one. It’s an up-tempo club song.
