Karen Bernod has spent more than four decades as a celebrated voice in soul, jazz, and R&B, sharing stages and sessions with Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, and Paul Simon. Now she returns with IRIS, her first studio album in 10 years, named for her late mother and shaped by a decade of living, writing, and letting things come together on their own time.
You’re returning with IRIS after 10 years between studio albums. What made this the right time?
After singing with Mary J. Blige and Chaka Khan, I wanted to just take a break and get a little normalized again with family and friends. I was on the road for a long time, and I needed to take a break. So I took a break. I joined my choir, Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir, directed by Pastor Haye. I stayed with them for 10, 11, 12 years, and then I wanted to get back into the scene.
When you’re on the road a lot, you’re out there in Hollywood land. It gets a little lonely from family. It’s hard to keep relationships. I was losing boyfriends because they were tired of me traveling, and my sister was like, you’re missing family gatherings. They were making me feel guilty. I was like, let me just take a little break. I was still working on my project, always writing, always in the studio, but I just took a break from the full madness.
A lot of things happened in the world, a lot of things happened in America, a lot of things happened in my life, your life, our life. Life was life’n. I was glad to come back at the right time, able to write about things. Lifetime things, funny things, loving things, sexy things. And here I am.
Did you know going into IRIS that it was going to be about your mom?
No. What I knew was I wanted my next album to be thought-worthy and life-worthy. Meaningful and true.
I didn’t have a record company behind me saying you have to put this out by this date, and we need X amount of songs, and we don’t like this song. I didn’t have any of that. So it was my company, my people, our energy, our scheduling. At first we were like, let’s do this at this time, but that wasn’t working. So I was like, let it happen organically. If someone is out of town on a gig, if someone’s working, let’s go with that and just let it flow normally.
Each one of us got together, we recorded when we could. When the last song was mastered, that’s when we decided, me and my team, Nina Flowers, and my manager Duane Snipe, how everything was going to be laid out. It just kind of fell in line after that. When we stopped pushing and going against the grain and just let it happen naturally, living life, getting older, getting wiser, it came together great.
What happens to the songs that did not make it onto the album?
We use them eventually. I submit songs for different things and projects, hoping that something will land. Or I’ll hold onto them until it’s time to release singles. Or they’ll stay in the archives until they’re needed.
One of the songs, 2GETHA IN SPIRIT, I wrote that in 1998 with Rob Sitkoff. The song was written and produced by a brother who is no longer here with us. His name was Will. Life went on, technology changed, and by the time we wanted to get back to it to redo it and reproduce it, the digital equipment we used then, you couldn’t use it anymore. Pro Tools is always changing up stuff.
One suggestion was, we just need to forget about this song. I said, we can put this to the side, but I am not going to forget it, because I love this song so much.
Come 2022, my manager had this guy he knows named 6th Sense. He gave him the track and said, “what could you do with this?” He kept all my vocals, took the track, and added his sound to it. My manager gave the song back to me and said, “Karen, listen to this, how do you like this?” And I heard it. I was like, oh my god, let’s use this for the next project, because I love it. Will’s wife was like, thank you so much for continuing this song, Will would really love and appreciate it. So it has a lot of meaning to it.
Sometimes you can’t push against the grain. Sometimes you’ve got to let things just flow organically.
You released 2GETHA IN SPIRIT on your mother’s birthday. How did it feel finally putting it out there?
I felt so good. I felt proud. I felt that mommy was looking at me from above, and I felt her spirit. I smelled her scent, I saw her smile. She was like, go ahead, baby, do that thing I taught you. I felt very proud. The name of the album is her name, and that’s the beautiful flower that she is. My brother said, “mommy is in heaven, smiling, looking down at you, so proud.” That’s how I feel, and that’s how I felt.
You’re hitting the stage at City Winery in New York City on Mother’s Day weekend. What can audiences expect?
That’s going to be fun. I’m paying homage to all mothers and all fathers who mother, because everyone mothers at some point. Dedicated to the moms, we are the pillars of the universe. I just want to give us our flowers.
Each song has something to do with something in my life, in my career, relationships that I’ve had. Some of them have a sense of humor, some of them are kind of sexy, some of them are dancey. I even have a song on there, my version of Afrobeat. I know Fela Kuti came out with it, and I know that it has evolved, and Africa owns the Afrobeat, but I gave my little African-American version to it. That song is called BELIEVE.
We’re going to have fun, we’re going to reminisce, laugh and kiki, and hear some good music while we drink wine at City Winery.
When does IRIS drop, and what is your favorite song on it?
You know, you have children, and you don’t want to say one of your children is their favorite. But if I had to pick two songs, I would say BELIEVE is one of them. One of the lyrics in my song is, thank God we don’t look like what we’ve been through. That just rings true. And then the second song would be Love Is All You Need. I’ll say those two.
The album is going to be released May 13th, which is my birthday and Stevie Wonder’s birthday. We have the same birthday.
Where can people follow you and stay connected?
If you go to karenbernodmusic.com, that’s where you can find everything. All my links to my songs, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook.
IRIS drops May 13. Catch Karen Bernod live at City Winery in New York City on May 10 for a special Mother’s Day concert. Tickets and updates are available at karenbernodmusic.com.
