Jeff Bernat On Creating ‘Love, Jeffrey’: “This is me finding love in my own way.”

Jeff Bernat is no stranger to love.

The Filipino-American singer-songwriter’s discography is filled with ditties about the subject; you have the likes of the international hit, “Call You Mine,” the heartbreaking “Wrong About Forever,” and the easygoing “Casual,” among others. Bernat’s songs feature large helpings of funky bass lines and jazzy melodies as he takes listeners on a sonic rollercoaster of all types of love.

He brought this signature sound back home to the Philippines at the recently concluded Wanderland Music and Arts Festival held at the Filinvest City Event Grounds last March 9 and 10. He was coming off hot on the heels of his latest EP Love, Jeffrey, which he released in January of this year. The five-track record is no heartbreak soliloquy — in fact, all five tracks paint a picture of Bernat falling in love and staying in love.

Billboard Philippines sat down with Bernat to talk about his latest EP Love, Jeffrey and what it means to trust the process of finding love again.

Billboard Philippines: How was it like working on Love, Jeffrey?

Jeff Bernat: It was different because I think this was my follow-up project after making so many heartbreak songs. So, this kind of like brought me back to the feeling of falling in love again, and experiencing love again.

The reason I named it Love, Jeffrey is because I wanted it to be like…fully authentic to who I am. My full name is Jeffrey. I used my baby picture as the album cover. I wanted it to be like, ‘okay this is me, this is who I am now, this is me finding love in a new way.’ Love, Jeffrey was definitely about how my love life is like now and experiencing love again.

You open up a very vulnerable part of yourself. Since it’s called Love, Jeffrey, is it also kind of like a love letter to your fans as well?

No…I mean not necessarily to my fans. It’s a love letter to my partner at the moment — shoutout to my partner over here. I think…experiencing heartbreak and love, it’s just like this chapter of my life that I’m finding love again. So, this is kind of like my love letter to the person that I’m in love with now. Yeah, it’s my story. It’s all my story.

A lot people know you from your first album, The Gentleman Approach, which was released in 2011. What is it like looking back at that album after all these years?

Yeah, it’s a trip. I released that when I was 20…21 years old. I’m 34 now. It’s crazy because sometimes I’ll do shows and that’s all they wanna hear. Like, they love me for that album. I think it’s a blessing because there’s longevity in that work, in that music. I think I’ve been fortunate enough to have made an album that some call a classic.

If you could talk back to your Jeffrey self in 2011, what would you say now?

I’d say…just don’t be scared to experience everything, everything in life. It’s just gonna come in waves. What is life if it’s just gonna be all perfect, you know? You have to go through the hard times, the heartbreaks, ’cause that’s gonna teach you all the lessons you need to take before the next thing.

This 2024, aside from the latest EP, what else can we look forward to this year?

Wew, I think this is the first interview that I’m actually going to say this but I think this is the year that I want to break into a new side of Jeff Bernat. Like people don’t know I used to be a dancer. I think people are going to see choreography, dancing after I tour. I definitely want to work on more collaborations, I wanna make a song with Tweet. She’s a really good R&B singer.

I wanna make more collaborations with my friends. My best friend is Jesse Barrera — shoutout to Jesse Barrera — I love making music with that guy. I think being on tour has inspired me to make more music. It shows the possibilities if you just do what you’re meant to do. Sometimes, I get really lazy to make music. I just tell myself that there’s a reason why these people are here — it’s because they like the music.

Listen to Jeff Bernat’s Love, Jeffrey below.