“There are a lot of different sounds, different styles, and it really is all the songs I would have loved listening to as a kid,” Budjerah tells Apple Music of his debut album, Gentleman. “I had a very eclectic musical upbringing. My older cousins love playing reggae. My dad loves rock music, and my mum loves country music and R&B. So while every song is different, I feel like it’s very true to my taste in music.” Also key to the sound of Gentleman was Budjerah’s collection of concert DVDs by USHER, Michael Jackson, Destiny’s Child and James Brown. “I went back to those during the making of the album, and I feel like that comes through. A lot of up tempos and rhythms. I really wanted the songs to feel like you’re at a concert.” Working with acclaimed songwriters such as Poo Bear (Justin Bieber), Diane Warren (Céline Dion, Beyoncé), Philip Lawrence (Bruno Mars) and Rob Lewis (Christina Aguilera), Gentleman draws on the singer’s lived experiences. “There are a lot of songs about love and relationships,” says the Coodjinburra man from the Bundjalung nation. “And I always sing what I feel, and what I’m going through in life.” Here, Budjerah talks through the album, track by track. “Gentleman” “I thought of USHER and Michael Jackson, and putting on a suit and getting a woman flowers when you take her out, and treating her with respect and treating her right. That’s kind of the message of the song—I’m confident and I’m a gentleman and I’m gonna show you what I’ve got. It’s the title track because it was like that aspirational character—this is who I want to be. I want to be the gentleman.” “Want You Back” “You go through times where you need to forget and just dance the night away. My dance classes were that for me—if I had a stressful day and I had a dance class that afternoon, I would always feel better after doing choreography. I’m having a tough day, but I’m going to forget about it and just dance.” “I Only Remember Your Name” “For Aboriginal people, we all love reggae music. And I thought, as a little Black kid back in the day, I would have thought this was the coolest song for an Aboriginal artist to do. It’s inspired by my high school relationship.” “Competition” “The message of the song is, ‘You’re good enough.’ My younger sisters, they sometimes get down on themselves; they don’t feel like they’re pretty enough. You don’t need to compare yourself with other people. You don’t need to compete with other people. You’re good enough. Stop being so hard on yourself.” “Could I Be” “The chorus is the same chorus as Syl Johnson’s ‘Could I Be Falling in Love’. This is the first time I was confronted with a song that was very clearly a sample that I knew from when I was younger. The demo had the Syl Johnson vocals on it, and the verses were where [I would] sing. And I was like, ‘Why would I sing a song where the sample is doing the chorus?’ So I just ended up singing the chorus anyway.” “Sinner” “I wanted to do the blues, and I wanted to have the gospel choir. Because that’s how I started. The first songs I wrote were blues. It’s a guy talking to a girl. She doesn’t want a saint. She really wants the sinner. And she’s trying to convince herself that she’s not about the sinner. She’s trying to convince herself that she wants a good guy, but she doesn’t.” “Pretty” “When you’re going to see someone, or maybe about to go on a date, you’re all excited. That’s what it’s about. Getting pretty, getting dressed up or getting ready for something.” “Hard Time” “‘Hard Time’ is begging someone to come back. Living without this person is like doing hard time. This song started out as a country song. I was kind of inspired by Beyoncé a little bit. Now it’s got a bit more of a funky kind of disco-y vibe to it.” “Lonely” “My favourite [line] is ‘Can you stay ’til the morning, let dawn kiss your face.’ Because Budjerah means first light; like ‘dawn’ in my language. So I thought it was a little bit of wordplay—if I said, ‘Let dawn kiss your face,’ it’s like, let me kiss your face in the morning.” “Let Me Know” “It’s like a proposal song; a wedding song. I say proposal because the lyrics are like, ‘Let me know or let me go.’ I was thinking about proposing when I heard the song, so it really hit me. It was the time in my life where I really related to the lyrics.” “Even at My Worst” “I went to Vegas to see Beyoncé on the Renaissance tour. And the second song of the show was ‘Flaws and All’. I left the concert and was like, ‘I need a song like that. I need a gratitude song.’ Then I’m back in LA and we’re going to Diane Warren’s building. She played ‘Even at My Worst’ and I was like, ‘There’s the song I was looking for!’ I just have to express my gratitude for the position that I’m in.”