The Soothing Sound of Silk Sonic

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s “feel-good” music comes from hard times and real pain. Inside the duo’s deep friendship and quest for the perfect throwback jam

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak are enjoying the sun-dappled courtyard of a recording studio — lighting up American Spirits with a Gucci-monogrammed lighter, appreciating the gentle birdsong wafting down from the trees overhead, admiring some orange hibiscus flowers growing up a nearby wall — when a studio assistant named Alex walks over with a surprise to complete the laid-back scene: “Rumritas!” he announces, setting down three frothing salt-rimmed glasses.

“We hide the stress well,” .Paak says, sitting back, taking a sip. It’s late June in Los Angeles, and work is nearly done on An Evening With Silk Sonic, the debut LP from Mars and .Paak’s superduo of the same name, which began life five years ago as a joke the two friends hatched on the road, then got real enough to spawn a Number One hit in the Seventies-soul-indebted ballad “Leave the Door Open.” About 20 seconds into that track, .Paak (with Mars serving background ad-libs) coos that he’s “sippin’ wine (sip sip) in a robe (drip drip),” and those nine words crystallize the song’s appeal: It’s extravagant, soft, slightly woozy, and just the right amount of winningly, winkingly ridiculous. “That song was like our mission statement,” .Paak says. “It’s the intro to the book, to set the tone and let you know the sound. There’s different kinds of waves, but the whole album is wrapped around that.”

An Evening With Silk Sonic was originally slated for the fall, but the band pushed it to January 2022. Mars and .Paak decided they’d rather put out more songs, Mars explains, letting each one breathe a bit, before dropping the LP in full: “I don’t want to be binge-watched.”

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“We’ve got the bones of most of the album, so it’s really about touching up parts that need a little more… grease”

Silk Sonic, the duo comprised of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, have confirmed that their debut album will arrive in January 2022.

The pair dropped their soulful debut track ‘Leave the Door Open‘ in March before following it with the self-described “summertime jam” ‘Skate’ last month.

Silk Sonic have now confirmed that their debut album ‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’ will arrive at the start of 2022, after pushing it back from a planned autumn release.

Describing the decision, the pair told Rolling Stone they’d rather put out more songs and let each one be appreciated in its own right. “I don’t want to be binge-watched,” said Mars.

“We’re really in touch-up mode now,” he added of the record’s progress.

“We’ve got the bones of most of the album, so it’s really about touching up parts that need a little more… grease.”

The pair also discussed their friendship, explaining how they first met when .Paak supported Mars on the European leg of his ’24K Magic’ tour in 2016.

“I was opening for the ’24K Magic’ tour,” .Paak recalled, “and a week in, we were in the studio.”

“Real quick!” Mars added.

When it came to collaborating, the pair said they initially aimed to take backstage jokes they had developed on tour, known to them as “jibb talk”, and turn them into songs.

.Paak said “jibb talk” is “bullshit with a smile — we just talk all day and do bits. But it’s all from the heart, because we’re writing from our experiences, from our relationships — it’s rare that two men can come together and talk about love.”

‘An Evening With Silk Sonic’ will mark the first studio album from Mars since 2016’s ’24K Magic’. In 2019, he released a pair of collaborative singles – ‘Please Me’ with Cardi B and ‘Blow’ alongside Ed Sheeran and Chris Stapleton.

- source: nme.com 

📷 rollingstone: @silksonic appears on our latest cover. Inside @brunomarsand @anderson._paak’s deep friendship, shared history of loss and occasionally obsessive quest for the perfect throwback sound.⁠⁠

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⁠Story by Jonah Weiner, photos by @florentdechard⁠

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Trevor Noah: How do you respond to the argument that the United States has taken in too many people?

Becca Heller: One response goes back several hundred years and says: If you think that your destiny is manifest such that you should control a 3,000-mile swath of territory, perhaps you have an obligation to take in a lot of people to that space, especially in light of all the people you killed taking over that space.

📷 brunomars: “Bruno Mars live is a must see” ~Bruno Mars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak roll out in Silk Sonic’s “Skate” video Featuring a skate crew and lots of bongos.

Silk Sonic, the new duo comprised of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, have shared a video for new song “Skate.” The video shows Mars and .Paak performing the song while surrounded by a crew of skating dancers.

Speaking about “Skate,” Mars told Apple Music the song came about as part of thought exercise in the studio. “Me and the team was thinking about what if we were performing in the middle of a roller rink, what would that baseline be doing?” he told Zane Lowe. “What would the guitar be doing? What would the drums be talking about? And I wanted to play congas and that’s what you get. You get a song called “Skate”. Talking about I’m trying to float. I’m trying to glide.“

"Skate” is the second Silk Sonic track following “Leave The Dor Open.” That song went to Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release in March. A Silk Sonic album titled An Evening With Silk Sonic, has been recorded though no further details have been confirmed.

- source: thefader.com

📷 Bruno Mars: You rollin wit us yet?  #SilkSonic #Skate Song and video out now!!! https://SilkSonic.lnk.to/SkateFA Anderson .Paak Silk Sonic

📷 Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars attend the BET Awards 2021 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California

📷 brunomars: Damn @anderson._paak even my camera know what to focus in on….. #CRAYYYZZYYYYYY

😂😂😂 #MyBadPlieghBwaa✨

📷 27/05/2021 - Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars of Silk Sonic perform onstage at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California