According to Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, the seeds of their upcoming Silk Sonic collaborative project were first planted while on the “24K Magic World Tour” in 2017. Mars’s phone call on Paak’s birthday further cemented the union which eventually led to them recording music together in person.
The two singers/instrumentalists dropped the first Silk Sonic single “Leave The Door Open” on Friday. They also spoke to Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s New Music Daily about the musical merger that also touts Funk legend, Bootsy Collins, as a special guest host. Collins actually came up with the name Silk Sonic.
“For me, Bootsy is the definition of a superstar, just for everything. The songs, the vibes…” said Mars. “There are so many artists that you could see that grew up on him. And me and Andy being a couple of guys that just grew up loving that.”
The 35-year-old musician continued, “We thought it’d be incredible if we could dream up a dream setlist. That was our model in the studio: ‘Alright, well let’s create the setlist of doom, who would be the ultimate host that could thread all these songs together?’ And thank God for Bootsy.”
#LetSilkSonicThrive @RecordingAcad pic.twitter.com/Ze5nuZQnvi
— Bruno Mars (@BrunoMars) March 7, 2021
After the release of “Leave The Door Open,” many Paak and Mars fans began envisioning seeing the two men on stage together performing their duets. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of the touring industry for a majority of 2020, but Silk Sonic hopes to hit the road in the near future.
“We going to be ready. That’s for sure. Yeah. Because man, we would love to do a show. I’d love to present it,” stated Paak while emphasizing it would not happen until the coronavirus shutdowns are over. Mars added, “We need it, man. We need it. I mean, if the terms are right. Yeah. The terms got to be locked, though, Andy.”