Silk Sonic Artistfacts

2021-
Bruno MarsVocals, guitar, piano
Anderson .PaakVocals, drums
Silk Sonic is a side project for Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak that blew up when their first single, "Leave The Door Open," went to #1 in 2021 and won both Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year at the Grammy Awards. They released just one album - An Evening with Silk Sonic - but left the door open :) for another if the stars align.
The duo first teamed up in 2017 when Paak was the opening act on some shows for Mars' 24K Magic Tour. They struck up a friendship and ended up working together on Chic's 2018 It's About Time album. Their musical kinship was so strong that they decided to form Silk Sonic.
Bruno Mars is a few layers of stardom above Anderson .Paak, but both guys have multi-hyphenate skill sets, so between the two of them they can do pretty much everything. They wrote all of their songs together (some with help from other writers), and Mars did most of the production. They trade off vocals, and for instrumentation it's typically Mars on piano or guitar and Paak on drums.
Instead of touring they did a 36-show residency at the Park MGM in Las Vegas. Since there's just one Silk Sonic album, about half the songs in their sets were covers or selections from their solo catalogs, including Mars' "That's What I Like" and Paak's "Am I Wrong."
The shows at their Vegas residency were phone-free, requiring guests to place their devices in YONDR pouches upon entry. They even performed a song about it during the shows called "We Took Your Phones Away." Sample lyric:

What happens in Vegas, should stay in Las Vegas
That's why
We took your phones away
Silk Sonic is an homage to '70s soul music, with a look and sound that echo acts like Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass and Curtis Mayfield. To nail the sound, they recorded using as much vintage gear as possible. During performances, they wore period garb like rust-colored suits and bell bottoms.
The funk legend Bootsy Collins came up with the name Silk Sonic and serves as the narrator on their album. Mars and .Paak sought him out to get his thoughts on the songs they were working on, and Bootsy ended up giving them not only advice, but also a name, which he came up with on the fly.

Collins has a reputation for making everything he comes across a lot more funky and fun. Some of his other contributions include playing bass on Fatboy Slim's "Weapon Of Choice" and adding vocals ("dig...") to the Deee-Lite hit "Groove Is in the Heart."

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