He’s collaborated with some great artists down the years - the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, André 3000 and Smokey Robinson - but musical polymath Anderson .Paak is happy to call Silk Sonic bandmate Bruno Mars “one of the greatest vocalists I’ve worked with.”
Discussing the duo’s new album, An Evening With Silk Sonic, with R&B Now Radio on Apple Music 1, .Paak said: “I’ve done collabs with everybody. I don’t know not one person old, young, everyone on my checklist I’ve already checked and I’ve done all kinds of stuff, I’ve had records that have gotten Grammys but there’s stuff - but like there’s always a place that an artist wants to go and I wanted to go straight to the top.
“And there’s a cheat code, you know what I’m saying? Everybody told me the cheat code is linking up with this dude. Get Bruno on your side, and yeah, it’s dope.”
.Paak supported Mars on his 24K Magic World Tour in 2017, and it seems that the pair bonded while they were in the studio.
"It couldn’t have happened unless it was organic and natural and everyday we would get to the studio and it was a blast. It was just jokes,” says .Paak. “Some days we didn’t even make no music, we just laugh all day and talk shit and ramble. We was having too much fun, man.”
The positive energy is reflected in the music; An Evening With Silk Sonic is a warm, carefree homage to ‘70s soul that also features bassist Thundercat and is ‘hosted’ by Bootsy Collins. Elaborating on his working relationship with Mars, .Paak says that he had complete faith in him.
“I tell him all the time I have a lot of trust in him and that felt good too,” he reveals. “I felt like a large part of my career I’ve done collabs and everything but it felt good to be able to trust a dude to try it like this - great vocal producer, one of the greatest vocalists I’ve ever worked with and just pushing me to a different level.”
Check out the full Silk Sonic interview in the video above.
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