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There really is this groove.
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Anytime we're jamming and the jam starts sucking, all he does is That's right. That's my level two.
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No, that's the level two, like take it up. Let's go to.
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So, he really blew me away that first session. ABOUT THE 25TH SESSION.
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NO, WHEN I WHEN THE FIRST SESSION HE SAW I was doing it like, "I'm throwing it at you, Andy. You got it, Andy. You're the one."
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It was like a couple weeks in he started figuring it out. The jig was up. He's got three modes. Oh, okay. And in different tempos.
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I wish you had a drum set here. Look at this place.
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Look at the opulence of this place.
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This legendary garden area of the Beverly Hills Hotel.
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I wasn't sure we'd ever make it back here.
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But I'm glad I'm here with you two gentlemen.
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Look at us having this secret meeting.
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Can you believe it's Andy? No one else is around. Just us.
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A secret meeting about the secret meeting that led to the secret meeting.
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Man, you guys keep a secret. I'll give it to you.
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It was me saying that, but He's good at that.
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I would have told everybody.
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I was ready to I'm like, man, I was denying so many everybody wanted hooks, everybody I was so much money I missed.
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And you know, it was great.
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I'll make it up to you, Andy.
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I'll make it No, no, it was good.
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Long-term business model. Yeah, that's it.
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He's Andy, just trust me.
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You do it my way, you'll never be the same.
1:35
That's a lot of trust for 20 What was it? 27 scenes 2018? I want to say.
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You guys must have cooked this up on tour.
1:38
I mean, this must have been an immediate connection. this last week. What? Wow.
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No, as soon as we started working on it, you know, he's like Yeah, there's a song on the album that we started in 2017 that was on tour.
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And it was just like a little uh, phrase that we had that we joking around going back and forth about.
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And um, when we got to the studio, I actually called him on his birthday and I said, "I think I figured out that little hook we had. Come to the studio."
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He's like, "It's my birthday." So, he came drunk.
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After every take, he was on fire.
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He was like, What would you do? 25th birthday, bro.
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What are you going to do?
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What are you going to do? Yeah, yeah.
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There's worse things to do though than go to the studio and work on something that led to something as great as this. what it was. It it snowballed.
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And it was like, "Well, you want to come back tomorrow?"
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And we we kept coming up with music.
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It felt like why you fall in love with music in the first place. Yeah.
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And jamming with your buddy. There's no plan. There's no plan.
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Just working out the parts and trying to excite each other, you know.
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That's what's so beautiful about what I heard and the way that it's landed. No plan.
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It's like we like each other.
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We like what what each other does.
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Let's see what we can do together.
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And no one has to hear it, right?
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I mean, at the end of the day if it didn't connect, no one has to hear it.
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When did you realize we had to hear it? Damn, good question.
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When we felt like this is the best we could do. Leave the door open.
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Took us forever to put together.
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No surprise there's 35 chords and 16 turnarounds in it.
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Yeah, that was that's us being really ambitious.
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You guys You guys showing off.
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This is what we can do cuz you can't do this. one take on the drums.
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One take on the drums when I said, "Check out this Leave the door open."
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And he said, "All right, the drum groove got to be like this."
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And he just goes into the booth.
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That whole song is Anderson one take down. Or feel one go. Yeah. And what is the beat? What?
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Sa- soom sa- soom ba- soom sa- soom ba- soom.
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I mean, since a child, I've been hearing this groove.
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And then I only realized later on that he that's the only groove he plays.
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When he can't come up with the right hook, I got to take it there.
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Cuz it's called branding.
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Listen, you joke you joke, but here's the thing I was thinking the way over here cuz I was listening to to the intro in the song on repeat, right?
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And if one of the first things that really jumped out is just how identifiable each of you immediately is.
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Now, that's pretty clear when it comes to you, Bruno, but Anderson, beyond your voice, just your playing is so identifiable now that I reckon if you laid out just drum tracks, six different drum tracks, and only one was yours, everyone was zeroing on it straight away. It's mad. Oh, man, it's awesome.
4:16
It's It's great to be able to utilize that, you know what I'm saying?
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Like Again, to go with the collaborations these days, you get so many collaborations where a lot of it's done through email, you never meet the person, it's text, it's like a it's like a play, it's all this And people don't understand like when you get in and you can jam with someone, another artist that can hold it down, and you're bouncing that could that's a different that's difference, you know?
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And you're really creating a groove from scratch.
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You guys are trying to figure out what's going to work, what's the math behind this that's going to get everybody feeling good. What is it? Is it too heavy? Is it not heavy enough?
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And especially with this song, it's a song that requires so much patience and delicate delicate delicacy delicate delicacy delictability delicatessen delicatessen A lot of meat A lot of meat went into this song.
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Look, it's got a real Delta blues Delta swamp blues was what we were going for, and then you know, what we ended up with you know, it's a hit.
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He's the bad one of the baddest drummers I've ever seen. Serious.
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You know, and you're going to hear that all over the album.
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Uh, that's what really inspired so much.
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Um, it was a new way I've never created music like that with like drums being the focus.
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I'm kind of like I I'll pick up a guitar.
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I do it almost backwards.
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Like that's what I like in Uptown Funk, it's like written on a piano, and then the rest is like figuring it out, all right, how's this going to work?
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Andy is this monster behind the drums, and you're going to hear it all over the album. It's so musical.
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It's so musical, but then you just he's all like can't nobody play like him.
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And and and and the hats.
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Yeah, it comes from a he comes from like a a different era.
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That's what it felt like when when I heard him play drums in the studio.
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I was like, man, you don't come from this new school musician.
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You come from those old school musicians back in the day that that one drummer would play on everyone's record.
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Like the Funk Brothers at Motown, you know, it was I can't wait for everyone to hear the rest of the stuff.
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And Bruno played drums, too. Thank you.
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I was I was I was waiting. Don't get it twisted. I was waiting.
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He could have played them high hats. He chose not to.
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Well, when you're producing the record, right?
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When you're going in there, then you have to be able to see things from a certain altitude. Yeah. Right?
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In order to be able to figure out what's right for the record.
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And sometimes even encourage your partner to that it's good enough. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?
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Because you hear something that each other doesn't hear.
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And I always think like, why more successful artists don't look for an opportunity to surprise each other? Yeah.
6:39
Isn't that the joy of it?
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You guys could come together and be surprised by somebody else cuz there's something kind of lonely about being an artist and successful without having people to surprise you.
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It's slightly different for you. You've got your band.
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And you've got your band, too.
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But you guys are kind of your own artists, right? Yeah.
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And that's why this wouldn't happen if it didn't make sense and it didn't it feel natural and organic.
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This was a series of events that led us to man, why don't we just do it?
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You know, starting with the tour, us creating a a friendship and a bond and the and talking to each other and sharing the same love for music, getting into the studio, quarantine, all of these things Yeah.
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it was the equation to get this album.
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And it's it was out of that's that's like that's God, you know? Silk Sonic, right?
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It's it's definitely got a concept to it.
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And even with Silk Sonic, Bootsy Collins, the ultimate blaster of the universe, putting the whole thing together. Yes.
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The idea of there being some kind of existential force that's fueling the funk. The set list of doom.
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That's what that's that's what the Can't do shows right now. Yeah.
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We just we in there, so we we we created a show within the studio.
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But it feels like a show when you hear it.
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Cuz it's always showtime with us. Yeah. We can't help it.
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We could try to be regular probably at some point in our lives, but we can't help it.
7:51
Can you please wait for that? No, we're too extra.
7:54
Nah, it's just it's it's not in our nature. fun enough. Yeah.
7:56
So we need a Bootsy to kind of like, you know? Yeah.
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When he comes in with that voice, it's just so crazy.
8:00
It's like it that is funk in its essence.
8:03
What is it about Bootsy when you were growing up?
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I mean, first of all, it does a blow Let me ask you this.
8:08
It must blow your mind a little bit that an artist as influential to both of you as Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic, Parliament, the entire experience, you find yourself sharing this Yeah.
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project with an artist like that. Yeah.
8:19
Well, for me, Bootsy is the definition of a superstar. Just at for everything. The songs, the vibes.
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He's sprung, so I mean, there's so many artists, you know, that you could see that were grew up on him.
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And uh me and Andy being being a couple of guys that just grew up loving that.
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And we thought it'd be incredible if we if if if we could dream up a dream set list.
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And we that was our motto in the studio.
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All right, let's create the set list of doom.
8:49
Who would be the ultimate host that could thread all these songs together?
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And thank God for Bootsy.
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So much fun, right, to make it to be that kind of conceptual but also be yourselves?
8:59
Cuz this music is who you are as people, but you've been able to kind of get into the space where it there is it is kind of character-driven.
9:06
At least the project feels that way a little bit.
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What's the balance between the two?
9:08
How did you kind of come up with the side chair of what Silk Sonic is? I mean, jeez.
9:12
That's a That was like a lot of questions in one.
9:15
That was a lot, but I think That's what I do.
9:18
What was it like What was it like What was it like What was it like being in a band?
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You got to meet, you got to talk, you got to eat, you got jokes. Sorry, you know what?
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Let me clear this up where I get to ask this question for the first time in 29 years.
9:27
How did you get your name? That's how it was.
9:31
You got to really work You got to like be in there getting creative with each other, living, you know, going out, listening, and vibing out.
9:39
And like once we have the music, you know, Bootsy was like You know, we had a bunch of different names. Yeah, like what? Robocop Funk. Um That's pretty good. The Conquistadors. The Conquistadors.
9:51
Um We had some Spanish ones that didn't really Um The Atlantic Stars, but we're not both signed to Atlantic, so that I don't know if that works.
9:59
We were almost about to go public with that.
10:01
Let's go public, then our lawyers called us and said there's a group called Atlantic Star already.
10:04
I was going to say that Atlantic Stars isn't going to work.
10:07
Uh but Bootsy kind of was like, you know, let me do the name, and he named Babyface. Yeah, did you know that? Nope.
10:13
Bootsy Collins is the one who named Babyface.
10:15
Wow, did he tell you the story?
10:16
Babyface told me, and I I feel like this is should be Babyface telling this story. Right. But I'll tell it. Come on, yeah. It's my boy.
10:24
All right, I hope I don't botch this.
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Babyface and his friends are in the studio, Bootsy Collins walks in, looks around the room, looks at at the time it's Kenny Edmonds, and says, "What's up, Babyface?"
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And the whole room starts cracking up.
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They got a show the next night.
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And the guy says, "Ladies and gentlemen, Kenny Edmonds."
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He said got the golf clap.
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The night after that, as a joke, the host said, who was in that room, said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Babyface."
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And the girls went crazy. And it stuck. Love that.
10:57
So, he's got a a way with names. a way with names. Yeah.
11:00
And what did you guys think immediately when he when he listed that one? Done deal. Done.
11:05
He could have said whatever, it would have been whatever he wanted.
11:07
He said well, it's better than it's better than it's better than it's better than Atlantic Stars. Yeah, the Lava Lamps.
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Like we were going to go with a lot of different things.
11:14
Lava Lamps sounds almost like a sort of late '60s West Coast surf band. Right. I loved it. I loved it. My team loved it.
11:21
Bruno, I want to talk a little bit about um and you've been producing your music the whole time, just working with people. Yeah.
11:26
And I think that that first of all, that needs to be acknowledged.
11:27
Um and second of all, you stepping in, and you and Anderson really helming this thing, and and you and you really wanting to like, you know what?
11:34
I don't need anybody to to to be next to me this time.
11:36
What was the what was the most fun part of that for you?
11:39
What was the best part of that for you?
11:41
Um him lighting the fire.
11:41
Anderson coming into the studio and unlocking something in my brain that I've never used before. That's what you hope.
11:52
That's how inspiration happens, you know?
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Even just hearing him talk.
11:56
Being a songwriter, sometimes you hear things in your voice.
11:58
But working with other artists and you hear the way they talk, all of a sudden you start thinking differently. Yeah.
12:04
Even for as simple as it being working with a female artist.
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You hear their voice and the way they say things, it it triggers something and it it's gets your creative going.
12:13
So, a lot of these songs stem from us either joking around and something he said or I said, it's like, man, that just feels so good.
12:26
Let's just figure out a way to put that in the song.
12:29
Or like you said, like him just going behind the drums and just hitting something that's just like, damn. That it is going. But it's hot, man.
12:38
That authenticity, first of all, to make it feel modern. Mhm. Right?
12:42
Because if you try to make it too authentic and it just becomes something that is so reflective of the time within which that sound occurred the first time, you just locked in a vortex and people don't give a So, you got to make it modern.
12:52
You got to make it feel like it happens now.
12:53
You did that really effectively on doo-wops.
12:54
You've been doing that through the coastal matrix the whole time.
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Searching for new ways to reinvent what inspired you in the first place. But this is so deep.
13:04
Like, the instrumentation, the whole feel, the vibe, the chord changes, everything about it.
13:08
Was that what Anderson unlocked for you?
13:10
The ability to go that far into it?
13:12
that's the product of two musicians flexing in front of each other, man. No doubt. You know?
13:16
And I think that's the old school mentality because if you listen to all those other records, all it is it boils down to showing off. Yeah, yeah.
13:25
You listen to Earth, Wind & Fire, you listen to Parliament.
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You listen to all these records.
13:28
That man, those musicians were just showing off. man.
13:31
They were the biggest show-offs ever.
13:33
also I think they have this killer mentality of because they know at some point they're going to have to do shows together. got to go for it.
13:40
So, they got to go for it.
13:40
And our set list is going to be better than your set list.
13:43
And it's it's You ain't going to want to play after it.
13:45
You're not going to want to play Everybody's going to be all shy.
13:47
Yeah, that's what it was.
13:47
And um that's the mentality that we had in the studio.
13:51
It's like, all right, well it's like, let's you know kill them. Yeah. That's so good.
13:56
Like so that chord at the end of the chorus where you take it into that I don't even know how you describe it, but it's like it should go positive, but you go melancholy.
14:02
That chord at the end of that chorus is just like, watch this. Yeah, right. Yeah.
14:06
And listen, got to work with some incredible musicians.
14:09
Brody Brody Brown, who I've been working with for over a decade.
14:13
D Mile, extremely talented producer On fire right now.
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Yeah, it's just some buddies jamming.
14:19
And fortunately for me, these guys are killers at their instruments. Yeah.
14:25
Yeah, and it's just been a pleasure to be in the room.
14:27
And some days is worse than others, but then the day you get that magic, which is few and far between because it's just hard there's no greater feeling.