Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak serve classic 70’s funk and soul as the duo Silk Sonic. Their debut album An Evening With Silk Sonic features the hit singles “Leave the Door Open”, “Skate” and “Smokin’ Out the Window”.

The duo were already hard at work on what would become An Evening With Silk Sonic when the pandemic shut down live music in early 2020, but they weren’t going to let that stop them from delivering a concert experience to their fans. “All of a sudden, my shows get canceled, Andy’s shows get canceled,” Mars told Ebro Darden during their R&B Now interview. “This fear of ‘we’ll never be able to play live again’ comes into play. And to take that away from guys like us, that’s all we know. So we’re thinking, all right, let’s put an album together that sounds like a show.”

It began with the project’s lead single, “Leave the Door Open”, a syrupy-sweet piece of retro soul that Mars considers something of a backbone for the project. After its completion, he and .Paak began building out the nine songs of An Evening With Silk Sonic, soliciting help, in the few instances where they needed it, from friends like Bootsy Collins, Thundercat, and even Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds. The album also features narration from Bootsy Collins and was recorded at Shampoo Press & Curl Studios.