Is Silk Sonic the BEST live band touring today?
♪ Smokin out the window ♪ - How the arrangement changes from the studio version to the live version. It's a treat for the audience. - They're not taking themselves too seriously.
Like there's something for the musical Michael Jordans, and there's something for the musical Danny DeVitos. - There's like more risk, there's more energy, there's more trial and error. - This is one best bands that's playing music right now.
- It's a band. - And it's a band. ♪ Everybody ♪ ♪ Musicians react ♪ (serene guitar music) - Hello and welcome back. To "PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS REACT". Today we've got... Okay that's as much jazz I can take before noon.
Seriously, we got an awesome show today. We got an amazing crew of professional musicians. We're gonna do something a little bit differently today. We've been reading the comments, folks have been asking for more Silk Sonic and also live performances. We're gonna combine those today.
We're gonna do a Silk Sonic recording versus the Silk Sonic live performance and talk about the differences and similarities and what they're bringing. We're joined by some amazing professional musicians. The one and only Adam Neely. I don't have to introduce Adam, but I'm going to.
Adam is a bassist, a composer, a YouTuber has over a million and a half subs on YouTube. Makes the most incredible deep dive videos about anything you've ever wanted to know. And far, far beyond with regard to music. He's one of my favorite YouTube channels. I'm so excited to have Adam here.
He's been on Vox, he's been on NPR, he's been south (indistinct). Everywhere. Adam's around. If you don't know him, go check out his music. - And on his left, the one, the only Jacob Scesney. He is a saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, he's played with the Mike Posner band.
He's played on "American Idol", in "The Voice!" with Kanye, Kesha, Shawn Mendes, also Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals. We also got Tim Sonnefeld. Tim Sonnefeld is our engineer today, Grammy Award-winning producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist and arranger. - [Tim] That was great. - And we have an icebreaker question for you guys today.
What is one of your favorite music collaborations? - There was this collective of musicians in Europe called the Apartment Sessions. And it would be this whole group of musicians who got together in this tiny Brooklyn apartment and played like orchestral arrangements and all these like wonderful folk and pop songs. And I got the opportunity to play with one of my favorite songwriters Gabriel Kahane.
And that was honestly one of my favorite collaborations with the Apartment Sessions. Was like 60 people in this tiny apartment, playing this beautiful music. ♪ On TV sets, in houses effortlessly done ♪ ♪ In fancy colors ♪ ♪ All the righteous, all the newsmen speak of ♪ - Jacob. Any thoughts? Favorite musical collaboration. - Yeah. I think the time spent with Kanye.
Those five or six months leading up to Coachella. Because you just had this situation that I probably won't get to do again. You had like a 10 piece drum line of like the most amazing musicians, you had Kendrick's drummer, you had Bieber's drummer. Then you had like a 15 piece horn section of like all these amazing cuts. And then you had a hand-selected choir of like each singer was a super singer artist in their own right. So just to have someone that can fall foster that environment, it was pretty cool and pretty wonderful.
- Insane. - Yeah. I still have tinnitus from... (all laughing) - Jack. What about you, man? - There's this amazing female vocal ensemble called saje, that I've been into recently.
And it's these four vocalists and there's first record that they ever made was nominated for a Grammy. ♪ But if you get caught within the ocean ♪ ♪ The undertow will let you lose your way ♪ - Okay. The first thing that comes to mind for me is Nilsson Sings Newman. Do you guys know this record? - No. - Okay. Harry Nilsson,
I guess, went through a time where he wasn't writing great or he didn't like the stuff that he was writing. And Randy Newman was writing amazing songs. So he said, I'll just do a record of this guy's songs. So it's a record where, Harry Nilsson sings Randy Newman songs, and it's insane. (folk music playing) ♪ My baby left this morning ♪ ♪ With everything I have ♪ - Let's get into it.
- Let's get right into it. - Silk Sonic, "Smokin Out the Window". So Tim, tell us about the recorded version first. - So it was the third single, from their debut record "An Evening with Silk Sonic", released on November 5th, 2021. It was accompanied by a music video, directed by Bruno and John Esparza.
- Wow. Bruno directed it. - Yeah. Top five Billboard Hot 100 hit, performed for the first time at 2021 American Music Awards.
That's the video that we'll be watching here. When we watch the live version. D'Mile, Anderson and Bruno wrote the song together. Bootsy Collins is obviously at the vocal right at the beginning. Anderson and Bruno are on vocals throughout.
Bruno Mars also played percussion and guitar. D'Mile, plays piano and bass. Mark Franklin plays trumpet, Lannie McMillan plays tenor sax. Kirk Smothers plays alto baritone sax. Homer Steinweiss, plays drums.
Cameron Wain plays trombone. Glenn Fischbach plays cello. Who's known Philly buddy of mine.
And strings were arranged by Larry Golding, very dear friend of mine. And 215. Yes. - All right. This is "Smokin Out the Window". Silk Sonic, Bruno Mars Anderson pack. Here it is.
♪ Wait a minute, this love started out so tender ♪ ♪ So sweet ♪ ♪ But now she got me smokin out the window ♪ ♪ Must've spent 35, 45 thousand up in Tiffany's ♪ ♪ Oh, no ♪ ♪ Got her badass kids running round my whole crib ♪ ♪ Like it's Chuck E. Cheese ♪ ♪ Put me in a jam with her ex-man in the UFC ♪ ♪ Can't believe it, can't believe it, ♪ ♪ I'm in disbelief ♪ ♪ This bitch got me paying her rent, paying for trips ♪ ♪ Diamonds on her neck, diamonds on her wrist ♪ ♪ And here I am all alone ♪ ♪ All alone ♪ ♪ I'm so cold, I'm so cold, you got me out here ♪ ♪ Smokin out the window ♪ ♪ Singing, how can she do this to me ♪ ♪ Oh, I thought that girl belonged to only me ♪ ♪ But I was wrong cause she belongs to ♪ - What do we do? Like where do we start? - Where to begin? - I need to listen to that 10 more times before I can talk about... - I had the same thought. - It's so thick. There's so much happening. - I think the first thing is just the vibe.
It's just feels, all this music is so fun to listen to. You just feel like you just walked into the best party. - I completely agree. - Everything serves the vibe, everything else just fits.
I mean, we could talk about how it's all put together and the influences that are drawn from all the performances, but it's such a strong vibe. - It hits so many tropes. Like there's so much to the vibe, the 70s vibe, that it hits so perfectly. There was like a little sitar in there. I just noticed. It was like, oh my God there's...
- The glockenspiel. - The Motown flavor. The glockenspiel. But the line that the glock is playing, is this kind of like 90s hip hop. - Exactly. And... - With the guitar, right? - Yeah.
- It sounds like a flute almost. I always thought it was a flute. - On the 90s hip hop vibe, it starts with the Pharrell, duck, two, three, four and then in on that.
- Wait. Let's hear the 90s hip hop. What is this? ♪ Smokin out the window ♪ (drums playing) - And then into it. Right? ♪ 35, 45 thousand up in Tiffany's ♪ But then its... ♪ Got her badass kids running round my whole crib ♪ - Which is happening... (Jack vocalizing) which is happening throughout the whole song.
Like the A sections, the B sections. Like that line is just sprinkled throughout there. - Yeah. It's such a little hook. It's such a nice little hook. - It has such a 70s vibe, but it brings in everything that has happened since the 70s.
- So what makes it have the 70s vibe? - The snare drum sound. - The snare drum sound. - The snare drum sound to me... - [Ryan] Is 70s. - Yeah. And we've talked about this before with Silk Sonic and maybe it's just Paak's like the way he plays drums.
He's playing drums on this, right? - I think sometimes both of them like they trade. - I wonder. Does it say specifically who it was on that? - Yes, it does say who played drums on this? And this is not Anderson or Bruno, we got Homer Steinweiss on drums. - Oh shit! Wow. - It's funny. It sounds like Paak actually.
The triplet fills. Like (imitating a drum set). - I heard that too. - That's such a Silk Sonic sound. The triplet fills. - So a triplet fill is when you play triplets in a fill.
Instead of eighth notes, da-ka, da-ka, da-ka. You play triplets. da-ka da, da-ka da, da-ka da. And the reason why this is so cool is because most of the song is in eighth notes. And when you hear those triplets, it kind of brings you to the drums. What is the drummer doing? Oh, they're playing triplets. It's very cool.
- But for me, it's the micing and the recording and the mixing of the drums. Actually, when we listen to Silk Sonic, I've said this before, so at the risk of repeating myself, it sounds like such quintessential ribbon mic drums. I don't know if they use ribbon mics, but listen. (drums playing) ♪ Must have spent ♪ - Like it's a dark sound. Like the modern snare has that shh-kind of thing on top.
Shh. This is a, kh. It's this kind of dry but it's also like a very woody tone. You feel like you can hear the whole snare drum.
You can hear the tail of the snare drum. So the drum sound is one of the quintessential drum sound. - What else? What makes it feel 70s? - The P-Bass baby. - [Ryan] The P-Bass. (playing bass guitar) - The playing. - What do you mean the P-Bass?
- The sound and the playing. - A sound and the playing the fact that it's probably flatwounds that is happening. There's so may little specific fills.
There's one coming out of the second. - What makes it sound like flatwounds? Just how dark it is? - Yeah. So this P-Bass has flatwounds on it right now. And there's two kinds of base strings. We got flatwounds and you got roundwounds. And roundwounds are more modern, they have the zing, they have that kind of like bright upper top, like the difference between ribbon mics and condensers. Flatwounds are good for this style because that is how base strings used to be made.
They were all flatwounds. They didn't have that top end. And so there's this kinda like punchy, like (playing bass guitar) boogie sound, I guess, to it. Like this bass has. That you wouldn't have from a modern active bass. If I did slap on this bass it wouldn't have that modern.
- Give us a little taste. (bass guitar music) Yeah. (bass guitar music) - Which sounds more like Larry Graham than it does Victor Wooten, for example. - It doesn't have the 80s sheen to it.
It has the 70s darkness. - And what about the playing makes it feel like 70s? - Well, I think it's a combination of staccato stuff. There was a lot of the vocabulary, second verse, there was like. (playing bass guitar) There's this left hand mute technique that I end up doing that a lot of bass players do to emulate the sound of a 70s bass. Because they used to put sponges by the bridge to get more of a muted tone. And so what I end up doing here is I end up laying my hand, laying my fingers across the strings too.
- So you're muting with your left hand? - Exactly. (playing bass guitar) Versus, (playing bass guitar) and I'm hearing a lot of the mutey stuff going on here. So they probably weren't using a sponge, but that mutey P-Bass flatwound sound is so... - It's a big piece of it. - So tied to the rhythm section sound. - I'm gonna say a obvious one.
Cord vocabulary. - Yes, agreed. The major sevens. - Yeah. So a lot of this kind of sus 13 sound. (playing guitar) Right? Imagine my guitar was in tune. - One more thing that makes it sound really 70s. The the beautiful, fricking string arrangement.
That's totally buried in the mix. - Larry Gold. - Just like that's.
When you hear those 70s records, it's like, they spent like so much money on an orchestra and arrange and players, and then they just bring it, just very quietly into the mix. That is a 70s vibe. - [Ryan] Just a salt. - One thing I love so much about Bruno and Anderson is that the music really, like it's obvious to say, but it comes first. And I guess it like homer on drums. It's like, you have Bruno, who's a wonderful drummer, you have Anderson who's a wonderful drummer.
And then you have Bruno's drummer, who's his brother, Eric, normally, and all three of them are wonderful drummers, but they got this other guy to do the part. So it's like, oh, I don't need to be playing drums. It's whoever's right for this vibe in this part. And actually just crushes it. And I think that's so cool that they're like, you know what, that's the guy's best for the job. That's who's gonna throw it down.
- That's such a good point. That's like, Ryan's point at the beginning too, it's like everything serves the song. That's another example of that kind of humility. They're just like, look, what's best for the song. Like let's have Homer do this and we'll do these other things. And they're just focused on making the best thing possible versus like being the dominant voice in the band.
- We've talked about this before, but it might be worth mentioning again, which is just the idea of using modulation as production. Chords as production. Now with music a lot of music today, the thing that sets sessions apart is the different production elements coming in and out with these types of songs they're using key changes to make section feel new again. - And the perfect example of that is the bridge. Right? Let's listen to you coming out of the...
- It doesn't modulate in this one though. This is something I love about this. It gives you the impression that it's gonna modulate, which is kind of what happened... What's the other Silk Sonic song? - [Tim] "Leave The Door Open". - "Leave The Door Open". Yeah.
That one modulates in a really clever way. And it almost hints at it here, but it doesn't. Because going into the chorus, the thing that goes into the chorus in this one, we hit the sixth sus. But the first chord of the chorus is the four chord, which is kind of an unusual transition to go from six sus to four.
So it goes at the end of the bridge from the five sus to the six sus giving the impression that it's going to be modulating up a whole step. Like it's gonna give, we're in Disney territory where you go from the five, and then you go up the five, like up a whole step and then we're up the whole... - Which is a bit like Alan Menken.
- You're right. That's a very common modulation technique. Where you hit the five chord. - Of the new key.
- No, no, no. You just hit the five chord of the first key. Then you go up a half step, same chord and everybody goes, "Oh, we're going to the one in the new key!" But then they don't. - They don't. Yeah. - Can we hear that? - Yeah. Let's hear that. ♪ Is that you need ♪ ♪ But I also hope ♪ ♪ That your trifling ass ♪ ♪ Is walking around barefoot in these streets ♪ ♪ Look out ♪ Three.
♪ that you ain't right here with me ♪ Two. ♪ Now I gotta give you back ♪ Five, five, here we go. ♪ To the city, oh, you got me ♪ ♪ Smokin out the window ♪ (all awing) - Oh. Fucking genius. It's so genius. - It's just. I love that. It's clever.
- That's subtle too. It's amazing. - The other thing maybe that makes it feel super old is the use of major sevens. It's like all the fours are major sevens, all the ones are major sevens. And it also gives it that smooth R&B kind of vibes, you know, is the major sevens. It's like you can hear Barry White speaking some sweet nothings. - The talking. Right?
The talking it's some Elvis, kind of Barry white. - The Bootsy Collins at the top. That's a cheat code. - The Bootsy at the top. Yeah. - Okay, great. Let's listen to the live version of the song.
"Smokin Out The Window" from the American Music Awards. - American Music Awards. The Hooligans is the band. It's Bruno's band. - Let's listen. (crowd cheering) ♪ Smokin' out the window ♪ ♪ Must've spent 35, 45 thousand up in Tiffany's ♪ ♪ Oh, no ♪ ♪ Got her badass kids running around my whole crib ♪ ♪ Like it's Chuck E. Cheese ♪
♪ Put me in a jam with her ex-man in the UFC ♪ ♪ Can't believe it ♪ ♪ I'm in disbelief ♪ ♪ This bitch got me paying her rent, paying for trips ♪ ♪ Diamonds on her neck, diamonds on her wrist ♪ ♪ And here I am all alone, all lone ♪ ♪ I'm so cold, I'm so cold ♪ ♪ You got me out here ♪ ♪ Smokin out the window ♪ - Oh, man. Those shows must be so fun. I bet those shows are the funnest. - That band is like the best pop band. - So a couple questions for you guys. You've all and I think maybe Ryan and Jacob, especially, and Adam, I know you've played a bunch of live shows too. But there's some differences that make this the better way to play it live.
If you're gonna play this at an award show and you have that original song, why would you play it like this? - It hit so much harder live. Oh my God. They're hitting so hard and it's such a different sound. It's such a different vibe because it's the energy is so much higher. It needs to be higher for the live.
- I wonder if it it's faster. Do you think? It might be a click or two faster. Some common techniques that people will use when performing things live are number one, things just feel everybody's hearts are beating faster, so if you play things at record tempo at a live show, it often times slow. So people will speed things up. And then the drummer will, a lot of times just be way more active.
- Eric Hernandez, Bruno's brother. He was definitely doing some more choppy fills in there. - More choppy fills. And if you go see like anything at the Super Bowl, anything like Adam Blackstone, there's always just insane chops, drummer stuff happening that people would never get away with playing on a record.
You know what I mean? But people want... That's the fastest and most effective way to bring a shit ton of energy, is just to have the drummer go crazy. - Air moves differently on a stage if the drummer is playing more notes. Even if everybody's on ears, even if it's all like a curated thing, if the drummer is physically moving the air differently, there's a different approach. It would be such a different show if he was playing like the record. - The other thing that's interesting about the way they do this is, the groove doesn't start for like a minute.
- Yeah. It's a lot of hits up top. - It's hits to kind of get people to want the song. - Anticipation. Yeah. - I think best live shows, a lot of really great live shows, they are really good at building anticipation and then release.
- How the arrangement changes from the studio version to the live version it's a treat for the audio to be like, "Oh, it's the same song but there's some thing. Oh my God." Like the chord on Chuck E. Cheese. - Yes. - [Jacob] Oh yeah. Yeah. - Play that.
- This is one of my, oh, okay. I got it. - Wait. You gotta tell us about it. (crowd cheering) ♪ Must have spent 35, 45 thousand up in Tiffany's ♪ ♪ Oh, no ♪ ♪ Got her badass kids running around my whole crib ♪ ♪ Like it's Chuck E. Cheese ♪
♪ Put me in a jam with her ♪ - What did you just hear? - A six major seven baby. Six major seven. - Yeah. So sick. - Why does that sound like that? What are the of chords? Let's talk about the chords in that verse.
What's going on? - Tell us Adam. - So six major seven. This is one of my favorite chords. I call it the Isfahan chord, which is the second (crosstalk) - [Ryan] Nice. - Why Isfahan? (Jacob vocalizing) - That chord, right there.
So it's a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn for the Duke Ellington orchestra called "Isfahan". And it's like one of the only times I've ever heard this chord prior to this, which is the six major seven. It's a cord built on the six but it's just a major seven for some reason.
I don't know why. It just is. And it's right there. We're on the key of D and that's a B major seven chord. - Okay. So normally in the key of D
the six chord sounds like this? - [Adam] Right. - But this chord (flicking guitar) is this. So it takes two notes. A and D. And the key of D would normally be A natural and D natural. But in this chord, it's A sharp and D sharp.
So it's a lift. It physically is we take it to and it's this lift and then you go back. - When we played that you played a melody on top of that, was like what Bruno was singing basically? Is that what you played? You played something. Can you just play whatever you played again, when that chord hits. It was so... - I just emphasize that seven. The B five. ♪ Must've 35, 45 thousand up in Tiffany's ♪ ♪ Oh, no ♪ ♪ Badass kids running around my whole crib ♪ ♪ Like it's Chuck E. Cheese ♪
♪ Put me in a jam ♪ - Yes. - It's totally out. Just the rub. - So what's so interesting again, just to like, even in that first couple, even the first few hits we're used to (piano playing) that's the tonality we're used to. And then the scale you just played, is what? (playing saxophone) - Just emphasizing that half step.
- Except Bruno does like (playing bass guitar) Bruno, I think he touches a G in his little riff on the way down. So it's like, (playing guitar) I think. - So already in the first 30 seconds of this performance I think that the opening Pharrell thing is different. The first drum fill it's a bit different. - It's a little different, I think there's still the four hits.
- The four hits but there's a fill that's not in the... - There's more of a fill. Yeah. - So here's the fill in the live version. (funky music playing) - Okay. Yeah, yeah. - Here's the studio. (R&B music playing) Totally different.
- Different fill. Okay. So it's already... - This is twice as long. Ka, ka, ka, ka. - Yeah, it's a little more active. So it's already announcing like, okay, this is gonna be slightly different from the recording and then we get the major six chord and everyone's buckling their seat belts because they know that they're in for some exciting shit.
- I love that idea of harmony and arranging as production, because like you're telling a very different story here. One that's necessary for the live performance, which is more high energy, less vibey. which is like all the arrangement decisions that decision to go to that chord out of everywhere, it's attention grabbing 'cause we're not expecting it.
And all of a sudden Bruno is literally singing in a different key from where he was singing before. And you can't help but be like, oh wow. We're in a new world. Where are we going on this journey? - The other thing that I've never really thought about is, the live version, the crowd becomes part of their recording. You know what I mean? It's an element. It's a huge element of their recording that you have to account for. - Jacob, how do you play differently when you're recording in a studio? Versus when you're playing out on tour with Kanye or whoever, what are the differences in the way you actually approach the playing? - I throw more paint at the wall with less filter on it.
Cause I still live in this imaginary world of like, oh, it's the 70s and people aren't filming this, recording this and I can try doing all of these substitutions and stuff and just like, take more risks with the studio thing you definitely are like, all right, this is gonna be around for a while. I wanna, you know. - On a gig like this, what are you given? And how much leeway do you have to make it your own? - I mean, luckily the The Hooligans, they've been a band for what? 15. They've been a band for so long.
And they used to do covers here in the Valley, in California and stuff, of doing all different songs. So they're like a tried and true band. But in that video they're doing Cameron and Anderson, they're doing total temptation style dance moves in uniform.
And then, like I said, you have Eric and Dwayne in the back doing all the horn parts and all its stuff. Not only are they having to think about the music, they're having to think about this like flawless execution. Because yes, us as musicians, we're all listening. Okay. Is that landing on beat one? Why is that doing that? And then there's some dancers that are analyzing it just as you know, is that all on point? Is that on point? It really is the everything.
- This is, you said it, but this is one of the best bands that's playing music right now. - It's a band. - That's thing that sets it apart. There's a lot of times you go see these shows and there's a bunch of musicians standing on stage that are being paid usually too little, and that are being taken away from their families. And it's not their thing. Most of the time, it's a gig and they don't know that they didn't grow up playing with this band.
They don't know that they're gonna be there in two years. So they don't really take ownership for the performance. This feels like a band. This feels like a group of people that have been in it for a while together that wanna make a great show. - And one thing I love so much also going back to that, is like, you have Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals,
you have Bruno Mars and The Hooligans. And when you saw Bruno do the Super Bowl, which is like the biggest televised musical performance on the planet. What did you see? You saw a group friends dressed exactly the same. There's not, oh, I'm wearing this extra shiny suit. You have, this is me, this is my friends, this is my family. And we're all eq... And that's like, going back to James Brown and The Famous Flames, the Temptations, The Buds, The Monkees, you have this beauty in uniformity.
Of just like, this is a team and we're executing together. not me here and everyone else, like down. - Such a good call out. Yeah. That's what it fricking sounds like.
It sounds like everybody's on the same team. Everybody's serving the song. At the end of the day, it's like a combination of humility and service to the song. And it's like coming from everybody equally, it such a beautiful thing. I feel like I can hear it. And even the way you talk about that, it just feels like everybody is in it together. - Another thing I love so much about Silk Sonic.
You know, the lyrics, it it's serious music. It's kinda like Steely Dan in that sense where it's like, you have very serious music, but they're not taking themselves too seriously. Like there's something for the musical Michael Jordans and there's something for the musical Danny DeVitos. You have the full that the lyrics.
Not to be over dramatic, but I wanna die. It's like, that's great. That's your lyric. - I love Chuck E. Cheese, UFC. The words that are coming out of Bruno's mouth are not words that belong in songs. It's like this smooth major seven sexy thing.
And he's talking about UFC and Chuck E. Cheese, which is actually, I like this. These are my favorite lyrics of the Silk Sonic project so far, because they stick out, they grab you, they're interesting. They're different. They're not trying to be... Like "Leave The Door Open". I love the song. I think it's beautiful. I think it's great.
But the lyrics sort of disappear. Like it's not about the lyric. This is, you cannot not hear the lyric. - Jacob. What is the live gig that you've done for the longest? - Ooh, that's a good question.
I'll say, being at Mike poser band for the last six years, obviously he had the number one song on the planet for a minute in 2016. - What song was that? - "I Took a Pill in Ibiza". - That's right. ♪ I took a pill in Ibiza ♪ ♪ To show Avicii I was cool ♪ - And of thing I loved so much about him is when we did it live, everything was...
He took away all this sense and we tried to be like Dave Matthew's band or something. And so he's like, the audience in the general public, they know that song. It's on the radio all the time. So when they come to see us live, they know the point of reference.
So like you said, it's the contrast of like, when you know what this is, and then someone does that. It's Kind of like jazz and like the olden sense of like, "Oh, this is a standard from the music, man. Everyone knows this. And then you hear like Sonny Rollins do, "Till There Was You". And then I was like, wow, this is different.
But I get what he's doing because I know the original. - So what how'd you guys play that song? The single, was it very different from the recording? - Yeah. Instead of a synth drop, it was a saxophone drop. Which is a, yeah, come on. Saxophone. - Did you play that saxophone drop? - Yeah. Yeah, yeah. - So there are thousands of people watching and you know the saxophone drop is coming up and we're a bar away from it. Are you in your head? What are you thinking? What are you feeling? Are you nervous? Are you just gonna lay it down? Are you feeling it? What is your like state of body in that moment? - For the live thing for me, it's just like, I'm gonna try selling this.
I'm gonna sell you a bridge I don't own kind of thing. And I know what the, you know, you may not know what's coming. You may be a little trepidacious about it but I'm gonna try hitting it as hard as I can to try and win you over. - Can you play us what you would've played at the drop? - Yeah. - Like give us a vibe.
- I would do a lot of like fills. So the drop would go. (playing saxophone) Or do. (playing saxophone) Just stuff like that.
What could not do on a record? All those little triplets and stuff like that. So for the live thing, I feel like, yeah. Kinda what Adam was talking about. It's just like, you just go for it and you're a little less self centered. - Do you do the same thing every night? - No. That's one thing I guess. And it changes what different artists, some artists want the same kind of what I call a repeatable offense night tonight.
And then some artists are very like, well, they kind of get what it is. And this is a moment and what happens tonight is tonight and what happens tomorrow? Nashville's that? - You have to gauge how much freedom you have depending upon the person that you're playing with. - Yeah. Totally. - Let's take questions from the YouTube community.
This is from Ferdinando Bertoni. Do you think that this song, as well as the whole Silk Sonic was already conceived as something that would be executed live in big arenas, all the songs already have a live-like feel in my opinion. - This is a really interesting point. Here we have a band composed of two superstars.
They know this shit is gonna be massive. Like starting a project knowing that it's gonna be huge is a whole different thing. - They know what the live thing is gonna be. They're writing all this stuff, knowing that this is gonna be on all the award shows and everything. And this is something that like Bruno was doing beforehand of like doing these crazy intricate live arrangements.
So this a well tested formula of like having the live version and then having the studio version. - I remember when I was in college, I played a lot at this venue, the coffee house on campus. - Coho. - The coho. And I found myself writing songs for the coho. So like four years later, I had this like soft voice, like picky, quiet guitar kind of thing. 'Cause I was writing for a coffee shop.
And so the music that came out of me was like written for that venue. These are songs that are written for fucking arenas. Like they are written to be played, live. - And performances like this. TV performances.
- Totally. - The music videos feel like TV performances from the 60s and the 70s. - I'm just thinking of like Duke Ellington wrote for the Cotton Club. (indistinct) wrote Babe Ruth great musicians write for spaces.
And so I think these guys are writing for... - And when bands get huge, you hear how their albums change. You hear U2 and Coldplay writing more simply because they know there's gonna be a five second delay. - I remember, I used take piano lessons from incredible jazz piano player Taylor Eigsti. - Oh, my. Hi Taylor.
(all laughing) - I mean, dude is a monster on keys. Incredible. And I took probably like 10 lessons or something with him. And he told me this story, he was playing at a club once and there was a blind guy in the back of the room, all the way in the back of the room. And sometimes Taylor would be playing and he'd play a lick. And the guy in the back of the room would go, yeah, like that. And Taylor like pause.
And then he would like keep playing and then he'd like play another thing. And then the guy would be like, yeah. And he'd be like, okay. And then he'd like keep playing. And he said that what he does now is he leaves room for the blind guy.
Like he'll play a thing and then he'll leave space. And he like writes for the reaction to the audience. So people get a time to like, let it sink in. I feel like actually they're doing that. Like they leave some spaces.
They know exactly when the crowd's gonna cheer. They know when they cut and he says, this bitch, everybody is gonna go. They know when the audience is gonna react.
- And you can only really do that with experience. There's no blueprint for that. They have the experience for doing this. Like it's a band, the choreo, everything they know... Like you're saying, it's a whole thing that they know how to do.
- Okay. Second question is from Masong. - Mason GM. - Mason GM. That's probably better way to say it. Mason GM 167. What's the most under... Struggle with that for 30 seconds.
What's the most underrated element of Silk Sonic sound that makes them a level above other musicians. I'm gonna go with their ability to write harmonic changes. And I'm a harmony person. So I love harmony. but there's nobody writing harmony like this today. That's like pop songs. Like they're not overdoing it,
but it is so fucking smart. And the key changes and the little lifts and the way they get to new keys is like beautifully crafted old school harmony. I'm not sure they get enough credit for just the harmonic genius of the work. - Yeah, go ahead. - Oh, I was gonna say
it's Stevie Wonder is like the blueprint for how you do very smart, very clever, very beautiful harmony in a pop song that really tells a story. And I think Silk Sonic and honestly a lot of the stuff that Bruno was doing beforehand but really culminating in Silk Sonic is like, the spiritual success are to like Stevie Wonder's harmonic language. In a way that just serves the song but just the story is so, so detailed and so rich.
- It's interesting that this works so well because it's a caricature of a genre. - It is. It's almost a parody, but not really. - It's almost a parody, but it's so good.
You know what I mean? You can't help, but like it and have a great time. - Jacob and Adam, so good to have you guys. - Heck yeah.
- Thank you so much for coming and being on the show with us. - We take it out with little O'Donnell what do you guys say? - Actually I was hoping Jacob would sign our... - Oh, you guys have a wall signing. - Did you say Paul Simon? - Paul Simon. Let's call the red and Paul Simon.
- Oh my God. Paul red diamond. - Do you wanna go sign, Paul Simon? - That goes perfect with right. - I'm gonna get a video of you signing the red diamond.
- Do I put my social at my security number? - [Jack] Put out your social. - [All] Your credit card out. - Put your grandmother in there too.
- I'm gonna do a little thing that I stole from Chris Potter. He uses a little saxophone in his signature. - Oh, that's so cute. - I love you, Chris. I steal all your stuff. You're the best.
(Jacob laughing) - Thank you Jacob. And thanks everybody for watching for being here, for leaving comments, for telling us what to review next. If you have suggestions for things that we should listen to, please leave them in the comments below. Guys. Play us out. This has been another episode of PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS REACT. Thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.
(jazz music playing) - All right. - We're professionals guys. We're professionals.
2022-03-17 14:20
