Kai Z. FengBruno Mars has said that he wanted his new album 24K Magic to be the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, where he’s fronting a band at a super-cool party. But it turns out an actual, real-life party was one of the album’s inspirations.
Speaking to British publication NME, Bruno says his collaborator James Fauntleroy‘s description of an awards show after-party got him thinking. James told him that at the party, “Everybody [was] hugged up against the wall, everyone’s being too cool, everyone’s being tough…The vibe is a little..tight.”
“But the DJ drops The Gap Band’s ‘Outstanding,'” Bruno continues, “and James said that he’d never seen anything like it.”
“Everybody just rushed to the dance floor, guys are holding girls’ hands, singing to them,” Bruno continues. “And that story just kind of inspired me and reminded me of what I want to do and the kind of music I want to write.”
That’s why the music on the album is influenced by ’90s R&B, Bruno explains.
“Those ’90s songs are what I was singing to get the girls in school, the songs that the girls like, what we were dancing to as children,” he tells NME. “New Edition. Boys II Men. Blackstreet…Babyface. Jimmy Jam. Terry Lewis. Teddy Riley.”
Back then, Bruno says, “It was cool to dance. It was cool to be joyous, to have fun and wear some flashy s***. It was cool to fall in love and smile and flirt on the dance floor.”
And that’s also why most of the songs on the album are about sex.
Bruno laughs, “Damn right!” adding, “That’s why cavemen were hitting stones: to get everybody around the fire and get them feeling sexy. It’s exactly the same principle, the same thing: just get people on the dance floor, get the girls smiling.”
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