Singer Adriene "Adra Boo" Green and producer/DJ Mike "Action Jackson" Sylvester, aka electro-soul duo Fly Moon Royalty, are no strangers to elbow grease. After all, they met while working at a restaurant in Seattle.
"As soon as he said he was a producer, it was like, 'Boom!'" Green says their connection.
Once the duo began working together, other musical projects took a backseat, and the pair released its self-titled debut in 2011.
Rave reviews from the likes of Seattle and City Arts magazines, which named Fly Moon Royalty one of the city's best new bands and best local band, respectively, performances supporting soul band Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Chewelah native Allen Stone, and 2012's Dimensions EP propelled the band into early 2014 and the release of its second EP, Unfinished Business — much of which was heard at the duo's stunning Marmot Fest set last month.
The five-track EP was the product of the duo's unstoppable work ethic, culled from extra songs Green and Sylvester had in their arsenal.
"The EP was called Unfinished Business because those songs were that," Sylvester says. "We have a full-length album that no one's heard yet. It's some of our best work, in my opinion. It's hard to sit on it ... But we thought we needed to take care of unfinished business before releasing that."
Unfinished Business finds the pair combining the genres that inspired them to pursue music — funk (Green) and hip-hop (Sylvester) — to create a fresh sound.
The Daft Punk-like "DNA," a late addition to the project, is heavy on vocoder and splits Unfinished Business into two halves.
The first half opens on a funky note with "Piece of Me," followed by "No Pain No Gain," which has a more soulful vibe. On both tracks, Green's sultry pipes add intensity to Sylvester's groovy beats.
The more hip-hop-focused latter half includes "Step Hard" and "The Anthem," both featuring solid verses from Sylvester and even fiercer vocals from Green.
Not ones to slow down, Green and Sylvester say the next few months involve a lot of prep work for 2015, which Green says, perhaps not-so-jokingly, involves "world domination."
"Basically, it's us filling in the blanks," she says. "Our management team and our booking agent are really gunning hard for us this year, and we're planting a lot of seeds."
"We have a strong team and a good game plan," Sylvester adds. "We're ready to put in the work."♦
Fly Moon Royalty with Flying Spiders • Fri, Aug. 22, at 9 pm • $8 • All-ages • The Big Dipper • 171 S. Washington • bigdipperevents.com • 624-4319
