The animated film Piece By Piece traces Pharrell Williams' early life as a boy growing up in Virginia Beach and follows his trajectory to a Grammy-winning songwriter, performer and producer. He spoke with Tonya Mosley about his synesthesia, the song Prince rejected, and disliking his own voice. Subscribe to Fresh Air's weekly newsletter and get highlights from the show, gems from the archive, and staff recommendations.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the story behind Pharrell's new biopic?
But to call it a biopic almost feels too simple. Like so much of Pharrell's music, the film is a mix of genres. It's a musical, it's a documentary, and it's a Lego animation all in one. It pieces together Pharrell's life growing up in Virginia Beach and the lows and highs of his ascension within the music and fashion industry. And did I mention the music?
The film gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the making of some of Pharrell's top hits that he's produced both for himself and a long list of performers. You can take a break.
So hot in here So hot in here
I'm a hustler baby. I just want you to know.
You don't have to admit you. Don't play. This is me.
Just let me block you. To the break of day. This is me.
All's my life I has to fight. All's my life I. Hard times like y'all. Bad like y'all. Nazareth, I'm f***ed up. Homie, you f***ed up. But if God got us, then we gonna be all right. We gonna be all right.
We gonna be all right. We gonna be all right. Do you hear me? Do you feel me? We gonna be all right.
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville directed Piece by Piece with interviews from music industry heavy hitters like Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, and his partner from the Neptunes, Chad Hugo. There's even a cameo of the late astronomer Carl Sagan. And everyone, of course, is a Lego. Pharrell Williams, welcome to Fresh Air.
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Chapter 2: How does Pharrell describe his synesthesia?
Chapter 3: What inspired Pharrell to use Lego animation?
And what's amazing is a lot of musicians do.
Tons of them.
Have you worked with any of them? Because I was reading that Stevie Wonder might even have a form of synesthesia. And that makes sense because so much of his music he is describing. He is describing color. There is just like a really beautiful sense of that within the music.
What I find fascinating is like, man, if he's never seen red before, then how does he know what red is? Right. How do we know that he's not seeing orange? Yep. But he thinks it's red and there's no way to really verify that. But he is seeing red. I mean, he's a genius man. I don't know. I was just saying, you can go down a rabbit hole with synesthesia. Yeah.
Have you and an artist ever vibed over that?
Yeah, because we all see different things. It utilizes the ROYGBIV, but it's not based on the ROYGBIV's arrangement.
What do you mean?
Meaning, you know, certain people hear chords and they don't necessarily picture the same colors. Everybody is very unique.
I want to play a song just to give us like a better understanding of how your process works. So I chose Milkshake. which I heard in a commercial recently. I mean, we're here. Time has really gone by, right? The milkshake is in a commercial. But Milkshake was a 2003 song performed by Khalees and written and produced by you and Chad Hugo as the Neptunes. Let's listen to a little.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Pharrell face in creating 'Happy'?
How did you get over it then, if you felt like you sounded like Mickey Mouse? Because there was a part of you that wanted it. You wanted to be a solo artist. You wanted to be a star. You wanted to be successful. That was ego when I did Frontin'.
I wanted to show that I was known for rapping and making beats at the time. And I was like, yo, I'm going to go do this thing too. It was more of a flex. And then I looked up and was like, oh, but then you got to go out there and go tour it. And I hated touring.
What don't you like about it?
I love being all over the world. I hated staying in different hotels and not really having the right options that I felt like I wanted to. I was always that way. I was a very particular child. I like what I like, and when I can't have what it is that I like, I'm very routine, and I didn't realize that. I didn't realize a lot of things until later in life.
But my issues were that I was very hardwired for regiment and consistency. And I don't like new environments. But I love, man, touring with N.E.R.D. and going to like Sydney or, you know, or Amsterdam or like London, Brixton shows. But I hated, I didn't really enjoy like the hotel accommodations and I didn't really like being on the bus all the time. I was like not into that at all. So, you know.
It was just very particular as a kid. And I just didn't understand what I didn't understand. And I didn't have anyone to explain it to me because I came from Virginia, you know, it wasn't like a blossoming music industry there. It wasn't known for that. It was only that when Teddy moved there and brought his studio and like his whole entire business outfit there. That's
And that's how we got into the music industry. But other than that, it would have never happened. So there was no one to really show us the ropes. It's not like being here at L.A.
Our guest today is Pharrell Williams. Here's his song Frontin' from 2003. Sexy. Sexy.
So you think about a chance you find yourself trying to do my dance maybe cause you love me.
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Chapter 5: How did Pharrell help reshape Snoop Dogg's image?
It produced, you know, you talk about like carbon, right, black. You know, that heat, that pressure, that time produced a lot of diamonds. There were a lot of athletes that were incredibly gifted, a lot of artists that were incredibly gifted.
Now, the odds are pretty much stacked against you because your teachers need to see what you have in you and in terms of your propensity and not all of the education didn't always meet us in the intersection of where we were, how we process information to like thinking about what we were going to do in our five and 10 year and 15 year trajectory. They weren't having those kinds of conversations.
So, yeah, that was what it was like to be on a federal subsidy. It's like you're an outcast before you even step foot outside the neighborhood. You don't even know.
It was so vibrant the way it was shown in the movie at the same time, though.
Because we didn't want to make poverty porn. That's the thing. It's like I said, outside, look it in. You think, oh, what was me? Man, we were having so much fun. You go in that neighborhood, you see 20 kids doing wheelies on their bicycles from light pole to light pole.
And you felt like, and I understand this feeling, that there's so many talented people. You ask yourself, why you?
That was it. Why me? Because I knew I was the least talented person in my neighborhood. Atlantis was and is teeming with really talented people, all the housing projects.
Do you ever feel survivor's guilt?
Uh, no, never survivor's guilt. Just more just like just questioning, just trying to understand it. Because if I don't know why, then I'm like, well, how long is it going to last? And I don't I don't know why. Then I don't know the when. If I don't know when, then I don't, you know, do I really understand the what? Do you feel like, you know, now? Oh, yeah. My job is to hold the door open.
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Chapter 6: Why does Pharrell dislike his own voice?
Nigo is my partner in Human Made. He's a Japanese founder, apparel and footwear designer. When I met him in Tokyo, you know, he had more Rolls Royces than me and he did not brag and he didn't say anything at all, really. He just would like pull up and just be like, wow. the power of the silence, that changed me. I was like, man, I don't need to brag.
And then like, you know, and that was, that started the process. That was like 20 something years ago. And I still kind of bragged, but I took note that like he had way more impact and he didn't say anything. He just pull up or he just put that on. Yeah. Or, you know, he'd just be doing the most, but not saying anything.
Right.
You know, doing the most, but saying the least. Yeah. And then like when I turned 40, then like, you know, I had like a series of songs go number one that were commissioned for people. They were looking for specific things. It wasn't just me waking up going, I'm gonna do this for you and this is what you need.
It was more like the universe came to me with three different things that I needed to do. And when I did them, they became bigger records than anything I had ever done before. So that like it humbled me and made me cry. It was like, well, OK, all this time I thought it was all about me. And, you know, I'm the genesis of this, of what I'm doing.
And, you know, I come up with the impetus and the universe was like, nah, you know, you had to be frustrated. You tried it nine times and it didn't work, did it? And then I decided that you would have some success, the universe says to me. And it was three times that year I had three number ones and was like, okay.
What were the number ones, do you remember?
Blurred lines, get lucky, and happy.
What a year.
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