people
PHARRELL WILLIAMS
W
Music electrifies me
e are talking to a singer, producer and the man behind a string of global number ones. The Afro-American star the planet has been talking about for years. His name is Pharrell Williams and if you haven’t heard of him you must be living in a cave ... or on another planet. Not that he needed you to make his mark. His “Get lucky” and “Happy” are now part of the collective unconscious and, if Google is to be believed, there are no less than 36 million websites dedicated to this mercurial phenomenon. Respect to the artist. Interview conducted in Los Angeles by Frank Rousseau, our USA correspondent - Photos © Frank Rousseau
Apart from being how you earn your living, what does music mean to you? Music? It’s my super power. It’s thanks to music that I got everything I dreamed of. It’s music that opened up all the opportunities in the industry. It’s what gets me up with a big smile in the morning. Nothing in the world would make me betray the thing that inspires me and nourishes me. I’d never complain about my job. I’m extremely grateful to be able to do what I do. What do you feel when you sing? Music electrifies me inside! For me, music is the most effective form of expression when you want to get a message across or touch people. It goes straight to the heart and soul of everyone who knows how to appreciate its real value! The most beautiful quality of a singer or artist is to be able to communicate emotion. Without emotion, the job makes no sense. But to keep the emotion, the sensibility, you need to stay in touch with the audience, your fans, people close to you, your audience. I have one fault. I sing all the time. My wife and my son Rocket might say too much! (laughter). What drives them mad is that I never switch off. When I sing, it’s not necessarily couplets, it can be La-la-la-la-la-la. 26
or Di-di-di-di-di-di-di. Generally, I start in the bathroom in the morning and finish in the evening before I go to bed. I don’t sing in the shower any more since I realised I was swallowing water and could end up drowning. (laughter). Musically, I’m very eclectic. I love early-80s rap because the words were positive, optimistic and less heavy than today. That’s probably down to the economic situation. I’ve also loved drumming since I was a kid. Thinking back, it can’t have been easy for my parents. I’m sure they cursed me and stuffed their fingers in their ears sometimes. What is the secret if you want to last in such a competitive business? It’s really just to enjoy what you do. If you don’t do it with love that comes through straight away. You have to have a positive attitude, and it has to be real not fake. Be happy. Infuse it with a good energy. After that it’s a question of quality. You have to think that an album, a song, are going to be listened to on a loop. The finished product has to be perfectly smooth. Make sure its flawless. What do you think we need right now? More love. More openness to others. Now, more than ever.
We are living in a very tough world right now. A world where everybody’s struggling. We can never forget how important it is to remember that solidarity, goodwill, love of life opens lots of doors. What our society is also missing is that we are trusting each other less and less. We are pulling back into ourselves. But it’s only by opening up, communicating, swapping ideas or life experiences that we create ourselves. What kind of student were you? I got a lot of Ds. A few Cs on a good day. I was never a very academic student. I had good teachers who tried to teach me loads of stuff but frankly I could never see the point. I think in fact what I didn’t like was that they wanted to make me conform to certain rules. This wasn’t easy for a free spirit like me. I wanted to learn, but in my own way. My only motivation was music classes. As I didn’t want them to kick me out on my ass and miss out on the chance to play an instrument, I forced myself to work a bit on other stuff. What annoys you most in life? You who always seems “happy”. You know, negativity is everywhere. It’s all around us. You only need to go on the net to realise there are loads of
things that are only trying to divide us. You don’t need to look hard. That said, it’s not all dark on the planet. We are also doing some really cool actions like feeding other nations or sending out aid to people suffering in war zones. We can also dream when Elon Musk starts talking about his ambition to send people to Mars one day or when you look at this community that lives in space on the space station. Of course, when you see such gaps, such disparities, you can’t avoid the fact that the world is an unequal place. Even so, I think we’re getting there. I don’t know if we can change the minds of older people. I love them and like lots of them. But those who have let themselves get infected by negativity, that hurts, and I really don’t know if we can change their outlook. I think ultimately we’re in the women’s century and it’s time they played a bigger part in our society. Over the last few centuries, who was it taking the mad decisions? Who started the wars? Not the women. I’m a man, I’m happy to be one, but you know what? It’s time women had a chance to take the most important decisions. I know some people won’t appreciate what I just said.
