“I finally got the chance to meet Pharrell. I must say it was bittersweet but a good experience and learning experience. The story is, my man was able to book an interview with Pharrell through a few connections. He knew I was an aspiring producer so he didn’t hesitate to ask me and I jumped right on it. We were suppose to speak with him after a N¤E¤R¤D concert but it got postponed and it was moved to the Studio. So we go to the studio and I was nervous. I remembered all the youtube videos from Pharrell making music and was bugging. We walk into the studio and the guys who run it sit us down in a room not far from the production room. And I’m hearing heavy bass and melodies and am thinking this is a dream come true. There are the constant drum and percussion additions to the beat and were hearing people go back and forth. I saw Pharrell’s brother pass by and introduced myself and asked him was he the one P mentioned in “Best Friend“. He didn’t know but he was a real cool down to earth kid.
So we wait around and after a while we get to go into the studio. I was mad nervous but he’s just sitting there working on a beat. He looked back at me a few times and shot really hard glances but kept on going with the beat. Now that I think about it, it was possible he was nodding at me but I couldn’t distinguish that from a head bop. He was definately in his zone, and sang a few things that was on his mind. Just like what you’ve probably seen in the “In The Midnight Hour” video. My man wanted to set up the camera equipment and it came time to test the levels. So Pharrell stopped the music to record something again and my man cut him off right as he was about to record. He said “hey Pharrell can you hold on a second while we test out the mics”. There was a small ackward pause. It kind of felt like the world stopped because me, p’s man and p were just looking at him. Everyone stopped for a few seconds. After the Pharrell just said “you don’t do that.” Those were the first words he said to us that whole time.
And my man apologized and Pharrell said, just go ahead. That definately made things alittle ackward. Then, we went ahead and did the interview. My man introduced himself and P said ok. I introduced myself and he didn’t respond. He was cool on camera but after the interview he went directly back to the beat without saying much. He turned it on and was texting. I held out my hand and said “hey dude can I just shake your hand” and I just said hey man you’re a big inspiration to me. He said thank you and bowed and went back to business. The thing is that he’s all about business. He addressed us exactly what we were for and went back to his business. I can’t be mad at that but its just like “In The Midnight Hour” Video. He’s all about the music and don’t mess with him when its music mode. I couldn’t get him a demo or anything but I got the card of an engineer there and told him that I do a few things. He said I could shoot him a few things. I couldn’t blame P for being that way since its business. For all I know, we were probably the press and a few steps from being paparrazzi to him.”
The Interview