Pharrell Williams explains what he’s been up to after ‘disappearing’ since releasing Happy
After years in and out of the spotlight, Pharrell Williams has given some insight into what he’s been up to over the last decade - as well as sharing details on one major upcoming project he's got in the works.
If you say the name 'Pharrell Williams' to a group of people, you can certainly get a wide range of responses.
For some, he has been a pioneer in the music industry in the late 90s and 2000s, producing some of the biggest songs for household name artists like Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Jay Z - the list goes on.
However, for others, he is known as the guy behind the music for Illumination's most popular franchise, Despicable Me.
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And another group might simply know him as the guy behind the song 'Happy'; the song that took the world by the storm as it featured in the Despicable Me films and had a standout a music video littered with celebs.
Speaking to UNILAD, Pharrell acknowledged some people only know him for the song Happy, despite him having a wealth of projects under his belt. Commenting on his work, he simply said: "If you know, you know."
The artist continued: “It is interesting, I think ‘what happened to Pharrell’ has been happening all my life.
“I go in one direction then I disappear and go do something else, that is just who I have always been.”
Which is certainly true. Since the song debuted in November 2013, the music star has been busy.
In March the following year he released his well-received album GIRL, and that same month he was announced as a new coach for the seventh season of TV show The Voice.
The singer-songwriter continued to compose scores for films, including Hidden Figures and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as well as the flicks in the Despicable Me franchise.
And the producer also... well, produced for a whole host of artists including Tyler The Creator, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and SZA.
As if that wasn't enough, Pharrell has also grown his fashion brand, Billionaire Boys Club, and ventured into collaborations with Chanel, Adidas and G-Star Raw.
Reflecting on what he's been up to, he said: “I’ve always worked in many different artistic disciplines... I have always done that.”
“For example, when I did 'Drop It Like It's Hot', I also had sunglasses with Louis Vuitton, that was 20+ years ago but people don’t know that.”
Pharrell told us people would 'learn' about all the different avenues he's ventured down, and he plans to teach us using yet another artform: cinema.
But this isn't the biopic you might be expecting.
Directed by Morgan Neville, the movie is set to release on 11 October, 2024 and is entitled Piece by Piece.
Pharrell's whole life will be detailed, everything from the formation of his rock band N.E.R.D and his fashion label, to his producer highs working with some of the biggest names in the music industry.
But the presentation is what will likely draw people in... because the whole thing is going to be shown as Lego.
Yup, the next Lego movie is essentially a bio-pic about Pharrell.
Before you raise your eyebrows too much, you can hear how Pharrell expects the whole thing to come together despite it being vastly different from the previous films.
“I don’t want to see a whole film of me sitting down and philosophizing, eugh," he said. "Watching that I didn’t think there was anything there."
“But then when my agent said 'you can tell your story whatever way you want'. I was like ‘Whatever way I want?! Whatever way I want?! Are you sure?’”
And with that, creative freedom things started getting put in motion.
While admittedly being apprehensive for a few seconds when director Neville was approached, he jumped right on the project and insisted the lego aesthetic wasn’t a gimmick.
“As soon as I heard it I loved it," Neville said. "It's not just a gimmick, it’s part of the theme, what the story is about, which is creating your own path, having agency over yourself, lego, the most fundamental building blocks of creativity.
“It is just pure imagination and you can do whatever you want."
The trailer certainly shows just how much fun you can have telling your own story through the medium. Who knows, it could start a trend of using Lego to tell all sorts of stories about real life celebs!
Piece by Piece is coming soon to cinemas.
Topics: Music, Film and TV, Fashion, Lego
Gerrard Kaonga