Pharrell Williams on ‘Piece by Piece’ and his love of joy

On a rainy day in Paris, Pharrell Williams was at the Louis Vuitton headquarters, living out his dream, in an office he prefers to call his “dream space.”

Last February, Williams was named creative director for men. He supervises a staff of 200 people and has already launched four new collections. His latest work, listed at UNESCO, was a tribute to the diversity of the human race.

When asked what is most satisfying about seeing his designs on the runway, Williams replied, “You’re not going to like this answer: everything!” he laughed. “Come on, man. It’s a dream!”

For over thirty years, he has helped create pop music’s biggest hits, from Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” to Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” while helping to bridge the gap between pop culture and fashion.

He says the runway is another way for him to show people who he is: “I always want to create a sense of joy because I feel like there’s a lack of joy in the world.”

Sanneh asked, “But I guess you still have to pay attention to whether people are buying these clothes I made?”

“Sure, that’s when you start questioning success,” Williams said. “But man, you gotta enjoy it. If you like it, nine times out of ten, someone else will like it.”

Now we have something new to watch: “Piece by Piece,” an animated Lego movie about Williams’ life, directed by award-winning documentarian Morgan Neville. Last month at the Toronto Film Festival, Williams said he still couldn’t believe he got to make the movie. “I come from a marginalized community where we hear the word ‘no’ a lot,” he said. “For some reason (for “Piece by Piece”) we got a lot of yes votes.

“It seems like one of your superpowers is getting people to say yes to things they might otherwise say no to,” Sanneh said.

“It wasn’t that hard; it’s just harder for people who look like me,” Williams replied. “But when we talk about it in Lego, now it’s universal. Replace black with LGBTQIA, Indian, Asian, short, plus size or whatever. LEGO is the great equalizer.”

To watch the “Piece by Piece” trailer, click on the video player below:

As a boy growing up in a Virginia Beach apartment building, Williams, a self-described misfit, saw and heard the world differently than most people, thanks to a condition called synesthesia, which allows him to “see” the colors of sound: “For me, sight and sound are still connected, so they send each other ghost images. It’s a condition, but at the same time a gift, because I don’t know how I would create music if I didn’t see it. That’s how I imagine it.”

He formed the duo The Neptunes with his childhood friend Chad Hugo. They were discovered by music producer Teddy Riley, who saw them perform at a school talent show. In 1992, around his 19th birthday, Williams helped Riley write the hit single “Rump Shaker”, recorded by the hip-hop group Wreckx-N-Effect.

Williams said: “If it weren’t for Teddy Riley, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. Because I was in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where there was no music studio or music industry or anything like that.”

The Neptunes produced a string of hits, and then Williams struck out on his own, becoming a bona fide pop star. His voice was everywhere, although Williams himself had mixed feelings about it: “I had a song called ‘Beautiful’ with Snoop, right?” The girls heard me singing it; AND I heard Mickey Mouse! I swear that once you take a moment and just listen, you’ll never be able to unhear it again. But that’s what I hear.”

“Sexy Mickey Mouse?” Sanneh asked.

“No, not sexy, just Mickey Mouse. It was crazy to me.”

In the early 2000s, Williams says he felt lost: “I had moved away from being a student and everything had become too formulaic. It disturbed my spirit and I could no longer feel what I was doing.”

He improved by being a bit more open to new ideas – collaborating with Daft Punk on “Get Lucky” and Robin Thicke on “Blurred Lines”.

“Get Lucky” by Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers:

The producers of “Despicable Me 2” asked him to write a song for the soundtrack of… something happy. “I would never write a song called ‘Happy,'” he said. “I was commissioned to do this. And besides, I didn’t think I’d have more hit records. The universe thought, ‘Well, not only are you wrong about this, but I’m going to have three different orders from three different places and those will be the biggest records for you.’ It just humiliated me because I couldn’t be pompous.

“Happy” by Pharrell Williams:

Naturally, Williams, 51, created the theme song for the new movie “Piece by Piece”:

He set up a music studio in his office so he can create songs while working on the next Louis Vuitton collection. But he says he never felt like he was working at full capacity.

When asked if the pressure to create takes away some of the joy, Williams replied: “It’s not pressure, it’s a privilege. You can’t go wrong if your goal is to enjoy what you do. You can’t go wrong.”

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Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Editor: Steven Tyler.