Interview

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BRIAN GRAZER: Hello! It's BG.

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: What's up, man?

BG: I'm a little jet-lagged. I just got back to Los Angeles from London late last night because I'm producing The Da Vinci Code there. When you fly west, the goal is to stay up as long as possible, so I was up for 20 hours. But I'm really excited to do this with you. You're coming out with your first solo album now, and you've worked with all these great people in music, across all these genres. First, though, I want to get into how you go about things. With all these opportunities and forks in the road before you, how do you make decisions about which way to go?

PW: The simplest way to say it is that I think we're all dealt these cards in life, but the cards in and of themselves don't read one way or the other. It's up to you to home in and cultivate whatever you've got in your hand. Most of the time, I see what I see, I search my feelings, and then I make my decisions based on my gut-and I don't always make the right ones.

BG: What informs your gut? What information do you bombard yourself with in order to inform your instincts so you're not just a dilettante?

PW: Well, whether we know it or not, everything we look at is intake. We take in a thousand times more things than we think we do. We see everything, but it's up to us to realize what's actually there. That, to me, is how you find the truth in things and, hopefully, what you're really looking for.

BG: Are there any specific environments that you like to be in that really help clarify things for you? It could be a coffee shop or anywhere, really.

PW: Bookstores. I like to browse and just hang in bookstores.

BG: Alone? Or with people?

PW: Alone. Another would be when I am listening to music on the iPod. And a third would be when I'm flying on charter jets. [Grazer laughs] I don't know if it's the air pressure or whatever, but being that high in the air just seems to make things super clear. Maybe it's just psychological. Another place where I get a lot of work done is in the shower.

BG: So, how do you decide who you're going to work with and who you're going to give your creative essence to? Because I'm looking at the people you've worked with, and I see Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears, Usher, Nelly, Snoop Dogg-all these people from all these different cultures.

PW: It's just a gut feeling. I always remember that music is something I'm very lucky to be able to do. Teddy Riley's studio was literally two blocks from my high school in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He left New York, and out of all the places in the world he moved to Virginia Beach, which is not a music industry-type place. So I got involved in the music industry, and it was only a few months ago that I really realized how fortunate I am. I do something that people can't see and touch. You can hear music, but you cannot physically stick your hands out and feel it unless you're standing in front of a speaker, which is a transmission and a simulation, but not the real thing. It's like God or the wind.

BG: God, wind, and music.

PW: You can't physically touch any of them, but you can feel all of them.

BG: When you listen to your iPod, is there any music that you like turning on that guarantees you'll get into a good space?

PW: That would be A Tribe Called Quest.

BG: Really? Can I ask you which album?

PW: Either their first, People's Instinctive Travels . . . [1990], or their third, Midnight Marauders [1993]. That group is just brilliant.

BG: I think I rode around with Q-Tip once in Russell Simmons's car. I'll have to get those records.

PW: It's pretty strong stuff.

BG: So, is there anyone you haven't worked with but you really look up to or that you would love to work with?