Pharrell Williams on making music for ‘Piece by Piece’ and what his home state of Virginia means to him
When putting together the song, “Piece by Piece,” for the documentary about his life of the same name, Pharrell Williams saw it as a chance explore everything in his life that has led him to where he is right now. “It’s thinking about how everything collectively is your story. If you think about all of the crazy times that you have experienced in your life and all the fun times and all the sad times and all of the momentous time and all the times you were caught off guard by things that just blindsided you,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the video interview above). He even traces it to the medium in which his story is told in the film. “They’re all piece by piece and it’s very interesting that it’s sort of synonymous with how the Lego world works.”
“Piece by Piece,” from Focus Features, tells the story of Williams’ life through the use of Lego figures and materials. It examines him growing up in Virginia Beach alongside friends that included Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Chad Hugo and Pusha T, forming The Neptunes with Hugo, connecting with Teddy Riley, his eventual collaborations with the likes of No Doubt, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Daft Punk, and Kendrick Lamar as well as the difficulties he faced along the way. The film is directed by Morgan Neville, who won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2013 for “20 Feet from Stardom.”
More from GoldDerby
SEEPharrell Williams gets LEGO-fied in trailer for outside-the-box biopic ‘Piece by Piece’ [Watch]
Williams also gives a lot of credit to his home of Virginia for helping to shape the kind of artist that he’s become, thinking about it on quite a grand scale. “We grew up with the residual ashes of the original sin but we’re not bitter. We have suffered but we’re excited about the progress that we have made, we’re excited about the promise, and we’re excited about potential. And it’s the people that matter the most, that unlock the actual potential of where we can go and Virginia is that.” He’s not only aware of how the commonwealth has shaped him but also all of his ancestors that came before him. “There wouldn’t be a film without the state of Virginia. It made me, it made my parents, their parents and their parents. I’m honored and grateful for that and I’ll never forget that. It makes me feel compelled to give back to my state.”
Williams is already a two-time Oscar nominee. He scored his first nomination in 2013 in Best Original Song for his chart-topper “Happy” from “Despicable Me 2” and scored his second in 2016 as a producer of “Hidden Figures” in the Best Picture category. He’s also scored an impressive 42 Grammy nominations over the past 23 years and collected 13 wins. Among those wins were trophies for Album of the Year (“Random Access Memories” with Daft Punk in 2013), Record of the Year (“Get Lucky” with Daft Punk and Nile Rodgers in 2013) and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical three times (as part of The Neptunes in 2003 and as a solo producer in 2013 and 2018).
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
