We went to Pharrell’s sit down at Tisch
‘Everyday is a learning experience … I am grateful for what I have become’
Last night, Pharrell Williams sat down with NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music to discuss his future residency at NYU.
One word can be used to describe Pharrell’s talk — hilarious. Rather than introducing Pharrell’s accomplishments, the students and faculty who were in attendance left with a better sense of his personality. Pharrell responded to almost every question asked by Jason King, one of the founding faculty members of Clive Davis, with sarcasm and mix of facial expressions, leaving the crowd hysterical.
Apart from the comedic performance, Pharrell humbly walked us through his life and successes. From his early work with N*E*R*D to writing and singing Grammy winning records with Daft Punk, it was clear that he had a much larger impact on music than he let on.
Pharrell’s duo, The Neptunes, is largely responsible for multiple hit records during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Pharrell called himself the “Mr. Magoo” of producers. He doesn’t have a plan.
He said: “Whenever I aim, I miss.” Early on in his career musicians would contact him to make a “club banger”, but he didn’t want to be confined to one sound. He’s always open to letting the musical process lead him down any path.
Throughout the entire night, producer Magoo had a connection with each person in the crowd. He was honest, vulnerable, kind, funny, but most of all inspiring.
During the Q & A session with students, Pharrell said some encouraging things:
“The business in the school you are referring to right now [Clive] is a huge advantage because you are around people, you’ll be in the community and we are like creatures of habit. We are meant to be together in concerts, a school of us, it strengthens you and it actually makes you better. So you are in the right place.
“Everyday is a learning experience … I am grateful for what I have become.
“Failure hurts pretty bad, but when you have good people around you, they remind you that failure is actually just a lesson. Its how not to walk, so you don’t fall again… Failure can honestly be the best lesson…Failure is not always a bad thing, you have to be smart when you’re in the middle of it, when you’re in the eye of the tornado of disappoint you have to know that its just a storm and it will pass.”
The passion for music shared between Pharrell and everyone associated with Clive will ensure a flawless residency with NYU. He will continue to inspire every artist he encounters. Who knows, maybe he will be responsible for the next successful group of artists that come out of Clive.
For the rest of us, we will just have to sit back and wait a little while to be able to say, “You hear this song? I went to school with the person who made it.”