Pharrell Suggests That Frank Ocean Is ‘Cooking’ Up New Music
Pharrell Williams says that Frank Ocean could be in the studio making new music as we speak because he enjoys the process.
Speaking to Apple’s Zane Lowe about his new LEGO documentary Piece By Piece, the conversation shifted to what Frank’s up to, and the possibility that he’s making new music.
“You know he’s cooking,” said Pharrell. “Frank stays in the kitchen. And that’s probably the reason why he doesn’t serve as much. He really enjoys the culinary process.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Pharrell explained the story of how “Happy” — one of the most popular songs of the 2010s — came from a place of sarcasm.
Pharrell detailed the story of how he needed a song to score a particular scene in Despicable Me 2 and had gone through idea after idea but they were all rejected.
“This was nine songs that you were trying to complete a task for this film and all you kept hearing is “No, no no no no no no no no no no,” he explained. ”And then it was only until you were out of ideas and you asked yourself a rhetorical question and you came back with a sarcastic answer — and that’s what ‘Happy’ was.”
When Lowe asked Pharrell what the question that he asked himself was, he responded with, “How do you make a song that’s so happy that nothing can bring them down? And I sarcastically answered it and put music to it and that sarcasm became the song — and that broke me. That all of what I thought was supposed to be, didn’t do that.”
The resulting success of the song made Pharrell realize his insignificance in the universe. “It’s so crazy for us to think as individuals, everything comes from us,” he said. “Your ideas, everything that you get, is coming from a library of existence. Nothing is new under the sun.”
Pharrell revealed in a recent interview with Complex that what’s been inspiring him lately has been Future’s Mixtape Pluto. ‘“Aye Say Gang,’” Pharrell said when asked about the project. “I like ‘Ski’ and I like ‘Plutoski’.’ [Future] is just, he’s ‘other.’ It’s just great.”
Pharrell also explained how important that the role of music has been in his career as he’s ventured far outside of just being an artist over the decades. “The music is the skeleton key that’s opened every door,” he revealed. “When Nigo and I did the [Millionaire] sunglasses 20 years ago for [Louis] Vuitton, that happened because Marc Jacobs knew my music. I met Nigo because of my music. I was able to afford Jacobs jewelry and go design jewelry with Jacob because of my music.”
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