| www.blacktree.tv Sound Check Pharrell Williams Having a Bad, Bad Day: Music of Despicable Me In the past several years, Grammy Award-winning artist Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes and NERD has written and produced for such block- buster global musicians as Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Madonna, Kanye West and Shakira. In 2009, Billboard magazine named The Neptunes producers of the decade, and Williams and his collaborators have played an enormous role in shaping the culture of the music landscape. Naturally, the next step for the artist was to explore the interplay between music and movies. Williams has been interested in scoring music for feature films for some time, and he became more eager to work in this realm after observing Jack Johnson's musical involvement in creating the best- selling soundtrack to Universal's animated Curious George. Williams expressed his interest to friend and music supervisor KATHY NELSON. He remembers: "I told Kathy that the very next time something comes your way, you call me and let me know what it is. She said, 'Pharrell, I really like you, but I'm not going to just give you anything. I'm going call you when it's the right thing.' And I got the call for Despicable Me." A longtime anima- tion fan, Williams was eager to take on the challenge of crafting original songs and themes for his f irst film. "What I like about the philosophy on the filmmakers don't make children's films. They make films for humans that use some of the ... |
