Pharrell Williams - Piece By Piece

Song Exploder

Hrishikesh Hirway

Music

4.8 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pharrell Williams is—well, let me just say, he’s a big reason why Song Exploder exists. He’s a singer, songwriter and producer, and in the 90s, when I first heard the work that he was doing with the Neptunes, which was his production duo with Chad Hugo, it blew my mind. It made me want to know where those sounds came from and where those ideas came from. Pharrell has won 13 Grammys. He’s been nominated for two Oscars. He’s produced iconic songs for Kendrick Lamar, Britney Spears, Clipse, Gwen Stefani, and so many others. And on his own, he’s made songs like “Happy,” the giant hit for Despicable Me that was the best-selling song of 2014. And now, there’s a movie about his life called Piece by Piece. But it’s an animated Lego film. For this episode, I talked to Pharrell about the title song from Piece By Piece. So, coming up, you'll hear how Pharrell built that song, including a first draft that never saw the light of day. You’ll hear how he built “Piece by Piece” by programming it, on his own, with MIDI instruments, and then adding and replacing those parts with other musicians, including the high school marching band that he used to play in.

For more, visit songexploder.net/pharrell.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
0:06.5	I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway.
0:10.5	This episode is sponsored by BBC Sounds.
0:13.0	Join Ryland and Scott Mills every week for a pop top 10 on BBC Sounds
0:18.0	as they debate and decide on their own top 10s in the world of pop.
0:21.0	They'll also be joined by fabulous guests such as
0:23.7	Catherine Ryan, Natalie Cassidy, Shazne Lewis, Denise Van Outen, and other iconic
0:28.8	guests. Loads of nostalgia and stories of what really went down.
0:33.2	Search Pop Top 10 and subscribe.
0:35.3	Forrell Williams is...
0:39.8	Well, let me just say, he's a big reason why Songploder exists. He's a singer, songwriter, and
0:45.3	in the 90s, when I first heard the work that he was doing with The Neptunes, which was his
0:49.7	production duo with Chad Hugo, it blew my mind. It made me want to know where those
0:54.8	sounds came from and where those ideas came from. Ferel has won 13 two Oscars. He's produced iconic songs for Kendrick Lamar,
1:05.6	Brittany Spears, Clips, Gwen Stefani, and so many others. And on his own
1:10.9	he's made songs like Happy, the giant hit for Despicable Me that was the best-selling song of 2014.
1:18.0	And now there's a movie about his life called Peace by Peace, but it's an animated LEGO film.
1:25.0	For this episode, I talked to Ferrell about the title song from Piece by Piece.
1:29.6	So coming up, you'll hear how Ferrell built that song, including a first draft that never saw the light of day.
1:36.3	You'll hear how he built piece by piece by programming it on his own with MIDI instruments,
1:41.6	and then adding and replacing those parts with other musicians
1:44.7	including the high school marching band that he used to play in. It's a days of, days on, uh, you can hate it
	...

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