Pharrell Williams....Pop svengali and style master

[KiwiCoromandel]

AFTER three days of fruitless phone calls and regal silence, the king of bling finally deigns to be interviewed. Pharrell Williams, international sex symbol, fashion role model and driving force behind the most successful pop production duo of the past decade, will grant an audience .

Location: an achingly chic London hotel. Time: 1pm sharp. Dress: smart casual.

Williams may have a reputation as a diamond-studded diva but the slight, feline, otherworldly figure who slinks into our interview is softly spoken and polite. Skipping through London in the middle of a short European festivals tour, the 33-year-old behind the Neptunes and NERD initially gives monosyllabic replies. But he thaws, dropping a guarded cool that ultimately seems more like shyness than arrogance.

Of course, if anyone in modern pop has a right to be arrogant, it is Williams. With his partner in the Neptunes, Chad Hugo, the Virginia-born mogul has spent the past decade composing avant-garde beats, bespoke basslines and 24-carat melodies for Kelis, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears, Nelly and other platinum-plated names. So potent is the duo's Midas touch that in August 2003 their names were linked to one in five of all records played on British pop radio. In Americait was twice that.

Now the Neptunes svengali has called in some of those superstar favours on his debut solo album, In My Mind. A state-of-the-art fusion of futuristic funk and lush R&B, the 14-track record features cameos by Stefani, West, Jay-Z and others.

But Williams dominates with his staccato beats and crisp raps about Lear jets, Jimmy Choo shoes and Jesus. "It's just an excerpt from my daily routine," he shrugs. "The album is just an interview, that's all. It's just another book for the library."

Early review copies of In My Mind first circulated late last year, but the release was pulled at the 11th hour. Williams has since replaced a few tracks, including a collaboration with Jamie Cullum, but the album is substantially the same as before.

So why the postponement?

"I just decided I had pulled back the curtains too fast," he explains. "By the time I mixed the album I was like, um, I don't know if I want to use this now. So I added new tracks that really reflected how I felt.

"The album was just meant to be a break from being a fashion company for other people's careers. For once I was modelling all the shit."

The fashion comparison is more than a metaphor. Williams runs two clothing labels, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream, in partnership with the Japanese designer Nigo. They have a store in Tokyo, with a second planned for Manhattan.

For our interview, the 21st-century dandy Esquire magazine voted its best dressed man of 2005 is decked out in his own supersized skate gear, which lends him a surreal and cartoon-like air.

"Ice Cream is inspired by the skate world, but it's high end, like skate couture," he explains. "And Billionaire Boys Club is kind of like Willy Wonka's take on Ralph Lauren: vivid, more about flavour."

Does Williams believe anyone can buy style off the shelf, or does it take a certain swagger to carry it off? "You can't buy style. You can buy cool clothes and you can hire a stylist, but you can't buy the personality it takes to animate that style."

Raised in multicultural suburbia, Williams now belongs to the jetsetting superstar party massive. Bono and David Beckham are mates. Beckham, he says approvingly, is "very regular, very normal". They even share the same Manhattan jeweller.

But Bill Gates is his ultimate role model. "He has all the money in the world but he is still a people person," Williams nods. "He still gives a f-- about mankind. I've got my own charities coming up, a huge situation connected to my album, but I just can't get into it now ..."

Williams has also amassed a stellar address book of former girlfriends that reportedly includes Jade Jagger and Christina Aguilera, but he plays down his reputation as a ladykiller.

"That's what they say?" he smirks. "I just make music, man."

He prefers to play the innocent romantic, only occasionally dropping his guard, as happened last year, when he told Playboy about an eight-girl orgy in a Miami hotel. Admittedly, he had sex with only two of them, and any suggestion that he might try a little sexual healing to the sound of his own records brings incredulous laughter. "Naaah! Who has sex to music?" Williams splutters. "That's some old-school shit! That's like some shit my Dad would say! No, I can't imagine it. Sounds like it would be more of a distraction."

Many of the feverish, overwhelmingly female, online gossip sites devoted to Williams suggest he has settled down with his latest girlfriend, Vashtie. But he denies this, insisting he is still searching for his future wife. "No, no romance," he says quietly. "Music's been my girlfriend. That's the truth! It sounds crafty but it's really the truth. I haven't really been able to put time into anything other than music and fashion."

Even with his clothing lines and solo career blooming, Williams is maintaining his prolific day job as part of the Neptunes. He and Hugo have already stockpiled new tracks with Beyonce, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Snoop, the hard rock band Velvet Revolver and many more. "And I'm going to work with Elton John," Williams nods, "but I don't know if I should be talking about that, I should just let people hear it first."

Clearly, few artists turn down the chance to work with haute couture hit-makers such as the Neptunes, although Williams still has a few names on his wish list.

Prince is No.1, but Radiohead's Thom Yorke and the South London one-man band Tom Vek are a close second.

"Tom Vek is a genius!" Williams gushes, suddenly animated. "I just love his production, he doesn't give a f--, he puts it together and musically it's like art. I'm telling you, that kid has something.

"But Thom Yorke is dope too. By the way, I would like to work with Radiohead if they're listening. Can you get me in touch with them? I am dead serious."

Just imagine that: the king of bling meets the pope of mope. But for now, our audience with Pharrell Williams is over. With a gentle handshake, he heads off to resume his day job as the most successful pop svengali of his generation. Any more solo albums planned? "Naaah, I'm a behind-the-scenes guy," Williams says, not entirely convincingly. "I make beats and I make clothes. I'm not a model and I'm not a singer."

source:The Times