Pharrell Williams 'Minions Mambo' for Despicable Me

Check: ;Pharrell WilliamsHaving a Bad, Bad Day:Music ofDespicable MeIn the past several years, Grammy Award-winning artist Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. 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 onthe filmmakers don't make children's films. They make films for humans that use some of the tricks and treats of youthful entertainment, but at the same time, there's an amazing storyline."Though the task of scoring his first feature seemed daunting, Williams was grateful that he was surrounded by Academy Award® winner Hans Zimmer as the film's music producer and skilled guitarist Heitor Pereira as fellow composer. Says producer Meledandri: "The moment that we showed Pharrell the imagery, it took him about 30 minutes to say, 'I'll work on this film in any way possible.' He was immedi...

Channel: iTunes Video Length: 2m 3s Date Found: Sun, Jul 11 2010 4:08 PM Category: Entertainment Date Produced: Sat, Jul 10 2010 5:57 PM View Count: 0