N*E*R*D on the road to discovery...
Firstly, tell me how you’ve got to where you are today? Family/Childhood ambitions?
Shay: We grew up in Virginia and we’ve always been musically inclined. I was bought up in church and played every instruments that I could get my hands on. I think I speak for Pharrell when I say that too. It’s always been a dream of ours since we were kids.
Didn’t you want to be anything else like a fireman or something?
Shay: I always wanted to play sports but I was always too short so I did the next big thing and that was music.
So you first got into music by going to church then?
Shay: No, Pharrell, Chad and me went to school together and we all admired the same musicians and artists.
Like who?
Shay: Like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers.
So you were into hip-hop bands mainly then?
Shay: No we liked a bit of everything.
Were you into rock bands and if so which ones cause I know that you’re working with rock bands now…
Shay: I was a big Gun ‘n’ Roses fan and was also into Welcome To The Jungle and Nirvana.
How did you get into the production side of things then?
Pharrell: Production is me and Chad. We got discovered in high school as a band and we were called I Don’t know. After being called I Don’t Know, we decided to call ourselves The Neptunes. We started out being signed to Teddy Riley’s label and he gave us a shot at producing a record called ‘Tonight’s The Night’. As little musical frauds we hopped from lillypad to lillypad.
Why did you decide to call yourselves NERD as a group instead of just sticking with your original production name The Neptunes?
Pharrell: Well NERD is actually a personality and it’s thoughts versus music.
Why use the anacronym No One Ever Really Dies – would you say that you’re quite spiritual?
Pharrell: We are spiritual but it’s not that serious. It’s actually just a cool anacronym with the whole connotation behind the word NERD. |
About Petrol Records
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