June 2008
By Andrea Woo

It's the day before the kickoff of the much-hyped Glow in the Dark tour in Seattle, Wa., and the Emerald City is looking characteristically like the Pacific Northwest. A perpetual mist of rain has dampened the earth and the wheels of the city are turning amidst a funk of grey and overcast.

At a local radio station, where Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shae Haley of N.E.R.D. are hosting a listening session for their new album, Seeing Sounds, the mood is decidedly more energetic. The walls are vibrating from booming bass and relentless drumming, and heavy synth is coiling its way through the room and into the brains of everyone in attendance.

As Pharrell sits on a swivel chair listening to the music he and his group have crafted, he viciously nods his head to the beat, tapping his foot and occasionally miming the drumming. His eyes are open, but at that moment, he is oblivious to his surroundings. His attention is turned inwards.

"Sometimes, when you hear something, you not only hear things in your mind, you also have a visual picture to go along with it," he would say later on, when the madness of the music had subsided. "That's kind of like what synesthesia is…. We wanted to make sure that 96 per cent of the listeners, when they hear this album, walk away with mental images of things that they heard."

Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to an involuntary experience in another sensory pathway. People with sound-colour synesthesia, for example, see specific colours upon hearing certain musical notes. It is this phenomenon after which N.E.R.D. named Seeing Sounds.

While the trio says that the first two albums, In Search Of… and Fly or Die, were experimental and "without a real, true purpose," every aspect of this third album has been meticulously calculated to a scientific degree.

"There was a thing – it's pretty controversial – but I was reading how when Hitler spoke, one of the things that made him compelling and super charming to these people is that when he wasn't speaking, he kept a high-frequency noise going on," says Pharrell. "[When he'd turn it off and speak], they were totally at ease. It really felt like he brought them peace. I did the opposite; I did things that, frequency-wise, would get you tuned up and make you feel like it's more energetic than what it is."

He also turned to movies like Superman and Indiana Jones for motivation, studying the technical aspects of their scores and dissecting the moods and emotions they evoke.

"I found that in a lot of films there's what's called a sine bass," says Pharrell. "That's a low-frequency bass, like lower than the 808. The real, real, true sine bass, you feel it more than you hear it. That's the reason why in films, when you go to a theatre, you're blown away by certain shit: because of the frequency. We tried to make sure that we would do the sine bass in the same key as the guitar, so when the guitar comes in, it's like [mimics guitar sound] and I played the sine below it, then you're also hearing the regular bass. It's a compilation of a bunch of different frequencies of the same note."

The result is a neon-coloured fireball, radiating intensity and dripping of adrenaline. It is an auditory snapshot of one spiraling into the depths of psychosis; it is an energy drink for the ears. Pharrell calls it their best album to date. N.E.R.D. has performed a few songs off of it at several spot dates and on the Glow in the Dark Tour, which also features Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna and headliner Kanye West. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with fans moshing, stage-diving and generally losing their shit. Many have hit YouTube and looked up the group's performances on past nights, learning the words to songs that haven't been released yet.

"We decided that we didn't want to do shows where we just play music and make sure you sing along," says Pharrell. "We wanted to make sure it was a full-on experience." And a full-on experience it is; at least two people were even reportedly carried out of the Tucson, Az., show in stretchers.

There were rumours that it would be on the Glow in the Dark tour that Kanye, Lupe and Pharrell would officially debut CRS (Child Rebel Soldiers), the "supergroup" that they have formed, but as of press time, there have been no such announcements or performances. All three members have said little about CRS aside from confirming its existence, seemingly waiting until they have masters in hand to start hyping it up, though enough has been said to whet the appetites of fans.

"CRS album's coming," Lupe Fiasco told DJ Hyphen of Kube93's Sunday Night Sound Session last November. "CRS is the last great idea in hip-hop. CRS is such a good idea that it has to happen…. It's gonna be an extravaganza of lyrical production feats and nonsensical ideas." On the same show last April, Pharrell stayed mum, saying only: "I can't speak on it, but I gotta tell you, it sounds very interesting. It sounds very promising and it sounds like something that should be happening soon." The only record they have released so far, "Us Placers," appeared on Kanye's "Can't Tell Me Nothing" mixtape last May and was number 43 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 best songs of 2007.

Pharrell currently has two clothing lines, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream, with Bathing Ape founder Tomoaki "Nigo" Nagao. The two also created the "Millionaire" line of sunglasses for Louis Vuitton in 2005. So far this year, Pharrell has collaborated with LV's creative consultant Camille Miceli to design a jewelry line called Blason, and told In Style magazine that he plans to debut his own high-end furniture line in June. When asked about the Pharrell brand, however, he seems momentarily taken aback.

"I've never really lumped it all together," he says, effectively nipping in the bud any discussion on the labels that observers may have placed on him. "It's kind of scary when you look at it all like that. I only like what I like; that's how I see it."

When the Glow in the Dark tour concludes, N.E.R.D. will continue promoting Seeing Sounds. Like with every other aspect of the album, the timing of the release is carefully calculated.

"We studied the market; we waited for the right moment, "says Pharrell. "Like when [Limp Bizkit] was doing it, with "Nookie" and "Faith" and all those records, [Fred Durst] killed it. He was selling out arenas, stadiums, no problem. We just feel like when that was out, there were a couple of bands that rivaled that same kind of sound, and though Limp Bizkit were the kings of it, there was competition. We don't really feel like we have any competition right now."

* * * * *

In their own words
N.E.R.D. break down some of the songs on Seeing Sounds, out June 10.

Everyone Nose
Pharrell: "We're not glorifying the usage of any kid of illegal substances. What we're doing is no different from what People or Us magazine do: They're raising the awareness. So basically we just made a song that's about our social observation of what's going on. We're basically saying, 'America, look: This is what's going on in nightlife. What are you going to do about it?' Now, the song definitely sounds fun, because kids don't want to be preached to. This song couldn't be different from the rest of the songs, which are all about energy. It may feel like it, but we're not advocating or condoning anything. We're just saying, 'Look: It's just a social observation,' but the song is a can of Red Bull."

Kill Joy
Shae: "This is about a person in your life who's always raining on your parade, no matter how good things are."

Anti Matter
Pharrell: "That's where we found the subject of ADD and ADHD. A lot of kids become discouraged because it's a fairly new concept in elementary schools. All they want to do is give you Ritalin but they don't really want to talk about it. It's funny, because when a kid has the right parental environment, and the parents are on them quick, that kid with ADD that nobody wants on any sports team usually becomes one of the most successful chairmen of corporations … or a super incredible multi-tasker. The beat is kind of metaphorical for the way those kids perceive things. You'll see that the beat is very simple in the beginning but then it transforms into this fast-paced thing because that's the way they hear things."

Sooner or Later
Pharrell: "Jimmy Iovine likes to say that it's very Todd-Lundgren-esque. We like to just think that it's colourful. People who smoke weed are really going to enjoy it. People who just have a couple of beers will enjoy it. Those who have synesthesia will just enjoy it on a natural, regular day."

Spaz
Shae: "These past two albums, we noticed that our fans wanted crazy songs with intense energy. They wanted to spazz out and crowd-surf and just mosh and go bonkers, so we made a song called 'Spaz.' "