Not Your Typical N.E.R.D.: Pharrell Williams, Bound by Chords

How come?

"I don't know. I just had an addiction for it."

Asked for biographical details -- where were you when you heard this, and what did it do for your music -- he demurs, or he gets a look on his face that begs, please don't make me tell you something I've already told a thousand people. He punches the CD player again. Earth Wind & Fire's "Can't Hide Love" and Steely Dan's "Peg" are played back-to-back.

"Earth Wind & Fire are the black Steely Dan," he announces. That sounds like the promising start to a bold thesis, but then he hedges. "But not specifically, because they're worlds apart."

What unites them is their "fearless melodies." Williams says that Steely Dan's best material is "gallant and brave. It worked for them."

Then he pauses.

"But it's [messing up] N.E.R.D."

A Rant and a Rave

This is a prelude to a mini-rant, which Williams delivers as he wraps up and gets ready to leave the hotel for a very late dinner. He's frustrated by radio's unwillingness to play N.E.R.D. and he's not too pleased with Virgin, either. He griped about his label a few weeks ago to Entertainment Weekly, telling the magazine's reporter, "I'd love for you to call up Virgin and say, 'I'm from Entertainment Weekly and Pharrell is complaining that you guys are not putting the proper money into [promotion] to let the staff do what they have to do to sell this record.' "

He talks about it even though he told the label he wouldn't. "I promised Virgin I wouldn't go back into it. But there's a guy who's running the label who isn't great with management and personnel. It's not for me to judge, but all I can say is that my project is really suffering."

A Virgin spokeswoman, who asked to keep her name out of it, sounded conciliatory: "It's Pharrell, he's a genius, he's a great singer. That Pharrell has an opinion about the marketing of his record keeps things interesting."

N.E.R.D., Williams admits, isn't an easy radio sell because the airwaves are now niche-focused and the group doesn't shoehorn neatly into any particular format.

"The music is very in between. A Ferrari is not meant to be in suburban areas. It's meant to be in upper-echelon areas, and it's not meant to be driven around the ghetto. There are a lot of things that don't necessarily fit, but some of us don't give a [darn]. We drive our Ferraris wherever we want, and the rest of the world doesn't always understand that. I think I stay true to what I believe, and N.E.R.D. just pushes the envelope."

The phone is ringing. It's his manager, who, like Pharrell, is famished. Williams grabs his jacket and wraps it up on a positive, grateful note.

"I'm just happy to be in music," he says earnestly. "It feels like just yesterday I was watching 'Motown 25' when Michael Jackson moonwalked across the stage. I'm 31, but in my mind I'm still a kid. It's a dream come true. I just did a video. I got a Grammy this year."

He's shaking his head again.

"I love it."