He’s The Happy Man
PHARRELL WILLIAMS DIDN’T JUST GET LUCKY – HE’S ONE OF THE MOST PROLIFIC AND TALENTED PERFORMERS AND PRODUCERS AROUND. A TRUE STUDENT OF YACHT ROCK, IT’S ONLY NATURAL THAT HE WOULD BECOME USED TO THE LIFESTYLE
corner shop, hot air ballooning into their favourite restaurant, or shelling out on a 72m yacht with 15 suites, two Jacuzzis, and room for 100 party people at anchor.
T
Pharrell Williams’ playboy status may be a little murkier than it was back then, given that he’s a committed husband and father who these days cares more about his family than he does the monotonous pop of flashbulbs, but this is the man who did indeed splash out on such a yacht, the RM Elegant, known as ‘The Party Boat’, and used it as a recording studio.
Across three levels there are numerous rooms for entertaining, several bars, and up top a 250m sun deck with a 12-person spa pool. Although Williams
here are some people in the public eye who really play up to the playboy lifestyle; those who think nothing of taking the private jet to the
has moved his operation back to dry land since, during his tenure he had it fitted out with his top of the range production facilities. With a ‘no shoes on deck’ policy, it’s hard to imagine a more laid back way to lay some tracks.
“I think we all need to escape familiar surroundings to be creative,” he begins. “The boat was a really nice diversion from the typical studio. People would love to come visit, and of course I would say it put a different slant on our sounds!”
It’s an apt statement for an artist who is known as a student of Yacht Rock. For the uninitiated, it’s a genre of music connected to the ‘elite studio artists’ of the late Seventies and early Eighties – think Steely Dan, Hall & Oates and Kenny Loggins – who created the ‘West Coast Sound’ through smooth, melodic and catchy compositions; the sort of thing yuppie yacht owners would be chilling to while cruising.
28 | AUTUMN 2017 | ONBOARD
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