Loud Music

Will.I.Am is exactly where’d you expect him to be on a weekday afternoon — in the studio. Besides being the architect of the Black Eyed Peas, Will has become one of hip-hop’s most in-demand producers, working with everyone from Nas and Common to Ciara and Snoop Dogg, the latter being the only person with a guest spot on Will’s new solo disc, ‘Songs About Girls.’ It’s an album that is very personal for the musician in more ways than one. Besides being the first album to be released under his name, something he admits has caused some nerves, it is literally, what the title suggests: his relationships told in song. Will talked to Popeater about working with Snoop, how ‘Songs About Girls’ is different from the Black Eyed Peas, and how James Brown helped him to learn to put negative press aside.

What made you want to do a thematic record?

I just didn’t want to put out a record that was like anything I couldn’t have done on the Black Eyed Peas. Any other record I could’ve done with the Peas. So this one I wanted to have a theme, and ‘Songs About Girls’ was something I could talk about — my past relationships, my current relationship. I could talk about the world, ’cause that is the ultimate female: the planet. And I really just wanted to talk about why I am the way I am today.

And you think a lot of that is because of women?

My past endeavors really shaped and molded me into the person I am now. When someone believes in you it makes you ambitious. This one particular person inspired me to go out and want to do it. And then the relationship I’m in now is awesome, and I never would be the person I am now if I never went through that.

And how long have you been in your current relationship?

A minute [laughs].

Putting all those past relationships on record, was there anything that came back up you hadn’t thought about in a while that surprised you?

There’s a song called ‘It’s Over,’ where one of the lyrics is “We can’t stay in love, ’cause we’re too miserable in love, but I’m ever worse without you.” I had to really conjure up the emotions I felt in that relationship, and it was a big confusion. It was like, “I know I can’t stay in love ’cause we’re miserable here, but damn, I’ll be even worse out of this relationship.” And the chorus goes, “I walked away and I’m feeling down. But even if I stayed I’d be feeling down, down, down.” And then here I am in a relationship, I come home from the studio and I’m like, “Hey, check out this song I wrote.” And she says, “Damn, why are you still talking about that s***?” I’m like, “It’s not that I’m talking about that because I’m harping on it. I’m talking on it because I’m writing songs.” I’m writing about these emotions that I felt because I need to put them to bed. So that situation happened a lot over the course of this record.

There’s a great Paul Westerberg line from the song ‘Things’: “Someday you’ll be a song I sing, a thing I give away.” I don’t know if you found this, but you can’t control what comes out.

I started working on my solo project and I would go to the studio and all the songs I was writing I was like, “Does anybody notice all these songs are about girls?” So then I started making the effort to not write about it. I’d get in the studio, I’d hear the beat, I’d write something, and then I’d be like, “I can’t write that.” So I’d write something else purposefully. Then I stopped that process. I was like, “I’m not gonna censor myself. I’m just gonna write it. I’m gonna call this record ‘Songs About Girls’ ’cause that’s all it seems I’ve been writing about.”

You’ve created a new system for this album where people can exchange it virally and make money for it. Why not just go the traditional record company distribution system?

You can’t just rely on the record company, ’cause this is what’s going to happen: You’re going to give them the record, they’re going to set up some press, they’re going to give you, like, six pages on your CD booklet with four-color print processing. You’re going to do an album release party, they’re going to ship it to the stores, it comes out, and you go do Jay Leno, Ellen and Tyra Banks, and you perform on Jimmy Kimmel. But there has to be more. And the only way there’s going to be more is if you go look out for more, so I’m like, “I need some geeks. I need to roll with geeks.” I’d rather have geeks in my squad than some big-ass bodyguard that ain’t gonna do s*** ’cause I’m never going to get in a fight. I’m always in the studio. Why do I need a bodyguard? So let me save that loot, and I’ll use that money to pay for these geeks. “What kind of computers you want? I got all this extra security loot that I can just buy these computers and you can write code.”

You’ve worked with so many people over the past few years. Were there any you learned a lot from that you were able to apply to this album?

The stuff I learned from Sergio Mendes was those lush melodies. He kind of broadened my spectrum on the importance of melody when it comes to keyboards and guitars. We’ve always been heavily melodic, but the simplicity of it, because you can always have these crazy melodies and these crazy harmonies and all these different parts, but then there’s just too much information for some people. But Sergio Mendes broadened my simplicity. And James Brown was just like … that one conversation we had, it was a two-hour conversation, just about black people in America, songwriting, the importance of strong melodies and the importance of staying clean. He really liked the fact that Black Eyed Peas was a group that is for everybody. And he really liked the fact that we used live instruments.

So a lot of that I just kept doing what I was doing, regardless of the press. ‘Cause when you start succeeding you want to succeed everywhere. “Ooh, we’re on the radio, that’s dope. Ooh, we’re touring, our videos are everywhere, we got this iPod commercial, our commercial’s everywhere.” But the only place we never succeeded on a level that equates to everything else is press. But sitting with James Brown made me say, “F*** all that. This is the real press.” I impressed this dude and that’s the only thing that’s important, when you impress people that you looked up to. So I’m fighting with the label and then I work with James Brown, and all those fights go away. I’m like, “It’s not even important. I’m gonna continue to stay on course, do my thing, whatever, I’m just gonna do me.” So that’s what I did with the record, I did me, and a lot of that strength came from James Brown.

What were you setting to accomplish with a solo record?

I wanted to have an album, not like an album and “Hey, guys, check out my friends.” I didn’t want to do that. It’s cheating with me attempting to do a solo project, because I’m already in a group. It would be disrespectful to my group, like, “Hey, guys, I’m going solo. I’m taking all this Black Eyed Peas momentum that we built together and I’m going off on my own, and I got all these songs with all these different artists.” In a way it’s like, “Dang, dog, why don’t we just do another record?” I produce the band, I produce Black Eyed Peas, that’s like my baby. They’re like my best friends; we all trust each other and respect each other, so if I’m going to go off and do a solo venture, it has to be solo or else there’s no point in doing a solo project.

So how did you decide to put the Snoop thing on there?

Oh, because Snoop needed to be on it. The song was finished, I took it to my trusty confidant dude that I always go to, and he says, “Yo, it’s dope, but it’s not finished.” I’m like, “What do you think it needs?” He’s like, “I don’t know. Why don’t you put another vocalist on it?” “I’m not doing that.” He’s like, “Yeah, but something that you wouldn’t think of and then after you have it, you couldn’t see it without it.” “Snoop, that’d be pretty crazy. Who would picture Snoop Dogg on a dance record? Some crazy Massive Attack meets Daft Punk. That would be sick.” So I called Snoop, “Yo, Snoop, I got this song.” “What you need, nephew?” “I got this song, it’s some European Daft Punk meets Massive Attack hip-hop s***.” “Oh, that’ what I’m all about, nephew. I just came from Europe. I’ll be there in 20 minutes.” So he comes, he hears it, he’s like, “Oh, this is all me, nephew.” Finishes it in an hour. And after that I couldn’t see the song without him on it.

Thematically, that song represents when a guy breaks up with a girl and he goes out with his homies to the club. And when you go out to a club, you’re going to hear Snoop Dogg. So thematically it makes sense. It’s just perfect.

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