Pharrell Williams, Johnny Schillereff, and Joe Avedisian the co-creators of Brooklyn Element
Pharrell with one of the bikes from the Brooklyn Element Collection
You would be hard pressed to find someone who is familiar with pop culture that doesn’t know who Pharrell Williams is. Besides being part of music producing powerhouse the Neptunes collaborating with everyone from Justin Timberlake to Madonna, a member of high energy rock, funk, hip-hop group N.E.R.D., and a fashion designer who has worked with Louis Vuitton, he is launching his new brainchild, Brooklyn Element- a hybrid, eco-friendly clothing and bike line created with close buddies Brooklyn Machine Works (BMW shop) bike frame builder Joseph Avedisian and Element Founder/President Johnny Schillereff. I had the chance to sit down with all 3 of these super friendly and funny guys today at The Beverly Wilshire to discuss their concept, who the Brooklyn Element customer is, how Pharrell chooses with whom he collaborates, and why he is like Steven Spielberg.
Click here to listen to Pharrell Wiiliams and his Brooklyn Element boys live. When opening this file, click on the link then click again on the link on the following page.
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RCR: How did the collaboration come about with BMW shop and Element?
Joe: That came about through Pharrell and Johnny talking about bikes, skateboards, a project and I guess for me, it was them who brought it to Brooklyn. And that’s how it got started.
Pharrell: Yea, but there’s nothing for me to talk about if there wasn’t a Brooklyn and that’s Joe. And there’s nothing for me to talk about if there wasn’t an Element and that’s Johnny. So if anything as much as he (Joe) is calling me the glue, I’m just the lucky “element” if you will between the 2, merging the 2 worlds. So if anything, I was just fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. These guys are genius monsters and I’m the little guy, happy to be here. Seriously.
Johnny: There is a lot of common things between the bicycle culture and skateboarding and action sports and music. They all have gone hand in hand for many years and really since the beginning they all started. And for the 3 of us to get together I think is just kind of a very natural, organic thing to happen and so we just kind of all lucked out and met one another and its just through pure excitement and excitement for one another’s projects we just sort of came up with the idea of maybe we should collaborate and just have some fun. And at the end of the day we are just having a lot of fun trying to make something for the kids that they can enjoy and relate to and we’re all like Pharrell says we are just all blessed to work with one another and the skill sets we all have.
Joe: 3 guys that say yes!
Johnny (laughing): Exactly! That’s been the painless project, yeah?
RCR: How do you accommodate the needs of different people in different groups because the line is supposed to transcend various geographic regions, socio-economic groups, so how do you accommodate the needs of all those people?
Joe: That I would say is by having a team. And you can be the captain of a ship but you have to use all your factors-you have to look left, right, forwards, and backwards and look at what’s going on, you have to look at the clouds in the sky, see if it looks like its gonna rain, if things are going to change. And if you don’t stay on the pulse of the real people doing the real thing-real skateboarders, what they’re doing what they’re following the skateboards aren’t going to be good the clothings aren’t going to be good. If you don’t follow what the riders are doing, your bikes are not going to be ridden. And same with music-if you’re not listening to what people are reacting to and making them react to what you want them to react to, it doesn’t happen, getting to gel.
RCR: Right. And so Pharrell, how did you kind of try to make that wide appeal, that mass appeal to people?
Pharrell: I am not sure that I tried to make the mass appeal. I don’t know how to do that.
RCR: Right.
Pharrell: Yeah. That’s why I am not like a huge pop mega star. I’m a producer, but in terms of being an artist we like small and niche because I don’t know how to do that. I know how to do that on other people but I can’t produce myself. Yeah, I am OK with producing myself, I am better at producing other people because I can go in and analyze what’s there and say OK here let’s turn this up, let’s take this, let’s enlarge you know this portion of the beat or you know, let’s truncate this version, or your voice should do this or blah, blah, blah, blah or listen to these lyrics or listen to this line, or sing it this way. It’s much easier to do that. I’m more of like a director. I aim to liken myself to a Steven Spielberg, who by the way is no star, but he knows what the hell he is doing.
RCR: Absolutely.
Pharrell: Right?
RCR: And you have collaborated with everyone from Madonna to Brooklyn Element to Louis Vuitton. How do you decide who you are going to collaborate with?
Pharrell: You know what? It’s all based on like instinct and opportunity. And they both have to align with my own personal purpose. And they do. This guy (pointing to Johnny) he doesn’t have to do these films. He does films just to educate like people. To talk about like our environment and to help the rest of the world that may not understand skateboarding as a culture, to help to become a little bit more acclimated with the way the youth think. Who does that? Who does that? And then there’s Joe who at the same time is like building bikes with like 5, 6 people and they’re like doing it all by hand. Well for now!
RCR: Who is the person wearing Brooklyn Element? Who is this person? Can you describe this person?
Pharrell: It’s a person who is a rider. It’s a person who has places to go and things to do and on the way out doesn’t mind looking good at the same time. So for us, it’s functionality, functionality, and fashion. In that order. Functionality, functionality, and then fashion.
RCR: Well, with New York Fashion Week approaching, will we be seeing any of these clothes on a runway?
Pharrell: You will be seeing them in the driveway!
Johnny: Ha Ha Ha! I like that!
Pharrell: The runway of a ramp! But we you know, well I can’t get into it because I am speaking futuristically but you know there will come a time where someone will be like riding Brooklyn and going up and down somebody’s runway. Maybe he is just delivering something or maybe he’s doing some crazy, or I don’t know, name some crazy trick.
Johnny: Back flip.
Joe: Yeah, dude.
Johnny: Double back flip.
Pharrell: Double back flip eating a Snickers bar you know while going online finding rare Run DMC party tapes from the 80’s.
RCR: Very cool. Very cool.
Pharrell: Best trick.
RCR: That is. That’s amazing.
Pharrell: It actually sounds more like a Ben & Jerry’s flavor.
RCR: It does. It kind of makes me hungry right now.
Pharrell: Yeah!
RCR: I think I am going to go eat! Thank you so much you guys I appreciate it. Good luck with everything.
Pharrell: No, thank you.
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Pharrell: Yo! This is Pharrell from the Brooklyn Element and you’re listening to RedCarpetRoxy.com!
