Hello will.i.am!
Tim Jooooooonze!
What a nice welcome. How are you?
I'm all right. I've been on a flight from LA to London so I've been sleeping, dreaming.
What does will.i.am dream about?
Just random things. One time I had a dream and in my dream I went to sleep and had a dream, woke up and told everyone my dream, then said, 'Wait a minute, I'm still asleep,' so I had to wake up again. I have dreams like that. But being creative is the same as dreaming. You get to mould your reality. If I didn't mould my reality then I'd still be in the ghetto where people like me are supposed to stay. You have to dream your way out of the nightmare ...
Was it a nightmare?
For some people I grew up with it was a nightmare and those people are in prison or on drugs. For me, with my mum and my family and my upbringing … it was heaven. It was wonderful, because of my family.
You new album is called #willpower – why does your #album have a #hashtag?
Because #willpower to me isn't an album, it's a conversation around optimism. It's a conversation I have with people who respect my perspective. They respect my perspective. The play on that whole word there is "speck" … because I'm just a little thing in this big thing called the universe. And this whole thing is also a spectacle (1).
Did you expect to be making music 20 years after you started?
Yeah, just like I know I will be 20 years from now. But it won't be the only thing I'm doing. These days, it's science and technology that I think about most. Every day for four years I've thought about making products, or doing something in the social connectivity world and I'm looking for code writers at the moment to realise this. I've been surrounding myself with geniuses like Dean Kamen (2) so I can learn from them. I wanna go back to school and take a computer science class. I'm planning the next 20 years. I wanna still be relevant in popular culture but it ain't gonna be for music. I don't wanna be like "Remember this song! [Sings] 'I gotta feeling!' I don't want to be doing this when I'm 57! ... [breaks up into hysterical laughter then phone goes dead for 10 minutes before PR reconnects (3)]
Let's talk raving ... you used to go to raves, right?
Yeah, I used to go to raves with a guy by the name of Pasquale (4) who throws the biggest raves in America. We were in 11th grade when we started going to raves. There would be, you know, between 10,000 and 50,000 people. You'd have to go to three different spots to pick up directions, people would express themselves with loud colours, DJs would play crazy beats.
Were they illegal raves?
Er … those raves were, er … illegal, yes, all right, OK, you got me there. We were kids!
How did they compare to playing the Jubilee concert? (5)
That was a royal rave.
Do you see the royals as a good thing for Britain?
I like all the families in the UK. But what I like about the idea of the royal family is … they seem like they're well educated and there's something admirable about them. And the Queen … she reminds me of my grandma. I was like: "Wow, that's how my grandma is!" Elegant, classy and the way she wore her hat … even her clothes are like my grandma's clothes! She's the leader of the family, you know, and when Prince Charles called her Mummy or Mumsy I was like: "Wow!" It's amazing because they're just regular people. (6) They're in the public eye but they manage to live straight. (7)
Tell me some more The Queen/will.i.am's grandma similarities...
It's just a different generation of patience and respect and "yes, maam". When you meet your elders, you don't say "what" you say "yes". There's no chivalry in culture any more. Sometimes you meet someone who everyone says is polite and you're like "wow" but then it's like "hang on, isn't everyone supposed to be polite?" The only reason we think these people are so nice is because we're surrounded by assholes. You don't have grandmas that remind you of the Queen nowadays! It's the same as when I was working with Whitney Houston … she reminded me of my mom, just how graceful and polite she was. I told Whitney this and she said: "Let me see the proof of that, you should bring her down!" I called up and said: "Ma, get your butt down to my house this minute! Whitney Houston wants to see you so she can see your personality!" She loved Whitney.
How was it when they met?
It was "yes, maam".
You carried the Olympic torch recently – what would your Olympic sport be?
Track. I'm very fast. I take pride in how fast I am, still to this day. I was in the studio the other day and me and Chris Brown were talking. I don't know how it came up, but I was like:"I'm fast." And he was like: "You ain't fast man." So I said: "Let's go race!" His trainer gets in on it too, who was supposedly an ex-NFL footballer, so we're standing in the middle of the street and I asked if I could take my shoes off because I had dress shoes on – at least let me run barefoot! But they made me run in my Christian Louboutin shoes!
Did you win?
Man let me tell you they were so upset because I not only smoked them once but smoked them twice. And now people know not to mess with me. I beat Ne-Yo too! And his trainer!
It's the R&B Olympics!
Willie Zoom. That's my nickname. I go "zooooom". That's the sound when I beat you. Really. You know when Black Eyed Peas played at the SuperBowl? Well, Usain Bolt was there.
Don't tell me … you beat him?
Nah, I challenged him. But it was a joke. He's faster than me. (8)
OK, finally ... can you do your Michael Jackson impression for me? I hear you have a great one …
How are you going to print that up on the interview?
That is a good point. OK, bye Will!
Bye, you look after yourself.
Footnotes
(1) I trust you are following this. Back to article
(2) Dean Kamen invented the Segway, among other things. Back to article
(3) This call had to be reconnected five times. The PR said: "Best not tell Will you've been disconnected for 10 minutes, he's been talking all this time." Back to article
(4) Pasquale Rotella, now CEO of Insomniac Events and creator of Electric Daisy Carnival. Back to article
(5) will.i.am was dressed as a new rave Queen's guard. Back to article
(6) He still has a bit to learn about the royals. Back to article
(7) See previous footnote. Back to article
(8) There is no proof of this, as they have never raced. Back to article
