Hong Kong creative Tedman Lee on how N.E.R.D. debut album changed his life
In Search of ... (2001), an ambitious collision of funk, rock, hip hop and electronica, was the debut album from N.E.R.D., the band formed by the hugely successful production duo The Neptunes (aka Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) with childhood friend Shay Haley.
Indie band singer, filmmaker, DJ, artist manager, event promoter and creative consultant Tedman Lee Pui-ming explains how it changed his life.
I started looking into N.E.R.D.'s music and videos. They went on to have a huge influence on my growth and opened a lot of doors for me. If I hadn't discovered N.E.R.D., I wouldn't have got into a lot of post-rock bands or even Radiohead. When I DJ, I play a lot of genres, and that all comes from hearing this record as a teenager. There's always that gateway record that got you into a bunch of things " this was that record for me.
In Search of ... made me want to do a whole range of things. It was the first time I'd seen a band that did everything themselves: music, videos, merchandise, collaborations with fashion brands. I never thought you could work on the whole culture: make music, but also make the T-shirts and be the producer and the guy DJing that night. This was before the social-media age, when all that became easier. I was really impressed that Pharrell had his own fashion brand and was directing his own videos.
It's funny to listen to the album again now. At 14 or 15, I was really lost. I had zero friends at high school, I didn't know what I was going to do, but this record opened so many doors for me. Since then, I've been able to do so many different things to make a living.
And now I'm back at the In Search of ... stage again " I'm bored with the things I've been doing for the past five to seven years, and I'm looking for the next thing.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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