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Artist News Business News Deals Digital
Pharrell invests in ROLI, becomes Chief Creative Officer
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 27 October 2017
You know how there was that trend a few years ago for giving celebrities snazzy job titles at companies, even though they were definitely never going to do any work there? Well, entirely conversely to that, Pharrell Williams has been named Chief Creative Officer at British music tech start-up ROLI.
ROLI make a load of super fucking cool digital instruments that I can neither afford nor really play, but still want to own more than anything. Williams can both afford and play them, and has now become an investor in the company, as well as taking on the PR-friendly job title.
“Music touches all of us, and for a long time I’ve been passionate about finding ways to share the power of music with more people”, says Williams. “When I met Roland [Lamb, company founder] and ROLI, I immediately felt we were working towards exactly the same goals, and so I’m super excited that we’re kicking off this partnership”.
The first part of that partnership – beyond the money and the job title – is a new collection of sounds from Williams’ hit ‘Happy’, which can be used on ROLI’s instruments and its ‘Noise’ app. Find out more here.