Seeing Sounds

While touring in promotion of their previous album, Fly or Die, N.E.R.D ended their contract with Virgin Records in 2005.[2] After touring, Pharrell Williams felt that the album was too consistent; he felt the band abandoned a sense of unpredictability.[3] The band became "hooked" on the energy from their fans and began recording their third album. Williams and fellow band member Chad Hugo later established Star Trak Entertainment, a subsidiary of Interscope Records.[4]

For the album, the band wanted to create the atmosphere of hyperactivity they knew their fans wanted. They wrote a few songs, but felt the songs "weren't strong enough" and sent them to other musicians. Shay Haley, a member of the band, explained that in their new work, the band wanted to add energy to the emotional appeal of their past albums, though the band did not conceive a clear plan for the direction of the new album.[5] N.E.R.D described the desired outcomes of the album as "a pre-cognitive effort to make music that would make sense for us on while we're on a stage and to recapture that feeling we love so much" and additionally, "to make something that was thought provoking and for people to listen to it and enjoy it on their own time".[6]

Originally titled N.3.R.D,[7] the title was changed to Seeing Sounds. Williams explained that the title was based on synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon the band learned of while watching the Discovery Channel. They were inspired to create music that could be conceived as a live show.[8] He was surprised to learn not everyone experienced while listening to music.[9] He described synesthesia as the outcome when "one sense gets more information than what's intended", stimulated by sensory deprivation.[10] Haley further elaborated, saying that it is a mixture of senses that causes a person to experience colorful hearing and auditory smell. When the band created the album, it was the music they envisioned and decided the appropriate title for the album, Seeing Sounds.[11] Williams pointed out that the lyrics were also inspired by synesthesia.[10] He said that his fans want to "rock out" and be taken on an "emotional roller coaster", and the only way to do that is to give the fans some records they could blast out on their speakers. The European-influenced music is layered and textured with many music modalities, differing from their past club-oriented albums. Hugo called the album a "big album of LSD, sonic drug".[11] The band described the album of being an exercise in creative cohesion, band unity and a renewed purpose for themselves.[4] Williams went on to add:

If you really analyze that, the most inspiration is probably deep inside a synesthesiac. So for us, 'seeing sounds' is what we relate to the most. We figured we'd make an album out of it. Energy and emotion was the criteria [while recording], but we made the music anticipating the [live] show. That was the most important thing…[The song] 'Spaz' is [an] old school, hip hop feeling with some drum and bass. It becomes a big, tall monster. It's almost like this big gorilla looking down at you. If he smacks you, he kills you. His fingers are the size of your body. That's kinda what we're doing. We're facing this big monster of, of what we know is out there, of what we see, that big monster of energy.[11]

Spending their own money, N.E.R.D recorded the album at the South Beach Studios in Miami, Florida, and the Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles, California.[4][10] Williams used a Triton Extreme, Triton Pro and Pro Tools in the production of the album, while Hugo worked in Access Virus TI, Roland JV-1080, JV-2080, XV-5080, TR-808 and TR-909 as beatboxing was provided by Haley. Rock band Spymob further assisted production with guitar and drums.[10] Production revolved around heavy rock, funk and soul music, which was first introduced in their debut album, In Search Of....[9] Hugo described the album as going back to the band's roots, combining a classic rock sound with a 1970s funk swing.[10] The typical process of recording was described as "Williams arrives at the studio, ideas in full flower, and lays down both a beat (either programmed or played on an assortment of buckets) and vocals." Hugo then would add extra instrumentation.[10] In an interview with MTV, Williams said that the band "didn't care about genres; we're not doing this for the money. We're doing this for people who pledge allegiance to our movement."[11] Hugo went on to say that they "just want to make people move".[10] On the album he said, "We had anger, quiet angst. We had something to get off our chest. And we wanted to show we could do it as a band."[12] Don Was, a musician and record producer, thought that the band was on a creatively fulfilling path, calling their musical style "really innovative".[9]

Williams felt music lacked energy, citing Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" as the last energetic record. Williams suggested his engineer, Andrew Coleman, to "put the drums and bass on the right, keys in the middle, and the mothafucking guitar and backgrounds on the left". Coleman denied his request, saying, "those systems were different back then. If we do that, you'll be in a club and all you will hear on one side of the club is drums and on the other side, just chords."[10]

The Hives' members - Chris Dangerous (drums/percussion), Nicholaus Arson (guitar), Vigilante Carlstroem (guitar), Dr. Matt Destruction (bass) - contributed instrumentals on "Time For Some Action" and "Windows", with The Hives' frontman Howlin' Pelle Almqvist providing guest vocals on "Time For Some Action". On Seeing Sounds they are credited with their real names instead of the pseudonyms they use within the band.[13][14]

N.E.R.D performing at Kulttuuritalo, Helsinki in December 2008

In promotion of the album, N.E.R.D performed in Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour as well as the Isle of Wight Festival.[11][7] The band also performed at the Austin City Limits festival, where they encouraged fans to dance on stage and urged them to vote in the 2008 United States elections.[15] The song "Spaz" was used for commercials for the Zune Pass.[16] The band performed at Vanderbilt University's Rites of Spring Music Festival in April.[17]

• Seeing Sounds at Discogs
• Seeing Sounds at Metacritic