For the past decade Maggie Rogers has been haunted by the spectre of Pharrell Williams. The video of his surprise visit to her undergraduate music production class at NYU still goes viral every few months.
Pharrell, one of the most influential music producers of the 21st century, sits visibly dumbstruck as he listens to 21-year-old Rogers’ student track, ‘Alaska’. Awe, reverence and delight flash across his face. ‘Wow, wow — I have zero notes for that.’ The five-minute clip catapulted her into a kind of fame she neither sought nor was prepared for. ‘It was really scary and terrifying. I was so raw and unguarded — if I knew that was going to happen I would have brushed my hair and put some mascara on — I was a studio rat,’ she laughs.
