British music start-up ROLI has named Pharrell Williams as its chief creative officer.
The award-winning singer and producer will work with founder Roland Lamb to develop new and revolutionary musical instruments that will be digitally connected and easily accessible to all.
Pharrell, who will also invest and become co-owner of ROLI, said: “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. When I met Roland 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.”
Roland added: “Our mission is to empower everyone to create music, and more broadly to empower people as creators. Pharrell is not just an extraordinary musician, he embodies creativity. His ideas will take us in exciting new directions.”
Pharrell's biggest-selling UK single is 2013's Happy, which has sold 2,647,165 copies to date. He was composer for Despicable Me 3, which is currently in cinemas.