#108 Brent Paschke, Guitarist

Brent Paschke was co-founder of Spymob and is best known as Pharrell Williams' guitarist, having worked with Pharrell since 2001. Brent was introduced to me by Linda Helms, who is a friend of Brent's. Brent says that, "Music was just in me." He knew the first day he got a guitar when he was about 12 years old that playing guitar is what he wanted to do with his life. He was always drawn to art and music, so he understood kids who struggled with school. As Brent got more into production, be began to see a lot of kids wanting to be in production, but there wasn't much available in the schools. So, Brent started Tuniversity, to teach how to use an iOS device and the Garageband app to deconstruct and reconstruct songs. Brent says that the computer is really the instrument these days and he wants kids to be able to tap into music because you can really find yourself and learn how to express yourself through music. He says, as we get more comfortable with music, it is better for us. Brent also does a lot of mindful meditation, which parallels with playing music. Music provides such life lessons, he says. You can learn to forgive mistakes and yourself through music; it teaches you to be present, just like mindful meditation. "That's life; it's all about being present, forgiving, loving, caring. It all lines up with music, it's all in synch with music."