N.E.R.D. members expand horizons

Spencer Patterson

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 8:39 a.m.

But the 30-year-old Virginia Beach, Va., native is quick to point out that long before he was a Neptune, he was an aspiring musician.

"First and foremost I was always a performer, playing instruments onstage," Hugo said in a phone interview from his dressing room prior to taping Monday's appearance on "Late Night With David Letterman."

"I grew up playing saxophone and piano, and I've been playing guitar for about a year and a half now. I'm trying, learning," he laughed.

For the first time, Hugo got the chance to show off those instrumental skills on "Fly or Die," the second album from Neptunes' side project N.E.R.D. (short for "No One Ever Really Dies").

The highly anticipated disc hit shelves Tuesday. To promote its release, the hip-hop/rock fusion outfit is out on a national tour, which stops at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel at 8 tonight. Opening the show are the Black Eyed Peas and Clipse.

Hugo, who performs only occasionally with N.E.R.D., wasn't sure at press time whether he would be at the Vegas show.

Either way, Neptunes partner Pharrell Williams will be onstage, singing lead vocals. So will N.E.R.D.'s third official member, Shae Haley, and backing band Spymob, which handles most of the instrumental parts the core trio laid down in the studio.

As for N.E.R.D.'s music, Hugo encourages fans to discover its genre-bending charms for themselves.

"It's really hard to claim a genre," Hugo said. "I don't want to call it rock, because it's not really rock. It's not really R&B either, but there are a lot of influences from those things. We're just a music group."

That unusual musical blend also attracts diverse crowds to N.E.R.D. concerts, an aspect of the live experience that pleases the Filipino-American Hugo.

"That's the most important part of the show," Hugo said. "When you're kids growing up at the school playground, you don't really think about those things. And when you grow older, you see the color lines and the racial barriers that society puts on you to separate everybody. But with N.E.R.D., it's like, who cares?

"We're not separated by types of music, hip-hop, rock, whatever. We like it all."

Rewarding as his work in N.E.R.D. might be, however, Hugo's primary responsibility -- apart from his wife and two kids in Virginia -- remains his production work with the Neptunes.

He and the 30-year-old Williams have helped craft high-charting singles for many of the biggest names in music, from pop stars Britney Spears ("I'm a Slave 4 U") and Justin Timberlake ("Rock Your Body) to rappers Nelly ("Hot in Herre") and Jay-Z ("Excuse Me Miss").

The pair reportedly earn six-figure fees per song, yet still have plenty of artists lining up for a chance to add the Neptunes' golden touch to their records.

"Some people come to us, and we're open to that," Hugo said. "You learn from every session, from different artists.

"But it's not like we're the guy on the street with a trench coat going, 'Hey you wanna buy a watch?' We're not like, 'We're the Neptunes, you wanna buy a beat? We'll work with you.' It's not like that."

In some cases, musicians come to Hugo and Williams with concrete ideas, hoping the duo can turn a track into a hit through the use of the Neptunes' experimental studio techniques.

Other times -- such as with Nelly's "Hot in Herre" -- the two men share songwriting credit, developing ideas, melodies and even lyrics.

"It's usually a collaborative effort in the studio," Hugo said. "We'll print out the idea with everything, and usually the artist comes in and says what they want to say, or don't want to say, and we go from there."

Already omnipresent on Top 40 and hip-hop radio, the Neptunes received industry recognition for their accomplishments in January, in the form of the Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical.

"It feels good to see that people actually appreciate us," Hugo said. "Whoever thought that two dudes from Virginia could go make it that big?"

While it may surprise Hugo that he and Williams -- one-time high school classmates -- have made it this far, it shouldn't surprise anyone that Hugo ended up with a career in music production. After all, he has been doing it for more than half his life.

"I started making my own music in the seventh grade," Hugo said. "I hooked up a boom box and a stereo, and I didn't realize I was track recording. I used to splice mix tapes so I can could have extended mix tapes for my breakdancing friends.

"Recording on a boom box and making tapes turned into recording myself messing around on the keyboard, and it just kind of gradually happened from there. I wasn't thinking, 'I want to produce.' I just loved sound, and the way sound affects people."

Williams, who has provided guest vocals for Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg, among others, garners most of the Neptunes' public notoriety. As Hugo puts it, Williams needs to be out from behind his drum set during N.E.R.D. shows because "the girls gotta touch him."

Meanwhile, Hugo remains largely invisible to the masses, a name they know, rather than a familiar face. And it sounds as if that's just fine with him.

"I want people to know what I do, but there are times I'm glad to be able to walk around and not have too much of a hassle," Hugo said. "I'm not trying to be elusive, but at the same time I'm in it for the music most of all. I have a lot of music to share with the world."