Justin Timberlake

33:45And then the first week of reviews, I'm 21, 22 at the time. First week of reviews, it's categorized in the pop albums. And I was like, what? You know? It is a banging R &B album style. Thanks. I mean, it's also a pop album. You know what I mean? What really is it? Well, at this point, too, why are we even talking about genres? Yeah, yeah. Like, why? Yeah. Why? And also to like, why are we, again, this goes to maybe like our divisive nature as humans. Why are we so quick to say that it doesn't make sense for an artist to try something new? To put on a different whole outfit and experience that for themselves.

34:29You may get something unbelievable. It's like when Dylan went from acoustic to electric and it was like, you know, he would have thought he said something crazy. Like, you know, his fans specifically. I mean, he goes into like gospel and people like deride him for a lot. But now people love those records. Totally. Totally. So that's been a real lesson throughout my career as well to say, once you finish the song and the album and you put it out in the world, that's the beauty of it. That's to me one of the most beautiful parts about art is that we take it and we put it into our system and our life and we make it our own.

35:09And that is naturally going to make it something different. You know, you think back to there's certain songs that if you heard out of nowhere might trigger. Oh, I remember this summer when this song came out and all of a sudden your senses go back to that place. I'll be real with you. When I was doing a lot of listening for this, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays came up. I was like, yo, I hadn't thought about this in a minute. and it instantly just put me in a time and place. It put you right where you were when you heard it. And it was a beautiful experience. I was so happy to be back. Yeah. You like smelled the cinnamon from the eggnog.

35:49Like when Christmas was like, you know what I mean? I wasn't responsible for nothing. It was pure joy. Exactly. You couldn't wait to open up those presents. That was it. Yeah. But I think it's been fun to see the reaction to people even closest to me. to how's your wife process this stuff like your music your new record uh well she loves it oh i mean thank god thank god no but she'd be honest with me she there's actually a couple songs that i wasn't going to put on the album that she was insistent that i put on the album what were those um alone that's a good one i almost played that okay do you listen with her or she kind of you just slide it oh yeah she comes yeah she comes to the studio and okay Yeah.

36:34I can always tell when my friends and family come to the studio. If it's a song with tempo and we're getting the heads are bobbing and people are moving, then we're on to something. for other songs too like you can tell if you're getting a reaction by the people closest to you yeah who know you the best yeah but but it really made me realize again and i was able to metabolize it this time for myself that once you do finish that thing you know everybody's going to interpret it the way that they do and that's a beautiful thing you know that's what it that's what it's four that's what i used to do when i was a kid you know i mean you go to an art gallery and five people could be standing in front of a painting and they're all going to get something different from it yeah some people are love it some people think it's shit some people think that i could do that some people can't and by the way and by the way those reactions could be literally based on what happened to them 15 minutes ago yeah but that's the beauty of art yeah is we put it in our lives i mean how many times have i gone to a movie because before i had children i used to like love to go to the movies by myself i was sneaking to theaters and go to the movies by myself sit in the back best yeah it's like the best two-hour checkout can't wait till that comes back yeah and you think you're going there to escape but the first thing you do is you go oh i've done that oh yeah that that's me or oh yep that that reminds me of my dad yeah you know yeah you think it's escape you engage you start to relate yeah you start to connect.

38:06And you connect based on your own life experiences. And that's been a really freeing thing for me to really bring to myself. Because I feel like it was always there, but I really couldn't, you know, maybe when you're younger and you have this healthy ego, you want people to understand who you are more than anything, right? I think definitely. But they don't, you know, not fully, only you can do that. And that's also a beautiful place to arrive to, because I think it gives you gives you a layer of self-love that you didn't have before so anyways i'm rambling on but i want to hear what song reminded you of those two albums okay let's listen to some sanctified okay

38:55you know i'm an animal i belong in the wild wild wild when i get out of control And you're bringing me down, down, down. Yeah, you know I go crazy. I go off the water, I'm japing, I'm walking, I'm just amazing, baby. I know you a good one. Coaches think I was saying. So I come alive. Crazy track. Thanks, man. What was the initial spark for that song? Well, my co-producers, Rob Knox and Danger, along with my guitarist, I think the discussion came up like, can you make trap swing? And so that's why the drum sounds and the verses are the way they are. It's tight. Sonically, it's very tight. And then, you know, there's blues, there's gospel, there's R &B, there's hip hop, there's rock and roll, all within this one song.

39:51Yeah. And it was a little bit of a blackout making that song. But I remember when we were done, we just all looked at each other like, what did we just do? Yeah. That's a special one. I love that song. I can't wait to perform that song on tour. That song's going to go crazy. You know, we did SNL and having Toby on it as well. Yeah, Toby's on it. When did you get Toby on it? So I just got turned on to him. I stumbled upon his music and I just went into a rabbit hole of the stuff he had done up until that point. And I was like, man, this guy is incredible. Yeah, he's the truth, huh? And you ask him who his favorite rappers are, he's like 3000, Lauryn Hill.

40:33I don't know who his top five is, but I know those are in his top five because we talked about it. And you're like, it makes sense. He's just really, really special. And there was something about the grovel of his voice. He sounds like a preacher. And I was like, that's it. that guy on this song I just want to see what he would do and so it's funny I I set up like a a FaceTime with him he was like I didn't even know you knew any of my music and I was like I'd love to collaborate with you and I think I have something that I just hear your voice on and he came and met me I was working in Miami at the time this is one of those like two-week writer trips i was at danger studio in miami and i played it for him and he was like it was like you saw this spark go off and he was like okay that's it i'm getting on this song it was like he claimed it and that's when i knew it was gonna end up being special and his verse is insane his verse is awesome it's insane and he went into another room for like i don't know a couple of hours and really perfected what he wanted to say on the record and listened to my lyrics because I had had the song done up until that point.

41:48Once I met with him and once we actually got together in the studio, it was just like another kindred spirit. Yeah, man, he's special, special artist. I want to play another one. Okay. We'll play a bit of play. Okay. making first impressions since i was barely 11 stick around you'll get a lesson we could be sipping all day there's so much weird shit in that song but it sounds like a club hit it's like what is going on like yeah that's i mean it started with a groove uh actually ryan tedder sent sent me the idea for that and he was like he goes i did something that you're the only human in the world who will understand it and he pitched that to me the same way i pitched sanctified to toby He's like, I just want to hear what you would do with this.

42:42I was also in the studio with Danger at the time. And we both got the idea and we just started beefing it up. You know, just beefing up the track. Because Ryan had sent me just like a scale idea, right? And he had like a verse and a chorus idea. And which is not far off where we landed at the end of the song, at the end of creating the song. Yeah, it just, it's a vibe. We didn't have the da, da, da, da, da, da. That was, or I don't want to sing you to you. And I don't know. No, no, no. Go ahead. No, I'm not going to. No way. I always do that to Timberland in the studio. And he's like, man, when you sang the, if I wrote you.

43:25And then he won't go up. And I'm like, no, keep going. Keep going. That's cold, man. No, it's my, that's my brother, man. yeah it had that sort of walk down yeah at first in the in the verse that was kind of an idea that i think ryan had and um and the co-writer who wrote with me michael pollack great songwriter as well and yeah it just needed the heel on the floor so to speak dude it has that feel of like um like parliament you know what i mean where it's just thank you it's heavy yeah the bass drum boom Yeah. Another shout out to Adam Blackstone who played the bass on that. It's interesting too, like there's a synth that, there's a low synth that comes in on the bridge on that song that I don't know for whatever reason it reminded me of DJ Quick and I can't, I don't know why, but I think if you, like it's interesting you said Parliament because I think if you, if you go back and listen to a lot of Quick's records as well, like it's got that saying, you know, he's got a lot of that.

44:31I love that Quicks a reference for you man. Oh dude I mean one of the goats. Yeah but underrated. Underrated. Criminally underrated. Yes. Justice for DJ Quicks. Man come on. I think he's doing fine. He seems happy. I'm sure he's great. Yeah. I don't know him personally. Actually my favorite part of the song is the little outro part where you think the song's ended. Yes. And it's like we go into we bring the horns in. There's always a lot of tricky stuff too. You mean like Technicolor like it switches like halfway through. Well, that's my favorite song. Currently, that's my favorite song. Is it currently your favorite?

45:03Yeah. Let's talk about it. And originally, those two parts had nothing to do with each other. Separate song. Just totally separate songs. And the interlude at the beginning, which I called Never Get Enough interlude, that's what we were calling it before. And I think it was originally a full step higher than Technicolor, and we were just working on that. originally Technicolor started with that reverse guitar that comes in as this what feels like the second part of the song. And that would have been enough I'm sure but for some reason we were working on that on the interlude and I said wait let's drop this to the same key as what we're working on with Technicolor.

45:50And for whatever reason like all of a sudden it just started making sense to me that this is just one piece of music because actually when I played the album first when I played it for my team originally those two parts were broken up really yeah they were broken up and it was called a never get enough interlude into so you already had like a version of the album really had it separate oh yeah wow and then I said you know what this is just to me this is one piece of music. The first two minutes of it, which I guess to me are the interlude to the song. I don't know. I feel like they set you up for what it is.

46:27It just, to me, all of a sudden it was like, no, this is one composition. This is one piece of music. You're really not afraid to mash things together, merge them together, make songs longer than other people would dare make a song and is it something you're listening to coming up or what is that that allows you to feel that freedom to not be confined to like just a typical pop song structure what's interesting you have that book right there because that a night at the opera queen yeah you got a queen coffee table book right here for those of you listening there's a queen coffee table book when my parents divorced and i would go you know like on the weekends with my with my father he had record player and he had a night at the opera i was probably about nine or ten years old and i remember seeing the album cover you know this like sort of psychedelic art and i was like i want to know what that music sounds like and i remember i got to bohemian rhapsody yeah right and obviously that song's been referenced in so many different ways like you always think of like wayne's world Wayne's World of War, yeah, of course.

47:38But I remember thinking, whatever they were doing, in comparison to the songs I'm hearing on the radio that are three minutes at a time, there's no rules for these guys. Whoever this is, there's no rules for these guys. And look at what it turns into. It's an opera within itself. And I remember also, and these are things that are just coming to me right now, So I remember also hearing the not faded out version of Gotta Give It Up by Marvin Gaye. And, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, they used to cut songs short because vinyls only had so much space. Yeah. So you just would fade out. Yeah. That's why fades were a thing.

48:22Right. Not that that's like the reason to do it now that we have all any available space you want to make a song. Yeah. I don't know. It's just it's a feeling. because like you referenced play, I mean, I think that song's like under three minutes. I think. I could be wrong though. I'm proving your point clearly that I don't pay attention to how long or short songs are because I don't even know what the time code is on that song. You don't even care. Three and a half. Three and a half? Okay. Well, without the outro, then maybe it's, I don't know. Exactly. But yeah, I don't know. Sometimes songs should be short.

48:52Yeah. Sometimes not. After this last break, we'll be back with the rest of my interview with Justin Timberlake. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at an Oocla speed test. And they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage. With Supermobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged.

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52:03Experience amazing at your Lexus dealer. We're back with the rest of Justin Timberlake. I want to go back to that Stevie story you said you had a Stevie story that's still in your mind? no that was just having him come in and play harmonica I was but how do you get Stevie Warner to play harmonica? he doesn't do anything you know the answer is no to every question you don't ask I guess and I just asked him and he said yes and he showed up at the studio and I remember it was the NBA finals it was the Lakers versus the Sixers was the AI days when they finally made it to the playoffs. And obviously Stevie being from Philly and me living, you know, starting to live in LA at the time, there was a lot of trash talking going on.

52:52They were just about to start. They had just both made it to the finals. And he was like, nah, man, I think he said something like, Philly in five. And I was like, what? I said, you do know who Kobe Bryant is, right? you know and and so it was like we were just having fun with it and he was like i'll bet you dinner at mr chow's and he's he's still never taking me to dinner at mr chow's so i just want to make that public knowledge in case he hears this that you stevie you still owe me dinner at mr chow's but yet like i just remember he finished one take on the harmonica and there were a couple of notes that were slightly out.

53:38I remember being in the in the control room and you have to have to set this scene for you like Stevie Wonder's in the booth playing harmonica. I'm at the board and I'm 20 maybe at the time and then it's like some of the notes I was like I wonder if he bent it like that on purpose or like was that a stylistic choice and like even if I ask that question is he gonna be like what the did you just say to me you know like you you don't know it's your first time working with one of your heroes yeah to me one of the greatest songwriters of all time and one of the greatest voices of all time just like harmonica just like when you when you when you think about people who are here to do something you could put stevie like he he from a very young age he knew what he was here to do yeah you know yeah he was on a mission yeah that mission was on him.

54:33You know what I mean? And he goes, so what do you think? And before I could even, I was like, I looked at everybody else in the studio. I was like, what do we say? What do I say? And he goes, you know, the key of this song, it's the only harmonica I didn't bring for the key of this song. I have like four harmonicas. And I referenced it off of songs that are normally in the key that you sing. He goes, but you threw me for a loop he goes just give me a minute he took one of his and forgive me like i don't i don't even remember the key of that that songs in or what he had but he took a harmonica that was you know tuned to be in a different key and came back and played it perfectly and then he was like yeah yeah yeah that's it and i was like i mean he did like he did like three passes at it and that's when you realize like i'm in the presence of of the goat yeah you know like yeah those are the experiences when i talk about taking stock and all the incredible moments i've had with my heroes and where i feel like i'm at in my life right now that's why it felt good to put this album out you know because i think back to those types of experiences and i don't know they just i'm like giggling at how it's all gone down you know that's a crazy situation to find yourself in at 20 years old you've got stevie wonder coming to play and you're trying to figure out how do i can i tell him i mean if you put me on stage with a with a guitar that was out of tune it would probably take me a good five minutes to figure out what to play for you yeah you know and this guy was just like that's when you realize like that that guy is here to do this it's insane yeah did it feel good at getting in sync back on this record getting i mean you guys did the troll soundtrack as well the troll soundtrack was fun but it was a bit of a specialty item yeah you know with the plot of the film and and and sort of the humor we were taking from it yeah it was a bit like when curb did the the uh seinfeld season it's kind of felt like that watching the trolls totally totally but this one funny enough this is actually paradise is the first song that we got back together to record yeah no shit so we did that one first and then you know we did the trolls record some of the guys did their vocals on the same day on both songs wow but i have finished writing it and i recorded my own version of it obviously with less harmonies you know less stacked vocals but as i was listening back to it there was something in the ether again i don't know sometimes these decisions get made and you feel like there's like somebody tapping you on the shoulder yeah to say like what if you did this and i feel like when it's so loud it's a moment we say what if we did yeah and i felt incredibly gratified that my instincts were right about that because I think, I really think we sound amazing.

57:47Sound great. On this song. And when you break down some of the lyrics too, there's some of it that I think could be interpreted as how we feel about the fan base that supported us from the beginning and even up until now. Yeah. How we feel about each other. You know, we've been down a long, long road now. Look at where we are. We were chasing after hopes and dreams and we're still under the stars. like kenyon dixon big shout out co-wrote 10 songs on this album with me wrote that song with me and when that lyric came together sitting back listening to it for some reason i feel like i was having a conversation with my four brothers from nsync and i was like we got to try you know i gotta send them this song i gotta play it for them and jc was the first one i reached out to because obviously we share a lot of the leads.

58:40Yeah. And he came in and heard it. And I said, what do you think we would sound like together on this? And he was like, let's find out. I went right in the booth and it was just like, it was crazy because we looked older to each other, but it was like no time had passed. Yeah. You know, and we were back having fun together and recording the song. And he sounds amazing on it as well. Another one of my favorite singers. um yeah and and so do the other guys i mean just came in and it just felt like this amazing homecoming yeah for us and like uh it's an amazing reunion i'm excited for fans of us as a group fans who might discover us from this song to kind of understand what we accomplished in that era the specialness of it yeah really really special and and i'm excited honestly it's it was one of the moments that got me really emotional yeah in making this album because you know you have so much shared history and to have kind of you know gone our separate ways and achieve things individually and to come back together for it to sound the way that it does it's like a perfect representation of how we should sound now in my opinion and that's why i pitched it to them but also even deeper than that to have another moment with them that who knows i i mean you know who knows what what that all means but because i don't think you you know you can't look too far forecasted you can't look too far in the forecast because the weather changes right and everybody's got their own lives and things they want to do but how to feel good I mean, because it's like, you know, I feel like they're over the years, y 'all ever going to get back together?

1:00:33Y 'all ever going to do something? It's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like being able to be like kind of like must have relieved some pressure to where now if you want to, you can or not. Right. It's not going to be this big. I think that's the way it feels for us. Well, I think what you're talking about is like that can happen a little bit with the with the whole game of it. Yeah. where a question gets floated out there and then it's like the whole thing becomes like your mother a little bit where like the stereotypical joke you could make about a mom where it's like oh she's a nice girl when are you gonna get married and then you get married it's like hey mom we got married when you're gonna have a child you know it's like okay mom we had a child we're gonna have another child you know it can turn into that a little bit but i think for i think for the five of us, I think we feel like this has to be on our terms.

1:01:24And I think it also speaks to what I was talking about before for myself with this album is really enjoying this moment and, you know, savoring all of it. And I think that's what it has to be for us if there was ever going to be anything, you know. But I will say that I think when people hear the song and us on it, it's an emotional experience yeah man just like what a blessing to have like all of the people you've been fortunate enough to collaborate with over the span of your career and just to have them there when it feels right for a song or it feels right for a project right to be able to pull and harness all like you know what i mean like wow like well and it's not again like this wasn't something that was a completely conscious thing but now that i look at the whole album if you're calling an album everything i thought it was to have that portion included in a way that to me is so spectacular yeah and again the song itself everybody's performance on it we sound like us but we sound like us now we sound like the future of us but also just to have the experience with them it means a lot to me before we wrap up can i play can i play something from another from an well can i play something from another record we can go over if there's something you if there's records you really want to talk about because i'm so excited to actually talk about the album you have no idea we could talk uh well infinity sex is great and it's not what i was thinking from the title hold let's play a little what were you expecting like some like jodeci or yeah that's what i think it was because you know when you first get an album you kind of scan the title you're kind of like okay i feel like it's gonna yeah this is gonna be the vibe you're not the first person to say that by the way you're in good company with the people who said they're like oh oh this is what this is yeah let's hear it

1:03:31i love that future's a mess it's amazing i love it man oh thanks uh so that that song was originally an idea that Calvin Harris sent to me just like baseline groove type thing and uh it was a little bit faster than that too it was on some like real off the wall vibes oh wow but then Timbaland and I got a hold of it and Tim made this really sort of wise decision on all the stuff that we work together on he had started this this thing called beat club that he brought me in on right and he just really wanted to find new producers and and he was just racking up all these like this amazing talent and he brought some some guys in that that he was like i'm gonna bring these guys in these guys you're gonna you're gonna vibe with these guys it was uh it was fetty and angel and we also had lawrence from 1500 in the studio we had this james fontleroy Yep.

1:04:33Yep. James and I wrote that together. Great. And he has nothing but amazing things to say about you. Oh, really? He has no qualms, it seems. Oh, no, he doesn't care. Yeah, he don't give a fuck. He is extremely honest. One of my favorite things about him. He's also a hilarious human. Very funny person. I was like, you could host a hilarious podcast yourself. But yeah, Lowrance Dobson from 1500 as well. That's a perfect sort of scene to set for you for how this album was made. It was like, bring them in. Bring them in. The more the merrier. I'm not precious with this. Let's have a good time. Let's make great songs.

1:05:13Like I said, let's have a blast doing this. And that energy will come through. And so we took what Calvin had sent, slowed it down a little bit, and started doing our thing to it. And then of course, as that song, I'm excited for my fans specifically to hear that song because it really is like Tim and I in our bag. Along with this other talent that he brought in that are basically like, you know, have listened to a lot of our music together previously. Well, you guys are the archetype in a lot of ways for like what, there's a good amount of people that are like, they look to what y 'all did together in terms of what they want to make.

1:05:51So it's no shock, no surprise. I'll tell them you said that. But, you know, like as that song gets to the end, there's that whole interlude at the end, right? Where it's like, oh, okay, this is definitely, you feel that sort of future sex love sounds vibe of how it kind of turns into a whole completely different song. Yeah. Have you tried working with Pharrell or the Neptunes more generally? like Chad and Pharrell? I have done some stuff with Pharrell that is in the vault recently that might see the light of day. Soon in the future somewhere. Future is a mess, man. Future is a mess. The future is a mess.

1:06:23Fuck it, just drop it, man. We need it now then. I said, I told you I had 100 songs and then narrowed it down to 18. So yeah, these are the songs that all felt like the book. These are the chapters of this book. But make no mistake, Pharrell and I still have great synergy and we have some music that we've made that I know will come out. So I'm excited about that too. I would love to hear that. I would love to hear that. All in due time. All in due time. Speaking of the future, future is a mess. I was reading that Usher said he's been on you about doing a collaborative album. Not recently. Not recently?

1:07:02No, no, no. He said that recently. He's been very busy recently. Well, he's been, yeah. Well, yes, he has been. With an incredible residency. Usher's an icon, man. That's a bad man. Would you do a record with him? Of course. I think it just has to be the right one. We actually went in the studio. Originally, I think it was one of those things where I was maybe going to go in the studio and write something for one of his upcoming albums. Just mess around. I just don't think we ever found it. Got it. Maybe we also just didn't make enough time. I don't know. You know, it's like... Go into it with that patience mindset.

1:07:41I know, I know, I know. Yeah, well, we should get in the studio anyway. I mean, that would be a lot of fun. Usher's the man. Yeah. Let's do one more. I won't talk about Memphis. Let's play Memphis. Okay.

1:08:17And that's one that's really hard to cut off. That's really hard not to play. That's a whole, yeah, that from start to finish is a whole message for sure. It's like, it feels almost like a diary excerpt. That's the way it feels to me, man. Yeah. I mean, I don't know you, but you've been in my life how long? And I can only imagine the pressure and the craziness of your career. I mean, I can only imagine what it's been. You started with Conditions and then you wanted to play one more and you played Memphis. And I don't find that there's much irony to that because when I finished those two songs, I said, these have to be the bookends of the album.

1:08:59and you know Memphis is an extremely personal song but I think it was important to me the way that it sounded like you said the way that it felt there's no moment for me where I've been ungrateful about how challenging it can be this is not like a I'm not saying this in some sort of braggy type of way I have a very unique life where I've grown up in this industry from a very young age and I think you go through life and you learn things about yourself and you go through bad experiences you go through highs and lows and that's why that visual in my mind like being in the clouds you know and people seeing you up there that the first thing you hear people say is you can't be crying from up there you know and and i'm not necessarily saying that i am where that song where that song sort of where i started to find the inspiration for it again i found myself remembering when i was first moving out of memphis and it's kind of funny now that i'm thinking about it now i remember when i got chosen for like star search which if you're young and you're listening to this right now it was the original American Idol you know what I mean like yeah by the way like it was the biggest thing on television huge yeah and I remember when I got chosen to go be on the show like the kids from my school that were my friends like came and met me at the airport with signs saying good luck Justin you know what I mean and I think back to those moments with such fondness but also like that 10 year old feeling that pressure to be great and you know at times being a artist who achieves a certain amount of success can lead to weirdly enough like an incredible feeling of isolation and i think that that's when you have to really you have to take a a second to say, who am I right now?

1:11:23And how have these experiences affected me all up until this moment? Because that's really the best way to move forward, right? In your own sort of personal constitution. And sometimes I've had lows with it and sometimes I've had extreme highs with it. And I think when you get older and you're able to metabolize that, I couldn't have written that song before now, you know, because I wasn't able to see how something that I didn't pay any attention to affected me in so many ways. Like I said, good and bad. But like I said, in that song with I'm everything you thought I was, I'm everything I thought I was, it was everything I thought it was.

1:12:01And that's really wrapped around these ideas that once you finish a piece of art and you put it out there it's gonna be everything to somebody and something else to somebody else and something else to the next person and I guess I just felt like it was my turn to say this is what it is to me and so that's why it's important that it's the first song on the album originally I wasn't gonna call it Memphis but my best friend you know was sitting next to me he said you should call this Memphis because it really reminds me of like you coming out of Memphis and all of us like being so proud of you to to go out and and dare to dream right but I don't know I think it's I think it's important to important to see every sliver of the whole picture and be able to put them in their place for yourself yeah that that's what that song is that kind of um kind of like deeply personal songwriting does it feel comfortable it felt comfortable on this song all songs even though you might just be writing them because you want to trying to achieve the the sort of uh entendres of the concept of the song or you could be you know connecting the dots for the narrative of the song they're all going to subconsciously come from a deeply personal place.

1:13:32I think, like I guess, like I said, I think being able to put them in their place and once it's done, you know, it's like, whew. Yeah. You know, if they are deeply personal or if they're a song like No Angels where it's like, you know, let me explore all the ideas of what No Angels means or, you know, what if we put them on the dance floor? Oh yeah, there's No Angels on the dance floor. every you know what i mean like that's a that's a concept we can all understand right and have fun with yeah i think whether a song is deeply personal or not as an artist you're always putting your heart on your sleeve you know and and sometimes that can be a very isolating place a very a very anxious experience yeah but the more i've understood that again i remember hearing rick Ruben say this, that people's reaction to a piece of art says everything about them, good or bad.

1:14:34And I don't know, I guess that thinking about that concept really frees me up. They're going to be personal for the listener too. I think that's an amazing thing. That's the connection. Have you thought about playing this record live yet? Yeah. It's been interesting right now because we're going on tour really soon. so it's been interesting to try to think about what songs i'm going to play live yeah i think once the album's out and it's living in the world i think i'll quickly have a feel not just based on like what people are responding to but more so myself yeah you know like how i how i feel about it being out in the world yeah there really is a difference when you release something versus when It's not, you know, even now, even though it's like people, some people have heard and you've gotten feedback.

1:15:29Sure. And especially to think about you work on and off for three or four years on a project. I think the difference is for me now, before it was like, oh, God, you know, which I think a lot of us go through as artists. Sure. I think the difference is now for me, it's like, wow, you know, like what a blessing, you know. And I don't know, I just feel really grateful in this moment. There's so many, we've talked about so many people and they've all conspired to my story and to be part of my journey. And I'm so grateful for all of them, the ones that I know personally and the ones that I don't even know at all personally, that I think I can really see the value in that at this point in my life.

1:16:23And I think that's why this album feels the way that it feels for me. That's beautiful, man. Thank you. It's really beautiful. Thank you. I mean, thank you for the record. Thank you for making the time to speak about the record and put it together. I mean, it's really beautiful. And can't wait to see you on the road, man. Yeah, come see us. Absolutely. We'll make it do as Ray Charles says. We'll make it do what it do.

1:16:52Thanks to Justin Timberlake for chopping it up about his new album, Everything I Thought It Was. You can hear it along with our favorite songs featuring JT on a playlist at brokenrecordpodcast.com. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash brokenrecordpodcast where you can find all of our new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at Broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose with marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Toledo. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus.

1:17:29Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and ad-free listening for$4.99 a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcast subscriptions. And if you like this show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast ad. Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm Justin Richmond.

1:17:52The more you learn about your favorite artists, the more you want to know. Claude helps you keep digging, finding new threads and rabbit holes to explore. Whether it's discovering deeper meaning behind a detail in an interview, or figuring out the influence behind an artist's particular era. Claude thinks with you to find the next clue. If you can't get enough of the stories behind your favorite music and artists, Claude will help you discover new layers you didn't know existed. Try Claude for free at Claude.ai slash Broken Record. This episode of Broken Record is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve.

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