Speaker 1: Pushkin. I'm excited to bring you our episode today with
Speaker 1: Justin Timberlake. JT is a massive talent. Anytime Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: was asked about his successors in pop stardom over the
Speaker 1: last decade of his life, he'd mentioned two people he
Speaker 1: was proud of that he felt carried the mantle the
Speaker 1: way he wanted to see it carried. Those two people
Speaker 1: were Usher and our guest Justin Timberlake. Justin has had
Speaker 1: a career as a singer on some levels since nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, whereas he puts it on his new album
Speaker 1: Everything I Thought It Was, he's been making first impressions
Speaker 1: since he was barely eleven, and for nearly all of
Speaker 1: those thirty two years. He's had a really charmed career.
Speaker 1: Cast member of the relaunched Mickey Mouse Club back in
Speaker 1: ninety three, where he was co stars with Ryan Gosling
Speaker 1: and other now luminaries, then as a member of n SYNC, which,
Speaker 1: along with The Backs Boys, were one of the defining
Speaker 1: elements of late nineties and early odds pop culture. And
Speaker 1: if that one enough, he launched an incredibly successful solo
Speaker 1: career where he found a musical soulmate in Timbaland, who
Speaker 1: he's worked with in some capacity on all six of
Speaker 1: his solo releases. So with all of that harder and
Speaker 1: success behind him, it's been interesting to see the online
Speaker 1: drubbing he's been taken in the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: and I was really curious how he might respond musically.
Speaker 1: Turns out, what he did was make an album that
Speaker 1: feels like a return to form. Everything I thought it
Speaker 1: was is everything you'd hope to hear from JT, including
Speaker 1: a surprise in sync reunion. On today's episode, I talked
Speaker 1: through Justin Timberlake's new album with him as he dissects
Speaker 1: key tracks from it. He also recalls how Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: helped inspire his solo career, breaks down the motivation behind
Speaker 1: each one of his solo albums, and talks about why
Speaker 1: he felt now was the right time to reunite with
Speaker 1: his boy band brothers and then Sync. This is broken
Speaker 1: record notes, it's got the digital age. I'm Justin Mitchman.
Speaker 1: Here's my conversation with Justin Timberlake, recorded at Amazon Studios
Speaker 1: one twenty six. We kicked things off by talking about
Speaker 1: the last song on his new album, Conditions.
Speaker 2: I love that that's the first song you picked.
Speaker 1: It's gorgeous, thanks man, and you know what, it was
Speaker 1: a pleasant surprise. One of the things I always loved
Speaker 1: to about the first two albums is you ended with
Speaker 1: like these really just really in your R and B bag,
Speaker 1: you know, never again another song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out to Rick Rubin.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Rick who under bigger, better things and
Speaker 1: now conditions. When did you realize you wanted to start
Speaker 1: making an album or put out an album.
Speaker 2: I had another kid and UH needed to pay the bills. No,
Speaker 2: I'm kidding, I'm joking. I'm joking. So making this album
Speaker 2: was different for me than any their album, you know,
Speaker 2: to kind of go back to give you references, you know,
Speaker 2: Justified was you know, me stepping outside of a massive
Speaker 2: machine of pop music because I really felt inspired to
Speaker 2: make music that I felt was more true to me right.
Speaker 2: And I was also I think it's important and we
Speaker 2: can get to it, because that's been part of making
Speaker 2: this album is realizing that I really grew up in
Speaker 2: the industry. You know, I spent my high school years
Speaker 2: in the industry, my college years in the industry, and
Speaker 2: with Justified, it was this overwhelming feeling, you know, I'll
Speaker 2: never forget being inside a stadium at soundcheck and it
Speaker 2: just it was this overwhelming feeling, right and the last
Speaker 2: album that I did with the group within sync, like
Speaker 2: I was really getting into really really I think, gaining
Speaker 2: more self confiden into my songwriting and feeling like I
Speaker 2: had a voice in that way.
Speaker 1: Y'all wrote like, yeah, we did the bulk of the
Speaker 1: album right, and you know, Gone in particular was a
Speaker 1: song that I had written for Michael and Jackson.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I don't know if you're gonna flex the flex
Speaker 2: all the way, No, I'm kidding, And he had never
Speaker 2: heard it, and so I ended up taking it to
Speaker 2: the A and R meeting for that album and everybody
Speaker 2: just freaked out over the song in a great way,
Speaker 2: which is, you know, very gratifying. And later on, after
Speaker 2: the song had come out, I guess Michael had heard
Speaker 2: the song. He called me and he said, I want
Speaker 2: to do the song and I want to do it
Speaker 2: with you, and I said, well, it's it's out. It's
Speaker 2: already out, you know, so maybe we can do like
Speaker 2: acause I think you know, he was working on it
Speaker 2: was I think it was the Invincible album at that point,
Speaker 2: and he had he had, you know, brought in all
Speaker 2: these songwriters pitch songs, and I remember the conversation was, well,
Speaker 2: you know the records out, the song's out, maybe we
Speaker 2: can make it like a in Sync featuring Michael for
Speaker 2: maybe like a reissue of our album, and then it
Speaker 2: can be Michael featuring n Sync for your album. I
Speaker 2: was trying to figure out how.
Speaker 1: You had Stevie on that record too, so I could.
Speaker 2: Have been, yeah, oh you did you really do this
Speaker 2: that that was a good pool. That's another story I
Speaker 2: could tell you about, but we'll get to that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he said, no, I want to do it with you.
Speaker 2: But for whatever reason, what was in the air for
Speaker 2: me and feeling like I really wanted to express myself
Speaker 2: in a different way, and then along with that conversation
Speaker 2: and a few other things that were just in the
Speaker 2: ether at the time, it led me down this path
Speaker 2: of saying I've got to do it. I've got to
Speaker 2: do it. It's this overwhelming need to do it. So
Speaker 2: fast forward to Future Sex Love Sounds, and again it
Speaker 2: was just like it hit me where I said, I
Speaker 2: had this overwhelming need to do it. And at that time,
Speaker 2: you know, Timberland and I had had conversations about like
Speaker 2: sort of the absence of interesting dance music and how
Speaker 2: could we flip that on its head, How could we
Speaker 2: do what we've done before but really create a sound
Speaker 2: and something that feels futuristic. And that's sort of what
Speaker 2: led me down the path of the album title, right,
Speaker 2: and with twenty twenty experience fast forward to that. That
Speaker 2: was one of the craziest experiences of making an album
Speaker 2: because it ended up being called the twenty twenty experience
Speaker 2: because we spent twenty days. I said, let's just work
Speaker 2: for a month. I'm not even I just want to
Speaker 2: go in and make music. Let's work for a month.
Speaker 2: I said, We're going to take weekends off like regular people.
Speaker 2: We're not going to be in the studio till, you know,
Speaker 2: six am every day. And we wrote twenty songs in
Speaker 2: twenty days. Wow, you know, And you know, we brought
Speaker 2: in other players and producers and people that I was
Speaker 2: excited about, you know, and then Man of the Woods too.
Speaker 2: It was it was the same thing. It was just
Speaker 2: like this overwhelming feeling to make this album. And my
Speaker 2: wife and I had our first son and we named
Speaker 2: him Silas, which means Men of the Forest, you know,
Speaker 2: which I said, Oh, Man of the Woods, that's an
Speaker 2: amazing thing. So, like, you know, it was really more like, uh,
Speaker 2: that's what gave me the idea for that album as well.
Speaker 2: But okay, fast forward to this album. This album was
Speaker 2: different because I was ready to get back in the studio,
Speaker 2: but I didn't really have a specific direction on where
Speaker 2: I wanted to go. I just wanted to explore again, right,
Speaker 2: which I think is a healthy place to start. And
Speaker 2: at the same time, I was enjoying my wife and
Speaker 2: I had our second son, and I was enjoying the
Speaker 2: time that I was getting with them so much. And
Speaker 2: I remember someone saying to me, like it that it
Speaker 2: goes so fast, you know, don't just keep working so
Speaker 2: that you miss out on those like golden years with
Speaker 2: your children. So I thought to myself, well, I'll just
Speaker 2: go in the studio for kind of two weeks at
Speaker 2: a time, no real sort of end in sight. And
Speaker 2: I was also excited at this point to work with
Speaker 2: new songwriters and collaborate with them, work with some new producers,
Speaker 2: collaborate with them, along with working with you know, Tim again.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it just became this process of like two three,
Speaker 2: four years even.
Speaker 1: Of just going in like two weeks at a time,
Speaker 1: yeh or three.
Speaker 2: Weeks at a time, or even if you had a
Speaker 2: week blocked out, I will say two weeks, just to
Speaker 2: sort of give you an approximation, right, And so I
Speaker 2: sort of had this moment where I stopped and I
Speaker 2: was like, how many songs do we have? It was
Speaker 2: summer between ninety and one hundred, you know, looking at
Speaker 2: one hundred songs, and so.
Speaker 1: At what point is this?
Speaker 2: This is this was probably a year ago, and so
Speaker 2: then I said, Okay, which songs feel the most special?
Speaker 2: And not with any rhyme or reason, but just give
Speaker 2: me the best feeling. Right.
Speaker 1: That's a big task, though, man, you know eighty ninety songs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It was. It was right around one hundred,
Speaker 2: right around one hundred songs, and it kind of got
Speaker 2: to that point to where some of them started feeling
Speaker 2: like connective tissue, They started feeling like symbiotic in a way.
Speaker 2: And so then I just started narrowing them down and
Speaker 2: perfecting those ones that I was really zoning in on.
Speaker 2: And that's the eighteen that you that you have on everything.
Speaker 1: I thought it was, is that the feeling you had
Speaker 1: when you finally got to the eighteen, like these eighteen
Speaker 1: out of the dozens, this is what I was looking for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I took a lot of stock into
Speaker 2: about twelve to fifteen of them, and then kind of
Speaker 2: regrouped and said, Okay, what do I feel like for me?
Speaker 2: What am I missing? You know? What color the in
Speaker 2: the crayon box? Do I feel like I can add
Speaker 2: to this? And always have this rule too when you
Speaker 2: think you're done with the album, like write one more
Speaker 2: song because something happens. I think when you feel like
Speaker 2: you're done with an album that you kind of release
Speaker 2: any sort of subconscious pressure to live up to your
Speaker 2: own standards, that you take a breath, really like a
Speaker 2: figurative breath, and then you write something crazy wow, right
Speaker 2: and so funny enough that you started with conditions. That
Speaker 2: was one later on in the process. Really, yeah, that
Speaker 2: was one later on in the process. And yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: I don't know, I guess maybe every artist says this,
Speaker 2: but I'm just so incredibly proud of this album as
Speaker 2: a whole, because I really think collectively it's my most
Speaker 2: complete work from start to finish.
Speaker 1: That's amazing that you can end up with it being
Speaker 1: feeling like your most complete work when you're the starting
Speaker 1: point was no mission statement, not sure, you know, and
Speaker 1: the other ones you've seemed like you had that right.
Speaker 1: It's just wild to me that you can have created
Speaker 1: something that feels the most complete to you from this
Speaker 1: unknown place, starting at this unknown place, right.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the other thing that happens as you
Speaker 2: get a little bit older and you gain a little
Speaker 2: more experience even in life, is you have this ability
Speaker 2: to be able to step back and you're able to
Speaker 2: look at it as a whole. And I think taking
Speaker 2: time with it because I was also doing writer camps
Speaker 2: where I was you know, we go in and write
Speaker 2: a song, and I would say, look, this is not
Speaker 2: for me specifically. Let's just write a song that we
Speaker 2: think is great wow, you know, and if I feel
Speaker 2: like I can put my thing on it, then I
Speaker 2: will go in and make my own. So I think
Speaker 2: having that time to digest a lot of the music
Speaker 2: it helped me with each song, where in comparison, making
Speaker 2: something like twenty twenty experience that felt so quick. We
Speaker 2: definitely sat with it for a while because we went
Speaker 2: back in Tim and I and tinkered with all the interludes,
Speaker 2: and all the kind of transitions. But I think I
Speaker 2: also in having the experience of being able to work
Speaker 2: in the studio at the level that I felt was
Speaker 2: my best and having time to live my life. As
Speaker 2: you go through life, you realize how important patience is.
Speaker 2: And if I did have any keyword that was part
Speaker 2: of a mission statement, like you said, then patience was
Speaker 2: that because I would go back in and tinker with
Speaker 2: each song so much until I felt like, okay, we
Speaker 2: can take that part out, because tinkering sometimes is not
Speaker 2: adding right, you know, Arranging your song sometimes is almost
Speaker 2: like omitting a piece that you feel like maybe doesn't
Speaker 2: make sense to you within that composition.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, when you're listening with that ear towards arrangement.
Speaker 1: Do you think you've listened differently now than you did
Speaker 1: when you were younger, maybe ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: I think you become more adept at being able to understand.
Speaker 2: But I think just through experience understand Oh, let's try
Speaker 2: horns on this. Yeah, for instance, Oh, this this section
Speaker 2: would be nice if we add an acoustic guitzar. And
Speaker 2: then even like I said before, no, no, no, take
Speaker 2: take the synth out right there, Like let the track
Speaker 2: breathe while I'm saying this part over the song, and
Speaker 2: so yeah, it's been an amazing process, really the most
Speaker 2: gratifying process that I've had making an album, because I
Speaker 2: really took this bull by the horns and was out
Speaker 2: front producing everything. And I think also too, just gaining
Speaker 2: more confidence and gaining more confidence because working with such
Speaker 2: great producers throughout my career you pick up so much,
Speaker 2: you know, you become a sponge in the studio, and
Speaker 2: I've been lucky to work with producers that are humble
Speaker 2: as well. They want to hear the artist's ideas, they
Speaker 2: want to collaborate, and I've always been that way. I
Speaker 2: enjoy collaborations so much, so I think, yeah, it led
Speaker 2: us down this path and it's dense like all of
Speaker 2: my albums. But I also feel like, I mean, I've
Speaker 2: been in this industry since I was ten years old,
Speaker 2: which seems crazy to say, but I don't think I've
Speaker 2: ever taken a moment to really just stop and look
Speaker 2: around and appreciate all of it collectively. You know, I
Speaker 2: would reference certain moments and say, oh, that was amazing,
Speaker 2: that was amazing, But I don't think I've ever set
Speaker 2: back and looked at the whole of it to say,
Speaker 2: look at how blessed I've been and lucky I've been
Speaker 2: to have all these opportunities and to continue to work
Speaker 2: not just in music but in film and in television,
Speaker 2: and so it's been such an amazing ride. I think
Speaker 2: this is the first time I really just stopped and said,
Speaker 2: this is really something just to be gratified by.
Speaker 1: Was it having kids that allowed you to maybe have
Speaker 1: that perspective.
Speaker 2: I don't think it hurt, you know. I think having
Speaker 2: children will teach you a lot about yourself. You know,
Speaker 2: before I had children, I heard people say things like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: they pick us. Like when I heard people say that,
Speaker 2: I was like someone burning incense. Yeah, it felt a
Speaker 2: little guru e yeah. But what I do believe is
Speaker 2: that they really show you who you are. And I
Speaker 2: just like I said, I think I just I stopped
Speaker 2: for the first time and looked at all the places
Speaker 2: that I've been and all the things that I feel
Speaker 2: like I've accomplished, and that energy got put into this album.
Speaker 2: And that's really the title. Everything I thought it was,
Speaker 2: you know, with every color of the rainbow of this
Speaker 2: life so far and my passion being music, first to
Speaker 2: be able to have lived a life as a creator.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just a really special thing. It's something
Speaker 2: that when you gain some sort of success and it
Speaker 2: starts to feel like, oh, let's keep this rolling, let's
Speaker 2: keep this rolling. I think that can be sort of
Speaker 2: a creative death trap that urged too, Like I got
Speaker 2: a well two pret do something to create something on
Speaker 2: a timer, you know, to have this pressure on yourself
Speaker 2: to do that. And I don't think it's any mystery
Speaker 2: that I take so much time in between albums because
Speaker 2: I really enjoy living my life and it feeds me.
Speaker 2: It feeds me as a creator, as a songwriter and
Speaker 2: a producer, and as an artist. It's fed how I
Speaker 2: even characterize my vocals on this record. How I sing
Speaker 2: on this record?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 1: How do you mean?
Speaker 2: I just think that there's songs on this album that
Speaker 2: because of the way that I wrote them and because
Speaker 2: they were coming these ideas and feelings were coming out
Speaker 2: of me. I mean, we can continue to use conditions
Speaker 2: as an example. When I go in to record the vocal,
Speaker 2: it's almost like it's so ingrained in you that all
Speaker 2: you have to do is speak the lyrics in the
Speaker 2: melody that you've written because you know that the tone
Speaker 2: will come across in such an honest.
Speaker 1: Way that emotion was really Yeah.
Speaker 2: To simplify it, I didn't have to find it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know some singers who are not songwriters, and even
Speaker 2: songwriters that are singers as well. I've found two they
Speaker 2: didn't get. In conversations with them sometimes they say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't. I didn't feel it vocally that day, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, and I never I never had a moment
Speaker 2: like that on this album. Everything felt like I call
Speaker 2: it the carbonation where if if it's bubbling up for you,
Speaker 2: then it's the thing to follow. It's like if anxiety
Speaker 2: could be like a good thing. It's like, you know,
Speaker 2: and all of these songs just when I went back
Speaker 2: to sort of review them, because I've had I had
Speaker 2: different iterations of this album, you know, with some of
Speaker 2: the songs, and then I would write another song because
Speaker 2: I was just like, well, let's write another one. Let's
Speaker 2: see what happens. And I don't know if you ever
Speaker 2: get to a point to where you're like, this is it.
Speaker 2: It's done. But I think you get to a point
Speaker 2: to where you can say, okay, I can put that
Speaker 2: out in the world and let it live.
Speaker 1: And feel good and feel good about it and it
Speaker 1: feels honest. Yeah, after this quick break, we're coming back
Speaker 1: with more from justin Timberlake. We're back with JT. You know,
Speaker 1: I had it really considered it until you were expressing
Speaker 1: that so much of this album the vocal was just there,
Speaker 1: like the performance, the take was just there. Well, you
Speaker 1: have to find your voice on it. To degree, do
Speaker 1: you think acting and honing that craft has helped the
Speaker 1: way you sing?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? I mean I've sort of talked about that my
Speaker 2: whole career because I get the question a lot, like well,
Speaker 2: which one do you like better? And I was like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, we're talking apples and oranges. I like them both. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I think what happens is I think we have
Speaker 2: this nature as humans to be divisive, and I want
Speaker 2: to be clear about not even in a negative way.
Speaker 2: I mean, we can be divisive in a negative We've
Speaker 2: all done it right, But I think we have to
Speaker 2: find the sliver or category for why something is the
Speaker 2: way that it is. And when I think about music
Speaker 2: and film, to me, they feed each other so much.
Speaker 2: I've been such a centophile since I was young and
Speaker 2: I've been such a big fan of music since I
Speaker 2: was young, and yeah, I could sort of we could
Speaker 2: go back and talk about songs from my past, and
Speaker 2: I could give you sort of a character because future
Speaker 2: sex love sounds to me. When I was trying to
Speaker 2: describe to people what it was, and I find myself
Speaker 2: using film references. I said, it's like if James Bond
Speaker 2: found himself in a Kubrick movie, or like he was
Speaker 2: in Yeah, Eyes Wide Shut or two thousand and one,
Speaker 2: you know, with how futuristic it sounded. So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I find that each one feeds the other.
Speaker 1: What was the reference on this one, or like if
Speaker 1: you if you had one film.
Speaker 2: Refer Oh, man, I shouldn't have done that, because now
Speaker 2: you put me on the spot. No, no, no, I
Speaker 2: honestly this album is the most me that I've ever been.
Speaker 2: And at this point too, I've heard people say to me,
Speaker 2: you don't you don't need to make an album?
Speaker 1: Really people say that to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they say, like, you know, you don't need
Speaker 2: to do it, look at what you've done and you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm just like, but I need to make music.
Speaker 2: That's something that on a cellular level is a part
Speaker 2: of me, and I think that energy went into this.
Speaker 2: I think being a father and a husband that energy
Speaker 2: went into this. But I think also having that moment
Speaker 2: that I talked about before where you really sit back
Speaker 2: and you're like, let me take stock and like, what
Speaker 2: does this all mean at this point in my life?
Speaker 2: What do I want to do and who do I
Speaker 2: want to be? And I was just having those moments
Speaker 2: about my life and they affected who I wanted to
Speaker 2: be and what I wanted to say as an artist.
Speaker 2: And I found myself weirdly enough when I would play
Speaker 2: the album for close friends or people that I really respect,
Speaker 2: like I would get a comment like, Oh, this sounds
Speaker 2: like all of your albums before this in one album,
Speaker 2: but new and fresh. And then I'd get comments like, oh,
Speaker 2: this sounds like everything I thought I would want you
Speaker 2: to make. And so it also led me to the
Speaker 2: album title everything I thought it was.
Speaker 1: It's sort of true, like there are moments throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the eighteen songs that definitely feel like in emotion,
Speaker 1: just feel like they reference other projects that you've done.
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like this incredibly forefront conscious thing.
Speaker 1: YEA, like Babe Ruth calling it hit and I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2: Well to be honest with you, that to me is
Speaker 2: another death trap. Yeah. Like I said, I think the
Speaker 2: healthiest place to be is like I don't know absolutely.
Speaker 2: I think I think that's the most important thing you
Speaker 2: can learn in this life as and as an artist
Speaker 2: or whatever your career is is to be able to
Speaker 2: say I don't I don't know, which leads you to
Speaker 2: the path of going, well, let me figure out what
Speaker 2: it means to me.
Speaker 1: Have you had moments where you've caught yourself feeling like
Speaker 1: maybe I'm acting as if I know too much here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's uh. That has to be where fuck around
Speaker 2: and find out phrase is the most relative you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? Because yeah, I think you get to
Speaker 2: this point where you realize, oh, there's a lot that
Speaker 2: there's a lot of experience I have and there's things
Speaker 2: that I do know that I can always go back
Speaker 2: to as north stars in creating. But that's the beauty
Speaker 2: of making music is discovering something about yourself about the
Speaker 2: music itself every time. And I think that for me,
Speaker 2: that's why I never want to make exactly what I
Speaker 2: did before. You always want to find new mountains to
Speaker 2: climb or new landscapes to explore, and.
Speaker 1: You definitely did some of that on here as well.
Speaker 1: There's definitely stuff on here that sounds like it's a
Speaker 1: new color palette, even as there's other things that sound
Speaker 1: reminiscent of things you've done. There's some a bit about
Speaker 1: it that reminds me of like Man in the Woods.
Speaker 1: Some of it reminds me like twenty twenty, but also
Speaker 1: just feels like different. And there's another one of the
Speaker 1: songs I was just struck by when it came on.
Speaker 2: This is really fun for me, by the way, because
Speaker 2: now that people are hearing the music, it's interesting to
Speaker 2: me if they're fans of my music to hear I'm
Speaker 2: gonna let you play it. I don't want to. I
Speaker 2: want to tee this up too much, but it's just
Speaker 2: cool for me to hear what that means to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was one of the first times in a
Speaker 1: long time where I had a new album and I
Speaker 1: listened to it, and I found myself really being surprised
Speaker 1: with my reaction to certain things.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, amazing, so and thank you. But I think
Speaker 2: it also speaks to something else that I've discovered is
Speaker 2: that when you make music, the success of it, the
Speaker 2: biggest success of it is that you finished it, because
Speaker 2: it was somewhere inside of you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I always think about the eight year old me that,
Speaker 2: you know, in big shout out to my mother. She
Speaker 2: played me so many different types of music growing up,
Speaker 2: you know, on the way to school, on the way
Speaker 2: home from school, on the way to the dentist, on
Speaker 2: the way to the you know, wherever. You know, if
Speaker 2: I was to try to pick a playlist, for instance,
Speaker 2: or make a playlist from the time I was eight
Speaker 2: years old until I was like fourteen, it's so incredibly diverse.
Speaker 2: And that's because I just grew up in a really
Speaker 2: musical family and my mother was such a big fan
Speaker 2: of all these different styles of music that she would
Speaker 2: play me so many different things. And I think about
Speaker 2: it a lot these days because and probably because I
Speaker 2: have children as well, and I see how their influence
Speaker 2: or they're just pick things that they like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what are your kids like?
Speaker 2: They like everything? You know. My three year old's favorite
Speaker 2: song at the moment, careless whisper and knows every word.
Speaker 1: What, Yeah, did you play it for?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: He I think my nanny when she was putting him
Speaker 2: down for a nap because I sing songs for them.
Speaker 2: You know. Smile is a big one for Silas my
Speaker 2: oldest and Fineas my youngest. You know, Smiles a big
Speaker 2: one for bedtime. In nap time, I would sing Ribbon
Speaker 2: in the Sky. We would obviously go to things like
Speaker 2: Somewhere over the Rainbow or things like that, but I
Speaker 2: would sing a song for you, Donnie Hathaway version. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's been interesting. My eight year old is now at
Speaker 2: a place with like his friends in school where he's
Speaker 2: really gotten turned onto my music. So it's cool to
Speaker 2: see him. He was for two weeks he was like
Speaker 2: crime River, crimea River. He just loved that song. And
Speaker 2: then two weeks after that he was like chop me
Speaker 2: up from Future Sex Love Sounds, And I was like,
Speaker 2: you have such you know, like it's cool to see
Speaker 2: them experience all this work that you've put into before
Speaker 2: they got here. Yeah, you know, and yeah, he's he's
Speaker 2: into it.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of bugged them ount too that It's
Speaker 1: like because again, like their experience of you is like
Speaker 1: their three years or their eight years of existence. Sure,
Speaker 1: and then you've had this whole incredible life prior to them,
Speaker 1: and I think that really boggles kids' minds.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, it'll be it'll be interesting to have
Speaker 2: conversations with them when they get older, yeah, to kind
Speaker 2: of walk them through what it was, what it's all
Speaker 2: been like up until this point. I mean, don't get
Speaker 2: me wrong, I'm not I don't want to stop, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. But but I was. I was
Speaker 2: getting to a point of when you were saying, you know,
Speaker 2: whatever you're about to play reminded you of something from
Speaker 2: Man of the Woods and twenty twenty experience, because I
Speaker 2: was having this conversation the other day too, and I
Speaker 2: think funny enough, I think Rick Rubin touches on this
Speaker 2: where it's like, once the song's finished and it's out
Speaker 2: in the world, your your work is done. I remember
Speaker 2: when I put out Justified, and I was like, I
Speaker 2: was so happy that that I felt like I made
Speaker 2: an R and B album, And then like the first
Speaker 2: week of reviews. You know, I'm twenty one, twenty two
Speaker 2: at the time, first week of reviews its categorized in
Speaker 2: the pop albums and I was like, what you know
Speaker 2: and stop, oh thanks, I mean it's also a pop album,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, well at this point too,
Speaker 2: like why are we even talking about genres? Like why why?
Speaker 2: And also too like why are we again? This goes
Speaker 2: to maybe like our divisive nature as humans, why are
Speaker 2: we so quick to say that it doesn't make sense
Speaker 2: for an artist to try something new, to put on
Speaker 2: a different whole outfit and experience that for themselves, you
Speaker 2: may get something unbelievable. It's like when Dylan went from
Speaker 2: acoustic to electric and it was like, you know, he
Speaker 2: would have thought he said something crazy, like you know,
Speaker 2: his fans specifically, I mean, how even.
Speaker 1: He goes into a gospel and people like deride them
Speaker 1: for a lot. I mean, now people love those.
Speaker 2: Records totally, totally. So that's been a real lesson throughout
Speaker 2: my career as well, to say, once you finish the
Speaker 2: song and the album and you put it out in
Speaker 2: the world, that's the beauty of it. That's to me,
Speaker 2: one of the most beautiful parts about art is that
Speaker 2: we take it and we put it into our system
Speaker 2: and our life and we make it our own, and
Speaker 2: that is naturally going to make it something different. You know,
Speaker 2: you think back to there's certain songs that if you
Speaker 2: heard out of nowhere, might trigger Uh. Oh, I remember
Speaker 2: this summer when this song came out and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, your senses go back to that place.
Speaker 1: Dude, I'll be real with you. When when I was
Speaker 1: doing a lot of listening for this mayor Christmas Happy
Speaker 1: Holidays came up and I was like, yo, I didn't
Speaker 1: thought about this in a minute, and it instantly just
Speaker 1: put me in a time.
Speaker 2: You write where they were when you heard it.
Speaker 1: And it was a beautiful experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you like you smelled the cinnamon from the egg nod.
Speaker 1: Christmas was like you know, I was responsible for nothing.
Speaker 2: It was pure joy, was exactly you were. Just you
Speaker 2: couldn't wait to open up those presents. Yeah. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: but I think it's been fun to see the reaction
Speaker 2: to people even closest to me.
Speaker 1: How's your wife process this stuff, like your music, your
Speaker 1: new record?
Speaker 2: Oh well, she loves it, thank god. Now would she
Speaker 2: be honest with me. There's actually a couple of songs
Speaker 2: that I wasn't going to put on the album that
Speaker 2: she was insistent that I put on the album alone.
Speaker 1: Almost do you listen with her?
Speaker 2: Yeah, she comes, she comes to the studio and yeah,
Speaker 2: I can always tell when my friends and family come
Speaker 2: to the studio. If it's a song with tempo and
Speaker 2: we're getting the heads or bobbin and people are moving,
Speaker 2: then we're onto something for other songs too, Like you
Speaker 2: can tell if you're getting a reaction by the people
Speaker 2: closest to you, who know you the best. But it
Speaker 2: really made me realize again and I was able to
Speaker 2: metabolize it this time for myself that once you do
Speaker 2: finish that thing, you know everybody's going to interpret it
Speaker 2: the way that they do. That's a beautiful thing, you know,
Speaker 2: That's what that's what it's for. That's what I used
Speaker 2: to do when I was a kid, you know. I mean,
Speaker 2: you go to an art gallery and five people could
Speaker 2: be standing in front of a painting and they're all
Speaker 2: going to get something different from it.
Speaker 1: Some people love it, so people think it's shit. Some
Speaker 1: people think that I could do that. Some people can.
Speaker 2: And by the way, and by the way, those reactions
Speaker 2: could be literally based on what happened to them fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes ago. Yeah, but that's the beauty of art is
Speaker 2: we put it in our lives. I mean, how many
Speaker 2: times have I gone to a movie Because before I
Speaker 2: had children, I used to love to go to the
Speaker 2: movies by myself. I was sneaking to theaters and go
Speaker 2: to the movies by myself, sit in the back best.
Speaker 2: It's like the best two hour checkout.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: Oh wait till that comes back and you think you're
Speaker 2: going there to escape, But the first thing you do
Speaker 2: is you go, oh, I've done that. Oh yeah that's me,
Speaker 2: or oh yep, that reminds me of my dad.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know, yeah, you think that's It's gate you engage, you.
Speaker 2: Start to relate, you start to connect, and you connect
Speaker 2: based on your own life experiences. And that's been a
Speaker 2: really freeing thing for me to really bring to myself
Speaker 2: because I feel like it was always there, but I
Speaker 2: really couldn't. You know, maybe when you're younger and you
Speaker 2: you have this healthy ego, you want people to understand
Speaker 2: who you are more than anything, right, definitely, but they don't,
Speaker 2: you know, not fully. Only you can do that. And
Speaker 2: that's also a beautiful place to arrive too, because I
Speaker 2: think it gives you gives you a layer of self
Speaker 2: love that you didn't have before. So anyways, I'm rambling on,
Speaker 2: but I want to hear what song reminded you of
Speaker 2: those two albums.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's listen to some sanctified Okay.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I don't want to know how then not get out
Speaker 2: of control?
Speaker 3: The bringing me down?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know I'm walking this amazing.
Speaker 1: I know you a good one. That's crazy track.
Speaker 2: Thanks man.
Speaker 1: What was the initial spark for that song?
Speaker 2: Well, my co producers Rob Knox and Danger along with
Speaker 2: my guitarists. I think the discussion came up like can
Speaker 2: you make trap swing? And so that's why the drum
Speaker 2: sounds in the verses are the way they are. It's
Speaker 2: tight sonically, it's very tight. And then you know, there's
Speaker 2: there's blues, there's gospel, there's R and B, there's hip hop,
Speaker 2: there's rock and roll, all within this this one song. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And it was a little bit of a blackout making
Speaker 2: that song. But I remember when we were done, we
Speaker 2: just all looked at each other like what did we
Speaker 2: just do? Yeah, that's a special one. I love that song.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to perform that song on tour.
Speaker 1: Song is gonna go crazy, you know, And we.
Speaker 2: Did SNL and having Toby on it as well.
Speaker 1: Toby's on it. When did you get Toby on?
Speaker 2: I just got turned on to him. Like I stumbled
Speaker 2: upon his music and I just went into a rabbit
Speaker 2: hole of the stuff he had done up until that point,
Speaker 2: and I was like, man, this guy is incredible. And
Speaker 2: you ask him who his favorite rappers are, He's like
Speaker 2: three thousand, Lauren Hill. I don't know who his top
Speaker 2: five is, but I know those were in his top
Speaker 2: five because we talked about it, and You're like, it
Speaker 2: makes sense. He's just really, really special. And there was
Speaker 2: something about the gravel of his voice. He sounds like
Speaker 2: a preacher and I was like, that's it. That guy
Speaker 2: on this song. I just want to see what he
Speaker 2: would do. And so it's funny. I set up like
Speaker 2: a face time with him. He was like, I didn't
Speaker 2: even know you knew any of my music, and I
Speaker 2: was like, I'd love to collaborate with you, and I
Speaker 2: think I have something that I just hear your voice on.
Speaker 2: And he came and met me. I was working in
Speaker 2: Miami at the time. This is one of those like
Speaker 2: two week writer trips. I was at Dangers Studio in
Speaker 2: Miami and I played it for him and he was like,
Speaker 2: it was like you saw this spark go off and
Speaker 2: he was like, Okay, that's it. I'm getting on this song.
Speaker 2: It was like he claimed it, and that's when I
Speaker 2: knew it was gonna end up being special in his verses,
Speaker 2: insane insane, And he went into another room for like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, a couple of hours and like really
Speaker 2: perfected what he wanted to say on the record and
Speaker 2: listen to my lyrics because I had had the song
Speaker 2: done up until that point. Once I met with him,
Speaker 2: and once once we actually got together in the studio,
Speaker 2: it was just like another kindred spirit. Yeah, man, he's special,
Speaker 2: special artist.
Speaker 1: I want to play another one.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll play a bit of play m. I've been
Speaker 2: making first impressions since I was Bally and levin Stead
Speaker 2: come around, you give a lesson.
Speaker 1: Aday. There's so much weird shit in that song, but
Speaker 1: it sounds like a club hit. It's like what is
Speaker 1: going on?
Speaker 2: Like yeah, that's I mean, that started with a groove. Actually,
Speaker 2: Ryan Tedter sent sent me the idea for that, and
Speaker 2: he was like, he goes, I did something that You're
Speaker 2: the only human in the world who will understand it.
Speaker 2: And he pitched that to me the same way I
Speaker 2: pitched Sanctified to Toby's, Like I just want to hear
Speaker 2: what you would do with this. I was also in
Speaker 2: the studio with Danger at the time, and we both
Speaker 2: both got the idea and we just started beefing it up,
Speaker 2: you know, just beefing up the track because Ryan had
Speaker 2: sent me just like a scale idea, right, and he
Speaker 2: had like a verse and a chorus idea, and which
Speaker 2: is not far off where we landed at the end
Speaker 2: of the song, at the end of creating a song. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it just it's a it's a libe.
Speaker 1: We didn't have that. That was or I don't want
Speaker 1: to sing you to you and I know.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, go ahead, I'm not going. I always
Speaker 2: do that to Timberland in the studio and he's like, man,
Speaker 2: when you sang the if I wrote you and then
Speaker 2: he won't go up and I'm like, no, keep going,
Speaker 2: keep going. That's my brother, man. Yeah, it had that
Speaker 2: sort of walk down at first in the in the verse.
Speaker 2: That was kind of an idea that I think Ryan
Speaker 2: had and and the co writer who wrote with me,
Speaker 2: Michael Pollock, great songwriter as well, and yeah, it just
Speaker 2: needed the heel on the floor, so to speak. Dude.
Speaker 1: It has that feel of like like parliament, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean where it's yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Another shout out to Adam Blackstone, who played the
Speaker 2: bass on that. It's interesting too, like there's a synth
Speaker 2: that there's a low scent that comes in on the
Speaker 2: bridge on that song that I don't know. For whatever reason,
Speaker 2: it reminded me of DJ quick and I can't I
Speaker 2: don't know why, but I think if you like it's
Speaker 2: interesting you said Parliament, because I think if you, if
Speaker 2: you go back and listen to a lot of quicks
Speaker 2: records as well, like it's got that saying whoom. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know he's got a lot of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love that Quicks of reference for you.
Speaker 2: Oh dude, I mean one of the goats. Yeah, but underrated,
Speaker 2: criminally underrated. Yes, justice for DJ quick Man. Come on.
Speaker 2: I think he's doing fine. He seems happy.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know him personally. Actually, my favorite part
Speaker 2: of the song is is the little outro part where
Speaker 2: you think the song's ended, just like go until we
Speaker 2: bring the horns in.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of tricky stuff to me, like technicol
Speaker 1: it like it switches like halfway through.
Speaker 2: Like well, that's my favorite song currently.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite let's talk about it.
Speaker 2: And originally those two parts had nothing to do with
Speaker 2: each other. Separate song, just totally separate songs. And the
Speaker 2: interlude at the beginning, which I called never Get Enough interlude,
Speaker 2: that's what we were calling it before, and I think
Speaker 2: it was like originally a full step higher than Technicolor,
Speaker 2: and we were just working on that. Originally, Technicolor started
Speaker 2: with that reverse guitar that comes in as this what
Speaker 2: feels like the second part of the song, right, and
Speaker 2: that would have been enough, I'm sure, But for some reason,
Speaker 2: we were working on that on the interlude, and I said, wait,
Speaker 2: let's drop this to the same key as what we're
Speaker 2: working on with Technicolor. And for whatever reason, like all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, it just started making sense to me
Speaker 2: that this is just one piece of music, because actually,
Speaker 2: when I played the album first, when I played it
Speaker 2: for my team, originally those two parts were broken up,
Speaker 2: really yeah, they were broken up, and it was called
Speaker 2: and never Get Enough interlude into.
Speaker 1: So you already had it like a version of the album,
Speaker 1: really had it separate.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, wow. And then I said, you know what
Speaker 2: this is just to me, this is one piece of music.
Speaker 2: The first two minutes of it, which I guess to
Speaker 2: me are the interlude to the song. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like they set you up for what it is.
Speaker 2: It just to me, all of a sudden, it was like, no,
Speaker 2: this is one composition, this is one piece of music.
Speaker 1: You're really not afraid to mash things together, merge them together,
Speaker 1: make songs longer than other people would would dare make
Speaker 1: a song? And is it something you're listening to coming
Speaker 1: up or what is that that allows you to feel
Speaker 1: that freedom to not be confined to like just a
Speaker 1: typical pop song structure.
Speaker 2: What's interesting you have that book right there because that
Speaker 2: a night at the opera. Queen. Yeah, you got a
Speaker 2: Queen Coffee table book right here for those of you listening,
Speaker 2: there's a Queen Coffee table book. When my parents divorced
Speaker 2: and I would go, you know, like the weekends with
Speaker 2: my father, he had a record player and he had
Speaker 2: a night at the opera that was probably about nine
Speaker 2: or ten years old, and I remember seeing the album cover,
Speaker 2: you know, this like sort of psychedelic art, and I
Speaker 2: was like, I want to know what that music sounds like.
Speaker 2: And I remember I got to Bohemian Rhapsody right. And
Speaker 2: obviously that song's been referenced in so many different ways,
Speaker 2: like you always think of like Wayne's World. But I
Speaker 2: remember thinking, like whatever they were doing in comparison to
Speaker 2: the songs I'm hearing on the radio that are three
Speaker 2: minutes at a time, there's no rules for these guys.
Speaker 2: Whoever this is, there's no rules for these guys. And
Speaker 2: look at what it turns into. It's like it's an
Speaker 2: opera within itself. And I remember also, and these are
Speaker 2: things that are just coming to me right now. So
Speaker 2: I remember also hearing the not faded out version of
Speaker 2: God to Give It Up by Marvin Gay, and you
Speaker 2: know it's like, oh, yeah, they used to cut song
Speaker 2: short because vinyls only had so much space. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: you just would fade out. Yeah, that's why fades were
Speaker 2: a thing, right, Not that that's like the reason to
Speaker 2: do it now that we have all any available space
Speaker 2: you want to make a song. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's just it's a feeling because like your reference play,
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that song is like under three minutes.
Speaker 2: I think I could be wrong, though, Well I'm proving
Speaker 2: your point clearly that I don't pay attention to how
Speaker 2: long or short songs are because I don't even know
Speaker 2: what the time code is. Three and a half three
Speaker 2: and a half, okay, well without the outro and maybe
Speaker 2: it's I don't know exactly, but yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes songs should be short, yeah, sometimes not.
Speaker 1: After this last break, we'll be back with the rest
Speaker 1: of my interview with Justin Timberlake. We're back with the
Speaker 1: rest of Justin Timberlake. I want to go back to
Speaker 1: that Stevie store. You said you had a Stevie store.
Speaker 2: That's still in your mind. No, that was just having
Speaker 2: him come in play Harmonica.
Speaker 1: I was body, get Stevie. Wonder if lehrmant he doesn't
Speaker 1: do anything?
Speaker 2: You know, the answer is not to every question. You
Speaker 2: don't ask, I guess and I just asked him and
Speaker 2: he said yes, and he showed up at the studio.
Speaker 2: And I remember it was the NBA Finals, was the
Speaker 2: Lakers versus the Sixers. It was the AI days when
Speaker 2: they finally made it to the playoffs. And obviously Stevie
Speaker 2: being from Philly and me living, you know, starting to
Speaker 2: live in LA at the time, there was a lot
Speaker 2: of trash talking going on. They were just about to
Speaker 2: start They had just both made it to the finals,
Speaker 2: and he was like, nah, man, I think he said
Speaker 2: something like Philly in five and I was like, what
Speaker 2: I said, you do know who Kobe Bryant is, right,
Speaker 2: you know? And so it was like we were just
Speaker 2: having fun with it, and he was like, I'll bet
Speaker 2: you dinner at mister Chows and he's still never taking
Speaker 2: me to dinner. So I just want to make that
Speaker 2: public knowledge in case he hears this that Stevie, you
Speaker 2: still owe me dinner at mister Chase Squoch. But yet,
Speaker 2: like I just remember he finished one take on the
Speaker 2: harmonica and there were a couple of notes that were
Speaker 2: slightly out. I remember being in the in the control room,
Speaker 2: and you have to have to set this scene for you,
Speaker 2: like Stevie wonders in the booth playing harmonica. I'm at
Speaker 2: the board and I'm twenty maybe at the time, and
Speaker 2: then it's like some of the notes. I was like, ah,
Speaker 2: I wonder if he bent it like that on purpose
Speaker 2: or like was that a stylistic choice? And like even
Speaker 2: if I asked that question, is he going to be
Speaker 2: like what the did you just say to me? You know,
Speaker 2: like you don't know it is your first time working
Speaker 2: with one of your heroes. To me, one of the
Speaker 2: greatest songwriters of all time and one of the greatest
Speaker 2: voices of all time. Just like just like when you
Speaker 2: when you when you think about people who are here
Speaker 2: to do something you could put Stevie likes he from
Speaker 2: a very young age. He knew what he was here
Speaker 2: to do. You know, Yeah, that mission was on him,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. Like, and he goes, uh, so,
Speaker 2: what do you think? And before I could even I
Speaker 2: was like, I looked everybody else in the stair. I
Speaker 2: was like, what do we say? What do I say?
Speaker 2: And he goes, you know the key of this song.
Speaker 2: It's the only only harmonica I didn't bring for the
Speaker 2: key of this song. I have like four harmonicas he goes,
Speaker 2: and I referenced it off of songs that are normally
Speaker 2: in the key that you sing. He goes, but he
Speaker 2: threw me for a loop. He goes, just give me
Speaker 2: a minute. He took one of his and forgive me,
Speaker 2: Like I don't. I don't even remember the key of
Speaker 2: that that song's in or what he had, but he
Speaker 2: took a harmonica that was, you know, tuned to be
Speaker 2: in a different key. And came back and played it perfectly,
Speaker 2: and then he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I mean he did, like god,
Speaker 2: he did like three passes at it. And that's when
Speaker 2: you realize, like, I'm in the presence of the goat. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, like those are the experiences when I talk
Speaker 2: about taking stock and all the incredible moments I've had
Speaker 2: with my heroes and where I feel like I'm at
Speaker 2: in my life right now. That's why it felt good
Speaker 2: to put this album out, you know, because I think
Speaker 2: back to those types of experiences and I don't know,
Speaker 2: they just I'm like giggling at how it's all gone down.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a crazy situation to find yourself. And
Speaker 1: at twenty years old, you've got Stevie Wonder coming to
Speaker 1: play track and you're trying to figure out how do
Speaker 1: I can I tell him?
Speaker 2: I mean, if you put me on stage with the
Speaker 2: guitar that was out of tune, it would probably take
Speaker 2: me a good five minutes to figure out what to
Speaker 2: play for, you, you know, and this guy was just
Speaker 2: like that's when you realize, like that that guy is
Speaker 2: here to do this.
Speaker 1: It's insane. Yeah, did it feel good at getting in
Speaker 1: sync back on this record. Getting I mean, you guys did.
Speaker 2: The troll soundtrack as well. The troll soundtrack was fun,
Speaker 2: but it was a bit of a specialty item, you know,
Speaker 2: with the plot of the film and and and sort
Speaker 2: of the humor we were taking from it.
Speaker 1: It was a bit like when Kurb did the The
Speaker 1: Seinfeld season. It's kind of felt like.
Speaker 2: That, totally totally, but this one funny enough. This is
Speaker 2: actually Paradise is the first song that we got back
Speaker 2: together to the Red Yeah, so we did that one first,
Speaker 2: and then you know, we did the Trolls record. Some
Speaker 2: of the guys did their vocals on the same day
Speaker 2: on both songs. But I have finished writing it and
Speaker 2: I recorded my own version of it, obviously with less harmonies,
Speaker 2: you know, less stacked vocals. But as I was listening
Speaker 2: back to it, there was something in the ether. Again,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Sometimes these decisions get made and you
Speaker 2: feel like there's like somebody tapping you on the shoulder
Speaker 2: to say, like, what if you did this? And I
Speaker 2: feel like, when it's so loud, it's a moment where
Speaker 2: we say what if we did? And I felt incredibly
Speaker 2: gratified that my instincts were right about that, because I
Speaker 2: think I really think we sound amazing great on this song.
Speaker 2: And when you break down some of the lyrics too,
Speaker 2: there's some of it that I think could be interpreted
Speaker 2: as how we feel about the fan base that supported
Speaker 2: us from the beginning and even up until now, how
Speaker 2: we feel about each other. You know, we've been down
Speaker 2: a long, long road. Now look at where we are.
Speaker 2: We were chasing after hopes and dreams and we're still
Speaker 2: under the stars. Like Kenyon Dixon, Big Shout Out Co
Speaker 2: wrote ten songs on this album with wrote that song
Speaker 2: with me, And when that lyric came together, sitting back
Speaker 2: listening to it, for some reason, I felt like I
Speaker 2: was having a conversation with my four brothers from and
Speaker 2: Sink and I was like, we gotta try, you know,
Speaker 2: I gotta send them this song. I gotta play it
Speaker 2: for him. And jac was the first one I reached
Speaker 2: out to because obviously we share a lot of the leads.
Speaker 2: And he came in and heard it and I said,
Speaker 2: what do you think we would sound like together on
Speaker 2: this and he was like, let's find out. We went
Speaker 2: right in the booth and it was just like it
Speaker 2: was crazy because we looked older to each other. But
Speaker 2: it was like no time it passed, you know, and
Speaker 2: we were back having fun together and recording the song.
Speaker 2: And he sounds amazing on it as well, another one
Speaker 2: of my favorite singers. Yeah, and so do the other guys.
Speaker 2: I mean, just came in and it just felt like
Speaker 2: this amazing homecoming for us, and like it's an amazing reunion.
Speaker 2: I'm excited for fans of us as a group, fans
Speaker 2: who might discover us from this song to kind of
Speaker 2: understand what we accomplished in that era. Yeah, really really
Speaker 2: special and I'm excited, honestly. It's it was one of
Speaker 2: the moments that got me really emotional in making this album,
Speaker 2: because you know, you have so much shared history and
Speaker 2: to have kind of, you know, gone our separates and
Speaker 2: achieved things individually and to come back together for it
Speaker 2: to sound the way that it does, it's like a
Speaker 2: perfect representation of how we should sound now in my opinion,
Speaker 2: and that's why I pitched it to them, But also
Speaker 2: even deeper than that, to have another moment with them
Speaker 2: that who knows, I mean, you know, who knows what
Speaker 2: what that all means. But because I don't think you
Speaker 2: you know, you can't look too far forecast. You can't
Speaker 2: look too far in the forecast because the weather changes, right,
Speaker 2: and everybody's got their own lives and things they want
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: Well, I had to feel good, I mean, because it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's all I feel like they're over the years,
Speaker 1: y'all ever gonna get back together, y'all ever gonna do something.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: being able to be like kind of like must have
Speaker 1: relieved some pressure to where now if you want to
Speaker 1: you can or not, it's not going to be this big.
Speaker 2: I think that's the way it feels for us. Well,
Speaker 2: I think what you're talking about is like that can
Speaker 2: happen a little bit with the with the whole game
Speaker 2: of it, Yeah, where a question gets floated out there
Speaker 2: and then it's like the whole thing becomes like your
Speaker 2: mother a little bit, where like the stereotypical joke you
Speaker 2: could make about a mom where it's like, oh, she's
Speaker 2: a nice girl when you're gonna get married, and then
Speaker 2: you get married, it's like, hey, mom, we got married.
Speaker 2: When you're gonna have a child, you know, it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: mommy had a child, We're gonna have another child. You know,
Speaker 2: it can turn into that a little bit. But I
Speaker 2: think for I think for the five of us, I
Speaker 2: think we feel like this has to be on our terms.
Speaker 2: And I think it also speaks to what I was
Speaker 2: talking about before. For myself with this album, is really
Speaker 2: enjoying this moment and you know, savoring all of it.
Speaker 2: And I think that's that's what it has to be
Speaker 2: for us, if there was ever going to be anything,
Speaker 2: you know, But I will say that I think when
Speaker 2: people hear the song and us on it, it's an
Speaker 2: emotional experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, just like what a blessing to have, like
Speaker 1: all of the people you've been fortunate enough to collaborate
Speaker 1: with over the span of your career and just to
Speaker 1: have them there when it feels right for a song
Speaker 1: or it feels right for a project to be able
Speaker 1: to pull and harness all like you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like wow, Like.
Speaker 2: Well and it's not again like this wasn't something that
Speaker 2: was a completely conscious thing. But now that I look
Speaker 2: at the whole album, if you're calling an album everything
Speaker 2: I thought it was, to have that portion included in
Speaker 2: a way that to me is so spectacular. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: again the song itself, everybody's performance on it. We sound
Speaker 2: like us, but we sound like us now we sound
Speaker 2: like the future of us. But also just to have
Speaker 2: the experience with them, it means a lot to me.
Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, can I play Can I play
Speaker 1: something from welling? From another?
Speaker 2: We can go over if there's something you if there's
Speaker 2: records you really want to talk about. I'm so excited
Speaker 2: to actually talk about the album.
Speaker 3: You have no.
Speaker 1: Idea we could talk well, Infinity Sex is great and
Speaker 1: it's not what I was thinking from the title let's
Speaker 1: play little.
Speaker 2: What were you expecting like some like Joe Tosy or Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's what I think it was, because you know something
Speaker 1: first get out like kind of scan the time, you
Speaker 1: kind of like, Okay, I feel like it's gonna this
Speaker 1: is gonna be the.
Speaker 2: The first person to say that. By the way, you're
Speaker 2: in good comforty with the people who said they're like, oh,
Speaker 2: oh this is what this is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's hear it one another.
Speaker 1: I love that features a mess.
Speaker 2: Thanks uh so that that song was originally an idea
Speaker 2: that Calvin Harris sent to me, just like baseline groove
Speaker 2: type thing, and it was a little bit faster than
Speaker 2: that too. It was on some like real off the
Speaker 2: wall vibes. But then Timberland and I got a hold
Speaker 2: of it, and Tim made this really sort of wise
Speaker 2: decision on all the stuff that we worked together on.
Speaker 2: He had started this this thing called Beat Club that
Speaker 2: he brought me in on, right, and he just really
Speaker 2: wanted to find new producers and and he was just
Speaker 2: racking up all these like this amazing talent and he
Speaker 2: brought some guys in that that he was like, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna bring these guys in. These guys, You're gonna you're
Speaker 2: gonna vibe with these guys. It was. It was Fetti
Speaker 2: and Angel and we also had Lawrence from fifteen hundred
Speaker 2: in the studio. We have this James, Yeah, yep, James
Speaker 2: and I wrote that together.
Speaker 1: Great, and there's nothing but amazing things to say about you.
Speaker 1: But oh really he has no qualms.
Speaker 2: It seems Oh no, he doesn't care. Yeah, you don't
Speaker 2: give a fuck. He is extremely honest. One of my
Speaker 2: favorite things about him. He's also hilarious human, very funny person.
Speaker 2: Like I was like, you could host a hilarious podcast yourself,
Speaker 2: But yeah, Lawrence adopts him from fifteen hundred as well,
Speaker 2: Like that's a perfect sort of scene to set for you.
Speaker 2: For how this album was made, it was like bring
Speaker 2: them in, bring them in. The more the merrier. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm not precious with this. Let's just let's have a
Speaker 2: good time. Let's make great songs. Like I said, let's
Speaker 2: have a blast doing this, and that energy will come through.
Speaker 2: And so we took what Calvin had sent, slowed it
Speaker 2: down a little bit and started doing our thing to it.
Speaker 2: And then of course as that song, I'm excited for
Speaker 2: my fans specifically to hear that song because it really
Speaker 2: is like Tim and I in our bag along with
Speaker 2: these this other talent that he brought in that are
Speaker 2: basically like you know, have listened to a lot of
Speaker 2: our music together previously.
Speaker 1: Well, you guys are the archetype in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: For like what those a good amount of people that
Speaker 1: are like they looked at what y'all did together in
Speaker 1: terms of what they want to make. So it's no shock.
Speaker 2: I'll tell them you said that. But you know, like
Speaker 2: as that song gets to the end, there's that whole
Speaker 2: internet at the end right where it's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: this is definitely you feel that sort of future sex
Speaker 2: love sounds vibe of how it kind of turns into
Speaker 2: a whole completely different song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, have you tried working with Pharrella or the Neptunes
Speaker 1: more generally like Chat and Pharrell.
Speaker 2: I have done some stuff with Farrell those that is
Speaker 2: in the vault recently that might see the like to
Speaker 2: day soon in the future somewhere. Future is a mess man.
Speaker 1: Future, future is a mess man.
Speaker 2: We need it now that I said, I told you
Speaker 2: I had one hundred songs and then narrowed it down
Speaker 2: at eighteen. So yeah, these are the songs that all
Speaker 2: felt like the book. These are the chapters of this book.
Speaker 2: But make no mistake, like Frell and I have still
Speaker 2: have great synergy, and we have some music that we've
Speaker 2: made that I know will come out. So I'm excited
Speaker 2: about that too.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear that.
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear that. All in due time, All
Speaker 2: in due time.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the future, future is a mess I was
Speaker 1: reading the Usher said he's been on you about doing.
Speaker 2: A collaborative album, not recently, not recently, said that he
Speaker 2: has been very busy recently.
Speaker 1: Well he's been Yeah, well, yes, an incredible residency Usher's icon.
Speaker 2: Man, that's a bad man. Would you do a m
Speaker 2: of course, I think it just has to be the
Speaker 2: right one. We've actually we we actually went in the
Speaker 2: studio originally. I think I think it was one of
Speaker 2: those things where I was maybe gonna go in the
Speaker 2: studio and write something for one of his upcoming albums,
Speaker 2: just mess around. I just don't think we I don't
Speaker 2: think we ever found it got it. Maybe we also
Speaker 2: just didn't make enough time. I don't know, you know,
Speaker 2: it's like.
Speaker 1: Go into that patience mind.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, I know. Yeah, well we should
Speaker 2: get in the studio anyway. I mean that that would
Speaker 2: be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: That was the man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do one more.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Memphis. Let's display Memphis.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's why it's really hard to cut off.
Speaker 2: That's the whole. Yeah, that from start to finish as
Speaker 2: a whole message for sure. So it feels almost like
Speaker 2: a diary excerpts.
Speaker 1: That's what That's the way it feels to me. Man,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I don't know you, but you've
Speaker 1: been in my life how long? And I can only
Speaker 1: imagine like the pressure and the craziness of your career.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can only imagine what it's been.
Speaker 2: You know, you started with Conditions, and then you want
Speaker 2: to play one more and you play Memphis. And I
Speaker 2: don't find that there's much irony to that, because when
Speaker 2: I finished those two songs, I said, these have to
Speaker 2: be the book ends of the album. And you know,
Speaker 2: Memphis is an extremely personal song. But I think it
Speaker 2: was important to me the way that it sounded like
Speaker 2: you said, the way that it felt. There's no moment
Speaker 2: for me where I've been ungrateful about how challenging it
Speaker 2: can be. This is not like a I'm not saying
Speaker 2: this in some sort of braggy type of way. I
Speaker 2: have a rare, unique life where I've grown up in
Speaker 2: this industry from a very young age, and I think
Speaker 2: you go through life and you learn things about yourself,
Speaker 2: and you go through bad experiences, you go through highs
Speaker 2: and lows. And that's why that visual in my mind,
Speaker 2: like being in the clouds, you know, and people seeing
Speaker 2: you up there that the first thing you hear people
Speaker 2: say that you can't be crying from up there, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'm not necessarily saying that I am where that
Speaker 2: song where that song sort of where I started to
Speaker 2: find an inspiration for it again. I found myself remembering
Speaker 2: when I was first moving out of Memphis, And it's
Speaker 2: kind of funny now that I'm thinking about it now.
Speaker 2: I remember when I got chosen for like Star Search,
Speaker 2: which if you're young and you're listening to this right now,
Speaker 2: it was the original American idol, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: By the way, like it was the biggest thing on television. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I remember when I got chosen to go be
Speaker 2: on the show, like the kids from my school that
Speaker 2: were my friends, like came and met me at the
Speaker 2: airport with signs saying good luck justin you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. And I think back to those moments with
Speaker 2: such fondness, but also like that ten year old feeling
Speaker 2: that pressure to be great, and you know, at times,
Speaker 2: being an artist who achieves a certain amount of success
Speaker 2: can lead to, weirdly enough, like an incredible feeling of isolation.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's when you have to you
Speaker 2: have to take us a second to say who am
Speaker 2: I right now and how of these experiences affected me
Speaker 2: all up until this moment, Because that's really the best
Speaker 2: way to move forward, right in your own sort of
Speaker 2: personal constitution, and sometimes I've had lows with it, and
Speaker 2: sometimes I've had extreme highs with it. And I think
Speaker 2: when you get older and you're able to metabolize that.
Speaker 2: I couldn't have written that song before now, you know,
Speaker 2: because I wasn't able to see how something that I
Speaker 2: didn't pay any attention to affected me in so many ways.
Speaker 2: Like I said, good and bad, But like I said
Speaker 2: in that song, with everything you thought I was, I'm
Speaker 2: everything I thought I was. It was everything I thought
Speaker 2: it was. And that's really wrapped around these ideas that
Speaker 2: once you finish a piece of art and you put
Speaker 2: it out there, it's going to be everything to somebody
Speaker 2: and something else to somebody else, and something else to
Speaker 2: the next person. And I guess I just felt like
Speaker 2: it was my turn to say this is what it
Speaker 2: is to me. And so that's why it's important that
Speaker 2: it's the first song on the album. Originally I wasn't
Speaker 2: gonna call it Memphis, but my best friend, you know,
Speaker 2: sitting next to me, he said, you should call this
Speaker 2: Memphis because it really reminds me of like you coming
Speaker 2: out of Memphis and all of us like being so
Speaker 2: proud of you to go out and dare to dream, right,
Speaker 2: But I don't know. I think it's I think it's
Speaker 2: important to important to see every sliver of the whole
Speaker 2: picture and be able to put them in their place
Speaker 2: for yourself. Yeah, that's what that song is.
Speaker 1: That kind of kind of like deeply personal song writing.
Speaker 1: Does it feel comfortable?
Speaker 2: It felt comfortable on this song. All songs, even though
Speaker 2: you might just be writing them because you want to
Speaker 2: trying to achieve even the sort of entendres of the
Speaker 2: concept of the song, or you could be you know,
Speaker 2: connecting the dots for the narrative of the song. They're
Speaker 2: all going to subconsciously come from a deeply personal place.
Speaker 2: I think, like I guess, like I said, I think
Speaker 2: being able to put them in their place and once
Speaker 2: it's done, you know, it's like whoof Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: if they are deeply personal, or if they're a song
Speaker 2: like No Angels, where it's like, you know, let me
Speaker 2: explore all the ideas of what no Angels means. Or
Speaker 2: you know what if we put them on the dance floor.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there's no Angels on the dance floor every
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like, that's that's a concept
Speaker 2: we can all understand right and have fun with. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think whether a song is deeply personal or not,
Speaker 2: as an artist, you're always putting your heart on your sleeve,
Speaker 2: you know, and and sometimes that can be a very
Speaker 2: isolating place, a very anxious experience. But the more I've
Speaker 2: understood that again, I remember hearing Rick Rubin say this
Speaker 2: that people's reaction to a piece of art says everything
Speaker 2: about them, good or bad. And I don't know, I
Speaker 2: guess that thinking about that concept really frees me up.
Speaker 2: They're going to be personal for the listener too. I
Speaker 2: think that's an amazing thing. That's the connection.
Speaker 1: Have you thought about playing this record live yet?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been interesting right now because we're going on
Speaker 2: tour really soon, so it's been interesting to try to
Speaker 2: think about what songs I'm going to play live. I
Speaker 2: think once the album's out and it's living in the world,
Speaker 2: I think I'll quickly have a feel not just based
Speaker 2: on what people are responding to, but more so myself,
Speaker 2: you know, like how I feel about it being out
Speaker 2: in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there really is a difference when you release something
Speaker 1: versus when it's not, you know, even though it's like
Speaker 1: people some people have heard and you've gotten feedback.
Speaker 2: Sure, and especially to think about you work on and
Speaker 2: off for three or four years on a project. I
Speaker 2: think the difference is for me now, before it was
Speaker 2: like oh god, you know, which I think a lot
Speaker 2: of us go through as artists. Sure, I think the
Speaker 2: difference is now for me it's like wow, you know,
Speaker 2: like what a blessing you know. And I don't know,
Speaker 2: I just feel really grateful in this moment. There's so
Speaker 2: many We've talked about, so many people, and they've all
Speaker 2: conspired to my story, yeah, and to be part of
Speaker 2: my journey. And I'm so grateful for all of them,
Speaker 2: the ones that I know personally and the ones that
Speaker 2: I don't even know at all. Yeah, personally that I
Speaker 2: think I can really see the value in that at
Speaker 2: this point in my life. And I think that's why
Speaker 2: this album feels the way that it feels for me.
Speaker 1: That's beautiful, man, that's really beautiful. Thank you, I mean,
Speaker 1: thank you for the record. Thank you for making the time.
Speaker 4: To speak about the record or putting together It's really beautiful.
Speaker 2: And U can wait to see you on the road, man, Yeah,
Speaker 2: come see us. Absolutely, We'll make it. Do as Ray
Speaker 2: Charles said.
Speaker 1: I'll make it do, What'll Do. Thanks Justin Timberlake for
Speaker 1: chopping it up about his new album Everything I Thought
Speaker 1: It Was. You can hear it along with our favorite
Speaker 1: songs featuring JT on a playlist at broken record podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot
Speaker 1: com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all
Speaker 1: of our new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter
Speaker 1: at broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by
Speaker 1: Leah Rose, with marketing help from Marri Sandler and Jordan McMillan.
Speaker 1: Our engineer is Ben Tolliger. Broken Record is the production
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Speaker 1: podcast app. Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.