Justin Timberlake Takes It All In Stride

By Melinda Newman for M Magazine

Before anyone starts reading too much into the lyrics of Justin Timberlake's new album, wondering if “What Goes Around” is about a certain pop princess he used to date or if “My Love” is a statement of devotion for his girlfriend of three years, Cameron Diaz, he'd like to make one thing perfectly clear: “There's not a song on this record that's autobiographical. Not one.”

Of course, he knows this declaration won't keep people from speculating about the stories behind the songs on “FutureSex/LoveSounds.” “If people choose to believe me, that's their prerogative,” he says. But he has provided us with a prior litmus test. “I told you `Cry Me A River' was autobiographical, so that's how you can believe me.”

Regardless of what listeners believe, Timberlake has one request of his fans: “Don't take it so seriously. At the end of the day, it's just music. It's supposed to be fun.”

And fun it is. Timberlake glows when he talks about “FutureSex/LoveSounds.” For the first time he co-produced all the tracks except one on the album (the Rick Rubin-produced “All Over Again”) and had a hand in all aspects of its creation. Combine the 43 million albums that Timberlake sold while at the helm of `N Sync and the 7 million copies his first solo album sold, 2002's “Justified,” and it's clear he has earned the right to call the shots. And he does so with a seemingly impossible combination of Southern grace, quiet-but-unyielding confidence and rock-solid grounding.

“He's kind of 25 going on 50,” says Barry Weiss, head of Jive Records, Timberlake's label. “He's got an old soul.”

The “old soul” lives in Los Angeles with his two boxers, and, he admits almost proudly, no laptop — although he's thinking about buying a Blackberry. Life is moving at supersonic speed for him, yet he remains calm despite the constant orbit of activity around him.

This interview takes place at a soundstage in Hollywood, where Timberlake is shooting two covers: one for Rolling Stone, the other for the Los Angeles Times.

Q: In a Paris press conference, you said, “I realize I have a platform to push the sound of pop music. That's the only responsibility that I put on myself in recording the album.” Isn't that putting an unreal amount of pressure on yourself?

A: I'd be ignorant to say that I didn't realize how things had gone for me on the first record, so I'd rather take a chance right now. And I don't feel that I've pushed myself so far left that nobody can get it. Anytime you do something different, you have to explain it and I didn't really feel like explaining it that much. I said to myself, people either like it or they don't, they either get it or they don't.

Q: The album is called “FutureSex/LoveSounds,” but the future sounds are filtered through music you love from the `60s and `70s.

A: It's my favorite era of music; rock and roll was rock and roll and R&B was really blues. But this was sort of my opportunity to branch out and be more thoughtful of the sound, not just the songwriting. Songwriting's like a puzzle. I knew that I could put each puzzle together in my mind, but I wanted to create what I like to call the aesthetic around the song. We've taken electronica, disco, hip-hop, funk, and R&B with a rock sensibility and put it all into the same thing.

Q: This album features preludes and interludes. In that way, it's very much like a Marvin Gaye album or some other soul record of that era.

A: In August of 2005, for three weeks straight, I listened to [Gaye's] “What's Going On.” It feels like they recorded all those songs within the same week. They probably did. I just wanted to capture that feeling of when you left one song and got to the other one, you felt like you were listening to a movement. That was the idea.

Q: The first single was different from anything else you'd done and wasn't instantly recognizable as you. Even your record label wanted another choice. Why did you choose it?

A: With the first single, you try to do two things. You try to A) go left, based on where you've been. How do you say to people this is going to be a different album? And B) just make a statement, let people know you're back. And this song seemed to do both. Any time you put out something different, it takes people a second to say, oh OK. But this is my sophomore record. Do I want to do what people consider the new blue-eyed soul for the rest of my life? I think the answer is no. I want to be able to do whatever I want to do.