Zane Lowe has just interviewed Justin Timberlake in his first interview on his first album in nearly five years, 'Man of the Woods’, on his Beats 1 show. Check out some highlights below.
On his son’s name and the name of the new album:
And we [Pharrell and I] were talking about parenthood and he said what's your son's name and I said Silas. I named him after my grandfather and my great grandfather. My parents divorced when I was young, my grandfather was very much a father figure to me. But obviously from two generations removed, just tough as nails and like I don't need to go to the doctor. And I'm like I need my ENT, you know. I mean I guess in my defense this is my livelihood. He said to me, so what does your son's name mean. I was like you know I've never, I don't know. I literally just went on Google like, the meaning of the name Silas. It sent me to this site and it said of Latin origin meaning man of the woods.
I said it means man of the woods. And I was like how serendipitous that my last name is Timberlake, like what does that mean? We were having all these discussions and he goes man you know what, that's a really really good name for a song and I was like that’s a really good name for an album. You know and literally 'Man of The Woods' the title track was the first song we wrote for this album and the whole thing just took flight from there.
On becoming a father:
I've never felt more inept my life. You wake up and all of a sudden there's this human being you’re responsible for...Everybody tells you that your life is going to change and you’re like whatever, I got it. My wife and I like each other when we have a night off and we get into bed and we sit down and watch a movie or something and we’re like what did we do before this? Did we go out to dinner? Were we at a bar? What did we do before this?
On wanting more children and ageing:
I mean I want to have as many kids as we can, if I'm being honest...I don't know if I'll ever be done. I just know that I won’t always be young. So yeah, I mean I’ll always want to write music. I always want to make movies. I’ll always want to go on tour. I don't know how long my body will let me do it. You know I've realized that for the first time in my life.
On his wife Jessica Biel appearing on the album and the meaning of the track ‘Flannel':
There's a very specific interlude that is all hers where I just created a bed of music for her to speak over which becomes the intro for song ‘Flannel’.
I wrote [the parts] for her for the most part and she recorded all these things. And funny enough, she just did them on voice note for me. I would say something to her, it wasn't like line readings but she would just sort of repeat them in her own way. I said I almost want you to feel like you're the ghost of, you’re a presence you're not an actual person, but we’re following you. You can be a little playful with it. We tried bunch of different ways and then I got this idea, I was on the way to the studio to mix ‘Flannel' and I got this idea I was like wow this could be really interesting and I called her and I said I want you to have a conversation like you're talking to your best girlfriend. She's notorious for taking my vintage T-shirts and my jackets and anything she likes. She goes, can I wear this to dinner tonight and then I don't see it ever again. And so I remember that we had a conversation like, I don’t know I like wearing your shirts. I feel like where has this been, it’s a piece of you that I can always have when you travel away. You know traveling so much, we didn't have a family at that point we were just a married couple. And she's like when you travel and I have to work like it's nice to have your T-shirt or your flannel shirt. And so it became a great idea for a song
'On working on Can’t Stop the Feeling!' for the animated film ‘Trolls’:
That one for me was actually a really really new experience. It was for a separate project, an animated film. I probably wouldn't have been so gung-ho about being a voice character in the film if me and my wife wouldn’t have had a child. So there was definitely the air of innocence and some sort of childlike feeling that fueled that song.
On playing the song to his son:
It was born out of trying to make something that I worked in the film and that my son could listen to now. A lot of my music I would not play for my son now. Although I did play [new song] ‘Filthy' for him and he's already got the 'haters going to say it's fake' line. So that's pretty fresh.
On fame:
Fame is not a burden to me. You know I really do believe it's a lie. It's not something that is tangible. You can't ever hold onto it, it doesn't matter. Stress is a real thing. It is cruel. So yes stress, I still have trouble with. I can be very stressed out sometimes. A lot of the time. Most of the time. I can be extremely obsessive especially when it comes to music specifically.
On the identity of America currently:
I heard someone say this the other day and I do agree with it, the ideal and the ideals of America being the land of opportunity and the realization right now with what it is, not what our idea of what we want it to be. I think we're realizing that they’re just so much further apart than we could have even imagined. It's tough because you can't just do one thing, and it change everything. It's just going to take a lot of really good steadfast patient minds and hearts to come together. I don't even look at as this side and this side, there’s so many sides. I think also, our access to information, it's hard sometimes and can be confusing about what to sort of believe in, let alone what to believe.
On doing a Las Vegas show in future:
I mean I wouldn't rule it out if it was something that was different. It feels like you’re planning your retirement you know what I mean so. So for some reason that feels like a scary to me.
