Entrevista/portada de Justin Timberlake en «M Lifestyle»

Justin Timberlake Takes It All In Stride

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».

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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.

Q: What else were you listening to?

A: I was listening to the Killers and Keane…But I never really liked one artist more than any other, I always just liked songs. I always received music that way: a song is the most important thing.

Q: On some of these songs, the protagonist is breaking up with someone or begging to get his lover back. How do you deal with the fact that people are going to pick these lyrics apart and assume it is about your personal life?

A: You just don’t participate.

Q: But you’re going to get asked it 8 million times.

A: I don’t feel a need to answer those types of questions. The one thing I can say is a lot of the lyrics and the writing on this album were thoughts and feelings I had after I had done films. And what I mean by that is, I got to play these characters in these movies. Just like Johnny Cash plays characters in his songs. He didn’t really shoot a man in Reno.

Q: In what other ways did the four films you’ve done since «Justified» influence the making of the album?

A: Mostly the ideas on this record are like screenplays. That’s another thing that makes it 180 degrees from «Justified».

Q: You’ll spend much of 2007 on the road, including stopping in Las Vegas. What do you like about touring?

A: Everything. You get a sense of camaraderie. You’re there with your crew and your band and everybody’s in it for the same reason. It’s crazy, no question. You make lifelong friendships. You do so much leading up to the tour, you’re so exposed, you do so many interviews and so many awards shows, then when I get to the tour, I crave that seclusion. You play to 18,000 people every night. So how do you offset that? Mainly, I plan the days off around golf. We’re going to be in Vegas, let’s have a day off there so we can play some golf.

Q: You’ve played in Las Vegas a number of times. How is playing here different from playing elsewhere?

A: You always light a fire in everybody’s ass when you play the shows in Vegas because you know they get so many unbelievable shows that you need something spectacular. So you amp up the band more, you amp up the dancers more, you amp up the production crew more, and it’s like, OK we gotta compete with «O». But Vegas is Sinatra and Martin and Davis. You associate it with the Rat Pack and you’re talking about the consummate entertainers. You have to entertain when you go to Vegas.

Q: You’ve put in some memorable performances here, including the time you played the Billboard Music Awards with a broken foot.

A: That might actually be my favorite Vegas performance because I was supposed to sit on a stool the whole performance and I could not stand it. I had to get up. We were doing the performance of «Cry Me A River» and I had a choir and an orchestra. We arranged it like that because I had a broken left foot. But I couldn’t stand it, I just had to get up.

Q: Where do you hang out when you’re in Vegas?

A: I like to buzz around in Vegas, you know? I’ve had really good luck at Mandalay Bay.

Q: What’s your game?

A: Blackjack. I’m not the type to throw a bunch of money on the roulette wheel because all of a sudden it’s gone. I’m not a huge gambler. But I do like to play blackjack. I can sit there and play for hours and maybe you win some or you lose some.

Q: We’re doing this interview on a day when you are booked from sun up to way past sundown. How do handle the constant swirl of activity?

A: There are things you can control, there are things you can’t control. The madness, the hype, you can’t control that so you gotta be able to just roll with that.