Justin Timberlake asiste con The Y’s al GRAMMY Career Day

Los músicos Rob Knox, Justin Timberlake y James Fauntleroy asistieron al evento «GRAMMY Career Day» en la Universidad del Sur de California, el 28 de enero. Durante ese día, los participantes del evento intentan inspirar a los estudiantes con una visión general de las diferentes opciones profesionales que existen en el mundo de la música.

GRAMMY Career Day +8 imágenes

Justin Timberlake Gives Insights Into the Music Business

As part of the Grammy Week events, the Grammy Foundation held a Grammy Career Day at USC’s Thornton School of Music. Hundreds of local L.A. high school students were able to come and hear professionals from all areas of the music industry talk about what it takes to build a career in music, including Justin Timberlake, who arrived with producing partners James Fauntleroy and Rob Knox. The trio, who call themselves the Y’s, have had tremendous success producing hip hop, R&B and pop artists such as T.I., Ciara, Leona Lewis, and Rihanna.

They agreed to do one interview with a former Grammy Camp student, 15-year-old Nick Arnold, just before they spoke at Career Day. Timberlake, Fauntleroy and Knox were waiting in a green room with several people, including Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, when PopEater arrived to speak with them. Easygoing and friendly, the trio opened up on artist insecurities, how to make it in the business and why ‘N Sync‘s Soundscan record of 2.4 million copies sold in a single week might be as unbreakable as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak.

Why is it important for you to speak to young singers and musicians?

Justin Timberlake: We are flattered that so many young people want to know what it’s all about. The music business can be misleading sometimes. If young people really want to know about it then we take it upon ourselves to at least communicate how it’s done properly. The ones that come and go are the ones that aren’t invested in the process. It really is about the process of the art. That’s why we’re here today, to walk people through a process, because everybody’s got a different one.

Yeah, because you guys have had experiences and you guys know what does and doesn’t work in the business.

JT: Mostly. [Laughter]

Rob Knox: You find out as you go. You sort of learn every day.

Where did you guys get your start? Where did you feel that you were going to be in the business?

James Fauntleroy: We all have different backgrounds. Everyone knows Justin’s background.

RK: I started playing music real young, just by ear, just for fun. I wasn’t really into it that much, but it developed into something bigger. I kept working at it, so it’s not that deep of a background. I’m definitely a different one.

JF: My story is very long. I worked really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really hard. And that wasn’t all the really’s because I had to shorten it down.

JT: Yeah, that was the edited version. It definitely takes a lot of tenacity to be successful in this business and I think that the most important thing is that you have to set your own goals and not be confined by what somebody else’s definition of what success might be.

You all started working fairly young. When you started, do you remember any people who gave you that push or helped you get out there to help you get to where you are now?

JT: I grew up in the business. I was on a television show when I was 10 so everybody around me was very encouraging. It was a great environment to be in because I learned how to be in front of the camera, how to be behind the camera. I also learned about music: how to write music, how to record music and then learned how to perform onstage, because performing onstage and performing on film, for instance, there’s two different techniques.

Sometimes kids think they want to go big right away, but you guys know that you’ve got to work your way up, right?

RK: There’s no such thing. It’s not going to happen. Trust me.

JT: The problem with receiving too much too quick is that a number of things can happen easily, which is you take it for granted. You forget about the process because you didn’t have to go through it. There are some young people out there that do [appreciate the process] and some young people out there that don’t [that are] on the radio as we speak. It’s just like anything — if you get into something for the right reasons then the best case scenario will happen.

You are all pretty young, but you have all been involved in a time when the business is changing pretty quickly. What would you tell a kid who is trying to get in to the business right now?

JT: I watched the business change. I was in a group that sold two-and-a-half million records in a week. Now that will probably never be touched because of the landscape where we distribute music now. Until they find a way to have some sort of bible or monitoring system, until they can monitor, for instance, how many times a record is shared versus how many times it’s downloaded — until they can do that and make it a part of the system, you won’t really know your outreach. The good part about that is, for instance when Napster came onto the scene, it was at the same time when we sold those records and I remember understanding both sides. How old are you?

Fifteen.

JT: You’re 15? That’s so young, man! [laughter] I was 19 or 20, so it was 10 years ago. I remember feeling like, well, I’m not going to tell myself that I wouldn’t do it. That was always the big dilemma. Now, with the new wave of technology, they’re starting to catch up with what young people like yourself are really into. That’s really what it’s about.

With more things on the Internet like Facebook or Twitter, you can communicate with fans and develop more of a loyal fan base and know that they’re on your side.

JT: I think that’s why you see more young people becoming more entrepreneurial in a way.

RK: It’s a good environment for them now, since everything is so different that it was. Kids between your age and young adults can come up with ideas that nobody else would be able to come up with because they weren’t in this environment.

JT: Also, you can communicate on such a more rapid level with your peers. The kids you go to school with, you don’t necessarily have to wait until you see them and call them. I remember when I was a kid, if I wanted to talk to one of my friends after school I had to wait until I got home and call them on my home phone. [Laughter] Now you can do it all from your mobile device. It’s definitely a different age that we live in. To get back to what you were asking, if there is any advice we have for young people, it’s use all those resources because they’re there for you to use and communicate with as many people as possible because you’re only going to learn.

RK: Esmee, the first artist that he signed to his label, was the YouTube queen and then he discovered her. That’s a perfect example.

You probably have worked in the past with some people you might wish hadn’t. How do you make sure you’re working with the right people and how would you tell these kids how to find those people?

JT: Well, it’s like I said before, if it’s the right reasons. Some sessions are harder than others because people have different work ethics and processes. It’s a double-edged sword. It’s a challenge, it’s an obstacle but it’s also an opportunity to get into someone else’s mind and see how they go through the process and be a part of that. As songwriters, you only want to write the best song that you possibly can and you’re thinking about how the artist can use it if you’re specifically writing a song for an artist. You have the artist in mind, but you also want to write a song that maybe is a departure from what they’ve performed before. But as a producer? Being a good producer is like being a good coach on a team. You just have to coach your player to score, to make a play. That’s really all you have to do. So much of it is coaching. I know this because I am an artist too. We get crazy in the studio and we get all insecure. We get all in our heads and we don’t know if it’s right or wrong. We get caught up in if it’s right or it’s wrong. If you have a great producer with you they give you that confidence to step outside of yourself and just do what’s there. To let it be what it is.

Do you see yourself as more of a coach or a player?

JT: Well, it depends on where we are. I have been able to work with such great producers as an artist, so I take what I’ve been able to learn from them and just try to apply it to some of these new artists that we work with. At this point, as the business gets younger and younger, I guess I see myself more as a coach.

High school student Nick Arnold is a Grammy Camp Music Journalism alumni who was selected to attend many of this year’s Grammy Week events, including the Grammy Awards, and serve as a correspondent for both AOL and the Grammy Foundation. To find out more about Grammy Camp go to GRAMMYintheschools.com. Deadline for applying to the 2010 edition is March 31.