Justin Timberlake stops to smell the roses

He remains very protective of his personal life and admits to having no qualms about telling the press that his love life is private but popular singer Justin Timberlake nevertheless wins hearts simply for his candidness and truthfully crafted responses.

We didn’t get Justin to start talking about current flame Cameron Diaz but in a round-robin interview a few months back that took us for the first time in Tokyo, Japan (along with Myx channel’s front man Andre Alvarez) designed for the promotion of his new album "Sexyback" now available under Sony-BMG Music Entertainment, Justin Timberlake has unraveled right before our eyes this true picture of a humility, a down-to-earth person not so often presumed of him simply because of the stature that he enjoys in his industry.

Justin’s words about being that person who knows he has another life other than his career has pierced us and started a deep appreciation for the 25-year-old singer who can speak tons about life and wisdom gleaned from his experiences and of course, passed on to him by his father, whom he speaks so fondly of.

Following is the transcript of the interview he gave to Asian journalists (that included me and Andre) that rainy afternoon roughly three months ago at a posh hotel in Tokyo. Read up and learn:

Was there much pressure to come up with a new album after more than three years?

"I do think that the sophomore album is twice as important as the first album. I don’t know if I particularly felt pressure. I mean, you put pressure on yourself to make something that’s equally as good. Something that you love as much. I think at the end of the day, if you’re sitting at the studio constantly thinking about that, then you sort of miss the point of capturing the moment. Because the thing that was great about "Justified" was it was a moment. I think if you go in a studio and try to recreate a moment, then you lose. But I think that if you take that idea instead of, okay, I need to create a new moment, you know, then you win. I think you have to be open to whatever it’s gonna be. I think that’s the most important part. There were a couple of things I was very conscious of in making this record based on the first record. I think my first album was very specific to an R&B/pop sound, and with this album, in co-producing, you know, more of the songs, all of the song except one, it was important to me to bring-in more genres of music. Just make music. There was no specific sound in mind. I just wanted it to sound fresh and new."

The new album’s sound, it seems to us, is mainly futuristic although you say it’s a cross of all genres. How do you classify the sound of it?

"I don’t know. That’s for you guys to do. I just make it, you guys get to murder it. (laughs) if you want to.No, I’m just kidding. Ever since I was a kid, I never really liked a particular artist more than any other artist. I just felt music. I loved Johnny Cash because I like his music. I loved the Eagles because I love their music. I love the Rolling Stones because I love their music. I love Dr. Dre because I love his music. An artist makes a joke about it but honestly, I think for me, I can’t be in the studio and try to think about you know, this has to sound like R&B or this has to sound like pop. I also think as generations go by, the more we make music, the more we start to see hiphop borrowed from rock and you start to see rock borrowed from country. And I think we live in a time now, [when] it is a great to make music. I know everybody in my industry was so scared of the digital age. But I look at it as a good opportunity to make music that doesn’t sound like anything else. Now is the time more than ever to sort of let go musically. Music has always been just a creative expression. It’s always been a melting pot of culture, and that’s the most amazing thing about it. It was so funny because I have to give you example of the first album. I was so happy because I was like yeah, I’m an R&B artist, you know what I mean? Like I do the first album and I was like ha!ha!ha!, I’m an R&B artist. I was so proud of that and then all of the reviews came out for the record that says, ‘great pop album,’ ‘great pop album,’ ‘great pop album.’ And at first I was like, I thought everybody had missed the point but the truth of the matter is I have missed the point. The point is that, music is music. Good music is good music, bad music is bad music too but hopefully you guys don’t think its bad music. But I think at the end of the day, you just make what feels right to you and that’s all you can do. And then I’ll let you guys tell me what it sounds like. That’s all I’m in by now."

Was there anything or anybody or any experience that influenced the direction that you took in the second album?

"I can mention some influences like Bowie. David Bowie. Prince. I love Prince. There was definitely a theme to the writing."Justified" was influenced by like late 70’s, early 80’s. This album to me was influenced by five years after, six years after that. That’s all I can really tell you. I don’t know that I have a specific influence in mind. Even the influences that I have, you know, I think it’s important to make it your own so I think with this album, the theme is to try to just come up with something that felt new, that felt fresh. I have my influences. I love different artists for lot of different reasons like I mentioned Johnny Cash, and I mentioned The Stones, and I mentioned Bowie and I love them. I love certain songs from them but I don’t know that I like one artist more than anyone else."

It has been a very long time before you came up with a new album, how different are you now as a singer? as a person?

"I’m much better looking. (smiles) I’m just kidding. I’m much smarter. I don’t know, I think the difference really, I mean I know this sounds kinda lame, but I think the difference is 21 and 25. I think that we, as people, are constantly growing and changing. We want to stop doing that, want to stop learning and changing. By the way, it would have been four years, 2002 to 2006 but you have to also take into account that I toured for a year and a half, so that took me almost to 2004. And then I did four films, so that took me to 2005. And then I took a year to make this record so here we are. And so I wasn’t really doing it out of nothing. I was just kinda like, doing it at a slower pace, that’s all. I think that’s also important, too. The one thing that I learned on this album that made the process so much fun, is that there’s more than one right way to do something. The person that I have always been and sometimes it’s a double-edged sword as I’m definitely a perfectionist, but I think in the last couple of years I really have taken on the concept that there is more than one right way to do something. Life and art and everything that comes with it is not about right and wrong. It’s just about expression. It’s about creating something that inspires a feeling and an emotion. And that’s what art should do."

Are you a happier person too?

"I think so."

What makes you happy these days?

"I think I’ve started to do things more on my pace. "Justified" was a major success so there’s a lot of pressure to do this album but the other side of it is, "Justified" was a major success so I got to, you know, have a little more clout with the record label. I got to move slower. I got to enjoy my life some and I remember as soon as I finished the tour for "Justified," I had a conversation with my dad. And he said, ‘You know I wanna tell you this and I hope you take it the right way.’ And he said, ‘You should really have to stop and smell the roses right now.’ He said, ‘I know you’re the type of person who works and works and works. Before you know it, you’ll be 55 years old.’ And my Dad’s close to 50 now, I think he’s 48 now and he’s like, ‘Look, from man to man I wanna tell you, there are things I get to do when I was 20 that I can’t do now because I don’t move as easily.’ He said, ‘I think you should enjoy your life. You have a place now where you can, so why not take advantage of it and just enjoy your life.’ I really took that conversation to heart because my dad is a brilliant man. He’s such a great person and I think I just started to love the little things more. With "Justified" I have to be honest. I was on a mission. With this one, the mission is different. I felt I have a platform now that I can push people to maybe listen to something different. And now I can play golf, and snowboard and surf and play with my two boxers, my two dogs. Those are the little things that become important because you can’t make your career your life. No matter how much time it takes up. You can’t make your career your life. I think you would all agree with me when I say you don’t wanna work forever. Nobody does. We wanna work hard to even play hard. And now I think I realized that after three years and I just enjoyed, I stopped and smelled the roses, like my dad said."

You said in the past interviews that "Justified" had very many personal parallelisms, somehow sort of autobiographical. In this new album, how much was drawn from your personal experiences?

"This album was the opposite of that. I think I needed to try something new. Yes, "Justified" was very autobiographical. I have to say a lot about my experience in doing film. It really inspired the song writing for this album. I remember listening to a Johnny Cash song and thinking to myself, wow, he really didn’t shoot the man in Reno, but the sound is cool. It sounded like something an outlaw might do and that’s sort of the thing about music too. It can be this whole make-believe place, just like film. My experience in doing film led me to think, Wow, I can create these characters on film, why can’t I create a character for five minutes and push it? I think there is sort of a stigma on the music industry particularly believing you get more credibility for being more, I don’t know, truthful to your music. But what does that mean? Does that mean you have to write songs about yourself? I don’t think it means that. Like I said, I think good music is good music. I don’t think there has to be any rule for it. I did definitely try something different. I’ve lived a lot in 25 years so I did have the ideas. I did have my own experiences to draw from, to create. But also, I have my imagination. I felt that I used it a lot more on this record."

How easy or how difficult is it for you to write a song? What inspires you?

"It’s all different. Like I said, some of them start with a beatbox, some of them start with four chords on a piano, some of them start with a melody in my mind on my way to the studio, some of them start with a concept, some of them start with a play on words like "Love Stoned." I came up with that after we have started the song. That song was actually recorded and written maybe like three months ago. That was very recent. But I remember saying to Tim why not come up with a song? So we made an attempt and I was like, this has to be the first song on my record.

The second album is the total opposite of the first you said, is it because you’re more protective of your private life now?

"Maybe subconsciously? I don’t know, that’s a good question. I don’t know that it was such a conscious effort. I just think that I needed to try something new. The songs aren’t autobiographical but that’s not to say that I don’t have the experience. There are songs that come from moments so in that like they are autobiographical but when I got involved in the song, It was about making a song that was the best song. It wasn’t about sticking to the story, so to speak."

But are you protective of your private life?

"Sure. I think what you have to have is a good mentality. I think I’ve ran the gamut of talking about too much and then also the backlash of that was being overprotective but I think what you really have to have is a good mentality about it. I think there are parts of the media that exist that try to sort of exploit your personal life but I think if you have a strong mind about it which means, I’ve said it before at the beginning of the interview, you have your career, you have your life and they have to be different especially in my industry, you know, I’m not gonna say any names but I’ve met people who don’t distinguish the two. I’ve met more than one person that don’t distinguish the two. One of which I said, Okay, that works for them. I think it’s different strokes for different folks. There are some people in the world that are happy to, for example, show up at a red carpet with their personal family. From me, that’s not to say that I wouldn’t do that, I just think that you have to have a strong mind about it. What works for me is to know that I have a life that exists away from the stage, from the cameras and the interviews, so to speak. I think what motivates a strong mindset is that you have to have something that you love that’s simple. If it’s spending time at home with my family, then that should be that. For me, personally, I feel that’s not something I want for all the world. But I think everybody’s different and that’s not to say there’s no more than one right way to do something. That’s not to say that my way is the right way and the other way is the wrong way. I just think that’s what works for me."

You mention about the four movies of you. Could you tell us a bit about your experience of filming each one of them?

"Sure. Interestingly, they were all independent films.I wanted to do it that way. I get enough attention. I don’t aspire to be a movie star. I just wanted to try acting. I have done it before as a kid and that’s sort of how I got my formal acting training. When I got done with the tour, playing to 18,000 people a night, (which was amazing, I was so thankful for) I needed something that was creative but was more humble. And I didn’t know how to absolutely make that happen other than the way I did it with film. And it’s something that I wanted to do for a while. I know everybody said that, "I wanted to get into movies for a while." But I wanted to do it in a way where I was actually learning something from it. I got to work with good directors and would-be great actors. It’s sort of crazy to me there are actors that I’ve worked with and none of the movies come out like it’s really, weird. The experiences have been amazing and that’s what’s really is all about."

How would you rate yourself as an actor?

"I’m the greatest actor you’ve never seen. I think in acting, there has to be a moment of truth. You always have to find what’s truthful. And that’s why always there’s a next to best. There are two films that I was involved with and really, really proud of. One’s called "Alpha Dog" and one’s called "Black Snake Moan." They’re tough movies to watch. They’re not the easiest movies to watch but I really felt like I was able to create a character, I was able to create a truthful portrayal because one of them was based on a true story. "Alpha Dog’s" based on a true story so we all felt the responsibility to find the truth and all that speculation but it’s a lot of fun. It’s really fun to like go to a set and create these really crazy moments where you ended like crying, or screaming or laughing and then you go home and you’re just not responsible for any of it. You know what I mean? It’s a lot of fun. To make-believe is fun."

SHIRLEY MATIAS PIZARRO, Manila Bulletin