NEWS
Justin Timberlake reveals all on new single 'Selfish' and 'Emotions, & Teases' album
25 January 2024
Justin Timberlake joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to celebrate the release of his new single, “Selfish”, fresh off of a live performance last weekend (in Memphis) where he debuted the song. Justin chats with Zane giving a glimpse into what fans can expect from his forthcoming project, Everything I Thought It Was. He explains how he had to curate the album down to 18 from the 100 songs he had recorded, the emotions that went into the body of work, and how he’s happy with where everything landed.
Ahead of his Saturday Night Live performance this coming weekend (27th Jan), Justin also reflects on his five times hosting the iconic show and teases his set.
Justin Timberlake on his upcoming album and where the title comes from…
I think there are moments that are incredibly honest, but also, there's a lot of fucking fun on this album.
I think that's where I came up with the album title, with everything I thought it was. I was playing it for people around me. They're like, "Oh, this sounds like everything we know you for." And then another friend of mine was like, "Oh, this sounds like everything I thought I wanted from you." It was like that sort of phrase, in one way or another, was in the air. And I thought to myself about how some of the songs are more introspective and some of them are more what I think people know me for.
On recording 100 songs and having to reduce to 18 for the album…
I worked for a long time on this album and I ended up with 100 songs. So narrowing them down to 18 was a thing, and then, yeah, I'm really excited about this album. I think every artist probably says this, but it is my best work.
On being able to express himself in the music and being happy with the emotions of the album...
It just really feels good, the thoughts, and emotions, and feelings that came to me in writing these songs and the people I collaborated with and got to share these moments with. And so how I feel like I was able, on some of the songs, to look back at the past and have a real, not a refracted perspective of what it was because they always say ... you always hear that thing about, well, there's never any truth, there's just everybody's perspective of what happened, but to really look at it and be able to metabolize and verbalize my perspective on it, I don't think I've ever really done that before.
On Saturday Night Live…
I flirted with the idea of, should I host or ask to host? And then I just thought, "No, this album is really special to me in a different, different way." And yeah, you read that perfectly, but I also cannot imagine that I won't get pulled into a sketch or two. It's only natural. And I'm here for it. That's always fun. SNL, for me, in any capacity. I've hosted five, but I don't even know how many times I've been on the show.
On music being a vessel and the inspiration for single, “Selfish”…
That's the beauty about music... It's such a vessel within itself to help us, as humans, express ourselves. Even if you didn't write it, you find that relation to that emotion, which led me to the first single. And in writing that song, the moment that it happened was two in the morning, but I had just ... a friend of mine, who's also my music director, who's probably a friend of the whole family over there, Adam Blackstone, he was doing these small jazz nights at a place in LA. And he invited me to come down and he said, "Hey, man." He was like, "You want to come up and sing something?" And I randomly threw out, "Oh, yeah, let's do Donny Hathaway's cover of Jealous Guy by Lennon." And by the way, if you're a Gen-Zer right now, you have no idea who I'm talking about.
So we were talking about the song itself and just breaking down the idea that you just don't hear that from men often, that they would express an emotion that makes them vulnerable. And then growing up the way I grew up, you're taught not to do that. But I don't know, it just felt like a really honest song. The lyrics just started to come out honestly. And when I listened to the whole album, I felt like it's probably, of all the songs on the album, production-wise, probably the most straightforward, and I don't want to say simple because it's complex within its simplicity to me
On playing the song for the first time in Memphis the day before his moms birthday…
It felt great. I think the fans that were in the room, they had heard a snippet of it at that point, and so it just felt good to sing it live. And it was interesting, too. There was one guy who was down close to the front who kept saying, "Again, again, again." And I was like, "Look, man, there's a curfew. We got to get out of here at some point." But it was just really cool. I had the show planned, and it's like you could do a listening party or whatever, but then if you're there, why not just play the song live? So I worked on it with the band and we just did it live. That whole night was such a soulful, loving ... just the vibe in the room was just really special. Specifically with the Orpheum, too, that theatre in Memphis, my mom, she used to take me to when Broadway shows would tour through.
There's actually a snippet of a video that I released where I'm sitting in the seats on the day before when we were going through rehearsal and I'm just staring at the stage. And I was trying to remember, there was one show that we ... I think it was Cats or something, but I think I was ... I think it was eight or nine years old, and I remember we had seats on the floor, and it was just so mind-blowing to me to see just a production in a theatre at that time. Yeah, I had a lot of nostalgia, a lot of memories flowing back in. And it was also really special, too, because the night after the show was my mother's birthday.
Ahead of his Saturday Night Live performance this coming weekend (27th Jan), Justin also reflects on his five times hosting the iconic show and teases his set.
Justin Timberlake on his upcoming album and where the title comes from…
I think there are moments that are incredibly honest, but also, there's a lot of fucking fun on this album.
I think that's where I came up with the album title, with everything I thought it was. I was playing it for people around me. They're like, "Oh, this sounds like everything we know you for." And then another friend of mine was like, "Oh, this sounds like everything I thought I wanted from you." It was like that sort of phrase, in one way or another, was in the air. And I thought to myself about how some of the songs are more introspective and some of them are more what I think people know me for.
On recording 100 songs and having to reduce to 18 for the album…
I worked for a long time on this album and I ended up with 100 songs. So narrowing them down to 18 was a thing, and then, yeah, I'm really excited about this album. I think every artist probably says this, but it is my best work.
On being able to express himself in the music and being happy with the emotions of the album...
It just really feels good, the thoughts, and emotions, and feelings that came to me in writing these songs and the people I collaborated with and got to share these moments with. And so how I feel like I was able, on some of the songs, to look back at the past and have a real, not a refracted perspective of what it was because they always say ... you always hear that thing about, well, there's never any truth, there's just everybody's perspective of what happened, but to really look at it and be able to metabolize and verbalize my perspective on it, I don't think I've ever really done that before.
On Saturday Night Live…
I flirted with the idea of, should I host or ask to host? And then I just thought, "No, this album is really special to me in a different, different way." And yeah, you read that perfectly, but I also cannot imagine that I won't get pulled into a sketch or two. It's only natural. And I'm here for it. That's always fun. SNL, for me, in any capacity. I've hosted five, but I don't even know how many times I've been on the show.
On music being a vessel and the inspiration for single, “Selfish”…
That's the beauty about music... It's such a vessel within itself to help us, as humans, express ourselves. Even if you didn't write it, you find that relation to that emotion, which led me to the first single. And in writing that song, the moment that it happened was two in the morning, but I had just ... a friend of mine, who's also my music director, who's probably a friend of the whole family over there, Adam Blackstone, he was doing these small jazz nights at a place in LA. And he invited me to come down and he said, "Hey, man." He was like, "You want to come up and sing something?" And I randomly threw out, "Oh, yeah, let's do Donny Hathaway's cover of Jealous Guy by Lennon." And by the way, if you're a Gen-Zer right now, you have no idea who I'm talking about.
So we were talking about the song itself and just breaking down the idea that you just don't hear that from men often, that they would express an emotion that makes them vulnerable. And then growing up the way I grew up, you're taught not to do that. But I don't know, it just felt like a really honest song. The lyrics just started to come out honestly. And when I listened to the whole album, I felt like it's probably, of all the songs on the album, production-wise, probably the most straightforward, and I don't want to say simple because it's complex within its simplicity to me
On playing the song for the first time in Memphis the day before his moms birthday…
It felt great. I think the fans that were in the room, they had heard a snippet of it at that point, and so it just felt good to sing it live. And it was interesting, too. There was one guy who was down close to the front who kept saying, "Again, again, again." And I was like, "Look, man, there's a curfew. We got to get out of here at some point." But it was just really cool. I had the show planned, and it's like you could do a listening party or whatever, but then if you're there, why not just play the song live? So I worked on it with the band and we just did it live. That whole night was such a soulful, loving ... just the vibe in the room was just really special. Specifically with the Orpheum, too, that theatre in Memphis, my mom, she used to take me to when Broadway shows would tour through.
There's actually a snippet of a video that I released where I'm sitting in the seats on the day before when we were going through rehearsal and I'm just staring at the stage. And I was trying to remember, there was one show that we ... I think it was Cats or something, but I think I was ... I think it was eight or nine years old, and I remember we had seats on the floor, and it was just so mind-blowing to me to see just a production in a theatre at that time. Yeah, I had a lot of nostalgia, a lot of memories flowing back in. And it was also really special, too, because the night after the show was my mother's birthday.
