Justin Timberlake has likened having a child to getting out of The Matrix.
The 35-year-old singer and actor welcomed son Silas with wife Jessica Biel in April, 2015. Becoming a parent turned Justin's life upside down - an experience he tried to explain by using Keanu Reeves' 1999 science-fiction movie. The film told the story of Keanu's character Neo, who was living a normal life until he was informed that his world was actually a simulated reality, called The Matrix. After learning the truth, Neo attempted to battle against the machines controlling the Matrix, freeing everybody else at the same time.
Discovering the truth about a whole new world is what Justin found when he became a father, telling Variety: "Having a child gives you a different insight."It’s like The Matrix, man. You open a door and there’s this whole other world on the other side of it. And you look back through the door at the other world and you’re like, 'What was I doing there?'"
Justin recently launched his musical comeback with his single Can't Stop the Feeling, which has topped charts all over the world. He added in the interview that Silas has dramatically changed the way he approaches his music.
"I’d be leaving out the whole truth if I didn’t say having him shaped what the song actually is," he smiled.
The upbeat song was inspired by Michael Jackson, Bill Withers and the Bee Gees and features on the soundtrack of upcoming animated movie Trolls.
And Justin is thrilled that he was able to make the song with a '70s influence sound so modern.
"I kept bringing up Saturday Night Fever with this movie," he said. "The filmmakers say they were inspired by the two sides of the '70s, the two different worlds this movie exists in. So I said let’s make a song that sounds like it could be from the '70s, but make it modern."
Justin is now working on the follow-up to 2013 album The 20/20 Experience, but insists he wants it to be perfect so won't be rushing things.
"I’m kind of taking my time," he explained. "I think for the first time in my career I feel like I can slow down and be a little more patient.
"Maybe it’s the difference between 20s and 30s. The difference between 'must achieve,' and now it’s like, 'Work smarter, not harder.' You want to have time for your family."
