Phone Interview with JC

For years, these five guys from Orlando have walked in the shadow of hometown heroes the Backstreet Boys. That is, until now. Although *NSYNC introduced themselves to us last years with tuneslike "I want you back" and "Tearing up my heart", the guys have really made their mark on the charts with their pop anthem , "Bye Bye Bye", and done something that BSB have yet to do- score a No. 1 hit in Australia.

JC Chasez told our Santi all about it.

Congratulations on your No. 1 hit in Australia with "Bye Bye Bye"...
JC: Thank you very much. We were more that excited, to say the least. The JIVE people called us and said that it was our first ever No. 1 down there, and that bands like the Backstreet Boys and 5ive have never had a No.1 in Australia, so we were very excited.

Did you celebrate big-time?
We celebrated a little and you know, it's great that the song is doing well- it's the biggest song we've ever had and it's been played on a lot of radio stations around the world, but our focus is on the album right now.

Why is the album called "No Strings Attached"?
Basically we wanted to let everyone know that this was more like freedom for us. We had complete artistic control on it. This is our baby and it hasn't come with any strings attached, because when we did most of this record we were between record companies. We were pretty much the masters of own destiny.

The album sounds a bit funky for you guys.
We just wanted to be creative, we didn't want to get stuck in the same rut. We don't want to do what everybody else is doing. We are pop artists, but we just had to take it to the next level. You can't put out the same album twice in a row, it becomes stale. We wanted to hear new sounds, so we sat in the studio and got creative. We would literally make stuff up. We'd go outside with microphones and sample sounds like car doors shutting and breaking light bulbs on the side walk- we would do some weird stuffs, man.

So along with a new album comes a new look for each of you, huh?
Yeah, everyone did something to their hair besides me. Justin and Lance have kinda grown theirs, while Chris got bored. He had the braids for two years and it got to him. You know, it took him eight hours every time he got his hair re-braided. And Joey's had red hair for a while now, but at first it was pink and that scared the hell out of all of us!

How did Left-Eye from TLC end up working with you on the new album?
Left-eye is the co-manager of a group called Blaque, and I sang on one of their songs called "Bring It All To Me" as a favour to her. So when our album came around, we had a dance break in this song and I was kinda like, "Why don't we get someone to do a rap or rhyme on this?" And the guys were like, "well, who could we get to do this?" And I said, "Well, I know someone who owes me a favour !" And they were like, "Really?!" Left-Eye was perfect for it because TLC have that futuristic thing going on.

Who else do you guys want to work with?
We got to work with a lot of our idols on this album-Teddy Riley, Richard Marx, Diane Warren- but we'd still like to work with someone like Michael Jackson.

There's a rumour that you have done a duet with Britney Spears called "The End Of Us".
Oh yeah? (laughs) Wow! No, I haven't heard anything about that, but it sounds pretty cool. We actually might tour with her overseas, like in Europe.

Have you heard any of her new album?
Yeah, I've heard her first single, called "Oops!...I Did It Again", and it's pretty much Britney, very poppy and boppy. I also heard a really cool song, I don't know the title, but it sounded like Michael Jackson, crazy stuff with guitars.

There's plenty of romance rumours about Britney and Justin. What's the deal? Are they dating, or what?
Ok, the deal is basically that they've dated in the past and whenever they're in the same town they might hook up, but everybody makes more out of it than there is. They don't talk about it because everybody is going to say this, that and the other. Honestly, all it is, is that when they're on the road they do their own thing, but when they see each other they might hook up.

We heard that Lance recently broke his foot. How did he manage to do that?
Well, he actually twisted his ankle a few nights ago while we were doing a performance on Saturday Night Live. We did a few sketches and two songs, including an a cappella performance of "Bye Bye Bye".

You appeared on the same night as Josh Jackson- did you hang out with him after the show ?
No, we didn't really talk much with him, we just said hi. Doing the sketches was pretty wild, though. We did a sketch that made fun of boy bands. It was a lot of fun because we got to make fun of ourselves- and who better to make fun of us than us ? we can point it out and we know what's whack.

You guys don't mind doing some acting, so whatever happened to the *NSYNC movie?
We're actually going to shoot it in August and September. It's not like *NSYNC: The Movie, it's actually a character-driven film. It's got nothing to do with band, we're just gonna be characters in the movie. It's being done by Playtone, which is Tom Hanks' film company.

Is there a title?
Right now it's called WHY CAN'T I BE YOU?, but that could change any day because we're still writing the script.

Do you still live with Chris and Justin?
Not anymore. All of the guys in the group still live in Orlando, but Justin has a place with his mum and Chris just bough a house. I'm living with our producers, Rip Rock and Alex G.

You guys have had plenty of legal troubles recently. How are things between *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys at the moment?
Of course they were worried when we first moved over to Jive(their record company). They were a little hurt at their record company, but they can't be pissed at us because we're just trying to make something happen and they understand that. We didn't care that they were there, we signed with Jive because they proved that they could make pop work. They have a track record and that was one of the big reasons why we went to them. At the end of the day, you have to be a grown-up and say, "It's business". So, Backstreet said, "If that's the way it's gonna be, that's the way it's gonna be." And we see each other, we wish each other good luck, you know, the whole nine.

So when is this long-awaited *NSYNC Australian tour going to happen?
That's a good question. I think right after we shoot the movie, we're going to try and make our way Down Under. That's when we will do something with Britney and tour over there. I mean, nothing is set in stone, but we're all about a great show, so why not bring it to Australia?

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