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| 4/21/04 |
liveDaily Interview: JC Chasez "Wow," Chasez said during a recent break from rehearsals for his tour. "It's basically one song ["All Day Long I Dream About Sex"] that sticks out in everybody's mind ... I just wanted to do something obnoxious and fun. Everybody's so obsessed with being uptight and things like that. Obviously, I don't mean it literally. It's just something to yell out and be obnoxious about. "Sex is something that everybody has to encounter at one time or another. It's something everyone can relate to. Plus, it doesn't feel bad." Chasez's "Schizophrenic" marks the second solo release from a member of 'NSync, although Joey Fatone and Lance Bass have had songs on soundtracks. Timberlake catapulted to solo-superstar status after the release of his album "Justified." Now it's time for Chasez to sink or swim without his group, which also includes 'NSync's Chris Kirkpatrick. liveDaily: How are rehearsals going so far? JC Chasez: They're going great, actually. We're getting into the dress rehearsals. We finished putting the show together today. We're putting the final touches on the set list, cleaning it up. What can fans expect from your show? It's hard to describe. It's nonstop, though. It really is. It's a very loose and exciting show. I know people are used to a very choreographed show [with 'NSync]. I still dance. I just didn't overdo it. I didn't want to over-program the show. It has a really nice flow and it feels good. Do you perform 'NSync songs on your tour? I don't do an entire song. I cut into a bridge of one of them for fun. "Schizophrenic" is very different from anything that 'NSync has done. What did you set out to prove with the album? The goal was just to be myself. The reason it's different from 'NSync is you don't have five opinions on it. You have one. There's never been a JC album before, and this is what it sounds like. What was the most challenging part of creating your solo album? It was a labor of love. Some days were better than others. At the end of the day, I just did what came naturally. And I guess living up to your own expectations. You try to create a record that you can be happy with. Sounds like you're eluding to the fact that you had pretty high expectations for yourself. No. I just wanted to do something I could be proud of. I just wanted it to come from me, not from somebody else. A million people hire all these other producers and things like that to give them hit songs. I made a record with friends because I wanted it to [reflect] me. What was the most important thing you learned from working on your album? You learn a lot about yourself and your capability, and the fact that you can always do more. Working in the group, you're making compromises all the time. "He does this anyway, so I'll just let him work on this part." You know you are capable of doing it. You don't have to pass on it. You can see it all the way through. Did Justin Timberlake give you any advice? Not really. Not too much. Just to make sure you make the record that you're comfortable with. "Schizophrenic" pretty much sums up the feeling of this album. Was the goal to make a very diverse album? I didn't want to box myself in. I was very open-minded about it. Describe your songwriting process. I head to the studio. If I come up with an idea or a line in my head, a musical idea, I go to the studio and lay it down and build from it. I have one break and build a house from it. I start with one little piece, and build and build and build to my satisfaction. I wanted it to sound great and feel good. I didn't want to lose the essence of the rawness. I like a lot of the stuff on my record because it's also very raw. I don't want it to be over-polished. When it's too polished, you lose a lot of the emotion in it. You bust the emotion out. I didn't want to do that. How long did it take you to make the album? Nine months. That's writing, producing, mixing, mastering, everything. I oversaw every process of the record. Will 'NSync record another album? Yeah, yeah, of course. We'll do it when the right collection of songs come together.
Eminem would rather sit with NSYNC... Eminem: The Rolling Stone Interview ...Do you want more kids? Oh, no. No more kids for me. I'm cool. I'm chilling now. And no more marriage. I would rather fucking be on a coach flight with 'NSync at the back of the plane in the last row in them seats that don't go back -- just stuck there with the bathroom out of order. I would rather have a baby through my penis than get married again. I can't take what I went through last year. I don't ever want to experience that again...
Top Acts Crowd 'Totally Hits 2004' Twenty recent hits from the likes of Alicia Keys, Sean Paul, R. Kelly, Maroon 5 and "American Idol" contestants Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson can be found on "Totally Hits 2004." Due May 4 from BMG Strategic Marketing, the album is rounded out by Justin Timberlake's "I'm Lovin' It," the theme to a McDonald's advertising campaign, previously only available on his "Live From London" DVD. Keys' "You Don't Know My Name," Kelis' "Milkshake" and J-Kwon's "Tipsy" are the highest-charting cuts on the disc, having all reached No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100. Also featured on the album are tracks by Jet, Jason Mraz, Ying Yang Twins, Dido, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott. Previous volumes in the "Totally Hits" series have sold more than 10 million copies to date, according to the label. Here is the "Totally Hits 2004" track list: "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," Jet
Pop Entertainment Schizo review JC Chasez, another boy band (N’SYNC) defector, has embarked on a solo conquest with the release of his new album, Schizophrenic. Ok, so he’s no Justin Timberlake, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Being in the shadow of JT has allowed for JC to be his own person. As a result, JC has assembled quite an impressive debut, fusing pop, electronica, funk and soul. Assisted by long time friends Alex Greggs and Bradley Daymond (N’SYNC) and club/electronica gurus, Basement Jaxx, Chasez as strayed as far away from the pop scene as possible. The lead single, “Some Girls (Dance With Women)” is an infectious track, filled with syncopated claps and bongo rhythms. Don’t be fooled by the occasional electronic blips and surges. This track is pure pop perfection. “She Got Me,” sounds like a hybrid of Jamiroquai and early Michael Jackson. Its nonchalant groove makes for great listening. JC stretches his wings on the soulful Mercy sounding almost like fellow N’SYNC teammate Justin Timberlake. Those N’SYNC fans looking for some familiarity will have to search a little but will find solace in “Build My World.” JC's soft harmonies will take listeners back to the heights of his former gig. JC flexes his muscles of maturity on “One Night Stand” crooning, “Just relax baby, don’t be shy/I’m gonna keep you satisfied/Just cause you’re my girl.” Chasez's Schizophrenic is a risky release considering the success of Justin Timberlake. As an artist, JC is his own man with his own well-crafted sound. He may not become a huge star like Justin, but his talent will shine just as bright.
Chasez the best The Mickey Mouse Club now has an oldboys' network to rival Eton's. JC Chasez starred on the American children's TV show alongside the young Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, before forming boy band *NSYNC with Timberlake. Now he is attempting to follow his former bandmate into the world of credible adult pop, with an album that is less stylish than Timberlake's, but often much more fun. Ballads such as Build My World and Dear Goodbye are too close to the gloopy teen fodder of old, but plenty of the 15 tracks, all of which he co-wrote, are fabulous. The opener and lead single, Some Girls (Dance With Women), has Chasez visualising himself in the thick of some nightclub lesbianism over densely clattering rhythms. The surf guitar and thumping beats of 100 Ways make it another candidate for a hit, while All Day Long I Dream About Sex is destined to become a major summer anthem with its sleazy lyrics and Eighties synths. Best of all is Shake It, produced by London dance duo Basement Jaxx in return for a Chasez appearance on their last album. With its complex layered vocals, dancehall rhythms and backwards noises, it is impossible to play too loudly. If Basement had worked on the rest of the album, Timberlake would be relinquishing his crown already.
Timberlake's rising star JUSTIN Timberlake is in bed, somewhere in Vancouver. For Justin Timberlake, 2004 is all about credibility. You can't buy it but Timberlake now has it in spades; effortlessly moving from teen dream to demographic-crossing multi-media superstar. In the two years since he recorded his solo debut Justified, Timberlake has leapt far ahead of his pop contemporaries. His'N Sync band mate JC Chasez's solo album spent a scant two weeks in the US Top 100 - Justified sold millions around the globe. Even Robbie Williams is reportedly privately jealous of Timberlake's coolness and his impeccably dishevelled look is now the template for pop stylists. His Ex, Britney Spears is being shown up as a lip-synching, airheaded pop puppet in comparison to Timberlake's spot-on musical choices. Welsh nu-metal band Lostprophets have covered Cry Me a River, Duran Duran want to record with him and everyone from Coldplay to David Beckham hang out with him. Oh, and the 23-year old (who was a millionaire before his 18th birthday) is reportedly still dating actress Cameron Diaz, nine years his senior. Put it simply, Justin Timberlake is seriously cool. Not bad for an ex-Mickey Mouse club member who hit the scene with cheesy songs, plastic smiles and the worst'do since Kylie in the'80s. So where did it all go right? Well, it was probably around the time Michael Jackson turned down a whole bunch of songs written especially for him by the then-unknown producers The Neptunes. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo had fashioned songs to recall old school Michael - especially the organic funk/ disco Off The Wall era. "All that music was for Michael," Williams said last year. "Michael knew about it. His A&R person didn't think it was appropriate." Enter Justin. He'd wanted to work with The Neptunes for years but'N Sync's producers were worried the results would be too urban. When he got his way and The Neptunes steered the 'N Sync/Nelly collaboration Girlfriend, the seeds were sown. The Neptunes gave Justin Jacko's unwanted songs and wrote a new song especially for him - the drop-dead classic Like I Love You. Timberlake sat down, worked on lyrics and harmonies, and recorded his solo debut. Fast forward to 2004. Justified has spawned a string of era-defining hits and Justin's picked up MTV Music Awards, Brit awards and even a Grammy. He's also been on the live circuit with a massive world tour on the back of his solo debut. Timberlake has been keen to prove himself as more than a white boy-band refugee who got lucky by choosing the right (black) producer (a la Eminem): now he's getting reviewed by broadsheet newspapers and getting props from the likes of Rolling Stone. It's a long, long way from'N Sync. "It's hard for anybody that's 40 years old and writes about rock shows and all they love is Bruce Springsteen, to give any 23-year-old who came in and knocked everybody's socks off - I'm not saying that's what I did - but it's hard for them to even say they like my record, or that they enjoyed listening to it," Timberlake says. "They come from a different generation of music. It's hard for me to have a conversation with my own parents or grandfather about music. Luckily for me, me and my mum like the same stuff, but it's that age old analysis of different generations of music. Your parents never liked what you liked, that's not their music. "But that's not my concern. I go out there, I do the shows, I see who my core audience is. They enjoy coming to the shows. People enjoy shows for different reasons; some people like to go and get a little drunk and act a little crazy, some people just like the atmosphere of a live show. Most of the times it's all of those things put together." Timberlake says he's bemused by his treatment in the music world over the past 12 months - going from pop fodder to pop saviour in one album. Even Eminem has stopped slagging him off; publicly applauding him at an awards show after making him the butt of jokes for years. "I enjoy any positive response on any show I've done," Timberlake says. "As far as negative response before or even now, you try and not to pay too much attention to it. You have to take the steps when you're ready to take the steps. I was ready to do this with this album. When the album came out everybody got a different tone from it. When people heard the record they thought 'ok, this is a bird of a different feather'. Things should happen naturally, I felt this was a natural evolution for where I wanted to go with my music. You try not to give it too much thought. It's still got to be fun. "If you're sitting around thinking 'Is this what I should do' that's not fun, man. There's so much emphasis on what people should do. Now people are going off and doing variety shows because they don't want to make records - to me it feels like the industry is kind of weird right now. I try to not pay too much attention to that." Indeed Timberlake is one of the few pop acts who's managing to sell albums and concert tickets. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that he's going to be a movie star. It was just a matter of which movie he'd choose first. After his appearance on Saturday Night Live late last year - where he took the piss out of himself - the film companies came knocking. Timberlake was selective. In Edison he plays a college kid who lands a job as an intern at a newspaper. Soon he stumbles over a story about government corruption and gets into investigative journalism. But the singer cleared time in his career to start researching his role - being spotted in a downtown LA courthouse shadowing a journalist, observing how to read court files. Timberlake says the movie world isn't a weird transition. "It's different and it's new and it's exciting. Nothing's too weird anymore! It's just a matter of you go into something new and all you can do is equip yourself with as much information as you can and try to go about it the right way. Do your homework. "I was flying by the seat of my pants, I didn't know if the
homework would pay off but now I'm on the set and I've gone through
those things and talked to people who are professionals with real
life experiences that my character goes through in the movie it
makes sense to me now, I'm glad I went through that process."
But when it comes to his own life, Timberlake is a little more circumspect. In case you've been living under a rock, Timberlake's latest tabloid frenzy came after singing a duet with Janet Jackson at the Superbowl. When he sang "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song" and ripped off Janet Jackson's top, her breast was exposed. Timberlake was quick to distance himself from the incident. His excuse, "wardrobe malfunction", has now entered the pop vernacular. I ask him what happened with the Motown special he was meant to host post-Boobgate. Tanya Kersey-Henley of Black Talent News, an entertainment news publication that targets African-American professionals called Timberlake "unjustified" to host a Motown special. Admitting he had a "black folks pass" post-Justified, she pointed out that not only was he not black, but "sold out" Janet to save his own skin. "In other words," Kersey-Henley wrote, "he's OK with being identified as an 'honorary brotha', as long as it doesn't cost him anything. As African-Americans, we should not support this obviously contrived attempt to boost ratings and attract a wide white audience." Timberlake was then off the special. However, as soon as Motown is mentioned, it appears Timberlake's people are keen to bring the interview to an end. Timberlake pauses, then says "er, the Motown special ... unfortunately that came up and they asked me but I had to do this film". There's just one more question - is his next project a return to'N Sync as rumoured or a new solo album? "I don't know man. I'm making a film right now. I think you do your best work when you focus on one thing at a time." |
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