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| 5/22/04 - 5/23/04 |
Transcript: Wango Tango interview JoJo: Dude, I got a call from your manager... JC: Uh huh. JoJo: ...or, one of your managers...as you guys landed in the airport – from where, by the way? JC: Uh, we were in Atlantic City. JoJo: All right. So he called me and he says, "JoJo, I've got this video, 'All Day Long I Dream About Sex' – nobody's seen this thing yet. We want to play it on the Jumbotron at Wango Tango." JC: Absolutely. JoJo: So, we bring it in here, see if it's appropriate, see if we're gonna get sued and all that crap, you know. Valentine, what'd you think of the video? Valentine: It's hot. It's hot. The '80s vibe is awesome, by the way. Great choice in that. Yeah, it's a great video, and it looks like you were having a little bit of fun there. JC: Yeah man, but it's mainly a performance video. That's what I think people are gonna...it's a striking video because it's clean. Valentine: Yep. JC: It's like this bright, uh, just, strong performance piece. JoJo: Sort of an '80s kind of look to it... JC: Yeah, I love it. They grabbed – they actually pulled a camera out of storage that hadn't been used since 1979. Valentine: Oh, you're kidding me. JoJo: Get serious! JC: So it was so awesome. It didn't even have a tape in it. You couldn't even put a tape...it had like this big giant cable that went into this big box. JoJo: [laughs] Nice. Old school! JC: We were like, "Whoa!" It was really cool. Valentine: The best part of the video – we were talking about this – is this look that you give the camera at the end. Dude, that's awesome. JC: Heh. My giggle. [laughs] Valentine: That's the best look. Now, there's one thing... JC: I was having fun! Valentine: Yes, you were! JoJo: Yeah, you think? This video that we just saw, that's gonna be premiered at Wango Tango, and I assume on TRL fairly soon, is the American version. There was also – uh, I think it's the German version? JC: Yeah. JoJo: Which ain't quite so... JC: Well, it's not... JoJo: Give me the story on that one! JC: Well, basically, in Germany, you know, they let full nudity on MTV. JoJo: ...I’ve seen some of the stuff in Germany... JC: Yeah, it's pretty wild stuff, you know what I mean? It's like, any television show at any time, commercials, anything. It's just, they're comfortable with that kind of thing. And uh, there's no nudity in the vid...in the thing, but you know, they're just more open-minded to pushing it a little bit farther and having a little bit more fun. So, you know, I went a little bit further with the jokes. JoJo: Got it. JC: You know, there's like, some funny stuff where there's a cop and he's with a nurse, and he takes his nightstick and puts it through the donut. Things like that. Valentine: Oh, okay. JoJo: [laughs] JC: You know, I don’t want any trouble, so you know... JoJo: We do that all the time backstage... JC: ...and over there, people really don't care. It's pretty much here where everybody's uptight. JoJo: Uh, you're gonna do that song onstage; another song he's gonna do onstage will be his next release – and correct me if I'm wrong, JC – is the track "Build My World." JC: Yeah. JoJo: That song, if you guys haven't heard it on the album... JC: [laughing] That's the one, you've been talking and talking about it, you're gonna get it, finally. You're gonna get it! Valentine [to JoJo]: You've been asking for that song? JC: You're going to get it! JoJo: I was just like, "You guys, do not let this song go unreleased." And I don't wanna build it up, 'cause sometimes you build things up, and it's a letdown just because... Valentine: ...it's been built up so much, yeah... JoJo: ...hype, pa pa pa... JC: It's a cool song, man. JoJo: No. No no, it's more than that, dude. This song is a potential award-winning type song. Valentine [to JoJo]: What grabbed you about the song when you first heard it? JoJo: It just seems extremely from the heart. Something about it, I don't know what it is about that track. And of course there's the obvious – there's the hook, there's the, you know, the melody, there's the storyline of the song... Valentine [to JC]: Is he right with that, was there something from your heart on that one? JC: Yeah, man, it was just something, you know, everybody goes through. I just was going through moments in my mind that you know, a lot of people go through, and even I've been through those at one time or another. And so I found a way to relate to a lot of people, you know, and just kind of writing out what I was going through. And I felt like a lot of people immediately attach to it. The one thing that's really cool about it is, it's a ballad, but the style of ballad is very unique. It's not, it just doesn't sound generic at all. JoJo: [singing] "A cornerstone of honesty..." JC: Yeah. Building a house mound! JoJo: [still singing] "...all around..." Valentine: But it doesn't sound anything like that. JC: [laughs] Yeah, it doesn't sound like that. JoJo: I can't top that. You guys, we'll see him at Wango Tango, if you're here. If you're not, you'll hear it on the radio soon. JC: Mm hm. JoJo: And, uh, we're gonna take a break. We're gonna, like, hang out with JC and probably all make out and whatever. JC: Uh... Valentine: Yeah yeah right, we're gonna walk this way. Good luck to you, buddy. Backstage with KIIS!
Oh, Mickey, let's take a trip in time During endless road trips with the family, my brother Randall and I used to play a game in the back seat of the car we called "Pop-Music Time Machine." It lasted longer than the sucker competition known as "Hey, Let's See Who Can Hit The Softest," which always ended with tears when one of us got slugged in the head. Pop-Music Time Machine was pretty painless and easy. All you had to do was fill out the sentence that starts with "Razzle-dazzle razzle-droll, let's go. I'm hopping in the Pop Music Time Machine and going back to (pick a year) to watch (pick an artist) in (pick a place)." Randall always chose the Beatles during a lunchtime gig at the dungeon-like Cavern in Liverpool in 1963 just before the Fab Four conquered the world. That was a gimme. He also liked to visit Cream's farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1968. I routinely wanted front-row seating when Bob Dylan got booed for playing electric guitar by the fuddy-duddy purists gathered at the Newport Folk Festival in the summer of '65. And who wouldn't want to see the glass-shattering, feedback-drunk Velvet Underground's debut performance in 1965 during a - no kiddin' - high-school dance in Summit, N.J.? Isn't "Heroin" the best slow-dance song, like, you know, ever? The Time Machine game was still fun to play as our musical tastes developed. How about dropping in on Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five when Satchmo and the gang recorded in a Chicago studio in 1926? Wouldn't it be a blast to drink Spanish port while Billie Holiday put a second coat on the room at New York's Cafe Society in '39. Heck, I'd endure a month of Michael Bolton for 30 minutes of Hank Williams in 90-proof-bourbon bliss when he made a pit stop in nearby Sneads during the late '40s. And why not use the Time Machine for unselfish reasons? Fly back to the Weimar Republic during the '30s to warn all the Jewish - and so-called "degenerate" - musicians about the scumbag Nazis. Occasionally, during telephone conversations these days, my brother and I will drag out the Time Machine. The game has turned bitter with a Terminator-style streak of vengeance. If I had the Time Machine today, I would forgo Jimi Hendrix opening for The Monkees, to set the dial for 1989. That's when "The Mickey Mouse Club" - not the one from the '50s with Annette and Cubby - was reintroduced by the Disney Channel. Over the course of its seven-year run in the '90s, "The Mickey Mouse Club" - or "MMC" if you were cool, dude - became the breeding ground for everything wrong with pop music today. The "MMC" larvae include Louisiana jailbait Britney Spears, Michael Jackson manque Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera - whose screeching, untrained voice has been known to kill an acre of burrowing prairie dogs. I think some of the hell spawn that became 'N Sync was in the "MMC," too, as well as Charles Manson, Charles Whitman, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. I'm not condoning arson or assassination, but why shouldn't the studio where "MMC" was going to be taped suddenly become contaminated with head lice, leprosy bacterium, monkey-pox virus or something equally unpleasant? Would that be so terrible? Think of all the suffering it would prevent. When the hellishly talented musician-producer Todd Rundgren was in town recently, I got a chance to briefly speak with him. For some stupid reason, I asked him to play Time Machine. "I don't believe in time travel," Rundgren said with a straight face. "This is the only time there is." Guess he won't be joining me at "The Mickey Mouse Club."
KISS-108 players hit and run With 17 acts in 9 hours, the live-jukebox format of the annual KISS-108 concert (yesterday's was the 25th) meant that no act got more than 35 minutes to show its best stuff. It's a great way to sample plenty of popular performers in one sitting, and a throwback to the pop package tours of the early '60s... JC Chasez started with promise: The former NSYNC member, singing to pre-recorded tracks, opened with "All Day Long I Think About Sex" and "Blowing Me Up (With Her Love)," both of which echo the proto-techno of early-'80s disco. But then he closed with "Build My World Around," a saccharine ballad that threatened to undo all the work he's done distancing himself from the boy-band sound, and the annoying, chattering "Some Girls (Dance With Women)." Call it a draw...
Mamba Online Schizo review I’m one of those people who enjoy it when groups split up or take a break for their members to pursue solo careers. You never really know an artist until they start producing music that they want to, instead of what works for the group. Take Beyonce Knowles or even Robbie Williams as examples. Luckily, JC Chasez of Nsync-fame learned a valuable lesson from band-mate Justin Timberlake – do the music you want to do. And that he did on this, his solo debut, drawing from a wide range of musical influences. Schizophrenic doesn’t however sound ‘confused’, as often happens when artists try different genres on one album. Because JC co-wrote each of the seventeen tracks on the album, there is a flow through all the songs. The album kicks off with the current single, Some Girls (dance with women), an infectious hip-hop influenced club track that is receiving extensive airplay across the world. It also features Blowin’ Me Up (with her love), his first solo single, which was co-written by the brilliant Dallas Austin, and one of my favourite tracks on the disc. Other notables include the sexually charged 100 Ways, or the beautiful ballads Build my World and Lose Myself. There’s also the brilliant Shake It, written by Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx, the awesome 80’s electronica-influenced All Day Long I Think About Sex, One Night Stand, and the reggae-infused Everything You Want. Schizophrenic is an ambitious and risky debut album, avoiding a tried and trusted pop formula. But the world has taken notice (Basement Jaxx even asked JC to do the vocals on their next single, Plug it in). All things considered, Schizophrenic is also one of the best releases of 2004.
Shisa Schizo review J.C Chasez used to be a member of N’Sync. This is where youre supposed to make ugly retching noises right? Well, you shouldn’t, because J.C has done a pretty damn fine job at trying to re-invent himself a la his former band-mate Justin Timberlake. You will already know the single ‘Some girls (dance with women)’ on which he continues the time-honoured tradition, recently perfected by JT of sounding convincingly black. The track sounds like a B2K cast-off. What’s really refreshing here is the variety of sounds and the way he throws himself into every track. He’s evidently having a ball. ‘100 ways’ is underpinned by guitars and a lively percussive accompaniment, and ‘Build my world’ is a beautiful, reflective ballad until its bridge which features some of the most pretentious lyrics you would have heard…ever. Honest. Thankfully, the hand-clappy ‘Something Special’ is irresistible sassy fun, ‘If you were my girl’ is a super-sexy caper. Remarkably, on ‘Shake it’ he manages to sound like Beck and sneaks in what sounds like a tribute to the theme tune from Ghost Busters. Trashy anthem ‘All day long I dream about sex’, starts out like a parody of rock stardom, but its chorus sounds entirely genuine – you, and anyone else in the room will be unable to avoid laughing at its repeated horny refrain. ‘One Night Stand’ is playful, sexy fun. ‘Come to Me’ creeps saucily, while ‘Dear Goodbye’ is precious, but works because of its excellent, more subdued musical support. ‘Everything you want’, meanwhile, is the sound of The Police, from the reggae tinged backdrop, the melody, to the vocals which sound uncannily like er…Sting. He does a very good imitation, if, of course, you regard that as a good thing. ‘Lose Myself’ is the sort of soothing love song that N’Sync did with their eyes closed, but ‘Right Here (By your side)’ is a breezy track with a loose guitar and relaxed percussion. What emerges from this album is that J.C is genuinely talented, not simply one of Justin’s back-up singers. He jumps genres with impressive confidence and ease. But you get the feeling he cannot decide what suits him best; the album is, quite literally schizophrenic.
Lime Mag Schizo review SCHIZOPHRENIC The second *NSYNC-er to go solo has very big shoes to fill, what with Justin Timberlake’s Grammy-Award-winning Justified and his high-profile collaborations with Black Eyed Peas and Nelly. While JC's solo effort doesn’t have the same pop accessibility as Justin’s, it does have its merits. He plays around with funk, pop, rock and even dance, hence the album title. First single ‘Some Girls Dance With Women’ is already enjoying massive airplay and another great track is the previously released ‘Blowin Me Up (With Your Love)’. ‘Dear Goodbye’ is a great number and well sung to boot and ‘100 Ways’ sounds a lot like something Lenny Kravitz would do. Other strong tunes include 'Mercy' and 'Build My World', a heart-breaking cry of loneliness, which could be in danger of being typical boyband material but he manages to save it from that fate. So it seems you can take the boyband out of the boy after all.
He used to be more famous for dating Britney Spears than for his music. Now, Justin Timberlake is about as big as it gets in pop. He talks to Simon Hattenstone. Justin Timberlake disappears into the red sofa. He's wearing a red towelling tracksuit. Great colour coordination, I say. "Yeah, I thought it was funny." He shifts around, ill at ease. "I feel kinda uncomfy here, I think I'm going to sit over here, so I don't match." He leaps out of the settee and into another chair. His movement is easy and graceful. After years of huge, formulaic success as part of the world's biggest-selling boy band, NSync, and years of being known primarily as Britney Spears' boyfriend - even after the event - Timberland has in the past 12 months or so emerged as a considerable solo talent. He dances as well as Michael Jackson used to, writes his own songs, and his debut solo album Justified packs in a lifetime's classy influences. It's derivative, but good derivative. I ask him why he called the record and the world tour it spawned - which is about to bring him to Australia for his first solo tour - Justified. "I named it for myself. I guess it was just a sense of reckoning for myself. It was so different from what people would expect me to do, so everything about it has justification for me." His watch is dazzling. Huge, compass-like, stuffed with jewels. It's about as bling-bling as you can get. Blimey, I say, mouth wide open; real diamonds? "Yeah," he says. "It was a gift." Does he enjoy being able to indulge himself? Actually, he says, the best thing about the money is that he can treat his parents after they've supported him for two decades. His mum manages him, his stepdad is a banker. His Memphis upbringing, he says, was very comfortable, very middle class - decent school, good grades, loads of love. What has he bought for his mum? "Ah, man!" He doesn't know where to start. "A Harley. Her and my dad. We have about seven now. They have two that they keep at their home in Memphis, and I have two that I'm keeping at my home in LA, and we have three in the house in Orlando." There's nothing he loves more, he says, than cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway, not too fast, not too slow, drinking in the fresh air and freedom. "That's what the Harley represents, isn't it? Freedom. And in the past year I think it's been the underlying theme in my life - freedom and transition." I tell Timberlake the influences in his music come out loud and clear: a nod to Off the Wall-era Michael Jackson, a wink to Sign of the Times-period Prince, a wave to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life. "Exactly," he says. "These are just the artists who inspire me. And Marvin Gaye. And Al Green." He is mainly influenced by soul music? "Yeah," he says, and stops. Well, maybe not. "I think there are some songs that you'll hear the harmonies and it's more reminiscent of the Bee Gees." He breaks into song. "Well you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk..." He does a cracking Barry Gibb falsetto. "And there's a little bit of Queen as well." Oh, I say, I must have missed that. He clicks his fingers and segues into a semi-rap. "So you pass to the left, and you sail to the right. Daaah! You know how Freddie used to do that. He was baaaaaaad ! He was a baaaaaad mama jama." Pardon? "Have you never heard that song? She's a Bad Mama Jama." His sense of pop history really is impressive. "That was before your time!" If he's trying to smooth-talk me, it's working. At just 23, Timberlake has been in the music industry for more than 11 years. At 12, he met Britney Spears when they were both Mouseketeers on Disney's Mickey Mouse Club. Can he remember a time when he was not performing? "Sure, in the middle I was not performing," he says. "I had a good year and a half to be a snottynosed kid right after the Mickey Mouse Club ended. I was at home from 13, to the summer after when I was 14 and a half." How snotty-nosed was he? "Ah, yeah," he says a tad unconvincingly, "we got caught with alcohol and smoking and doing whatever snotty-nosed kids do. We'd get caught and make someone else get in trouble for it." However hard he tried, he says, he never got into trouble - the kids liked him, the teachers liked him, everyone liked him. And he could always get others out of trouble. How come? "I don't know. It's kind of scary when you realise it can make that many people believe in you." Timberlake seems to think he has something of the Messiah about him, but somehow he has the charm to get away with it. He tells me he always got As at school. "I once got a B in seventh grade. I was mad. I was swelled up. I couldn't believe it." Is there anything he's bad at? "Heh! Come on man!" he protests. "You know what I'm really crap at? Forgiveness. Because my perfectionism in my craft sometimes carries over into all areas of my life. There were times when my mum would upset me, and it would take me forever to get over it." Ultimately, he says, however able he is in other fields, music was the only thing that was natural for him. So what was it like to be stuffed with talent yet always be defined as Britney's boyfriend? "It's kind of a moot point now, isn't it?" Didn't it annoy him? "Well, it won't do me any good to get upset about that." Did their relationship help establish his identity in the first place? "Honestly, I think this (the album and tour) has established my identity. I think this was my coming-out party." He giggles. "Honestly, are you taking that and running with it? Be careful!" Didn't he find it strange having his virginity publicly debated? (Britney famously declared herself a virgin, so people reckoned, in the best of all worlds, that he was also one by association.) "I find it funny. I find it humorous. I take what I do seriously, but I don't take myself too seriously. Something that has been good for me is seeing one of my idols go completely mad." He pauses. "We see that the business has consumed a lot of people from Michael's generation, including Michael." He's talking about Michael Jackson? "Yeah. Don't you think the whole thing that surrounds him is weird?" I say I find the whole pop business terrifying and sickening. "Yeah, it's the most cut-throat business there is, besides law." No, it's weirder than law, I say - law doesn't take young kids and sexualise them for the delectation of the market. "I don't really feel I was ever sexualised," he says. I tell him I'm thinking of Britney - the way she was created as a sex-kitten schoolgirl, and now at 22 there is talk of burnout. "Yeah. Look at how much pressure's been put on her. People are fickle." How does he survive in such a world? "How you survive is, you don't buy into it. You wake up, you look in the mirror and you say, ‘I love you, but you're a funny-ass, ugly dude'. And you make a record for yourself . You say, ‘What do I want to hear myself do?' and you hope everybody gravitates towards it." I tell him I have some nosy questions to ask him. "Sure," he says, "You ready for transparent answers?" He sits up and prepares himself. Was the song Cry Me a River about Britney? "Not necessarily. The video or the song? The song was inspired by the rhythm, and the song was inspired by the way I felt. Take that and interpret it whichever way you want. The video was brought to me by the director." That is the most evasive answer I've heard in my life, I say. Well done. "Thank you. Thank you. You should see me actually tap-dance." Is it true that Janet Jackson had him just for his body? "Phbbbrrrhhh," he says non-committally. "You should ask her. I don't know. Did you ever consider that it was vice versa?" Clever, I say. So there is some truth in it? "I don't know, I wouldn't be a gentleman, would I …" But they had a fling? "Didn't you just ask me the same question, only reworded?" Yes, absolutely, I say. "Yeah, you did! That's all right. I am good friends with Janet, and I think she's a lovely person, and incredibly talented and absolutely beautiful, and if I did , how lucky would I be?" Very lucky? "Yes." And would you say you were lucky? "I would say in life that I was lucky." Again, I congratulate him on his gentlemanly evasion. So what about Christina Aguilera - another star he was once rumoured to be dating? "Yes" - dramatic pause - "we toured together. Hahaha!" And have they ever toured in the biblical sense? "Erm, no. No we haven't. She's looking kind of hot these days, though." He's almost whispering. "She does look very hot, doesn't she? She's not calling it wrong - she does look dirrty." Who's the top dirty-looker in pop? "I'd say, at least at the moment, she takes the cake, don't you?" he asks James, the work-experience boy who has come along for the ride. James nods, and says he doesn't think his mum would approve if he brought Britney home. Who would Timberlake's mum prefer him to bring home? "My mom doesn't care. She just wants me to be happy." And what makes him happiest in life? "I enjoy music, man. It really does make me happy. And it's never let me down. And my mom makes me happy. When she's happy, it makes me happy." What makes him most unhappy? "Racism," he says instantly. "I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, the city where Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, and there are still some places that are bad. Y'know, it's sad." We talk about the future: more solo stuff, maybe another album with NSync, movies, living quietly in LA. Is there any one thing he's desperate to do? Eventually he answers. "I mean, maybe it's pretentious to say so, but I really do think I could achieve anything." He looks at me, slightly embarrassed. "Do you think that's pretentious?" |
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