Running Their Own Show: *N SYNC is Large and in Charge -- *N The Loop

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Date Posted: 10:31:01 08/08/01 Wed
Author: Gina
Subject: Running Their Own Show: *N SYNC is Large and in Charge

From Yamaha All Access

The Reigning Kings Of Pop Run Their Own Show
*NSYNC *NCHARGE

It's tough to talk about *NSYNC without overusing the words "best,"
"biggest," and "most". They're the world's best-selling band (their No
Strings Attached album has racked up over $300 million in sales). Their
stage show is the biggest in pop history (the current PopOdyssey tour will
entertain more than eight million fans, with the production traveling
between arenas in an 88-truck convoy).

*NSYNC are, in short, the most successful entertainers of the new
millennium. But the staggering scale of that success sometimes overshadows
the talent, craftsmanship, and sheer hard work that generated it. As the
band has humorously pointed out in their songs and videos, *NSYNC is no
puppet troupe. The group parted ways with their original label and
management out of a desire to control their own careers. The presence of
four strong songs by band member JC Chasez on No Strings Attached proved the
boys could do more than sing and dance. But Strings was a mere warm-up for
Celebrity, the quintet's third disc. The group wrote and produced most of
the album themselves before launching the gargantuan PopOdyssey venture.

We recently spoke to *NSYNC's JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake, whose musical
partnership predates the group's 1994 debut. The two first worked together
as children on the Disney Channel's "The Mickey Mouse Club."

What are the biggest misconceptions about *NSYNC?
Justin: That we don't do anything ourselves. That we're not involved in our
careers. That we don't write our own material, even though we wrote all but
two or three songs on the new album.
JC: Some people think we lip-sync everything. But we never lip-sync at all
in the States, and we only do it sometimes on TV in Europe because some of
the shows are only set up for playback singing there. We're always
performing live.

Do those misperceptions bother you�or just amuse you?
Justin: Personally, I could care less.
JC: Well, we do want to be respected. We want to be treated like the artists
we look up to. Not today�those artists have earned that respect by doing
what they do for years and years. And we're never going to get respect from
rock and roll guys because we're not rock and roll. But we want to be
respected someday for doing a good job at what we do.

Some of your songs and videos make fun of the idea that *NSYNC is a plastic
band.
JC: If you can't make fun of yourself, who can you make fun of? Some of the
stuff we do is corny, and some of it is cool. Anyone who criticizes us for
making fun of ourselves, well, they're missing out on the sense of humor in
it.

What are some of the other ways you've taken control of your careers?
JC: We've grabbed the reins for everything at this point. Ever since we
signed with the new label, Jive, they've been taking us seriously as
artists. They've put a lot of trust in us, and we haven't disappointed them
so far, so they're willing to let us run with the ball. We write the music
video treatments. We pick the directors and tell them what we want. We
choose the choreographers. So we're at a point where we can definitely call
ourselves artists, because from here on out, everything is going to be our
call.

You didn't have to start writing your own material. What prompted you to
take the plunge?
JC: We've actually been doing it since the beginning. It was just a matter
of waiting until our songs got good enough to put on the records. We just
weren't comfortable in that skin yet. But the more you do it, the better you
get at it, and we felt like our stuff was good enough to put on the record
this time.
Justin: I've been writing for a while, but not with this much quantity at
one time. But on the new album I co-wrote "Up Against the Wall" and "Pop,"
the first single. I did "Celebrity," "See Right Through You," "Gone," and
"Something Like You."

You've made your songwriting debuts on some of the best-selling records of
all time. Was it scary to unveil yourselves so publicly?
Justin: No. I don't look at it that way. It's fun.
JC: It didn't feel risky�it just felt natural. Besides, we had no idea the
records would be that successful. We just thought the songs were good, so we
stuck them on the record. We had no idea people were going to respond that
way.

Who are your songwriting heroes?
Justin: Stevie Wonder.
JC: Definitely Stevie Wonder. Sting. Seal. U2. They write things that people
want to hear over and over. The kind of songs you never get tired of. Songs
that take you somewhere�that instantly put you in a certain place and time.

Do you write at an instrument?
JC: Every song is different. Sometimes you think of a melody in your head
and then bang it out on a guitar or a piano. Sometimes it starts at an
instrument and moves on from there. I thought of "Space Cowboy" on an
airplane, but "Selfish" started at the keyboard. It was a matter of playing
and getting a vibe, striking a riff that I wanted to keep playing over and
over until it became something.

How many songs did you develop in the studio before choosing the ones that
appear on Celebrity?
JC: We developed almost 30 and picked 13.
Justin: We have meetings where we decide which songs sound best. But the
real sifting process comes at the end when we have the final A&R meeting to
decide what's going on the album.
JC: You're looking for that piece of magic, and not every song has magic.

How do you know when you have it?
JC: There's no one thing. You just know a good song when you hear it. When a
song grabs your attention and means something to you, you figure, if it has
that effect on me, maybe it will have it on other people as well. In the
future, if other people deliver songs that are better than what we've
written, it will be our choice to record them. If we like what we've written
better, we'll use that. At the end of the day, it's about great songs. What
will reach people. What will touch them. We'll always choose that over being
selfish about our own songs.
Justin: For the most part, we agree about which songs to keep.
JC: Yeah, we tend to be on the same page. And if we're not, we always come
to a compromise, because we all respect each other as artists. And those
compromises almost always work out for the best.

So there's no boss in the studio?
Justin: Everybody just kind of takes turns.
JC: Yeah. It's really about who's in what mood what day. We change hats
every day. If someone feels like wearing the leader hat that day, they wear
it.
Justin: If you wrote the song, then you take the lead. Like when we recorded
my song "Something Like You," I produced. I actually got to produce a Stevie
Wonder harmonica part. I was so impressed with how he played! Even
everything he "messed up," we kept�that's how good it was. I'm definitely
learning more every day about how to communicate a vision to the musicians
who play on our records.

Now you're about to embark on one of the biggest tours of all time.
JC: Actually, it's the biggest production of all time. We have surpassed all
previous tours in size. It takes a while to put something like that
together, especially when all the ideas are yours and you want to see them
realized the way you originally dreamt them up.
Justin: At the end of the No Strings Attached tour, we started thinking up
concepts. It took us like two months to put this together after we had all
the ideas together and had the stage built.
JC: It's a lot of work. See, the difficult part about being in a band like
ours is that we have to do twice as much work as a lot of other bands. A
rock band has to get their music together, and then they pretty much just go
out and play it. But we have to rehearse the music, learn the choreography,
and put the two together. Then we have to work in the theatrics, rehearse
the transitions and costume changes, bring in the props and explosions, and
make everything line up with everything else so it creates a picture and
touches the audience.

Tell us about *NSYNC's relationship with Yamaha.
JC: Yamaha has been totally cool with us. Everyone there is real supportive,
and they hook us up whenever we need gear on tour. When we need a sampler,
they send one. If we need an 02R mixing console to do some demos or maybe a
show somewhere, they send it. The thing has total recall, so you set it, and
you can have all your settings right back up just by pushing a button, which
is nice. The Yamaha gear is usually the best stuff on the road, because it's
so reliable.

How do you strike a balance between attempting new things and giving your
audience what they want?
JC: In the beginning at least, we do everything for ourselves. If we don't
like something, we're not going to listen to it, and if we wouldn't listen
to it, why would anybody else? So we just make music we like and hope other
people will like it, too. That's all we can do, really.
Justin: The main thing is that the sound keeps evolving into something more
different and original.

Do you ever pause to consider the fact that you are providing many young
people with their first memorable musical experience?
JC: Yeah, that's definitely a trip. I hope it's a good thing. I'm definitely
proud of everything we've done, and if we're somebody's first album or first
show, I hope they got their money's worth. I know if I came to one of our
shows, I'd be entertained. There's something there for everyone, and the
visual aspect is important to me. I always looked up to people who were
entertaining that way, like Michael Jackson. I hope people are getting the
same feeling from us. I can't put myself in the audience's shoes, but I hope
they're having a good time.

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