Matinee Idols

06/04/2002 12:00 AM, LAUNCH
David John Farinella

With *NSYNC having played their last date on the Celebrity tour, J.C. Chasez is getting a chance to regroup and settle back into life. "Now that we're taking a little bit of a break, I'm moving into my house and getting normal for a little while, which is cool," he says. Then again, there are these little things to worry about. "There's all the crap that you don't think about that you take advantage of when you're at your parents' house that you need to get a hold of now. I've got to go out and buy plates and silverware and stuff like that."

While *NSYNC fans might be missing the band as Chasez shops for housewares and Lance Bass is up in space, all it takes is a traipse down to the movie theaters to see 'em onstage. The IMAX feature Bigger Than Live is now in about 20 theaters across the States.

The group accepted the IMAX offer, which was filmed during the No Strings Attached tour, in a snap. "There are only a handful of people that have done it in the first place," Chasez says, "and to be in the category of those people, like the Rolling Stones...They proposed the opportunity for us and we took it right away, because we wanted to do something different. It's a unique experience." He takes a breath and then admits with a laugh, "I'm not going to lie--it's awkward to see your head five stories tall. But it's wild."

Five-story *NSYNC heads? There must have been some band teasing going on there. "Oh man, we all made fun of each other. I kind of get poked at the most, because I'm the most critical. So everybody's always pointing out whenever I screw up," Chasez says with a laugh. "That's just the way it goes, I guess." Though some of those screw-ups got edited out, Chasez, who's the band's audio and video technical wizard, likes leaving in certain ones. "You don't want to take away from the whole vibe of the show. We want people to kind of laugh about it as well," he explains. "So certain things I leave in, because you'll see us laughing and smile a little bit, and that kind of stuff brings character to the show."

As the band gets the big treatment in the IMAX theaters, Chasez reports each member will be working outside of the group before getting back together. "We kind of always reinvent ourselves, but now I think we're in a position where--after cranking out five albums in the last four years, one being a European album--we're going to push ourselves a little bit more," he says. "We're giving our ears a break from ourselves, so we can step out and be creative. The whole idea behind it is that we're each going to go out and listen to different things and write with different people, so that when we come back we have this melting pot and it becomes this whole new thing."

As for a timeframe, Chasez says *NSYNC will regroup "once Lance gets back from outer space." That's a funny way to put it. "Yeah," he laughs. "It's pretty cool, though." Of course, Chasez and some of his bandmates got to have their own cool experience recently, acting as extras in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. "Oh man, I can't even tell you how cool it was," Chasez raves. "It's a childhood fantasy. We were dressed in Jedi outfits and I got to carry a light saber." So, Bass gets to go to space, and Chasez got to be a Jedi. "Exactly," Chasez says. Not a bad trade.