November 14, 2024 • 10 mins
JC Chasez talks new music project 'Playing With Fire' and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're on with Mario Lopez. It's up heing on with
Mario Lopez joining me now on Zoom. Grammy nominated singer
and songwriter my old p l J. C. Chase Welcome
the show Man.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, we're co co workers, that's right at one point.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's right. That was a nice run of course on
ABDC America's Best Dance Crew right there. Congratulations Will. Meanwhile,
on your newest project, Playing with Fire, is this like
a musical theater concept album?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
How would you describe it? So, that's exactly what it is.
So my writing partner and I his name is Jimmy Harry,
and we wrote a musical call Playing with Fire, and
we've written the book and the music, and in order
to kickstart the interest, we thought it would be fun
to release the music into the world like Jesus Christ
Superstar did back in the day. It's like they released
the concept album to kind of wet everyone's appetite for
(00:54):
you know, what the show could be like. So we
released the music Playing with Fire, the music from the
musical fun Man.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, that's that's a lot of hard work right there,
because it's a mountain of work, you know, Yes, absolutely,
And and what were the themes of the story.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So Playing with Fire is an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Okay and uh, and so what our piece has done
is it's we've musicalized it. You know. It's like we
were thinking about, you know, different projects that we wanted
to work on, and you know, Mary Shelley wrote a
story two hundred plus years ago about humanity and technology
(01:34):
interfacing and you know, and and and really talking about
the the responsibility that that that we have to have
as humankind when we create something. And so we thought,
what an amazing story to tell, and we thought that
we had a unique perspective on it when we started
(01:54):
working on it. And what we thought was, Okay, we're
going to write a story about humanity technology And what
we ended up writing in the end was a story
about a father and son working out their differences. And
that's what really struck me. You know, everybody thinks Frankenstein
maybe is just this story about you know, technology and
(02:18):
monsters and murder and all of these things, and really
what we found it to be was a story about
humanity and that no matter what technology comes into play,
it never changes our humanity. We are you know, always
going to be human and we're always going to interface
(02:40):
as humans, you know, no matter what you know you
put in our hands or or what we come across.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
That's pretty heavy and I like the dynamics, especially having
two boys myself. Is this something you're gonna play live?
Could there be a possible musical production in the future.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Absolutely, Look again, this is step one again. We're releasing
the concept album Playing with Fire as an appetizer because
we want to make this musical, you know, and making
musicals takes many years, right, Yeah, But I come from music,
and we thought, hey, you know, why don't we control
what we can control and at least get the word
out the way we know how as music people. And
(03:17):
so the goal next what we would like to do,
and I think we're going to do it within the
next six months, is a concert. We want to do
a concert version of the theatrical piece, and then from
there take it into workshops and into out of towns
and then ultimately to one of the stages either in
the West End or you know, if anything is out
(03:38):
there that is willing to let us put it on Broadway,
it would be fantastic. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Man, well, good luck with that's good.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, thank you, you got it.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I know you co wrote one of Liam Payne's last songs,
tear Drops. Yeah, what was your experience working with them?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You know, anytime that I was in the room with
with him, he was fantastic, you know. And uh, again
I don't want to speak too much on it, just
because you know, I want to be respectful to his
loved ones and his family. But uh, we had a
mutual friend is a songwriter named Jamie, and he put
(04:17):
us in the room together because look, we both came
from this boy band background and and things like that,
and we had some some fun laughs about you know,
the similarities and the differences in the experience. But I
have to say that every experience that I had with
him in the room was absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, I've spent uh I got to spend a lot
of time with him too, and he was a really
really nice guy. Yeah. You mentioned a boy band, and
it reminds me. I really enjoyed the documentary. I found
it fascinating about the one with Ron Pearlman Dirty Pop.
There's been so many now, in particular, I don't I
don't know if.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I've seen that one. I've seen a couple of that
kind of keep resurfacing every couple of years. Another one
kind of that one was well done.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
And what I found so fascinating about it is you
had this guy who clearly was talented as far as
being able to have an eye and recognizing talent, assembling
them the music and what have you, but he couldn't
get out of his own way. Even after he made
legitimate money, he continued to be shady, which.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Is so weird.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You figure, once you start making legitimate money, why are
you still gonna go be shady so much?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It was I was like I was blowed away. It
really is wild, you know, and you were.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I'm sorry to interrupt, but you kind of like, at least
in the dock, it alluded to like you kind of
saw that and you kind of kind of sense that
this fool shady all right from the dead.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You know. And it's like, you know, you don't realize
it at first, obviously, because when you are and I
don't want to, you know, yeah, when you're conning someone,
they're showing you something and they're good at it. Look,
we weren't the only people that that he manipulated. You know,
it's like he's he manipulated banks, and he manipulate you know.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
What I mean. Well, no, that's what I'm saying. Like,
but once you started making real money with you guys backstreet,
this and that, he continued with his airline and I'm like,
why is he doing that?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Wild? Good question?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, it was so wild to me. I was so
wild to be it was really good as I did.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Piece you don't. It's something I'll never understand. Look, even
when we were in the trenches and we thought, look,
this is this, our careers could end in this moment
right now, but we just felt like we had to
be truthful to ourselves. When we were in court with him,
It's like we actually made offers that were reasonable offers
(06:41):
to continue to work together, you know, if he would
have accepted them, and he just didn't, just didn't feel
like he had to. It's so it's so sorry, you know,
in those moments to bully us, and it was just
kind of like what am I doing this for? I mean,
I literally can't eat, you know. It's like he couldn't
give those blimps.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, dude, the blimps, the faker the blimps crashed at
once and no one thought that was suspicious.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
The whole thing I was. It was really good.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I like the document just as as an entertainment phase.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
It was really good.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And with all that said, he's still responsible for a
very important part of music history for a certain time.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So you can't deny that, you know, wild Man, you
know what it's like, every band is going to come
across something, right, because we hear stories about almost every
major artist, you know, we would hear stories about bad
deals with managers in the Rolling Stones and then you
know all these Elvis. Sure, somewhere along the way everyone's
butted head with someone. But yeah, you're you're absolutely right.
(07:43):
Like he he was kind of at the epicenter of
a new pop movement.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
He really was. Yeah, I know, it's fascinating. Yeah, no,
I'm glad to talk to you about that, your solo
About your solo album, Schizophrenic twenty years old. Man, I
can't believe that twenty years old. As you look back,
do you remember about, uh that time working with Dallas Austin.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Uh, Well, first of all, yeah, working with Dallas was
it was was one of the most fun and creative
experiences I've ever had. I can't say enough about him
in terms of UH being a creative. You know, he
really brings out the best and the people that he
works with. And I was excited because we'd cross paths
because even in the in Sync days, UH, we got
(08:26):
Lisa left Eid to to to drop a rap on
Space Cowboy, which was one of the songs that I
wrote for in Sync, And so that was kind of
the first time we crossed paths. And then later he
was working on Drumline and UH, and we were starting
to work on something for me, and he's just like,
you know, I have space for one more song on
(08:48):
on the drum Line soundtrack. Would you be down to
just crank went out tonight? And I was like absolutely,
It's just bus went out and the song came out
great and ended up being one of my favorites on
the on my entire record and and I thought was
good for the movie to get the time and UH
and so yeah, what a great dude. And Uh. The
fun part about making the album Schizophrenic was I felt
(09:09):
like I got to experiment more. You know, I didn't
approach it as maybe a traditional pop record. I tried
to stretch myself artistically and I really enjoyed that process.
Good for you. Uh you keep in touch with the
guys all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Oh, that's good to hear. I'd like to hear.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Is there like a you know, it's like everybody's got
a group chat now, you know what. No, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That's cool that you know. I haven't heard anything negative
about any strife, so that's cool.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
People always like to hear that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Well. Ay, brother, congratulations on everything. And listen, you can
check out Playing with Fire on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get new music.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
JC.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Thanks for hanging out my dude, ab DC. That's what
I'm saying that, Hey, enough ship has gone by. Enough
time has gone by. We should revisit that ships.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
All the time. Everybody that asks me, I just want
to pay you a compliment real quick, Everybody that ask
me what it's like working with you, because we were
always in our own worlds, like again, doing our jobs.
But I tell everyone, you are the best at what
you do. You are the kindest, you know again but
most professional and literally the best at what you do. Man.
(10:16):
Now I'm looking.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I appreciate it, Okay, I appreciate the kind words, bro.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I appreciate it. Thank you, so much man I hope
to see in person.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yes sir, all right, take care once you blow up
with your musical come back, Yes sir. With Mario Lopez
You're on with Mario Lopez. It's up heing on with
Mario Lopez joining me now on Zoom. Grammy nominated singer
and songwriter my old p l J. C. Chase Welcome
the show Man.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, we're co co workers, that's right at one point.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's right. That was a nice run of course on
ABDC America's Best Dance Crew right there. Congratulations Will. Meanwhile,
on your newest project, Playing with Fire, is this like
a musical theater concept album?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
How would you describe it? So, that's exactly what it is.
So my writing partner and I his name is Jimmy Harry,
and we wrote a musical call Playing with Fire, and
we've written the book and the music, and in order
to kickstart the interest, we thought it would be fun
to release the music into the world like Jesus Christ
Superstar did back in the day. It's like they released
the concept album to kind of wet everyone's appetite for
(00:54):
you know, what the show could be like. So we
released the music Playing with Fire, the music from the
musical fun Man.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, that's that's a lot of hard work right there,
because it's a mountain of work, you know, Yes, absolutely,
And and what were the themes of the story.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So Playing with Fire is an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Okay and uh, and so what our piece has done
is it's we've musicalized it. You know. It's like we
were thinking about, you know, different projects that we wanted
to work on, and you know, Mary Shelley wrote a
story two hundred plus years ago about humanity and technology
(01:34):
interfacing and you know, and and and really talking about
the the responsibility that that that we have to have
as humankind when we create something. And so we thought,
what an amazing story to tell, and we thought that
we had a unique perspective on it when we started
(01:54):
working on it. And what we thought was, Okay, we're
going to write a story about humanity technology And what
we ended up writing in the end was a story
about a father and son working out their differences. And
that's what really struck me. You know, everybody thinks Frankenstein
maybe is just this story about you know, technology and
(02:18):
monsters and murder and all of these things, and really
what we found it to be was a story about
humanity and that no matter what technology comes into play,
it never changes our humanity. We are you know, always
going to be human and we're always going to interface
(02:40):
as humans, you know, no matter what you know you
put in our hands or or what we come across.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
That's pretty heavy and I like the dynamics, especially having
two boys myself. Is this something you're gonna play live?
Could there be a possible musical production in the future.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Absolutely, Look again, this is step one again. We're releasing
the concept album Playing with Fire as an appetizer because
we want to make this musical, you know, and making
musicals takes many years, right, Yeah, But I come from music,
and we thought, hey, you know, why don't we control
what we can control and at least get the word
out the way we know how as music people. And
(03:17):
so the goal next what we would like to do,
and I think we're going to do it within the
next six months, is a concert. We want to do
a concert version of the theatrical piece, and then from
there take it into workshops and into out of towns
and then ultimately to one of the stages either in
the West End or you know, if anything is out
(03:38):
there that is willing to let us put it on Broadway,
it would be fantastic. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Man, well, good luck with that's good.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, thank you, you got it.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I know you co wrote one of Liam Payne's last songs,
tear Drops. Yeah, what was your experience working with them?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You know, anytime that I was in the room with
with him, he was fantastic, you know. And uh, again
I don't want to speak too much on it, just
because you know, I want to be respectful to his
loved ones and his family. But uh, we had a
mutual friend is a songwriter named Jamie, and he put
(04:17):
us in the room together because look, we both came
from this boy band background and and things like that,
and we had some some fun laughs about you know,
the similarities and the differences in the experience. But I
have to say that every experience that I had with
him in the room was absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, I've spent uh I got to spend a lot
of time with him too, and he was a really
really nice guy. Yeah. You mentioned a boy band, and
it reminds me. I really enjoyed the documentary. I found
it fascinating about the one with Ron Pearlman Dirty Pop.
There's been so many now, in particular, I don't I
don't know if.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I've seen that one. I've seen a couple of that
kind of keep resurfacing every couple of years. Another one
kind of that one was well done.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
And what I found so fascinating about it is you
had this guy who clearly was talented as far as
being able to have an eye and recognizing talent, assembling
them the music and what have you, but he couldn't
get out of his own way. Even after he made
legitimate money, he continued to be shady, which.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Is so weird.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You figure, once you start making legitimate money, why are
you still gonna go be shady so much?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It was I was like I was blowed away. It
really is wild, you know, and you were.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I'm sorry to interrupt, but you kind of like, at least
in the dock, it alluded to like you kind of
saw that and you kind of kind of sense that
this fool shady all right from the dead.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
You know. And it's like, you know, you don't realize
it at first, obviously, because when you are and I
don't want to, you know, yeah, when you're conning someone,
they're showing you something and they're good at it. Look,
we weren't the only people that that he manipulated. You know,
it's like he's he manipulated banks, and he manipulate you know.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
What I mean. Well, no, that's what I'm saying. Like,
but once you started making real money with you guys backstreet,
this and that, he continued with his airline and I'm like,
why is he doing that?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Wild? Good question?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, it was so wild to me. I was so
wild to be it was really good as I did.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Piece you don't. It's something I'll never understand. Look, even
when we were in the trenches and we thought, look,
this is this, our careers could end in this moment
right now, but we just felt like we had to
be truthful to ourselves. When we were in court with him,
It's like we actually made offers that were reasonable offers
(06:41):
to continue to work together, you know, if he would
have accepted them, and he just didn't, just didn't feel
like he had to. It's so it's so sorry, you know,
in those moments to bully us, and it was just
kind of like what am I doing this for? I mean,
I literally can't eat, you know. It's like he couldn't
give those blimps.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, dude, the blimps, the faker the blimps crashed at
once and no one thought that was suspicious.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
The whole thing I was. It was really good.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I like the document just as as an entertainment phase.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
It was really good.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And with all that said, he's still responsible for a
very important part of music history for a certain time.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So you can't deny that, you know, wild Man, you
know what it's like, every band is going to come
across something, right, because we hear stories about almost every
major artist, you know, we would hear stories about bad
deals with managers in the Rolling Stones and then you
know all these Elvis. Sure, somewhere along the way everyone's
butted head with someone. But yeah, you're you're absolutely right.
(07:43):
Like he he was kind of at the epicenter of
a new pop movement.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
He really was. Yeah, I know, it's fascinating. Yeah, no,
I'm glad to talk to you about that, your solo
About your solo album, Schizophrenic twenty years old. Man, I
can't believe that twenty years old. As you look back,
do you remember about, uh that time working with Dallas Austin.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Uh, Well, first of all, yeah, working with Dallas was
it was was one of the most fun and creative
experiences I've ever had. I can't say enough about him
in terms of UH being a creative. You know, he
really brings out the best and the people that he
works with. And I was excited because we'd cross paths
because even in the in Sync days, UH, we got
(08:26):
Lisa left Eid to to to drop a rap on
Space Cowboy, which was one of the songs that I
wrote for in Sync, And so that was kind of
the first time we crossed paths. And then later he
was working on Drumline and UH, and we were starting
to work on something for me, and he's just like,
you know, I have space for one more song on
(08:48):
on the drum Line soundtrack. Would you be down to
just crank went out tonight? And I was like absolutely,
It's just bus went out and the song came out
great and ended up being one of my favorites on
the on my entire record and and I thought was
good for the movie to get the time and UH
and so yeah, what a great dude. And Uh. The
fun part about making the album Schizophrenic was I felt
(09:09):
like I got to experiment more. You know, I didn't
approach it as maybe a traditional pop record. I tried
to stretch myself artistically and I really enjoyed that process.
Good for you. Uh you keep in touch with the
guys all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Oh, that's good to hear. I'd like to hear.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Is there like a you know, it's like everybody's got
a group chat now, you know what. No, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That's cool that you know. I haven't heard anything negative
about any strife, so that's cool.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
People always like to hear that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Well. Ay, brother, congratulations on everything. And listen, you can
check out Playing with Fire on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get new music.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
JC.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Thanks for hanging out my dude, ab DC. That's what
I'm saying that, Hey, enough ship has gone by. Enough
time has gone by. We should revisit that ships.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
All the time. Everybody that asks me, I just want
to pay you a compliment real quick, Everybody that ask
me what it's like working with you, because we were
always in our own worlds, like again, doing our jobs.
But I tell everyone, you are the best at what
you do. You are the kindest, you know again but
most professional and literally the best at what you do. Man.
(10:16):
Now I'm looking.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I appreciate it, Okay, I appreciate the kind words, bro.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I appreciate it. Thank you, so much man I hope
to see in person.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yes sir, all right, take care once you blow up
with your musical come back, Yes sir. With Mario Lopez
Host
Mario Lopez
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