TEEN BEAT INTERVIEW

Questions in red and answers in blue.

Teen Beat: Did you do anything special to prepare for the show at MGM Studios?

Joey: Everything.

TB: What did you do?

Justin: I drink milk.

JC: Actually, we did this show with our band. So we were rehearsing for a week with the live band.

TB: And this was the first show with a live band?.

JC: On TV, yes.

Joey: In America.

TB: How is that different?

JC: Everything about it is different. It's not just the same old thing--you can change the format of the song, we have breaks in the songs, more crowd oriented stuff.

TB: How did you guys get discovered?

JC: After doing our demo package, at Pleasure Island (in Disney World) we videotaped the whole thing and what we did was we created a package. We sang some stuff in the studio, put it on a CD and sent it out to all these different record companies. When it came across the desk of our manager he was interested in it. So Johnny Wright (their manager) picked us up, and then he shopped for our record deal.

TB: That all happened in '95 and you guys were stars?

Lance: Within one year, we made the demo in '95. We worked all through the beginning of '96, we just rehearsed everyday, and then in the summer of '96 we really started getting some attention.

TB: Do you guys recognize the fact that you're stars or ahs it still not hit you yet?

Joey: It still hasn't hit us yet. We're still normal guys. It's always fun being recognized and everything which is wonderful, but we're normal guys, we keep each other in check, our feet are always on the ground and what you see is what you get.

TB: How did you all come to Orlando? Did you come to Orlando because of the opportunities here?

Joey: Yeah, my neighborhood was getting a little bit bad, and my family wanted to move to Florida--it's sunny all the time an nice. The houses were a little bit cheaper, and there was more space. We moved about six, seven years ago.

TB: What about the rest of you?

Lance: I came down for the group. When they called me to join the group I immediately moved down here. So I've been here for 2 years.

Chris: I moved down here to go to college

TB: Is it neat, the recognition that you're getting?

Joey: Oh yeah, I mean a lot more people know you. Instead of saying you were this, on this stage, now you are Joey. You are Lance. It's you up there.

Lance: I'm just 'N Sync. Last night some guy passed by and said "Hey 'N Sync!" Uh, my name's Lance (He laughs)

JC: The difference being, when we performed before, we were performing for somebody else. Now when we perform we're doing it for ourselves. We're not working for somebody else.

TB: Who came up with the name?

Justin: Actually my mom came up with the name. She came up with it, we shot it around and we thought it was a good name to represent us, because initially that was the idea--we wanted a name that would describe our personalities, our singing and our dancing all in one. And we felt like' N Sync was the perfect name. Shortly after we copyrighted it, we recognized that all the last letters of our names spelled 'N Sync.

Joey: When we first met Lance, we called him Lansten all the time as a nickname. So it worked--Justin for the N, Chris for the S, Joey for the Y, Lansten for the N and JC for the C.

Justin: We just thought that it was fun. We didn't plan for that to end up as a promotional gimmick. I want everyone to know that. We just thought it was a funny fact for ourselves.

TB: Has the tour schedule been grueling?

Joey: We've actually just had a little bit of a break, and now we're starting to get back into things with all the promotion. We've started doing some stuff in Canada. We're gone platinum over there.

TB: What's your favorite kind of music?

Chris: I think we all listen to pop and R&B, but it ranges from country, to techno, to house, to R&B, to hip hop. Pretty much, if you've got it, we listen to it.

TB: Are there any musicians that you'd like to work with?

Justin: We did a song with Genuwine.

TB: What's it called?

JC: "Don’t take you Love Away." It's really a project, we don't know if it's going to be on an album.

Lance: I'd like to do a ballad with Celine Dion!

Justin: Or LeAnn Rimes would be cool!

TB: Are you really into country music?

Justin: (everybody points to Lance.) Lance knows the most about country music. I haven't listened to it in a long time. I've been listening to Top 40 because that's where we're at, and I've been studying Billboards. So, I see the charts and everything, but I don't get a chance to listen to a lot of it. I used to listen to a lot of it. I think the ones that we like the most are the ones that crossover into pop, like Leann Rimes, Shania Twain.

TB: Is there one individual artist that you would like to emulate?