Implausible as it may sound, once upon a time Justin Timberlake was merely a curly-mopped pop puppet. To his left in the N’Sync line-up, it was JC Chasez who was being groomed for superstardom, the one most likely to succeed and break a zillion teenage hearts. Though Plan A didn’t materialise, Chasez is wholly supportive of his erstwhile bandmate’s rise and rise to stardom.

“He did exactly what he wanted to do, I couldn’t be more proud of him,” he muses. “He set out a goal for himself and he achieved it, and it’s a great thing for anyone to do so I feel great for him.”
As it goes, Chasez is teetering on the verge of an equally glittering career. Fellow N’Syncers may be frenetically launching themselves into the stratosphere (literally so, in Lance Bass’ case), but JC is intent on keeping his set-up earthy and real.
“It’s cool to jump in and out of various genres,” he notes of the stylistic diversity of his forthcoming album, Schizophrenic. “It wasn’t a conscious decision. I was being creative, trying to experiment, having fun with it. I didn’t want to box myself in with one sound, I went with whatever I was feeling at the time. I didn’t overanalyse or try to create one sound.”
So would he be upset if his solo album didn’t do as well as, say, an N’Sync one?
“We all want to be successful, and I’m in the fortunate position where I’ve already had success. The reason I did this album was because I just wanted to grow as a human and artist. If the album isn’t a success, I’m lucky anyway, ’cos I got to make the album I always wanted to make. If people think it’s cool, that’s great, but at the end of the day, the record was for me to grow for myself – it was a bit selfish, but I needed to do it.”
Chasez maintains that, in contrast to the often-contrived nature of boyband-hood, the album came right off the cuff. “That’s how I feel about music,” he insists, “stuff that’s overly planned or programmed is cool, but a bit stiff. When you’re inspired you’ll put more energy into it, when you’re not required to do it.”.
Cynics may contend that it was a contrived move on Chasez’ part to work with the uber-cool Basement Jaxx – in a bid to raise his own real estate, perhaps – but as it goes, his collaboration with the duo was born of happenstance.
“I was working with other people in the UK, I had a few days off, and I was bored,” he explains. “A friend of mine knew them and told me I could drop by their studio and ask them where I should be hanging out to have some fun. They were working on their last song, so they played it to me. They were like, ‘why don’t you hop in the booth, here are some of the ideas we have, you do your thing and we’ll piece together the ideas.’ We were just hanging out, we liked what the other was doing, the stars lined up and…I guess everything happens for a reason’.
Chasez is set to blaze a trail throughout Europe with Britney Spears, fellow alumnus of the now-infamous Mickey Mouse Club.
“They were good times,” he laughs. “It was a bunch of teenagers finding out what their true love in life was. First you do it ’cos you’re a kid and it’s fun, then you realise you’re so submerged in it it’s what you were born to do. Getting to express yourself as a kid is amazing.”
Counting both Justin and Britney as friends, Chasez was closer than most to the debacle that ensued when pop’s golden couple called it a day. Does he ever think they will reunite?
“It’s like this – they’re both amazing people, they’ve moved on, but they’re both friends,” he says. “They’re not at war. When people go their separate ways, they end up getting hurt, but time is a great healer, and they had a huge impact on each other and they should be friends. Will they ever get back together? I think everyone is happy where they are right now. I wish them well, anyway.”

JC Chasez’ Schizophrenic is released by Jive on April 16