You’ve cat you be kitten me right meow! In this exclusive interview, NSYNC’S JC Chasez discusses his brand new Meow Mix commercial with The Knockturnal‘s Kinsey Schofield. This boy band-inspired campaign was executed by Publicis’ PS One and creatively led by BBH US.

Kinsey Schofield: JC, 90s boybands are culturally iconic now. Even celebrated in a Meow Mix commercial! What was your first reaction to the Tabby 5 concept?

JC Chasez: I loved it. You know, I’ve been offered… obviously, boy bands have been around forever and people are trying to find ways to market with boy bands and things like that… but it just never interested me. I don’t hop on a lot of things unless it’s something that I find genuinely interesting. This concept came about, it piqued my interest because it was different, you know what I mean? It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, you’re in a boy band.’ It’s like, ‘No, we’re gonna have dancing cats!’ *laugh* I was like, ‘Okay, where do I fit in?’ And they were like, ‘Actually, let us play the song.’ And I was like, ‘Oh!’ *excited*

They took the Meow Mix song and straight up remixed it, 90s style, like 2K, and that’s when I was all in! I was like, ‘Okay, it has the sound!’ We have straight-up dancing cats! I’m all in. So, the Tabby 5 and Tyler Snuggles became my guy. I loved it. Again, to do something that’s ordinary is fine, but to do something a little left of center, that’s why I was more interested in this than the other offers that have obviously come across before.

KS: I read that you did a lot of your work with Meow Mix in the UK. What was the process like?

JC: Well, look, the United Kingdom has some great filming facilities. But it was just a matter of, that’s where they had a production team and it was a European director. I go over there all the time, by the way, to work with different people. They said it’d be best if we just did it over here because we have a team over here, the director’s over here, you know, instead of piling the entire production and bringing it stateside, it’s easier to just bring talent in, you know, it’s one or two people.

KS: Have you seen the commercial yet? Did it put a smile on your face?

JC: Yeah! Well, when we were working on set, I had an idea of what it is, but you don’t know what it’s gonna look like until you see it, right? They were sending it to me in stages. They sent me the rough, and so you would still see the sticks on the cat paws and stuff like that. But that’s the charm of it, right? But yeah, the commercial’s cute. Again, what I like about it is the song! The song itself. Meow Meow, it’s iconic, right? So we’re so glad we get that but then we got the 90s remix on it, and they went all the way, the high note, you know, which… I’ve done in my day… which was really cute. And to see it all put together, yeah, it’s a cute commercial. It’s a bit of fun. It’s a bit of silliness, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

It’s just having fun. You know? We have fun with our, our animals, our pets, our pet friends. We have fun with them. And they took that point of view and said, ‘Let’s have fun with people who love their animals, who love their pets, and let’s just make a fun commercial.’

KS: I love it. Yeah, I watched it several times. It’s like a Super Bowl commercial.

JC: Oh, man, you had the wind machine going! *laugh* I was giving hands and angles. And the director was really sweet, by the way, everybody was really sweet. Everybody that I worked with on this project was lovely. I have to say, the people they brought around this campaign – just a wonderful group of people. The Meox Mix people did it the absolute right way.

KS: Some of these boyband documentaries boil the success of the bands down to types… bad boy… baby face… if it was as simple as this mythical formula… wouldn’t we have an NSYNC type today and always?

JC: I don’t know if the type is as important as… for me… talent first, right? Once you have the talent, you identify the personality. That’s going to shine naturally. But you have to have something to lean on first and that’s why some will make more noise than others. The ones that make more noise obviously have a bit more talent. I would say talent first and then the stories tell themselves. But you have to have something there to work with in the first place.

KS: Do you have a favorite NSYNC moment? Was it getting the call that you were opening up for Janet Jackson? Was it the Super Bowl halftime show? Was it something we didn’t see… like being recognized or a tour overseas?

JC: It’s not one moment, right? There were a lot of great moments that I love and appreciate. The thing that resonates with me years later… it’s a feeling. It’s a feeling that you would get, that win, you know, when you felt like you did something. That was a great feeling. I don’t think it was any one moment. It’s hard to describe. It’s just a feeling. When you feel like you did something well. It could be in the studio when you feel like, ‘Oh, we’ve got a song here!’ Or when it’s a performance and you go, ‘Oh, we got ’em!’ You know, when you’re on stage and you realize that you have them? In the early shows, for us, it was always a proving ground. When we were unknowns, ‘Who are these people? What are they? What are they doing here? Who’s next?’ And then by the second or third song… they didn’t know they liked you until they saw you, and then you kind of, you pulled them in. I think the feeling of winning the audience is the greatest feeling.

KS: Was there ever really beef between the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC or were we all just fighting on the playground over an urban legend?

JC: Every individual is different. I can’t generalize because everybody will have a different point of view. I never had any animosity toward anyone. But, you know, if another band came out with a good song, I wanted to come out with a good song. If they had a good performance, I wanted to have a great performance. I’m not saying I want it to be better than anybody, but it would definitely motivate me if I saw somebody do something well. I was like, ‘Oh, I gotta dig deep.’ I think that’s a great and healthy thing.

KS: You’ve always seemed to have such a grateful heart about your success. Do you wish you would have done anything differently?

JC: I’ve been on television like basically since I was like 12 or 13, and I’m, you know, I’m getting up there now. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t change a thing. My life is my life. I wouldn’t swap it for anybody. Like, of course, there are hard lessons in there and you don’t wanna go through those painful experiences, but honestly, without those painful experiences, I wouldn’t come out the way I did.

KS: What is the wildest or funniest meme you’ve ever seen about NSYNC or yourself?

JC: The band? I don’t know. Like, look, to be honest with you, my friends and the people that I run around with… they show me [stuff.] I don’t actually pay too much attention. So, it usually has to be shown to me by someone else… and they’ll go, ‘Have you seen this? Have you seen this?’ And I’ll usually be clueless about something. In general, every now and then, there’s something that pops up. But nothing comes to mind.

KS: I guess if you’re not active on social media… it’s not like when it becomes the middle of April… you just know that you’re about to be hit with…

JC: You’re gonna be MAY’d. *laughs*

KS: Exactly. What are you currently singing at the top of your lungs in the car or living room with your pets? What are you listening to?

JC: I mean, with my pets, I would be blasting the Meow Mix song. Real talk: Tabby 5. In the car, it’s gonna sound really lame, I’m constantly flipping channels. I mean, I flip between, maybe 10 or 15 different channels. But lately, I’ve been on a big classical kick… a ton of Beethoven right now.

KS: You autographed my Mickey Mouse Club cd years ago! Are you excited to see Ryan Gosling as Ken?

JC: This is actually… so this is fun! When you’re in the business long enough… you can see things come full circle, right? So obviously, you know, in my youth I worked with Ryan on The Mouse Club, right? Sweet, sweetest guy. And later, before he broke as a movie star, he was playing clubs in LA with his guitar. We would go support him and make sure that there were crowds to see him in the bars where he was singing at. Now he’s made this Barbie film… as it turns out, when NSYNC started in the early days and we were signed to a German label… one of the bands that we befriended… because we would see them at a lot of these radio shows in Europe… was the band Aqua! *laughs*

We became friendly with that band because we were just always running into them at gigs! So now to see that band have a resurgence and see those two worlds collide, has been kind of surreal! I’m kind of like, ‘Oh, wow, this part of my life is mixing with this part of my life!’ They both had nothing to do with each other and now they’re colliding and I’m happy about both! I’m happy that their song is giving them a resurgence and I’m loving the fact that – by the way – I love the fact that Ryan and Margot [Margot Robbie] have taken on these roles. You know? I don’t know if anyone would originally think, ‘What I would like to play?’ These actors saw the challenge and attacked it. And I love that.

That’s been one of the things that I’ve enjoyed… seeing Ryan’s career evolve. He’s made films in every kind of genre, which is lovely. The guy’s made musicals, he’s made dramas, he’s made comedies. When I see these roles that he and Margot have taken on… I think it’s a really interesting project. I just don’t think that anybody could do this. And that he jumped in and did it… I love it. I think it’s great. You gotta challenge yourself. And he’s obviously doing that.

KS: No, you’re absolutely right. It takes courage. And that is exciting to see. All right, JC. I think my time with you is up, but I just wanted to say you’re such a blessing and thank you for making my childhood so happy and sweet!

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JC Chasez knows it’s been a minute since fans have seen him, but that’s about to change thanks to a group of dancing cats.

“A lot of people haven’t seen me in a while,” Chasez, 46, tells PEOPLE over Zoom. “I don’t put my name on a lot of things and that’s for a reason. If I don’t see any sense in it, I don’t really mess with it. But if it looks fun, and if I’m into it, I do it.”

But, luckily for those who have been waiting on the *NSYNC alum’s next move, there are two things in particular that have felt worthwhile enough for him to be part of as of late — a pair of musicals he’s been workshopping over the past few years, and a band. But it’s not the band you might be thinking of. 

Chasez has teamed up with Meow Mix (with a campaign from Publicis’ PS One and creatively led by BBH US) for a new ad promoting wet cat food, where he joins forces with the Tabby 5 — a group of performing cats that take him right back to his boyband roots. 

“A million people can say, ‘Hey, we got this idea and it’s a boy band.’ And you’re like, ‘Yes, I’ve heard that before. Yes, I’ve heard that before.’ But when they go, ‘Listen, we have a boy band made of cats and the cats are going to be dancing.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, let’s do that,’ he laughs.

With a pair of musicals in his back pocket, the exclusive tease of a potential concept album for one of them, and another project he can’t say too much about coming in the near future, Chasez is opening up to PEOPLE about all that’s happening in his world — and the five dancing felines that are helping him sell some cat chow.

Were you impressed by the execution of the ad?

What I loved about it is they were just having fun with it. Again, that’s the whole reason for doing it. You get a million offers that say, ‘Hey, let’s do a boy band. Let’s do a boy band.’ And you’re like, ‘I’ve seen that 1,000 times.’ So the fact that they straight up had this kind of thing going on, I just loved it. I like when people have fun with it and they did, they created a great environment. The idea was fun, and I had a blast doing it.

I know you had a cat growing up. What’s your favorite memory being a cat owner?

Well, I mean, look, I’ve had a couple of cats. My first cat, she was named Muffy, and my family always rescues, so when we first got her, she was a little bit standoffish. And then it’s those moments where you have those breakthroughs where they finally warm up to you, those are always going to be the best memories lying on the couch and watching TV or something, and all of a sudden after being very distant, you have that breakthrough and the cat comes over and it’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re cool now. Oh, this is the love, man.’

This ad spot looks like something you could’ve danced along with yourself. Did it give you any flashbacks — pointing at a camera, mouthing the words? 

Being with the director, he’s basically like, ‘Give me that.’ He just was full on, ‘We just need you to channel that.’ So we did a trillion takes, and it’s very handy. But again, that was the fun part about it. The first time I heard the track, I think that struck me. It was like, we’ve been working on this, and the imagery I love, it’s funny, it’s great. It’s a little bit wacky, and that is fun, but the first time I heard the track, I was like, ‘Wow.’ The sound is the [time] period, right? The sound takes you there instantly, exactly where you are when you hear that production, and that’s what was fun to hear. It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s now a thing. This is a moment in time that everyone can feel.’ Without seeing it, you can hear it. And that I was like, ‘Oh, it’s identifiable.’ And it was fun.

It’s cool to see you part of this ad, because so much of your career recently has been behind-the-scenes, grinding, working on these musicals. You spoke with Lance Bass about it on his Frosted Tips podcast, but could you give a teaser of how things are going in that process?

Well, it’s funny you say that. So I’ve got two of them kind of working at the same time and met with a director last night for one of them who is trying to organize a reading for that. Last Friday we cut the last vocal for the other one, because there’s different characters, and in order to hear everything, I demoed everything. I’m demoing all the characters originally, but you can’t really hear what’s going on when it’s one voice singing every part. So had some other singers come in and got the last vocal put down on Friday for one of the characters.

So now what we’re thinking about doing is we might, I don’t know yet. We’ll see. We were just going to shop it and say, ‘Hey, this is a musical,’ but we might actually put together a concept record we’re talking about. Because once we got the last record, once we got the last vocal done, we were like, ‘I mean, this is kind of a record, so should we?’ Originally it was for shopping purposes, but now we might actually let more people hear. We’ll see.

Do you have a timeline or is it more of a long-term goal?

When I first signed on, I was under the naïveté that it would be like an album cycle. That’s not at all what it is, apparently. It’s a long haul, but that doesn’t bother me at all. Again, that’s just work, which is fine. And the fun part is you just keep creating, because even with these pieces, they’re not done. They’re just at this stage, and the fun part is they’ll get better. But as far as going the distance, I’m going the distance, I’ve gone this far, I’m going all the way.

PEOPLE published the 25th anniversary retrospective on the *NSYNC U.S. debut earlier this year, and the amount of feedback we got about you, and fans who just wanted to hear you sing the alphabet, was incredible. I know right now you’re on this musical grind, but do you ever find yourself working on music just for you still?

Well, right now it’s been all musicals. There are two other things that are going to actually, well, I don’t know if both will come out. I know one’s going to come out. There’s going to be something that comes out in the very near future that has my voice on it which will be fun, but I’m not supposed to talk about that yet.

With all the time that’s passed, could you see a sophomore album in your eventual future? 

I don’t know. It honestly hasn’t crossed my mind. It’s kind of like when you commit to something, you’re so focused on that, you know what I mean? That’s the reality of it. Any job you take on, I commit. I’m all the way in. And so with these musicals, my voice is on them. My voice is going to be one of the characters. So it will live on some level. My voice will be on something, but it won’t be the traditional sounding thing.

Now the new project will have more of a modern sound, but again, it’s just not something I haven’t thought of, to be honest with you. Everybody asks me, ‘What are you working on? We need to hear you sing. We need to do you sing.’ It’s funny. And maybe it’s a horrible thing. People take things for granted. My favorite thing is to create. I could care less about hearing myself. What’s more important to me is putting something out there in the world. Just making something is more important to me.

What have you discovered about yourself in the process of making these musicals?

It’s just a different world. And it’s funny because when I first started, I had a preconceived notion about it, about the way it was supposed to sound, and the things that bothered me about it, and the things that I loved about it. They both softened in the process. It gave me a whole new respect for the kind of people that invest in this, because theater, as it turns out, is a very thankless job on some levels. There are some very smart storytellers and people out there are grinding, and they’re not getting nearly the recognition. I mean, they’re playing eight nights a week or eight shows a week, and they’re benefiting, don’t get me wrong. But in comparison to maybe another gig where they’d be playing eight nights a week, the compensation isn’t the same.

There’s been a lot of love for *NSYNC in hip-hop recently. JID, Post Malone and Jack Harlow all reference you. There’s even the “Sailing” sample on Drake’s “TSU.” Do you have a favorite *NSYNC sample or reference in recent years?

So when I was in my youth and when we were touring and working and things like that, I actually ended up befriending people that were part of the J Dilla camp. He turned out to be a really sweet human being and a relentlessly hard worker. The amount of material that he would just crank out and crank out and crank out, I think he ended up being… It was an honor to just be in that circle for a minute. And we weren’t tight or anything like that, but just by approximation and a little bit of interaction, to be accepted in that circle for a little while was an honor.

What were your conversations with him like?

Honestly, it was always music, right? He would just load up a bajillion tracks on cassettes because he didn’t want anybody getting a clean copy so he could make these, I mean, I guess it’s the reference now, the mixtape. You just go, ‘Hey, these are beat beats, beats, beats, beats. Which one do you like, is there anything that strikes you?’ And that was the way of doing business back then. But he used to do call-outs and he did on all his kind-of mixtape samples. Just because we were talking at the time, working together. He did a call-out for *NSYNC, which was really sweet of him.

Another *NSYNC history question, there’s this community online called the Lost Media Community and they keep track of missing pieces of media. The Bigger Than Life IMAX concert film being one of them. It came out in 2001 and has apparently not been released or seen since. For the niche group of fans that are searching, do you have a copy of this film? 

I don’t know. The issue is everything I have that is from the band or whatever, it’s literally just in boxes. It’s somewhere. I’m sure that was a ton of work, by the way, because everybody thinks you just do the performance and that’s the end of it. And that’s only one aspect of it. Assembling the team to do it, and then preparing for it. And then the aftermath of after you have it in the can, now you have to mix it. But it’s a special kind of mix. It’s not a stereo mix. You’re mixing IMAX. There’s a bajillion speakers in there. So finding the balance between the instruments of five voices and the audience noise and the chaos. Mixing a concert record in IMAX is a lot of work. And I remember sitting in the IMAX room working on the mix and just going, how are we going to make this make sense? And look, everybody does it. It’s just a lot of work. But it’s more work than you think, by the way.

What are you most excited for in the year to come?

When I work on a project like this, or the project come out later, I’m one of those people, I’m stubborn. I only do the things that I want to do. And I know that sounds nuts because everybody’s like, ‘Do it all.’ But I’m just not a do it all kind of person. I only do the things that I think are kind of fun or are interesting to me.

Shoutout to Brenton for being their “official *NSYNC reporter” and always giving us the great content.

Source: https://people.com/jc-chasez-meow-mix-interview-exclusive-7560986?utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&utm_content=new&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=64b68a05add63d0001d4673a

Besides being a beloved pop icon, JC Chasez is also a lifelong animal lover.

That’s why teaming up with Meow Mix was a natural fit for the *NSYNC superstar. In a new advertisement for the cat food brand, Chasez joined a different kind of boy band — full of cats. The group brings back all the 90s nostalgia by transforming Meow Mix’s original 1980 jingle into a perfectly harmonized, quintessential boy band pop hit.

In the commercial clip, the five-piece furry group (a.k.a. The Tabby Five) performs sleek choreography while dressed in coordinating denim and all-white outfits. Chasez comes in halfway through the jingle to belt out some serious “meow, meow, meow” ad libs.

“I was made to host The Tabby Five,” Chasez tells Billboard with a laugh. “I grew up with cats — and dogs to be fair. I’m an animal lover in general. So, I loved the Meow Mix idea. Of course, there’s a lot of 90s Nostalgia going on right now, so putting a 90s spin on the longtime jingle was so fun.”

The star also gushed over how “cute” the final product is. “It’s so good. It’s the sound, right? You automatically go back to that era. They they nailed the sound of the era.”

“Thanks to the brilliant Meow ReMix creative from incredible agency and brand partners in Publicis, BBH, and JMS, BCL Entertainment knew that the talent had to be legendary,” Bettie Levy, talent producer of the campaign and founder and CEO of BCL Entertainment, said of the new collaboration in a press statement.  “Beyond JC being part of one of the most iconic boy bands of all time, his interest in engaging in and contributing to unique campaigns made this partnership so natural and authentic.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to release the latest installment of our Meow ReMix campaign” added Peter Defries, GCD of BBH USA. “When we were tasked with launching the wet-food range, there was only one genre that could really bring it to life – the rain-soaked boybands of the 90s. And when JC Chasez came on board, we knew we were sitting on another hit.”

Our latest campaign honors Meow Mix’s storied heritage while also bringing new cultural relevancy to the brand,” said Gail Hollander, chief marketing officer of JM Smucker’s. 

The Meox Mix boy band-themed spot comes amid a particularly fun renaissance for boy bands in the music industry, with K-pop groups like BTS and SEVENTEEN dominating the pop landscape. “I want more!” Chasez says.

Besides the emergence of new boy bands, classic groups like Chasez’s own *NSYNC have been getting a second life on TikTok. In particular, a page called @justice4jc has been going viral on the platform, spotlighting the 46-year-old’s impressive vocal range and giving him the “credit & recognition he deserves,” per the user’s bio.

When asked if he’s seen the Justice for JC movement, Chasez admits that he hasn’t personally been following it, but has been told about it by some of his friends. In fact, he hasn’t had much time to scroll on TikTok, as he’s been immersing himself in writing musical theater. “There are similarities [between writing a pop hit and musical theater songs] and there are some some very big differences,” he explains. “When you’re writing a single for something, you’re just looking to write about what you’re feeling in the moment. When you’re working on a musical, there’s alwaysa bigger picture and the story is always the driving force. I would say, in pop music, you can live in the moment and not be worried about what you’re singing about in terms of it not working with another piece.”

He continued, “What really attracted me to it lately is that there’s such a human experience in live theater. There’s no hiding. There’s no AI up there. There’s no dirty tricks. It’s people up there giving you everything in that moment. So that’s what’s really been fun about.”

So far, Chasez has written two plays — a coming-of-age-story and one that’s a “bit more serious” and “beautiful” look at humanity. “It’s kind of like the last thing that I haven’t really dabbled in,” he says of theater. “I started in television, then I moved into music and I made a couple of films. Now it feels like this is the last untapped thing. It’s nice to experience all sides of it.”

Lastly, the singer gave his official response to fellow *NSYNC member Chris Kirkpatrick’s claim that he’s the least active in the boy band’s group chat. “I don’t have an official response, because it’s true!” Chasez says. “They go off on tangents, man. It happens in waves, like, the chat will be quiet for a couple of weeks and then somebody chimes in with something and then everyone’s riffing on that. I get my piece in there, but they get they get chatty.”

Source: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/jc-chasez-meow-mix-interview-nsync-musical-theater-1235373359/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social