But because “It’s Gonna Be Me” has become a meme for the month of May, it was interesting when we cut that record. But then people look back at you and say, “Y’all were nuts!” I didn’t even think of it that way. When you’re in it, you don’t think it’s crazy at the time. So as we were recording songs, we’d think “It would be cool if we did this and the crowd reacted this way” or “Everyone can sing this part.” We were conscious of our audience.Ĭan you recall any particular fun stories while you all were recording? And we were very passionate about our shows. We knew that it had to be theatrical in a way, because that’s the most fun to see. I think the main thing when we were working on songs was we wanted it to translate live - we always saw the song live in our mind. It happens naturally.ĭid you guys draw from any specific inspirations? We were just in the environment to allow those things to flourish. For the No Strings Attached record, we came back home and essentially called upon those influences inside of ourselves that were always there. We were in the middle of it, so we took on those influences. You get excited about things that people around you are excited about, so we were actually opening our minds up to something new at that point. And you’re a product of your environment. I think what happened - and this could be just me taking a shot in the dark - we moved to Europe to record our first album. We were raised in the States, and at the time, music had more urban influences - even before our first record came out. No Strings Attached is a lot more R&B-inspired compared to *NSYNC. The 100 Greatest Songs of 2000: Staff Picks