From boy band to girl power! JC Chasez's mega girl group, Girl Radical, released its first music video, a cover of No Doubt's 1995 hit "Just a Girl," late last week -- and the results are larger than life.
In a recent interview with Billboard magazine, Chasez explained that he and a pal, producer/songwriter Jimmy Harry, had always wanted to collaborate on a project together, and after being introduced to Japanese girl group AKB48 a while back, they knew they had found their concept.
PHOTOS: Hottest teen idols ever!
"We saw one of their music videos and I was blown away," he told the magazine. "It was like this army on stage performing, and I've always been attracted to the spectacle. The next day we went back into the studio to start writing another song. I was like, 'We should build our own pop group, but in our own way,' and Jimmy agreed."
At present, Chasez explains that Girl Radical has 11 members, though he and Harry may end up increasing the count to as many as 21. AKB48 currently has anywhere between 48 and 60 members at any given time.
"Jimmy and I have our hands full, to say the least, being out-numbered 11 to two," Chasez tells Us of the experience. "Learning to be a 20-year-old woman has been an interesting exercise!"
It's a challenge that Chasez is excited to embark on, however.
PHOTOS: Biggest boy bands of all time
"If there's one thing that I love as an entertainer, it's a spectacle. We all have looked up to either Michael Jackson or Madonna or Janet Jackson or any of those things," he said. "When I was in 'N Sync, I would watch any concert idea ever and really drink it all in. For me, the bigger the better -- that's essentially why I am working in a group that is bigger. I would love to have a stage show that is bigger. If you're going to go out, you might as well go big."
Members of the group come from a variety of backgrounds, varying from former beauty pageant contestants to professionally trained dancers to former American Idol finalists.
PHOTOS: Best girl groups of all time
"It's kind of like playing checkers -- we'll plug this one in here, we'll plug this one in here, and so on," the 37-year-old singer said of finding a balance among all the performers. "Every one of them will step forward at one time or another when it's their time."
"Coming from my pop background, I'm very much a perfectionist, so I want to make sure that it's right because you never get a second chance to make a first impression," he continued of the mega girl group's debut. "Then we'll go from there. It's about developing [the music] instead of just slapping a sticker on it and pushing it out there. I don't want a hard sell."
