RADIO TRANSCRIPTS Mix 94.7
Austin, Texas
14 March 2008HEATHER: The new sound of Mix 94.7. It’s Heather Avara and we’re doing the Westbank by Westlake live music fest, woo! I want to welcome everyone, want to thank Rudy’s Country Store & Barbeque for supplying the food, we have brew, and we have some awesome talent here, cuties too…
TAYLOR: Where are they?
HEATHER: That’s you!
ISAAC: Is that us?
HEATHER: We’ve got the HANSONS! Isaac…
ISAAC: Yes.
HEATHER: Taylor…
TAYLOR: Hello.
HEATHER: And Zac.
ZAC: I’m here.
HEATHER: So how are you guys doing?
TAYLOR: We’re doing good. Thanks for having us. We didn’t hear about the barbeque though.
HEATHER: The barbeque is back there, you want us to bring you some?
TAYLOR: We just showed up here, no one offered us barbeque.
HEATHER: You can chow on a rib while you’re singing.
TAYLOR: Just kidding. No, we’re happy to be here. This is a great little crowd here.
HEATHER: Yes, it’s the South x Southwest fest. From what I heard, you guys kind of got your start here didn’t you?
ISAAC: We did. In a way.
TAYLOR: We were starting and we bumped into South x Southwest along the way.
ISAAC: Exactly. It kind of goes back to when I was about 13 or 14 years old and Zac was probably about 8 and we were—we came down here to try to meet some people.
TAYLOR: 14 years ago.
ISAAC: Yeah, 14 years ago. We were a local Tulsa band. You have your various mailing lists locally and do your local gigs and you sell your records and all that stuff but we had had ambitions of a future in the music business, so we came down here and basically stood on 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Street and asked people--
ZAC: You forgot 2nd Street.
ISAAC: Oh yeah, 2nd Street too, and also the baseball diamond and asked people if they would listen to us sing.
TAYLOR: Most of them looked at us like we were freaks.
ISAAC: …which we were, but anyway, a few of them did listen and one of those happened to be a guy named Chris Sabec, who ended up being our manager but at the time was a young music attorney and he really liked what we were doing and said, “Do you guys have a manager?” And we’re like, “No.”
TAYLOR: But anyway, South x Southwest was definitely… and also we saw it the other day, we were just walking around the streets and people were on the streets trying to get people to listen.
ISAAC: My favorite quote of Christopher’s is, “Where are your parents?” We’re like, “We don’t know… they’re somewhere around here. We’ll find them.”
TAYLOR: That was back in the day.
HEATHER: Ooh, there you go. How did you guys decide you were going to get into music though, you started so young. Did it just happen right when you came out of the womb?
ISAAC: Well…. yeah.
HEATHER: Yeah? Pretty much?
TAYLOR: We just… it was unavoidable. It was just in the blood and then you know along the way you have to—there’s a lot of people that have talent but a lot of people don’t choose to go after it. We couldn’t just not do it so we decided we had to stick with it and now 15 years later we’re still doing this.
ISAAC: I think it was really good auditory memory. Able to listen to songs and memorize them really quickly and then dissect them and turn them into writing songs of your own and also, I think being brothers it definitely helped because it would have been really difficult to get a bunch of 10 year olds together and practice as a band.
HEATHER: Ya think? Yeah?
ISAAC: We probably wouldn’t have started as young as we did were it not for being brothers.
TAYLOR: It’s cool though, South x Southwest. It’s fun to come back and playing the festival a couple times. We played last night and we’re playing La Zona Rosa tomorrow night, it kind of comes full circle. It’s a great opportunity for a lot of musicians just like us back in the day trying to just get in front of people.
HEATHER: So, the first song you guys are going to play for us… what song are you going to play first?
ISAAC: A song called “Great Divide” is actually the first song on our album, our new album The Walk.
HEATHER: And what was the inspiration behind the song? A little background before you play it.
TAYLOR: This song is really interesting. We spent a little time in Africa on this album and this song is actually been sort of a theme song for encouraging our fans looking at simple things they can do and specifically looking at the issues with AIDS and extreme poverty on the continent of Africa and talking to our fans about simple things they can do to make a difference. This song is actually a charitable single you can buy on iTunes. All of the money goes directly to a hospital in South Africa. It talks about finding hope in the worst situations but it also goes back to our roots I think because musically it is I think very based on a groove, based on our inspiration of early R&B and sort of…
ISAAC: …gospel music.
TAYLOR: …gospel music, so… it’s got a little bit of that.
HEATHER: Alright! You guys ready for Hanson? The Westbank by Westlake live Music Fest on Mix 94.7!
”GREAT DIVIDE”
HEATHER: The new sound of Mix 94.7. Westbank by Westlake live music fest. Hanson! Give it up again, woooooo!
TAYLOR: Thank you.
HEATHER: So “The Great Divide” from the album The Walk, that’s actually your fourth album, right?
ISAAC: It is the fourth album.
HEATHER: And it’s on your record label, right?
ZAC: Our own record label.
HEATHER: 3CG, what does that stand for?
ZAC: 3CG stands for “3 Car Garage,” which—the idea behind that is that we started playing in a garage, that’s what we started doing.
TAYLOR: We should have named it, “Three Guys On A Street Corner.”
ISAAC: That was a really long acronym.
ZAC: You know, just all music should stand up at that kind of a level. It shouldn’t need the production value or the stage performance or the hairdo or the outfit. It should be able to come across in a really compelling way in a garage with a boom box or with a little amplifier or whatever music you do—whether it’s something more R&B influenced or it’s something more rock or whatever it is.
TAYLOR: We decided to start the record company because we really felt—the business has really been changing over the last few years and I think we have some of the greatest fans in the world and we felt like we should depend on them and sort of like we know enough, we’ve had enough pitfalls and successes along the way to figure out where we need to focus and being a record company these days I think is a lot different than it was a few years ago and a lot of the big record companies don’t have the same kind of focus they used to and independent music is thriving and you’ve actually seen it at SXSW. There’s a huge influx of new labels that are succeeding up against some of the biggest companies in the world and I think that’s just because there’s more access through technology and the old ways aren’t working as well. So, we like taking risk. So, at least it’s our risk.
HEATHER: And you also have wonderful risks like children? I hear you all have children? Yeah?
ZAC: Children, the greatest risk of all.
HEATHER: Zac, you’re expecting your first one soon?
ZAC: I’m expecting my first one.
TAYLOR: There should be a law saying that certain people aren’t allowed to have children and for some reason--
ZAC: …they let us have children. No, I’m expecting my first one soon.
HEATHER: Any names?
HEATHER: Uh, yes, there are names. I will keep them to myself. Good names, very good names, strong, powerful names.
TAYLOR: It’s like we stepped onto an episode of The View.
HEATHER: I know you did, I know.
ZAC: No, but it’s so exciting. There’s no cooler thing you could do. Obviously music is pretty cool but the idea of being a dad and starting a family, it’s one of the hardest but coolest things, so I’m excited for the challenge.
HEATHER: And Isaac, you’re expecting #2?
ISAAC: Yeah, my wife is expecting our…
TAYLOR: He looks really good.
ZAC: Ike’s expecting? Wow, your belly… I’ve been wondering.
ISAAC: Yeah, I’ve been able to stay pretty trim.
HEATHER: You’re feeling healthy, yes?
TAYLOR: Taking your vitamins.
ISAAC: Eating lots of salad.
HEATHER: That’s good.
ISAAC: Um, anyway. Yeah, we’re expecting our second baby and so we’re excited about that too. It’s not something to be taken lightly, but it’s something to be taken with incredible poise and excitement and all of the above and so we’re really looking forward to numero dos.
HEATHER: And Taylor, you have 3, so what is your kind of pointers do you give them? What is the #1 pointer you have?
TAYLOR: #1 pointer is just to try not to screw them up. They come out pretty okay and as long as you don’t screw it up they’ll be fine.
HEATHER: It looks like they’ve got some good examples. They’ve got some awesome examples.
TAYLOR: Thanks. Well, I don’t know if that’s true or not but we’ll hope it is.
HEATHER: I think so. You guys are tight, you’re brothers, you’ve got a tight bond. That’s really important for family.
TAYLOR: Thank you.
HEATHER: So, what is our next song we’re going to hear?
TAYLOR: You were talking about starting the record company and things. This is a tune we’ve played a lot acoustically, it’s a song off our last album; in fact, the opening song off our previous record Underneath. It’s called “Strong Enough To Break” and…
ISAAC: …it really kind of chronicles the choice to go independent and depicts metaphorically a lot of emotions going on behind deciding to form the record company.
HEATHER: What were you doing when you were writing that song? Did you all take part in writing it, or…?
TAYLOR: It was just during a period when we were—we actually mad a documentary that was of the same title, it was called Strong Enough To Break and it showed the accidental process of originally starting out making a film about the story of an album and ultimately the story became how the music business is turned upside down and lost its way and we ended up leaving and starting our own record company. This song was sort of written in the middle of the process and just talks—metaphorically talks about the process of not knowing which way is up and people sort of running from responsibility and ultimately the challenge of saying, “Well, in the end you have to look yourself in the mirror” and somebody’s got to step out there and make it happen.
ISAAC: Feeling like you’re playing like a broken record in a deaf man’s charade.
ZAC: Oh, wow. He just quoted lyrics from the song!
HEATHER: With that, everyone we’ve got Hanson!
TAYLOR: This is getting—if we’re actually quoting ourselves before a song, this is bad. Let’s do it. This is a song called “Strong Enough To Break.”
”STRONG ENOUGH TO BREAK”
HEATHER: Alright! The new sound of Mix 94.7. the Westbank by Westlake live music fest. Hanson! Isaac, Zac, Taylor, you guys are awesome. That song is just one of those songs you want to blare up in my car, windows down, and sing off-key cos that’s how I sing and let everybody hear it. That is so awesome.
TAYLOR: You should have joined in on that one.
HEATHER: Ooh no, you wouldn’t have wanted that.
ZAC: Well, Ike was singing off-key anyway, so…
HEATHER: Aw, no, you guys sounded great. It’s just natural, everything, natural born.
ISAAC: It’s like 15, 16 years of practice.
HEATHER: Since you were big in 97 with Middle of Nowhere, the album, you would be celebrating your 11th anniversary this year, is that right?
ISAAC: 11th anniversary, almost 11.
TAYLOR: Yes, since we sort of were introduced to the world I guess you could say.
HEATHER: And it looks like you’ve got some reality show that’s in the works soon, yeah? Something to look forward to there too?
TAYLOR: Maybe. We were talking about the documentary and showing the process of what we do and it’s turned into—after the documentary we did a podcast all about the record process and that has parled into other things and so we’ll see. We feel like it’s good for people to see what goes into the music and the process.
ISAAC: Well, and if people are interested in what we’re doing you can check out—if you look up “Taking The Walk” or Hanson on iTunes you can find our podcasts and download video episodes for free.
TAYLOR: And find way too much about the process of making this last album.
HEATHER: You have some great stuff there.
ISAAC: But the documentary film Strong Enough TO Break is also on there and just gives people really good insight into who we are as a band and what the last few years have been like and you get to hear a heck of a lot of music in the process too.
HEATHER: You know what guys? We have to take a break but can you stick around for another song?
ISAAC: Sure.
HEATHER: We may have a surprise for you too.
TAYLOR: U2’s here? That’s cool!
ZAC: That’s awesome!
ISAAC: Sweet!
ZAC: I love those guys! Larry Mullen!
HEATHER: Bono! Hey!
HEATHER: The new sound of Mix 94.7, Westlake by Westbank live music fest, woo! /commercial/ I am Heather Avara and we are here with three very talented gentlemen. We’ve got the Hansons here! Give it up for the Hansons! Isaac, Zac, Taylor. Before the break talked about the, I guess official 11th anniversary in May. You guys are going to be on the road then though right?
ISAAC: We will be on the road in May. I am sure we will do some 11th year anniversary of some sort. We actually--
HEATHER: Yeah, what are you going to do for your 11th?
TAYLOR: Something about the “11th” just doesn’t do it.
ISAAC: 11th, it doesn’t quite have the same ring. But the 10th anniversary we actually did re-record Middle of Nowhere acoustically and did a CD/DVD thing that’s up at the website, hanson.net, and that was really fun thing that we did.
ZAC: It was kind of crazy to go back and play some of those songs and realize how similar they are to what we still do. Obviously there are some differences and as a band I think our style has changed a little bit, but to play those songs and see that this still works for us now, we can still sit down and play those songs.
TAYLOR: Melodically.
ISAAC: We were actually joking if we put one of those songs—if people didn’t know and we put one of those songs on one of our new records people would be like, “Oh Hanson is so mature and deep!” And it’s like, “Yeah, that song is 11 years old.”
HEATHER: Aww. Well, you have a great maturity about you guys, see. Alright, so? Have we decided what song we’re going to play? I know I made a little suggestion.
ISAAC: Well, you were making a little suggestion over the break.
HEATHER: This is going to be in a movie too? In a Brazilian movie or something? I know, I did a little looking! It looked like an adult-ish… I don’t know how to translate that. Not an adult film. The name was, what? Sexo Co Amor? Something about love?
TAYLOR: Well, what can we say? It paid the right bucks.
HEATHER: Naaaaah!
TAYLOR: No, we don’t endorse those types of things.
ISAAC: This song was actually, strangely enough, also made a random cameo in Gossip Girl.
HEATHER: Awesome!
ZAC: It’s been in some random things.
ISAAC: It’s been all over the place.
ZAC: It’s a song called “Go.”
HEATHER: GO!
ZAC: Go. But don’t go, keep listening.
HEATHER: Let’s go with the Hanson’s, woooooo! New sound of Mix 94.7.
”GO”
HEATHER: That was awesome. Hanson on the new sound of Mix 94.7. That song rocks. I love that song “Go.” It gives me goose bumps when you guys sing it. I’m the goose bump girl, you know when certain songs are played?
TAYLOR: The Goosebump Girl? That sounds like a hit country song or something.
HEATHER: There you go. That’s your next song, I like it.
ZAC: It sounds bluegrass.
TAYLOR: Thank you!
HEATHER: So your album The Walk is out now, people can get that and you guys will be playing later on at La Zona Rosa.
ZAC: La Zona Rosa tomorrow night at like, 11 o’clock but also starting in April we’ll be on tour, so people can check out any tour dates on hanson.net.
HEATHER: We want to thank you for coming to the Westbank by Westlake live music fest and it’s a very special day too, somebody is 25, yeah?
TAYLOR: Getting old.
HEATHER: Would that be Taylor?
TAYLOR: Yes. Check it out!
HEATHER: He’s got a nice birthday cake, the birthday balloons, we’ll make sure we have these pictures up on mix947.com.
TAYLOR: You’re about to get waxed cake.
HEATHER: And everybody has party hats for you too, you have little party hats.
TAYLOR: Nice.
HEATHER: And you know what? We’re actually going to attempt to sing to you now. You guys ready? 1, 2, 3!
ISAAC: Please do.
crowd sings “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”
TAYLOR: That is awesome. That is fantastic.
HEATHER: Alright!
TAYLOR: You know you’re starting to get old when they don’t actually put individual candles on there. They have the big letters.
HEATHER: Once you hit the quarter of a century.
TAYLOR: --numbers, I can’t…
ISAAC: He’s about to hit his quarter life crisis.
TAYLOR: That’s pretty nice. Thank you guys so much.
HEATHER: Happy birthday.
TAYLOR: This will be a great one here in Austin.
HEATHER: Give it up everybody, HANSON! Westbank by Westlake live music fest. Little bit later we’ll have Augustana. Make sure you stick around for that. and thank you again guys, Hanson for being here.
ZAC: Glad to be here.
TAYLOR: Thanks for having us.
HEATHER: Thank you! The new sound of Mix 94.7.
typed up by Heidi (me)