PAST APPEARANCES Canada AM
Toronto, Canada
18 May 2004SEAMUS: Hanson’s transformed from extremely catchy pop stars to indie rockers and they even count some of the big names of rock as their fans, like Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch. Their new album Underneath debuted at #1 independent album in the United States and their single hit #2 on Billboard, debuting there. It’s hitting stores up in Canada today. It’s my great pleasure to welcome Hanson to the studios this morning. Isaac, Zac, and Taylor. Thanks very much for being here. Brothers, if you hadn’t already guessed. Is that great to be known as “young veterans” already?
TAYLOR: Yeah, that’s what I heard. I kind of like that, actually!
ISAAC: Well, it is kind of scary though but it’s frighteningly true, that’s the worst part about it.
SEAMUS: It’s crazy to look at you and go, “it wasn’t all that long ago that they had high voices. They don’t anymore.”
ZAC: Well, to be 18 and have been doing this for 12 years is…
ISAAC: Middle of Nowhere was seven years ago.
ZAC: Seven years ago, but I started when I was six, performing independently in local festivals and things, and so to be doing it for 12 years it’s been a great gift, I guess, to be able to start so early.
SEAMUS: And you’re brothers… I mean, you’re family. And you work together. Not a lot of people get through that either. You deserve a medal for that as well, don’t you think?
TAYLOR: You know, we’ve always said it’s just always been about each one of us being into music, three individual guys who are singer/songwriters and that—obviously we’re brothers, we’re blood, we’ve grown up together, but as we get more and more into our career I think it’s really just three guys who perfect each other as musicians and you give each other your space.
SEAMUS: Could you picture yourself working with anybody else?
ISAAC: It’s kind of weird, we actually talked about this…
ZAC: There will be side projects, there will be other things, just because there are so many other types of music, or at least me personally, I’d like to explore, but Hanson will always be these three guys. We’ll always, I think, come back together and the way we write music together, the way we combine each person’s strengths is something that I think we all really acknowledge.
ISAAC: And the only real hitch there is that we’re all harmony suckers. Like, we all love the harmony stuff; we love singing and getting the whole harmony thing going and so the trick would be the side projects … gotta get some of the other guys to come and sing, so I don’t know.
SEAMUS: Do you think you were being particularly gutsy when you wrote a song called “MMMBop” at the height of grunge? I mean, everyone was wearing plaid and doing the Cobain thing and you just came out with this incredibly catchy single, I mean, you know, it’s what you’re known for.
TAYLOR: Well, usually anyone needs to break through cos there are certain things that sort of have a significance to that, no matter how far away from it you get. Somebody is gonna be like, “Wow, let’s break out this CD.” For us, it’s just always been about making music that we were really passionate about, making music that we really were excited about and then hoping that transcended and got people to react. I mean, you were talking about earlier starting a record company, we just started an indie record company, and putting this out through other independent labels around the world and you know, that’s a whole other aspect of it. It is not about going, “well, what is everybody else doing?!” It’s really opposite of that, it’s really us looking at our career and saying, “What do we want to do that’s going to work with what we want to do with our music?”
SEAMUS: And just knowing that you influenced people like Avril Lavigne and Michelle Branch opened up for you. That’s pretty great.
TAYLOR: Well, it’s great to be…
SEAMUS: It’s like a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young thing. Hanson, they were my influences!
ISAAC: It’s a really cool thing to get the opportunity to potentially inspire people. I mean, I know there are a lot of people who inspired me to want to do music over the years. Everybody from Chuck Berry to Aretha Franklin to Billy Joel and so to be able to be one of those people… and to be one of those people for someone else is a really, really cool thing and I think in a specific case with somebody like Michelle or somebody like Avril have mentioned that our music has been something that has been of value to them as they were budding musicians, so that’s a really cool thing.
SEAMUS: And when we come back, you’re going to perform for us?
ISAAC: Yes, we are.
SEAMUS: I can’t wait. Stay tuned; Hnson is going to perform right after break.