Columbia University's WKCR
New York City
16 October 2003

KWAME: Apparently Taylor from the group Hanson is on the phone right now Taylor, can you hear me?

TAYLOR: Yeah hey, how's it going?

KWAME: Taylor, hey, thanks for coming on WKCR. How are you?

TAYLOR: I'm going great, thanks for asking.

KWAME: Where are you guys right now? Somewhere in the Midwest?

TAYLOR: No actually, we're just outside of Washington DC, got a show tomorrow night.

KWAME: Oh, a show tomorrow night at Washington DC.

TAYLOR: Uh huh.

KWAME: Cool, where you guys playing?

TAYLOR: Um, you know, this is crazy, I don't actually know the name of the venue. That's the way it is on the road, you walk in and are like, "Well, I am playing at uh..." but it's going to be a great show, the audience just has been, you know, totally amazing.

KWAME: Oh absolutely, let's talk about the tour, the tour concludes October 4th at Carnegie hall? October 5th, excuse me.

TAYLOR: November 5th, yeah.

KWAME: November 5th October 5th has passed, sorry about that.

TAYLOR: We got a timeline between you and me, we'd be really screwed up.

KWAME: I am not applying to be the next manager of Hanson, if that's what you're asking.

TAYLOR: No, no.

KWAME: So November 5th you guys are in NYC, are you excited for Carnegie Hall?

TAYLOR: Oh, it's going to be amazing yeah, I mean, this whole tour has been really special. The full record release is early next year, so we decided to do something kind of special to start things off, so the acoustic tour has been sort of that first step of getting new music out to fans, and the acoustic CD, its been really cool to get fans to listen to music sort of ahead of time and give them access to new music before the whole records released and they get to listen to the acoustic version, so it's definitely a different take from what we've been doing and it's really cool to see the reaction to the new stuff.

KWAME: Absolutely, I mean you guys continue to impress with your music.

TAYLOR: Thanks very much.

KWAME: And how you're just talented musicians, I just can't get enough of it. Now what we've been doing here in Columbia in preparation for getting you guys on the show for WKCR news is we've gotten together Hanson's fans and we've picked your most loyal fan on campus.

TAYLOR: Wow.

KWAME: Her name is Caroline Beck. She's shaking like, right now.

CAROLINE: Thanks Kwame.

TAYLOR: She's like, "Thank you soooo much."

CAROLINE: Yeah, that wasn't embarrassing at all.

TAYLOR: Well, its okay because I'm not actually there, so he could be lying, or you could be lying so don't be embarrassed.

KWAME: I wish, I mean, you can quiz her on yourself, and she'll probably know more about you than you know about you.

TAYLOR: I'm sure.

CAROLINE: This is really great.

TAYLOR: That's actually kind of scary.

CAROLINE: I don't think that's true.

TAYLOR: Yeah that would be... that would be pretty intense.

KWAME: But actually Taylor, she has a few questions for you. So if you'd like to answer them.

TAYLOR: Yeah, absolutely.

KWAME: And another thing we did, was we went to your webpage and we saw what the fans were asking, so I guess she gathered together a few of those questions and then she's got a few of her own personal questions, so Caroline, why don't you take it away.

CAROLINE: All right, yeah, um actually, the first thing I did was went to hanson.net and posted that I would be interviewing you...

KWAME: I told you, this girl's sick.

CAROLINE: Look, Kwame...

TAYLOR: She's like, "I'm gonna take you out!"

CAROLINE: Pretty much, Kwame, its over!

TAYLOR: "I'm gonna kick yo ass!"

CAROLINE: Yeah okay, so I mean, I bet they'll want me to ask some of their questions, so um, looks like critterkristen asked if someone wanted to cover one of your songs, which would be the greatest compliment to you?

TAYLOR: Wow.

CAROLINE: Isn't that a great son-a great question?

TAYLOR: That is a good question, its a hard question though, which one is a great complement to you, um, I'm gonna sound like a complete schmuck, and not really clearly answer that, I would say you know, whatever anyone would cover, it's an immediate complement, I mean someone's taking something you've done you know, when you record it its like, okay, it's our thing we're into it, we're playing it, but when someone else turns around and says, "Wow, this isn't even my thing but I really wanna play it, and, and, you know, put my name on it," it's an immediate complement, so I guess any of our (?) when people do that, I mean, one of the coolest things about going to shows and seeing groups of people sitting around with acoustic guitars you know, playing old Hanson songs and stuff like that I mean, that's kinda what its about, I think, so...

KWAME: Caroline's pointing to herself right now because I think she does that.

TAYLOR: Yeah, that's great.

KWAME: As a matter of fact she was even doing that before the show got started.

TAYLOR: Yeah well...

CAROLINE: This interview just keeps getting more and more embarrassing.

TAYLOR: You're like "please shut up now, I'm gonna kick" she's gonna break out some Wang Chung!

CAROLINE: I'm not that creepy, I promise.

TAYLOR: She's breaking out some ka-ra-te on yo ass!

KWAME: Oh my gosh, security please!

CAROLINE: I am 6'2".

TAYLOR: Yeah, 6 foot 2, black belt...

KWAME: Okay Caroline, next question.

CAROLINE: I'll beat you with my guitar, okay, this was one I'm most interested in, um, I don't know how much Kwame mentioned about your record label, but I was wondering what your motivations were for starting your own label.

TAYLOR: That's another really good question, yeah um, I mean for anybody that doesn't know, we just sort of officially announced that we were going to be releasing our new record off of our new record label, um, its called 3CG Records, you know, I guess our biggest motivation was, there's just, there's all kinds of shifts and changes happening in the industry, whether it's you know, consolidation, or um, the Internet taking part in it and I guess the first and foremost we wanted to do something different and exciting, and um secondly I think we just wanted to be in a position where we really had a different kind of role in kind of control of the way this music was delivered to our fans, and I guess starting our own label was sort of like our most exciting kind of step that we could take, I mean this was the kind of thing we felt the artist, the artists now have the opportunity to do something they never done before, I mean the way things have shifted I think people, I think people have the access, they have a greater access to the fans, and they have greater access to the artists and that's the way it should be, so for us its sort of the opp- it's not exactly becoming a CEO, its really about becoming less and less corporate and finding a way to get closer to the people that are buying your records so, I guess that's long __ answer.

CAROLINE: That's a really, really great answer and a really good example of why I love you guys so much.

TAYLOR: Well thanks, thank you.

CAROLINE: Awesome, for people who don't know, because I mean, obviously as a fan I know, what does 3CG stand for?

TAYLOR: It stands for 3 Car Garage. The whole kind of symbolism behind that was, you know, hopefully eventually we'll sign other acts, I mean that would be the idea that you'll be able to give other acts opportunities too. Our focus is obviously what we're doing now, but 3 Car Garage, it represented the fact that, you know, if you cant do it in a garage, you know, its probably not worth listening to, you know, its like the absolute core, you should be able to sit around and get the energy, in the garage or in a little room in a corner of your house or apartment or whatever, I mean, taking it down to the absolute bare bones, and that that's kind of the essence of what you're trying to do, just put out things that you know, sort of inspire people and sort of have raw energy to them.

CAROLINE: Right, right, very awesome.

TAYLOR: Yeah.

CAROLINE: Another one of my questions, now that you guys have your own record label, being musicians yourself, I was wondering what you think the music industry was looking for right now, in terms of new artists.

TAYLOR: Wow, that's another good question. You know, there's been all kinds of shifts in the record industry and there's always going to be, this typical pattern of things changing. You'll always have pop stuff and you'll always have rock stuff, you'll always have audiences that want those things, but one thing that I think has been missing, has been the industry and people really supporting and building artists with careers, artists that really go out and fill up a fan base and maintain that, you know, back in the 60s and long before that, bands, I mean, Bob Dylan sells more records now than he did when he started, and that's sort of the idea of that. You invest in artists that build up audiences, and those audiences keep coming back because they've establishment a relationship of trust with that band, they know they're going to get a great record and they're going to go out and get it, and I think that's the new way to solve the confusion about the Internet and about all this stuff, if people are going to keep putting out quality records, then you gotta let the bands putting out records (something about the fan base) I mean, my idea of doing something good with music and you know, the issue is to search for bands and music that I'm passionate about and give it an opportunity to go into more than just into its next single, but to become something that has a life beyond that.

KWAME: Okay Taylor, we have one final question for you, and this is one that comes close to Caroline's heart, here, Caroline, go for it.

CAROLINE: What? What question are you thinking I'm asking?

TAYLOR: Uh oh!

CAROLINE: They're all close to my heart is what I'm getting at! Well, okay, yeah, I was also going to ask, if you were planning on looking within your fan base for musicians, because I feel that a lot of Hanson fans are musicians themselves that really appreciate that you guys play your own instruments, write amazing songs, you know so much about much about music, I mean, Avril Lavigne is a Hanson fan I know, and Michelle Branch, and Jessica Harp just got signed to (?) records, so I feel there is a lot of talent with in your fan base.

TAYLOR: Well, I was about to give an example of people like that, like, we've got to know Avril Lavigne a little bit, and we've known Michelle for a long time, she was signed when she came to play in front of us on the last tour and you know, the fact that they were fans of us, I don't know how much of that is credit to us or not, but I do-wherever we find great music is where we you know, is the place where you go after, if there's a fan or a person that just happens to cross your path, I mean, the fact that someone like Michelle was a fan of the band or Avril or who ever, or Jessica, who we met, you know, it's really awesome when someone says you inspired me and you've been apart of me wanting to do music.

KWAME: Is Avril Lavigne as crazy in person as she personifies through her music or is there a change, like more low key, one on one?

TAYLOR: Well, you know, she's a real sweet girl, I think she's you know, got a lot more to say, and hopefully she'll keep making great records, I would say some of that is definitely part of her, you know, she's out there doing her thing she probably emphasizes a little bit.

KWAME: Well Taylor, thank you very much, and we all look forward to going to the November 5th concert at Carnegie Hall.

TAYLOR: Yeah, it's going to be fun.

KWAME: If you don't have tickets to this, first of all, I don't know why you wouldn't have tickets for this, but if you don't have tickets for this, please go out and get them, Carnegie Hall website, I'm guessing Caroline already has tickets.

TAYLOR: Yeah, to find out about tickets you can go to carnegiehall.org or Hanson.Net, the main Hanson site.

KWAME: Well Taylor thank you very much.

TAYLOR: Thanks so much!