PADDY: …1997.

ISAAC: Yes.

PADDY: Here and there at the same time?

ISAAC: Yes.

PADDY: Any other countries you were top of?

ZAC: There was 27 countries at one time.

PADDY: At one time, #1?

ISAAC: Pretty much, yeah.

TAYLOR: That was when the first album came out, yeah.

ISAAC: Which is kind of ridiculous.

TAYLOR: I think it was when the first single came out, was that the record or was that the first time that happened?

ZAC: I think that was our record.

TAYLOR: First time in the UK and the states #1.

PADDY: I want to see a bit of "MMMBop," because where did you go? Did you go off into a kind of waiting room with bee bop on one side and MMMBop on the other?

TAYLOR: What are you talking about? (laughs)

PADDY: Your second album was 2000, what's happened since that?

ISAAC: Well, we spent a long time in the studio, actually. We demo-ed a lot of music and it really just-in the end it really just took a good amount of time for us to really-

TAYLOR: --Put together the right album.

ISAAC: -put together the right album; the album we felt was the right one, and once we got that record that we thought was the right one we were kind of ready to go out on this acoustic tour that we've been doing and things like that.

CLAUDIA: How do you describe the new one? This is little bits of it (PLAYED ON VIDEO SCREENS IN BACKGROUND). Is it much more rocky, or…?

ISAAC: Well, it's a combination of a couple things, I think. It's both elements of more kind of intimate and acoustic kind of things but it also I think in many ways it has more rock elements to it than previous records.

TAYLOR: Also, producing most if it ourselves. We've always been, you know, the creative control in everything we've done, but we really-

ISAAC: -took it to the next level.

TAYLOR: -took it to the next level with production and with also collaborations like with Gregg Alexander, we did some writing with him and Carole King, and just all kinds of different collaborations we've never done before. And I think it just was taking it to the next level.

PADDY: Is it fair to say when you produce it yourself you fell out with the label?

ISAAC: Ah no, not so much. We just made a creative decision. We felt that-oh, about the label. Well, we felt that-

CLAUDIA: Well, was there pressure to do "MMMBop" 2?

ZAC: We made a record and we just ended up deciding to go with what-

TAYLOR: We just started out own label, which you guys are leaning towards. We just started our own record company. Well, we finished the album and the label wanted us to continue on their company, we said, "you know guys, we really want to do something different with this." I mean, that was really-

ISAAC: It was kind of this odd kind of convergence of kind of positive departing, shall we say. We both understood that it was better for both of us to go our separate ways.

PADDY: Do you think that that's what-I mean, it was extraordinary to think of your success when you were 12, I think, when Zac was 12 but a lot of people starting out now, would they be well advised to ditch the established men and women in big suits with big shoulder pads and do it on their own if they could?

TAYLOR: Well, honestly though, I mean the internet, we're not "selling" it on the website-that's an avenue-for instance, right now you have an acoustic EP sitting there that is on the website. That's a special thing, but the-

ISAAC: -the full length album-

TAYLOR: -the full-length album will be distributed everywhere. I think there's an opportunity now for bands to get closer to their fans; I mean, I really do believe that. And it hasn't been as easy to make that happen as it is now.

CLAUDIA: That is that the beauty of the internet, so the fans-I've been on your website and gosh, they're key.

TAYLOR: But what's also special about it is that they've really-we first came out six years ago, was the first record came out, and those fans are the same fans. The hardcore fans are here now. They're our peers. They're 22 and 18-24, those they've really gone there with us.

ZAC: It's, I mean, we've been lucky enough to have a fan base that really is the first internet generation.

CLAUDIA: So, they're all very happy to-

ZAC: *pretends to type*