PAST APPEARANCES Much on Demand
Toronto, Canada
18 May 2004AMANDA: Give it up for Hanson you guys! There's lots of screaming. Hey, how's it going?
TAYLOR: Hey, how are ya?
AMANDA: Thanks for being here you guys. And the reaching starts. Welcome, welcome to Much On Demand.
TAYLOR: Thanks so much, thanks for having us.
AMANDA: Very excited to have you here. People have actually been lined up around the corner since this morning.
TAYLOR: People love you!
AMANDA: It is for me!
TAYLOR: Of course it is!
ISAAC: It is for you!
AMANDA: Just a coincidence. It's obviously for you guys. Here to talk about the brand new album Underneath, in stores right now.
TAYLOR: It just came out today.
AMANDA: It just came out today, that's exciting.
TAYLOR: It's great to be here on the day of the release, right?
AMANDA: And then, to add to the excitement, you guys put this record out yourself on your own label.
TAYLOR: Well, we're working with independent labels all over the country in conjunction with our label, 3CG, which, yeah, we put out independently. It's an amazing thing. It's a great way to get more involved with the fans and just build a relationship and it's exciting.
AMANDA: Why did you guys decide to go down that road?
TAYLOR: Well, I think we just always want to do things that are exciting, every time we put out a record, and honestly our heart has always been in being an indie band.
ZAC: It was just something that was really exciting, something fresh, something new, and it's just an exciting time in the music industry where I think artists have an opportunity to take more control and have a more direct relationship with their fan base…
TAYLOR: I think you're going to see more and more of that. With the age of our fans and how involved they are in the internet and the opportunity we've had; we put out our first international record seven years ago and we've really had the opportunity to build the fan base up and I think we just see that as the future. It's exciting.
AMANDA: It's very exciting. Reading when you guys were putting this album together that you guys actually had come up with 80 songs!
TAYLOR: Yeah, there were a lot of songs that were written.
AMANDA: How did you narrow that down?
TAYLOR: Yeah, well, there's a few songs like "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and then there's like, four-line songs.
ISAAC: It was a reggae version of "Mary Had A Little Lamb," when we recorded it, it was crazy.
AMANDA: Oh man, I wish I could hear that.
TAYLOR: There's always a lot of songs, and we also did a lot of collaborations with cool people like Matthew Sweet, we wrote the title track with him, Greg Alexander from The New Radicals, we wrote with him. Ed Robertson from The Barenaked Ladies, we actually worked with him during the process. Canadian artist, rock. And you know, it's just about being creative and putting out a lot of music and then deciding to narrow it down. You can't have an 80-song album. [crowd screams] I guess maybe they think they should have.
AMANDA: A lot of lung power! Well, I guess that's also the great part about being so successful to your fans online, in case you ever do want to put out those extra songs.
TAYLOR: Yes, we'll have endless extra albums.
ZAC: Exactly.
TAYLOR: But that's also why we want to do other things with our music besides just being "Hanson." You hope to be able to write for people, produce for people, and do things outside of that. Give outlets for your other songs.
ZAC: Just different things.
AMANDA: A lot of love happening for Hanson out on our street.
TAYLOR: A little too much love. I think enough and they might kick our ass.
ISAAC: There is one thing that is true, there are a lot of sexy ladies in Canada, that's all I got to say.
ZAC: I think as J Kwon would say, "what do the ladies think?"
AMANDA: Whoa! Hey, let's get to an email question. This one is from a young lady from Oakville, Ontario. Her name is Melissa. She writes, "were any of you scared or worried to come back into the music business with a new CD, all grown up, and to see the reaction of your fan base?"
TAYLOR: Well, we never left the music business, we just were in a hole making a record for a couple of years.
ZAC: Exactly.
TAYLOR: You know, there's always a certain amount of anticipation and anxiety about "wow, we're putting out a record, what's going to happen?" One of the cool things we did is we started out doing an acoustic tour and we were here…
ZAC: We were here in October I think.
AMANDA: I remember that.
TAYLOR: And that was a really cool way to sort of build the anticipation and excitement for the record, and honestly, all this is about for us is having enough success to make another record and another record and another record and just get to make music. Hopefully we'll get to come back and play shows here in August up in Canada. Those are the things that we look forward to, and you don't sit around going, "oh my God, you know, what's going to happen?"
ZAC: You're proud of the music that you make and the product you're putting out and hopefully people enjoy it. We'll find out today, I guess!
TAYLOR: Sorry guys, we can't come outside! There's a barricade of people, we can't do it.
AMANDA: Well, I know your sound check sounded great. We're going to be getting to your performance later on. I wanted to ask, having been in the business for so long, starting at such a young age, having time to really master your instruments, master the business, what have you brought into record this album from that, what have you learnt?
ISAAC: A lot of flatulents on Zac's part.
ZAC: That was something I perfected.
AMANDA: Something else, I didn't want to be rude!
TAYLOR: How old are you? You said you were 22?
AMANDA: Yes.
TAYLOR: We've been doing music since you were 12. We've been doing music since you were 12 so it's like, ridiculous of how long we've been playing together.
AMANDA: Cos I've been making music since I was 12, but recorder, it's surprising, it doesn't get too far.
ISAAC: No, so well, the record obviously took a while but what was cool about this record was that we did decide to produce most of it ourselves, that was something we'd always wanted to do but it never really kind of made the final decision to like really dive into it the way we did, and so taking it to the next level there on production was a really valuable thing for us, it really made the record what it is, cos we really knew, coming into the album, what we wanted to accomplish and I think it shows on the record.
ZAC: One of my favorite things on this album is just the collaborations, the friends that came in and played. We have Sam Farrar from Phantom Planet playing bass. We've got David Garza playing some lead guitar, we've got Jerry Hey doing all of the horn arrangements…
ISAAC: He worked on a lot of Earth, Wind & Fire records.
TAYLOR: Old school stuff.
ZAC: Luis Conte, one of the greatest percussion players ever playing. Just a lot of really cool people came in to add their piece to this album.
AMANDA: Well, speaking of cool people, we've got some cool ladies behind me with an audience question. What's your question for the guys of Hanson?
GIRL: We were just wondering-we saw on your website that you let fans vote for what the next single should be. We were wondering if this is like part of the master plan to get the fans more involved in the music?
TAYLOR: Well, that's a really cool question because one of the things, like I was saying before, one of the things that's so cool about our fans or about these ladies, these guys, is that really being the internet generation, really growing up with it and being so active and using the website to, for instance, to put the songs out there and say, "hey, what do you guys think about the next single should be?" and it's just the beginning, so we'll see.
AMANDA: Well, you guys are going to be so busy in the coming months, I just wanted to say real quick if you do ever need a break, doing this indie thing…
TAYLOR: You'll come and sit in for us and play?
AMANDA: I can come sit in or I've also thought of an alternate, let's get it up there. It's kind of an old photo of you guys, but can we get that up there? The other alternate for Hanson. Do you see? That's our other VJ Hanson, his name is Devin.
TAYLOR: That's a little uncomfortable looking, but I mean if you guys ever need to swap, we'll come in and hang out.
AMANDA: We're going to get to a video right now, it's Michelle Branch. She's also on your album.
TAYLOR: Yeah, she is!
AMANDA: So, let's do it. This is "Breathe."
*
DEVIN: Back hanging out with Hanson, what's going on guys? The album comes out today. Must be pretty exciting?
ZAC: It's out today! It's in stores right now! Go buy it! [grabs CD from VJ] This is what you're looking for!
DEVIN: Alright, let's talk a little bit more about the label.
ZAC: 3CG Records, our independent record label.
ISAAC: We're working with True North in Canada, awesome.
DEVIN: When you run a label, you have to worry about the business side of music, right? When you came out ten years ago and you sold 8 million albums off Middle of Nowhere, how aware were you of the business side of the industry?
TAYLOR: Well obviously you're learning. At that point you're learning about all of the business for the first time and you obviously are a lot more agreeing about a lot of stuff. You know, we were always interested and we were always knowledgeable as much as we possibly could be because it's your money, it's your livelihood, it is a business in one sense cos you go out there and you see a lot of artists who end up with nothing cos they didn't have people around them that were really helping them. So, it's really just about getting people around you that are helping to look out for you and then learning as you go.
ISAAC: We've always had really good people around us and always been very, very aware and interested in what's going on because it's very important, it's your life.
DEVIN: Is it different to have to market yourselves now instead of having to let a label do it?
ISAAC: Well, the exciting thing about marketing yourself is you just go out there and you play!
ZAC: Well you always market yourself; in this sense I guess you have total control of it. It's all on you. And I guess that's a little scary, cos the weight's on your back.
TAYLOR: You know, it's just always been about the music. That's all that's ever mattered. And it's just about getting people around you that share that passion and excitement and then just getting it out to people. And here we are.
DEVIN: Sounds great, thanks guys. I think we have a call on the line. Amanda from Ottawa, are you there?
AMANDA: Hi!
HANSON: Hey!
AMANDA: Oh my gosh, well, tomorrow is my 16th birthday and I just want to say, talking to you is like the best birthday present ever.
TAYLOR: Wow, that's awesome. Happy birthday.
ZAC: I'm happy we could do it for you.
AMANDA: I just wanted to say that you guys have really inspired me through the years to become a performer and write my own music and songs, and I was wondering, how does it feel when fans tell you that?
ISAAC: Well, it's been something that you always hope that would happen. As an artist you hope that you inspire people to not just be performers but maybe to just follow their gut instincts and go for something that they really feel passionate about.
ZAC: There's nothing cooler than to hear that you've affected people and you've changed people because it's really what you're in it for. To really mean something and to be a little more than just that background music and to mean something to people, and when people call like you Amanda, and say, "hey, you affected what I do and you made me want to do music," or whatever it is that it did to their life, that's really sort of the ultimate goal.
ISAAC: Because I can think of people like Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, the people that really inspired me in particular and I think us to do it and I can only imagine the opportunity is there for you to do that for other people and so that's really cool.
DEVIN: Is it strange that the connection goes beyond the music?
ISAAC: It is strange.
TAYLOR: You mean, to what?
DEVIN: I mean, just fans. Speaking of fans, you want to go outside and say "hi" to some of them?
ZAC: Let's go, let's do it!
DEVIN: Alright, Hanson's coming outside! Are you guys ready? I think we have an audience question!
TAYLOR: The Scream Squad!
DEVIN: We have an audience question. Sarah has a question for the guys in Hanson. What's going on Sarah?
SARAH: Who's your favorite band or artist right now?
ISAAC: Favorite band or artist right now? A guy from Boston called Bleu. B-L-E-U. He's got a really great record.
TAYLOR: You know what? There's a band called Muse.
DEVIN: What's that?
TAYLOR: A band called Muse.
DEVIN: Yeah, that's great. I got their album! Excellent. Stay tuned, cos on MOD Hanson will be performing after the break. Make sure you tune in!
*
AMANDA: Welcome back to Much on Demand. Hanson are on our show today but this is the moment you guys have been waiting for.
DEVIN: That's right, performing "Penny & Me," the first single off this, their latest album Underneath, give it up for Hanson!
"PENNY & ME" acoustic
AMANDA: Yeah, give it up for Hanson, you guys! That was awesome! Thank you so much for coming in! Before you go we have to stop the Vote-O-Matic. You guys chose your favorite videos. It's been really close between Johnny Cash and Jet and oh, Johnny Cash takes it!
ZAC: YES! YES! Johnny Cash!! Rock! The dead guys always win.
AMANDA: Oh my gosh, what do you like about that video?
ZAC: It's just a great video and a great song and it's cool to hear Johnny Cash doing a Nine Inch Nails song.
AMANDA: And it's cool to see that it won here on Much on Demand.
ZAC: It is really cool to see that it won, and I just want to say to all you viewers out there who voted, you're really smart if you voted for me, but you're really, really… you have to buy two copies of the new album cos you voted for Ike and Tay.
AMANDA: There you go, thank you so much for coming. The new album is called Underneath. Right now, this is for Zac.