P3 Star
Stockholm, Sweden
09 February 2005SANNA: Hi, how are you?
TAYLOR: Doing really good. Hey!
ISAAC: Hey, hello!
ZAC: Hello, hello!
SANNA: I just told the listeners that I have to talk to you guys about love, because it's two days before Valentine's Day. How romantic are you?
ZAC: Eh, not very.
ISAAC: I try to be as romantic as possible.
TAYLOR: You know what, I think being a musician is pretty romantic, so, we do our best.
SANNA: Do you think you're gonna get a lot of Valentine's gifts from your fans this Monday?
TAYLOR: Well I mean we have gotten a lot of Valentine's gifts from our fans in the past, so I'm sure we'll get a few.
SANNA: What's the most romantic gift you got from a fan?
ISAAC: I don't think you can really get a romantic gift from a fan, because romance entails a relationship in some form, so I can't think of one.
TAYLOR: We've had amazing gifts from our fans, I mean everything from, you know, long, you know, people writing "I love you" over and over, I mean, that's fairly love-oriented, silly, you know, to amazing gifts of all kinds. So, I'm sure that Valentine's Day will be no exception.
SANNA: Earlier, I talked to you about love and Valentine's Day, but I forgot to ask you about your favorite love song.
ZAC: Oh, "Always a Woman" by Billy Joel.
ISAAC: Another Billy Joel song but it's one of my all time favorites, "She's Got a Way" by Billy Joel.
ZAC: You're (?), you used Billy Joel again.
ISAAC: I know, but I just, it is, but you stole it.
TAYLOR: Different song. I have to go with "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.
SANNA: Why?
TAYLOR: I love the song. It's a love song!
ISAAC: Exactly!
SANNA: Your latest single is just released here in Sweden. How do you feel about it?
TAYLOR: We feel excited! It's great to finally have new music coming out. It's been five years since the last album, which is way too long, and it's great to finally be back in Sweden, and we're looking forward to playing concerts, and of course finally having the new music out.
ZAC: Yeah. Agreed!
SANNA: Eight years ago you smashed every radio station with your first single, and in years everybody knew who you were, but what happened after that?
TAYLOR: Oh, well, a lot has happened after that. I mean, the second album came out in 2000, and we had an amazing tour, especially in the United States, but, did a lot of touring, and we went into making this last record and during the process we made a lot of big changes in the last five years. We started our own record company, we also did an acoustic tour to set up the release of this album, and I don't know, I think, you know, there have been a lot of changes recently, with this band, with the way we're releasing music, obviously this new album has, you know, evolved. And I guess we're just glad that it's finally out.
SANNA: Wasn't it hard to get such a big hype around you when you were still so young?
TAYLOR: I think it was a very rare thing to have that happen, to be able to have fans at such a young age, but, you know, that's what we'd always wanted, I mean, we started out playing music, you know, 14 years ago when I was nine years old, and we said, "wow, we want to sing, we can do this!" And you know, to have, suddenly have fans around the world, was an unbelievable thing, and what we're excited about is how much we've been able to take people forward, and how much we've… when you see fans that said "I've been a fan for eight years, I've been a fan since, since 'MMMBop.' I've been a fan since the beginning!" That is what it's all about. So, you know, we've had a lot of amazing life experiences, and those will always be there.
SANNA: Have you missed all attention around you the last years?
ISAAC: The attention has never gone away, I mean, if you go to a Hanson show, believe me, there's plenty of attention. And, you know, I think the thing that is really cool is that we've been able to do so much over the years, I mean, for me, the most exciting thing that has happened in the last eight years is not so much selling millions of records, but starting a record company. For me that's the best thing that has happened because now I'm able to take my love for music and hopefully help other artists start careers because of my success over the years and because of my ability to kind of take the music that I'm enjoying from other artists and help them to find their fans. I think that's an amazing thing. I'm not worried about the limelight, cos the limelight is overrated.
SANNA: And now you're back with a whole new album! How would you describe it?
ZAC: I think this album is the most acoustic-sounding record that Hanson's put out. It's, the songs called for a slightly mellower take on the music. It's still Hanson, I mean, there's still songs that get up and rock, like "Lost Without Each Other" or "Get Up & Go" or the song "Crazy Beautiful." I mean, those songs definitely are upbeat, but there's a lot of… I think the overall tone of this record that's is different is songs like "Broken Angel" or "Believe" or even "Strong Enough To Break."
ISAAC: Very piano-driven, very kind of mellow and kind of storyteller kind of songs.
SANNA: Is it easier or harder to release a record if you have to do it on your own, like now?
ISAAC: I think, you know, in the past the record industry, there's kind of been a thing which is like independent labels had a very niche market and they were very focused on a certain type of music, but the industry has changed a lot in the last five years and I think many of those things that were true in the past are not as true in current day and will be less true in the near future, because a lot of things are changing with more opportunities for bands to expose their music through things like the internet and just through kind of word of mouth being so powerful with cell phones and other ways for you to get to your fans. I think the industry is changing a lot and I think being an independent label is the best way for us to grow and change as the years move forward, because there's a lot changing.
SANNA: You were only 16, 14, and 12 years old when you dropped your first album.
ISAAC: Yeah.
SANNA: Do you remember your feeling, the first reaction when you understood that people really loved your music?
TAYLOR: Well, I absolutely remember. I remember hearing "MMMBop" on the radio for the first time in New York and thinking, "wow, I guess something's happened!" you know, "something, this has begun." But you know when we started playing I was nine years old. I mean that's the first, when we first did a concert. And from that moment on, I knew that we could do this, that we could make music, and I saw the reaction of people when we would play and realized that this was something that we were gonna do until we were successful at it, and you know, we were lucky enough that we have had success early on, and it still blows my mind.
ISAAC: We did a lot of independent records over the years and spent a lot of time, you know, making music and so to then finally have that goal of having a record that was really played on the radio, achieved, you know, no matter how successful it was, the goal had been reached, and so that was really exciting.
SANNA: But wasn't it strange, like going from a kind of normal lifestyle to enormous fame worldwide, selling 8 million records?
TAYLOR: It was an incredible thing to have that happen, I mean, and no one can downplay how rare that is, I mean, but the difference is, for us, it was something that we had been working for a long time, you know, it wasn't like "here we are, just doing our thing, oh my god we've got a record that's a hit!" It was us, I mean obviously it was still incredible that we, to have that reaction, but it wasn't a surprise that we were doing music, it wasn't a surprise that we were working for that. I guess in some ways we were prepared for the potential of having fans and having that happen, and it still, you're in awe of it, you don't take it for granted, and like I said, it's been incredible.
ISAAC: But it other ways though we never really led a normal life, I mean, we were young kids who were the ones telling everybody else around us, you know, you are talking to Taylor who's the guy who said, "If I'm not signed by the time I'm 13, I'm gonna be pissed!" He was 13 by the time he got signed he was pissed. I mean, we had drive that was beyond the norm. We were not...
TAYLOR: Not pissed drunk. Pissed like, like annoyed!
ISAAC: Exactly. We were not… we were the guys that, you know, we were the weird guys, in high school and in grade school. We were the guys who didn't care about, you know, going and doing stupid kids stuff. We wanted to make music. That's what mattered to us.
SANNA: I got a hat with me here, full of love questions. So just take a question, read out loud and answer it. Who will start?
ISAAC: How do I wanna be seduced? Um, you know, I don't really know how to answer that question, so um, I think, I think, yeah, I don't know!
ZAC: Seduction is something, um...
TAYLOR: He's really talking about, how do you wanna, what attracts you to a girl. What attracts, um, how would you, what would make someone attractive, you know?
ISAAC: Yeah, and that's really complicated.
TAYLOR: I think, a combination of factors. Obviously, like you're initially looking at somebody and saying "wow, I'm attracted to her physically" and then sometimes when you, when you actually meet, you know, you can be completely turned off by their personality, their vibe. And, you know, obviously somebody who knows who they are, somebody that doesn't take themselves too seriously, is pretty important.
SANNA: Guys, have a real nice Valentine's Day and good luck with your new record. Really nice meeting you!
ALL: Thank you. Thanks a lot. Nice meeting you too.
SANNA: Bye!