Rove Live
Victoria, Australia
16 November 2004ROVE: All right, my next guests are three brothers from Tulsa who have sold over 15 million records worldwide. They have three Grammy nominations to their credit. They're back in the country welcome them now to Rove Live - Zac, Taylor, and Isaac Hanson.
TAYLOR: I have to say that was quite a scene backstage there.
ROVE: You're telling me!
TAYLOR: Very passionate.
ROVE: I think I, think I hit puberty. I feel pretty good.
ISAAC: The last two segments reminded me a little bit too much of backstage at our shows.
ROVE: Now for... now, a lot of people might not have seen you for a while, so let's run through now how old you all are so everyone in the audience who is of an equivalent age can scream.
TAYLOR: As long as you get to start.
ROVE: Me? I'm, I'm 30.
ZAC: I'm 19.
TAYLOR: 21.
ISAAC: 24.
ROVE: And ah, whose birthday is tomorrow?
ISAAC: Mine.
TAYLOR: He's 24 tomorrow.
ROVE: Oh you're 24 tomorrow? Any plans? Any plans for the birthday?
ISAAC: Ah... TAYLOR: A show.
ISAAC: Ah yeah. A show tomorrow. A sold out show here in Melbourne. And that's gonna be great. I mean I think, I think that in a way is kind of the best birthday present somebody can have - a lot of fans coming to a show. I mean you know... I'm like one of the luckiest, one of the luckiest guys around.
ROVE: So that means Zac and Taylor have got it easy. You don't have to buy a present this year. No gifts.
ISAAC: They never buy me presents anyway.
ZAC: He's cheap, he doesn't buy us presents anyway, so...
ISAAC: Hey!
ROVE: So when you guys first burst onto the scene you were all fairly young, but Zac you were the youngest. What was it like growing up in what was such Hanson... mass hysteria?
ZAC: Well, we've been a band for 13 years now, so I was 6 when we started and that was about five years before anyone ever saw what we were doing.
TAYLOR: Before we came to Australia for the first time.
ZAC: So... you know it's always just been about making music and obviously having that many people know you and that many people have heard your records and want to come to concerts and things is an amazing thing that any band around the world just hopes to get that opportunity to do.
TAYLOR: I remember the first time just going to see... coming to Australia and seeing the fans here and just being, you know, in awe. (footage shown from Hanson's visit to Melbourne in 1997)
ROVE: Was that when you came in '97? Was that the first time?
TAYLOR: That was the first time we came to visit.
ROVE: Cos look, this is the, this is when you were here. And it was incredible. I could only imagine that kind of thing.
ZAC: Yeah, well I think it was... 25,000 people somewhere in there?
ISAAC: Wow. That girl, that girl looked like she had it rough there. Someone, someone in the crowd was like "YOU'RE NOT. GETTING. CLOSER. TO THE STAGE!"
ROVE: Is there any part of you that when you go through that, because there's... we've got footage of you there and when you look back at it now there'd be all these press clipping and photography and all this kind of press. Is it something like you just went through an age where you said "Can we burn all of that?"
TAYLOR: Well there's moments. Yeah. there's moments where we're like "that shirt...? Nah."
ISAAC: You know I still have those moments every once in a while these days too. "Ah that shirt?! No, no, no..."
TAYLOR: "Ah Ike? Not so good."
ISAAC: Ah sorry. *hangs head in shame*
ROVE: Now, the rest of your famimly, because there's seven children in the family...
ISAAC: There are seven.
TAYLOR: We have, yeah. They're all younger. I mean we're the oldest of a big family.
ROVE: Is everybody else musical as well?
TAYLOR: They... they're musical, but nobody is kind of going "hey, I want to be in a band." I mean they, obviously they're around us. They used to travel with us when we were young, you know, cos we were...
ZAC: Because I was 11.
TAYLOR: You know. And so, they would come along and see the world. And so they went around it and they love music. I don't think there's a Hanson...
ISAAC: You know the thing about us, back in the day... the thing about us back in the day was that we were really kind of like psychotically driven to do music, it was kind of actually like...
TAYLOR: Fortunately it's much like today!
ISAAC: I don't know what was wrong with us. Yeah exactly, it's kind of still happening.
TAYLOR: It's always, yeah exactly, it's always been just... we love to play, we love to play live. I remember that - going to Melbourne, being in Melbourne for the first time. Showing up, we were going to do a few acoustic songs...
ISAAC: Still have that same acoustic guitar with me for this, for tomorrow's show.
TAYLOR: Doing an acoustic show tomorrow night. And it was you know, just seeing those fans was like you know... this is what we, this is what we always wanted to be doing.
ROVE: And Taylor you're a dad.
TAYLOR: Yes.
ROVE: Is it something... will we see a Hanson tour with the next generation of Hanson coming through so that all of you with children at home could "well if I missed out, MY DAUGHTERS WON'T!"
TAYLOR: He is a cute one. No he's... he's really musical I have to say. He's very smart - which I don't know where he got that from.
ZAC: He's also spent so much time around us. You know this whole process...
TAYLOR: Wait I said smart, then you said spending time around us.
ZAC: Well I didn't mean that part, I meant the music thing. He's, his whole life has basically been this, most recent album has been spent, you know making that and... so he's just been through studio process and touring. He, he walks on stage whenever we're rehearsing and it's 'bang! Bang!... 'Tar... Key!' So he is very into it.
TAYLOR: He's... the poor guy, we've infected...
ROVE: Actually speaking of the latest album, Isaac, Underneath - this must be very exciting because this was released on your label.
ISAAC: Yes it was. A few years back parted from our old record company and took the album that we were making with them and released it independently in the United States. Had a #1 independent debut in the United States.
TAYLOR: It's different also, in we... I mean every band starts out independent you know, doing your thing. And we've had a lot of success and it's been amazing to have fans around the world but after you know, kind of, the industry's been changing a lot and we just felt like we wanted to be able to own our music. We wanted to be able to do it differently. And it's a different kind of gratification to put out a record and have success not only as a band, but as a record company. And to work with - I mean we've worked with a lot of other independent labels all over the world to put it out it's... very cool.
ISAAC: And the other important thing is the flexibility in the years to come. I mean the music industry has kind of gone through a lot of restructuring lately, constant corporate merger and whatnot and we feel like the best place that we as a band and most bands can be in is in a very flexible and free place to constantly be doing music and never worry about it.
ZAC: Like yoga.
ISAAC: Like yoga.
ROVE: Is there still a sense of risk though, even for, for people like you...
TAYLOR: There's a huge sense of risk!
ROVE: Because you still have such a fan base. But to go independent it's - was it a scary thing to go for?
ZAC: Somebody was saying it's much more lucrative for you when you sell a record because you are the label also. But what they forget is that you're also spending all that money on the front end just to show people the music...
TAYLOR: Well, to make the records and just to get on tour. All the things that you... you know you get a different perspective on it. We've always been very hands on, we've always loved to do everything but, it's just a different thing when you're really taking a risk by yourself. It comes down to what do you want to be doing in ten years, and it comes down to your trust, your belief in the music industry and belief in the fan base and really building that connection stronger. I mean, we don't want it to be four years before we're back in Australia again.
ROVE: Well we look forward to having you back. And so too, to all the people - I'm not joking, they are screaming out the front of this building. We've already had this year one building burn to the ground boys. Do NOT do it again.
ISAAC: That was when we forgot to come.
TAYLOR: We were gonna come!
ROVE: Well, in the meantime, the album Underneath, including the single "Penny & Me," is out now. Please thank the boys from Hanson! Thank you sir, thank you sir, thank you sir, real pleasure. Next, Gavin DeGraw will bring us home on Rove Live.