Sirius - The Pulse
New York, New York
16 April 2004-missing first interview clip-
TAYLOR: …at Carnegie Hall, which was… that was kind of the wrap up of the whole acoustic tour.
KIM: And the reviews for that, by the way, were amazing too.
TAYLOR: Well, I don't know, they were probably seeing another band. [laughs] No, no, it was incredible.
ISAAC: We had really, we had really good-I think the New York Post, in particular, was very, very complimentary.
TAYLOR: Well it is nice to have people that are going out to see the music all the time. You're seeing everybody from Springstein to whoever else and they walk out and they go, "wow, this was a great show," but the most important thing was musically it was an incredible place to play. The audience, you know, when it's been as long as it's been-it had been four years since the last album and we did the whole tour building into the record and that show was kind of like, you know, people came from all over the world to come to see the Carnegie Hall show because it was such a special venue, such a special event, and it was the last official show of the tour. So it was kind of like, you walk out on that stage and these fans are kind of like, "I've been here, you know, since 97 and I-" you know? And the energy off of that, you know, it's sort of like everybody's in on this secret, everybody's in on this moment and we just had a great time.
ISAAC: Yeah, it really was cool, because it really was a once in a lifetime experience. I mean, you very rarely get the chance to play a venue like Carnegie Hall and we were really excited that we got the chance to do it in the way that we did acoustically.
ZAC: Well, it's on that list, too, of, you know-Hollywood Bowl, Budacon, Carnegie Hall, Neil Albert Hall, you know, there's just some of those few venues that you dream about.
TAYLOR: The moon!
ISAAC: The Taj Mahal-wait!
KIM: You know, it's funny, you have a very interesting fan-well, she's started out as a fan but she ended up opening your show. We're talking about Michelle Branch and we're going to talk about her in a little bit but I have to play some music here.
TAYLOR: Good call.
TAYLOR: We'll be back with Hanson as they guest DJ here on Sirius. This is The Pulse and this is Melissa Ethridge.
*
TAYLOR: … Sirius 9. It is Kim Ashley. It is Friday. It is the day after tax day and we are very excited to have with us today guest DJs Hanson.
ZAC: Tax daaaay….
TAYLOR: Taaax Day!! Taaax Day! [in tune to Outkast's "Hey Ya"]
ALL THREE: *harmonize saying "tax day"*
KIM: All right, so Outkast, you know, is one of the bands that you guys think is pretty cool?
TAYLOR: Well, we love music-we really do like music of every kind. I mean, probably we're less of the rap aficionados, but I mean--
ZAC: When you look at what Outkast does for hip hop and rap music, it's like they're the pinnacle of a band that's so creative that they're almost creating a new genre within the genre. It's like, there's rap music and then there's Outkast because they add horn lines, they add vocal parts, they make it more than just a beat and a voice. It becomes a musical experience and that's what people search for.
TAYLOR: And they're also having a good time with it. I think the Black Eyed Peas I mean are another example of that. Basically anybody that's probably a super rap fan is probably like, "oh, that's just pop rap" but I mean, I really think there's a lot of creativity on that side as opposed to you know just the kind of aggressive gangster like, that whole style of rap. I think--
ISAAC: Well, there's two definitive genres in rap these days and those are the two kind of definitive genres. The thing that I like about it is it reminds me when you listen to Outkast and Black Eyed Peas and stuff it reminds me a lot of the days of--
TAYLOR: Sugar Hill.
ISAAC: Sugar Hill stuff. You know, like the 70s when rap first started to bust onto the scene as a legitimate form.
ZAC: "hotel… motel…"
KIM: There you go!
ALL: "Holiday Inn! Say if your girl starts acting up, then you take her friend! Oomm!"
ZAC: Such great grooves.
KIM: Well here's my question, do you guys actually think that everybody basically gets their influence from somebody else. I mean, not to say that they imitate them, but…
ZAC: Well, I think you're influenced by people. I think you know, what you listen to, what you see, everything influences you, so… but yes, in a way…
TAYLOR: And not just music--
ZAC: From the time you're born, your parents or your brother or your best friend or whatever it is…
ISAAC: Or your musical idols…
ZAC: Your musical idols. I mean, it affects who you are and that affects how you think…
TAYLOR: I do think there are people that are born-you're just born with music in your blood and even if you were in a cave you would play music.
KIM: Is that you guys?
TAYLOR: I think-we weren't born in a cave, but I think I'm just saying I think you don't necessarily have to be following something you've heard but I think inevitably any musician is going to admire or appreciate or sort of aspire to something else that they like because obviously they make music so they're going to appreciate other music.
ISAAC: Well I would address that directly and say I think we are kind of one of those people. We started singing together when I was 11; Zac was 6 years old.
ZAC: That doesn't mean we're good! it just means we do music.
KIM: Well I actually got a forwarded copy of the new CD, which is coming out on Tuesday and I gotta tell you, when I first heard it, I was like, "damn! These guys sound great!" And I'm not blowing sunshine up your booty, I actually think it sounded great and I think people are really going to enjoy the new stuff. You can tell by the single that's already come out and how well it's selling that I think it's going to do very well. Now, the new CD is called Underneath?
ISAAC: Yes it is.
KIM: And it's coming out on the 20th, which is four days from today. And I'd like to play the first single from it so you guys do it up for me, will ya? Well actually I'd like to play the title track.
ISAAC: Yeah, here's the title track from the new record. This song's called "Underneath."
*
KIM: The Pulse, Sirius 9, it's Kim Ashley. We are very fortunate to have Hanson here as our guest DJs today.
ISAAC: Hellooo…
TAYLOR: Yes, it's been… it's been fun.
KIM: It's been cool to have you guys and we're going to play a song from Michelle Branch. We've been talking about Michelle Branch because she actually started out as a fan on your website.
TAYLOR: Well, just like we were saying before, we're fans of music. She was a singer-songwriter, well, I don't know how long she'd been playing when we first met her but she had been playing for a few years and writing songs and had created a CD, a local CD, and was just going out to people trying to get them to hear it. And she was a Hanson fan and was talking within other Hanson fans talking about what she did and the CD found its way to us and we just thought it was really good. So she lived in Arizona; when we came through Arizona we had her open up for us in that whole area of the country and I think she played a couple shows, and Maverick came to see her play and they were like, "wow. We want to sign her." So she got signed after playing those couple shows, which is awesome. And now a few million albums later…
KIM: And Grammys.
TAYLOR: And Grammys. It's incredible, that's an amazing thing, I mean all the stuff we were talking about. She's the kind of artist that will just keep making music. She's a road dog, she just wants to get out there and play, play, play and make records.
KIM: And she sings background vocals on one of the songs on the new album called, "Deeper," yes?
ISAAC: Yeah, "Deeper." She came in actually, it's funny, we were doing the record in L.A. and she lives there and so we were sort of searching for a direction for backgrounds and things like this on the song.
TAYLOR: And we always wanted to have a female vocalist on a song here or there and it never really found the right match and Michelle being a good friend happened to be in town and we just had her come in and sing and it sounded great. Sounds very cool.
KIM: That's cool. We're going to let her sing for you now on The Pulse.
*
KIM: Sirius 9…
ISAAC: That's what I said to the last girl I went on a date with. I was like, "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?"
TAYLOR: Nobody actually knows what that says. Oh paredo? What the heck?
ISAAC: It's Spanish.
KIM: If you're wondering who these guys are, this is Hanson. They are guest DJ-ing here with us.
TAYLOR: It is not Beck. And Ike is not a loser… or at least not that loser…
KIM: Now explain this to me, you guys were telling me that you have these really wacky connections to Beck.
ZAC: It's just funny, there have been a couple of circles that we've been involved in, that he's involved in.
TAYLOR: I guess it's the whole music industry, weird, small world. The guys that produced his second record, which was just hugely critically acclaimed--
ISAAC: Odelay
TAYLOR: Odelay
ISAAC: Which had "Devils Haircut" and "Where It's At" and a bunch of other…
TAYLOR: They produced "MMMBop" with us, which I guess we're gonna play?
KIM: Yeah, we're gonna play next.
TAYLOR: We produced that song with them, which was really cool, and then filmed the video in the same house where they recorded and did most of Beck's second record.
ISAAC: And where we recorded parts of "MMMBop."
TAYLOR: And where we did parts of "MMMBop." Ah, you know, his last name is Hansen.
ZAC: Yeah, his mother's maiden name is Hansen and that's what he goes by.
TAYLOR: Also, his DJ, DJ Swamp, who is just an unbelievable DJ, is all over our second record This Time Around because we wanted to have some DJ-ing and scratching and things happening.
ZAC: Glen Campbell, his father, has played on most of our records.
TAYLOR: He's a classical arranger.
KIM: This is weird, you guys!
TAYLOR: We started talking about it and then we're like, "wow, they just keep going and going, the connections."
ZAC: Tamara Davis, the girl who directed our first video, is married to Mike D, who is really close to that camp…
TAYLOR: We got to stop!
ISAAC: So our connections to Beck are very, very odd.
TAYLOR: Seven degrees.
ISAAC: Yeah, seven degrees of Beck and Hanson. But also we've worked in the same studios multiple times…
[missing a bit because of buffering]
TAYLOR: Every time you make a record it really is a time capsule. You know, it represents whatever you were doing, whoever you are at that time.
KIM: When you picture four days from now somebody buying your CD and running into their car and putting it in their stereo…
TAYLOR: We duck and cover! [laughs]
ZAC: eeeee…….boooooshh!
KIM: When they put the CD into the machine and they listen to it, are they going to be surprised or are they going to go, "yeah, that's it."
ZAC: I hope they're surprised because I think the best feeling I have is I get a band I love and I sit down with their record and they show me something new.
TAYLOR: But at the same time, I think it's a different experience for a non-fan or for someone who just found out about the band or somebody who thought they didn't like the band. I think every one of those people is both going to hopefully go, "wow, this is different. I didn't necessarily expect these several different things, these different places, but whether I liked it or not, there's this thread, which has always what this band was, which is the songs and the vocals and just the way we would arrange-just always finding, always looking for just the hooks, whether you're doing a….
ISAAC: Guitar part…
TAYLOR: Guitar part, or things that will maintain through your entire career, things that are the threads of this band. Things that will always be there. So I think that's the way every album is. You're maintaining the familiarity at a certain point but you're always finding new ways to make people turn their head and go, "wow, I didn't know they wanted to go there. I didn't know they wanted to do that."
KIM: I think they're going to be pumped about the new CD. I'm telling you.
TAYLOR: Hopefully.
ISAAC: I feel good about it. Just commenting on the first song on the record is a song called "Strong Enough To Break" and to me, that song, the way that it always struck me when we first recorded it: it sounds like a journey is starting and I love that.
KIM: And we're going to play "Strong Enough To Break" coming up in a little bit but we're going to go back to the huge #1 record you guys had in 1997 right now.
TAYLOR: It's a little song called "MMMBop."
*
KIM: … it's your official Friday song today on The Pulse.
ZAC: Friday, Friday, Friday!! [sing-song voice]
TAYLOR: Oh God. Wow.
ISAAC: Zac, don't quit your day job dude. Geez.
KIM: That is his day job!
ISAAC: I just realized this whole time like, no one knows who exactly is talking.
TAYLOR: Yeah, that's true.
KIM: Yeah, but you know, I think the big fans can figure it out. If you don't know who we are talking to we are talking to--
TAYLOR: If you don't know, go to the web cam!
KIM: We're talking to Hanson. I've got Taylor on my left, I've got Zac in the middle. Say "hello."
ZAC: Hello!
KIM: I've got Isaac on my right.
ISAAC: Hello.
KIM: There ya go. Now you can figure out who they are by their voices.
TAYLOR: Maybe… I don't know.
ZAC?: Sometimes I play the fool [weird voice]
KIM: They've got a new CD that we've been talking about though, it's called Underneath and it's coming out in four days and we're juiced to have you here, it's just the coolest thing. I got to listen to the CD a couple of days ago and I was really impressed.
ISAAC: I think it is going to be interesting to see people's response; I think a lot of people will be surprised. I mean, there were a lot of reviews, we got really positive reception critically in particular for our last record, This Time Around, constantly people saying, "wow, this is a different direction than we expected, it's a positive change" and so on. I think people are going to be that much more surprised with Underneath. Even coming from This Time Around cos I think Underneath, I think it covers the bases, the emotional and musical depth of the band on a more comprehensive level than any record to date has.
KIM: You know, you could have gone a completely different route.
ISAAC: We could have.
KIM: And I want to touch on it really quickly and then get off the subject, but Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, there they were-you've heard this a million times-you could have gone that way, but…
TAYLOR: Yeah, but let me say it on a different way.
ISAAC: I think to comment quickly just on the whole N*Sync, Backstreet phenomenon-first, anything we've ever done. I think there is a common misconception about that, which is we were always just a band. I mean, we happened to be young guys so I think that element did leave an impression with people.
TAYLOR: Like, "wow, they're so young."
ISAAC: Yeah, "wow, they're so young," but at the same time I don't think we ever could have gone the rhythmic pop direction because it never really was who we were. If you listen to Middle of Nowhere even, the first record…
TAYLOR: It's just about making music.
ISAAC: Yeah, there's more, like, influence of Stevie Wonder on a song like, I don't know, "Speechless" with that clavinet part and stuff like that than there is anything else.
TAYLOR: For us it's just always been about making great music. You know, no matter whether people are comparing it to somebody like Steve Winwood or whether they're saying, "oh, weren't you guys a pop band? Backstreet Boys?" Whatever the comparison is, it's always going to be some not quite accurate version because it's some other comparison, some other box. So I think you just always strive to continue to redefine that like we were talking about before. Just reshape and say, "oh wow. Didn't know." You keep people from ever being able to go, "oh, I know exactly what I'm going to get. I know exactly what I'm supposed to expect." Because for us, it won't be the same in 10 years, it won't be the same in 2 years when the next album comes out. So, you got to keep people on their toes.
KIM: Ever evolving.
TAYLOR: Yeah, of course.
KIM: But that's what makes it fun.
TAYLOR: It is what makes it fun; we would have it no other way. There is no other way.
ISAAC: Yeah, exactly.
KIM: Well in Rolling Stone magazine recently, Avril Lavigne said you guys were one of her big influences, which I think is pretty cool, so we're going to play her now. We're also going to continue to play some new stuff from the brand new CD Underneath. We have Hanson on for you on The Pulse!
*
ZAC: That was miserable. No, wait, that was "Misery" from our new album Underneath, which comes out in four days.
KIM: Cool.
ZAC: Hi, you're talking to Hanson.
KIM: That's right, can you tell?
TAYLOR: Zac's opening it up.
ZAC: Just opening it up.
KIM: I got Zac and Taylor and Isaac here from Hanson if you didn't already gather that, on The Pulse, Sirius 9, and we're fortunate enough to have them here today guest DJ-ing and also playing some stuff from the new CD, we're so excited! It's coming out on the 20th, which is just days away from now and we were talking about before about your new label, 3CG. It's your own creation and some artists are actually doing that now. When you were talking about The Eagles before and Pearl Jam who we're gonna play coming up here. What are the advantages or disadvantages of…
TAYLOR: starting a label…
ISAAC: Well, I think the advantages are always that you as an artist are always constantly wanting to do random artistic things and just not necessarily have some of the…
TAYLOR: limitations…
ISAAC: Have some of the limitations, yeah, that you have on a major. But actually, at the same time, I mean, there are a lot of cases where that's not--
TAYLOR: I think it's really just no matter what you're going with the career, when you take control in the sense of building a group of passionate people around you that are all looking towards one goal of just continuing to build who this band is and build a relationship with the fans, it's hard to go wrong. No matter if we decide, we've been talking about all the different music you know that we're into; whether we decide to, you know, lean towards a different style of music or all decide to go live in Tibet and write songs for soundtracks or something… I think it's really just about opening up the doors so we have the freedom to take career wherever it is that we're going to go with it. And I think there's a lot of great major labels, there's a lot of great independent labels, there's a lot of really great people in this industry, but for us we've seen the evolution even over the last seven years since we've been signed and kind of on the world music scene and things have changed so much. And I think with this album there was so much kind of banking on it not just for an album but for our whole career, I mean, this is a step forward, and we just wanted to have the opportunity to really steer the ship and build that relationship with the fans so that it's there the next time and the next time and the next time.
KIM: Cool. All right, we're talking with Hanson on The Pulse. Sirius 9.
*
KIM: Kim Ashley, right before we head into your weekend here, we have a special situation here. We have some guest DJs on hand.
TAYLOR: Situation on hand.
KIM: Situation.
ZAC: We have a situation! We have a situation…
TAYLOR: Hanson in the control room!
ZAC: Hanson has taken over!
KIM: If you're sitting in here with them, it is a situation. No…
ZAC: *mumbles something*
ISAAC: What did he just say?
KIM: I don't know… he's trying to be a disc jockey. Please don't, it's bad enough that I'm doing it. Taylor, Zac, and Isaac are here, we're talking about Hanson and they have a brand new CD and it's called Underneath and it's coming out in four days on April 20th. Everybody is juiced about it and in a little bit we're going to play the first song when you put the CD into the CD player.
ZAC: This is what you're going to hear.
KIM: This is what you're going to hear, very, very shortly.
ZAC: Not our voices…but the music.
TAYLOR: The music after the interview. The talking.
TAYLOR: So, for people that are new fans, because we were talking before about how, you know, you do have a huge fan base but there are perhaps people who will hear this new CD and hear you for the first time.
TAYLOR: I hope so, I hope so.
KIM: Historically going back, because now this is the age of American Idol, which we just played Kelly Clarkston where people get record deals in a whole different way, but way back when you guys were doing it-well, I wouldn't say "way back" but back in 97 and a little bit before then, it was a whole different world. It wasn't that easy.
ZAC: It's still not that easy.
TAYLOR: It's still not that easy.
KIM: Well that's not that easy, but it's not that public, it was certainly a totally different road for you guys.
TAYLOR: Well, those things have always existed…
ISAAC: You've had Star Search and all of those kinds of things.
TAYLOR: That kind of thing, there's always things where there's always pseudo-shortcuts to the end goal but there's really no such thing. It's always just about making your music, discovering who you are as an artist, and then going forward and finding people that are excited about it. I mean, in our particular case, our story is much like every bands, very musician that starts out in a career. I mean, we started out when we were really young, that's really the only difference, but we made three independent records before we were signed and it was really-immediately it was about building a fan base. We had a few thousand…
ZAC: mailing lists…
TAYLOR: …people on our mailing list and we would send things out and we'd do shows. We played shows for five years; we probably played 350 shows before we were signed.
ZAC: Go make fliers at Kinko's and lick 300 stamps.
KIM: That explains a lot.
TAYLOR: Snort the glue.
ZAC: You know, we were turned down by the label that we were eventually signed by I think three or four times.
TAYLOR: The funny thing that's so amazing about all of this and people talking about, you know, hit songs and we're in an era of a lot of big corporate labels and a lot of different-people wanting to say, "oh, there's a lot less songs on radio" and there's so many changes and you know, when we think back about our career, like for instance "MMMBop," which was such an amazingly successful song for us, that album was what we went to labels with and we were turned down I think by like, 30 labels before we got signed. And it just proves that you're the only one that's ever really going to know. And you've got to know and then go after it. That's the thing I think that's different about this whole American Idol kind of approach, is that, oh, you just press a big red button and you become a superstar. It's really you've got to find out who you are, you've got to discover who you want to be as an artist and you've got to drive it home and say, "look, no, no, no, you don't get it. I know this. Once you see, you'll understand."
TAYLOR: All right, so who's favorite is this one that we're going to play here, "Strong Enough To Break."
TAYLOR: Oh, "Strong Enough To Break." I think all of us feel pretty strongly about this song. This was a cool writing experience because it just has a lot of emotion behind it. I think there was a lot of just feelings of-the song's all about sort of being willing to sort of take the "no's" because you're driving towards an eventual "yes." So it works well with what you were talking about.
ZAC: The title's pretty clear but it's just talking about being strong enough to pick yourself up back once you're broken. It's like, "I'm broken but I'm strong enough to put myself back together and get back on the road and get back on that task of life."
TAYLOR: Take one for the team. [laughs]
ISAAC: Yeah, exactly. "I'm sinking but I'm floating away… throw me a line so I can anchor my pain… the fabric is about to fray."
TAYLOR: Let's check it out. Hanson, "Strong Enough To Break," on The Pulse.
*
KIM: … "You Get What You Give" and we were talking about Gregg Alexander. By the way, I'm with Hanson. They worked with Gregg Alexander, who actually is the New Radicals.
ZAC: Well the New Radicals actually is only one person. A very confusing name for himself.
TAYLOR: It's like, "hi, I'm the New Radicals."
ISAAC: Well, it's like Five For Fighting. It's like one guy.
KIM: It's like John, yeah.
TAYLOR: It's like, "hi, what's up? Five for Fighting."
KIM: One For Fighting.
ISAAC: Exactly! One for… wait a second!
TAYLOR: We wrote, you know, on the record we wrote, you know, collaborated with a lot of different people. We were talking about Michelle Branch earlier, she came in, and we wrote the title track with Matthew Sweet, "Underneath." And Gregg Alexander was somebody that we-it is a small world-we were starting the record and he was out in Los Angeles where we were and we were just kind of mutual fans of the music, of each other's music. And so we just got together and put our heads together and say, "hey, let's write something" and we wrote a song called "Lost Without Each Other," which is on the record.
KIM: I'm going to change gears here for a second and ask you this question because you guys started out when you were really, really young and now…
TAYLOR: To be successful when you're really, really young is what's amazing. You know, we'd be doing this in our garage or for millions of people. And it's just we were lucky enough after playing for years locally we got some people, a record company, that got the project and understood it and then you know, it happened that a moment in time, we broke through and that's rare no matter how old you are. So, I just think we're kind of thankful for our successes and hopefully we'll continue to have fans that want to hear the music. I don't think it really matters how old you are.
KIM: Well, I want to actually ask you where the fans can see you in the very near future but hold that thought because we're going to play Josh Kelley first and then we're going to talk about that, coming up on The Pulse.
*
KIM: … huge fans of the Black Crowes are the guys that are sitting with me here right now.
TAYLOR: I really like your playlist today.
KIM: Yeah, it's cool.
TAYLOR: A lot of great music.
KIM: The Pulse is a kickin channel.
TAYLOR: There's a lot of great music on this show.
KIM: We're talking to Hanson by the way in case you haven't gathered. They're all here, Taylor, Zac, Isaac.
TAYLOR: Yeah, they're another great band.
KIM: There's places where you can actually see Hanson coming up. I know there are so many fans and they're so looking forward to the album coming out in four days, but they don't just want to hear you on the CD, they want to see you live, so…
TAYLOR: Well, we're going to be all over the place. We've just been doing tons of TV just to talk about the music but I mean, but as far as actually going to see the music, you can always go to hanson.net, all of the tour dates and everything will be up there but the plan is that we'll tour later this summer…
ISAAC: Starting in June, probably.
TAYLOR: Starting in June and we'll be all over the country, all over the world, really, and we can't wait for it. We just can't wait to get out there and play.
KIM: Well, Hanson's new CD is coming out in four days. It's called Underneath, it's going to come out on April 20th, you need to pick it up. This is Kim Ashley, thank you guys so much.
TAYLOR: Thanks for having us. It's been great.
KIM: It's been wonderful for us. Who wants to take it out with "Hey?"
ISAAC: Well, I guess I will.
KIM: Well say who you are!
ZAC: I think Ike's introduced most of the songs, so I'm going to go with, this is the song "Hey" from our new album Underneath, which comes out in four days! Here it is.