RADIO TRANSCRIPTS
Star 94
Atlanta, Georgia
28 October 2003RAY: … home of the cash cow. Somebody later today is going to milk the cash cow for up to $10,000!
HANSON: *cow noises*
RAY: The cows are calling!
TAYLOR: The cash goat.
CINDY: Seriously, Ray makes fun of me for doing that.
RAY: Cindy, I'm sorry. You're just not as good at the cow noises, I'm sorry.
CINDY: You're not making fun of them.
TAYLOR: Well, we're from Oklahoma. We know how to-
RAY: We have the Hanson cows here in the studio. There's Guernsey cows and there's others… no, but we have the Hanson brothers.
ISAAC: No, we've gained a lot of weight over the years.
RAY: We want to welcome Isaac, Taylor, and Zac here to the studio with us, and of course you guys are in town so that you can play the Halloween Bash tomorrow night.
ISAAC: Yes, we are!
TAYLOR: Yes, tomorrow night. It's going to be awesome.
RAY: There's literally maybe only thirty, forty tickets left. So if you want some…
CINDY: All right Zac, seriously, if you open that you better be sharing.
ZAC: Sharing? I'm just eating these cookies by myself over here.
TAYLOR: Zac is eating the cookies.
RAY: You can do what you want when you're a big rock star. Whatever you want. So, you've got a new CD out, it's called Underneath Acoustic.
ISAAC: Underneath Acoustic, yeah.
RAY: And you can buy it on your website right now.
TAYLOR: Yeah, what it is in the spring the third studio album comes out, it's really the third full-on album we've released.
ISAAC: It's called Underneath.
TAYLOR: It's called Underneath. What's out right now, Underneath Acoustic, is sort of hate to say it's a sneak peak cos it's it's own album in itself, it's definitely a cool album, but it's eight tunes, us jamming acoustically like we are at these acoustic shows, but it's eight songs from the upcoming album. So, it's kind of a way to get people into the new music before the real record drops in the stores. And it's are really cool thing cos we're playing these acoustic shows and the fans are getting to hear the music and know the songs walking into these shows when it's been three years since the last album.
ISAAC: And also, it's kind of a way to document what we're doing on this acoustic tour and have different versions. What I've found is what's cool about releasing it this way is fan base can hear the songs originally in this acoustic format and kind of like acoustic versions may be a little bit better than the… like yeah, "I like the fact that Zac plays the harmonica on that song and he doesn't on the real version and so on."
RAY: Well let me ask you, I'm very intrigued to see you play acoustic, because…
TAYLOR: You want to see if it sucks or not? *laughs*
RAY: Well no, we all remember this: *plays "MMMBop"*
CINDY: We have a bet.
TAYLOR: Sure.
RAY: We all remember this. Very produced.
TAYLOR: What's interesting about that is we've always, when we first started we were a cappella, just vocals. Then we added instruments and then even at that tour and on every tour we've done since, in the middle of the show we always stop in the middle and play acoustically. It's really nothing new in that sense, but it is new to be, you know, having recording a record that people can buy that's acoustic and just doing a tour that's acoustic. That's kind of taking it to the next level, but it's really almost going back to basics for us. I mean, this is really almost really the way we started. So, it's sort of the original Hanson, in a way.
ISAAC: Hanson… coming full circle!
TAYLOR: Yes!
CINDY: Was there ever a point that you guys thought, "If I have to play this freaking song one more time I'm going to lose my mind?"
ISAAC: No, not really…
ZAC: It's always fun to play because people get in to it. I was telling someone this afternoon when you play, you know, all the singles off the records like the singles off the second record, This Time Around and stuff, like, the fans get so into it that you can't help but enjoy it.
CINDY: Okay.
RAY: And too, let's be honest. "MMMBop" sold-helped you sell-over eight million CDs in 1997, so you guys became worldwide, smash known everywhere.
TAYLOR: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to really be upset about having success with something, so to be going, "Man, I hate that song!" is kind of stupid.
ISAAC: And I always say it's kind of like you gotta start a book somewhere, you gotta start with chapter 1 and that's chapter 1 and the chapters keep on going, so you kind of expand upon the characters that you create.
RAY: Now you guys obviously, you're not a boy band when you think of boy bands cos you play instruments and you write music and I think that's key, but what about some of these other boy bands we got to know over the years, the N'Sync's and the New Kids and all that? Did you guys learn anything from them? Growing up did you run into them?
ISAAC: Did we run into them? Actually, we have run into those guys several times over the years and they're all good guys. Very hard working guys, I mean, seriously.
ZAC: Well particularly, the style of music that we do in particular…
RAY: They were a different genre.
TAYLOR: Well they're also 45, so… no, I'm just kidding. A couple of those guys, they've got, like, twelve children.
RAY: It's true. Joey McIntyre was somebody I worked with at Columbia Records and he was obviously a New Kids, he was the youngest member. But he said, as he grew up he said, "now that the band's done, I'm an adult and I want to do something on my own and make my own music." You guys are all grown up now and you're getting a chance to make music.
TAYLOR: What's interesting is people identified Hanson as thinking, "oh wow, aren't they a boy band?" They called us, have said "boy band," but I think it was just a fact that we've always had fans that were our peers and we were so young that we had fans that were young responding to it, originally.
ISAAC: I mean, I was sixteen when the first record came out, you know, I'm 23 now… there's a pretty noticeable difference in that sense, but at the same time I think our sensibility as a band and who we've always been has not changed so much as that I think people's ability…
TAYLOR: it's developed into rock music, man.
ISAAC: Yeah, we've always just been rockin!
RAY: Zac, did you get to grow up at all like a normal kid? You were 9 or 10 when…
TAYLOR: Have you seen him? He's a freak.
ZAC: I was 11 when the first record came out. Yeah, I'm slightly freakish.
TAYLOR: We're all a little malformed.
ZAC: I've got that third arm and stuff.
CINDY: Seriously Zac, if I saw you walking down the street before right now, I would never recognize you. I think you look the most different than from…
ZAC: Well what do you expect, a guy going from 11 to 18, that's a pretty big change.
TAYLOR: Well, if you know Zac from when the first record came out, I mean, obviously it's a lot different.
CINDY: Well yeah, that's what I'm saying, if you had not paid attention in the last eight years you'd be like, "oh my gosh, he's completely grown up!" And Taylor, you're married and you're a dad!
TAYLOR: Mmhmm, yep, I've got-
CINDY: That's a pretty big deal!
TAYLOR: It's a huge deal. He's actually going to be… he's going to be a year old on the 31st, he's a Halloween baby.
RAY: You've got brothers almost that age, or sisters!
TAYLOR: Yeah, we were just talking about that. I've got a sister that's five and a son that's one.
RAY: So there's seven kids in your family?
TAYLOR: Yep.
RAY: Wow. And you're the oldest of the family, you three?
TAYLOR: Zac, yeah, isaac is the oldest, yeah.
RAY: I'll be darned. Well, you know, it'd be a waste to have you guys come in here with all your instruments and all the work that went into putting this together, the guys that came in and hooked you guys up. Do you guys want to play a song for us?
TAYLOR: Actually, we'd just like to hold the instruments and sit here and talk.
RAY: Well, you look great doing it, let me tell you!
ISAAC: Theater of the mind everyone! For everyone listening on Star 94…
TAYLOR: We're all holding guitars…
RAY: No, they're really going to play for us. We got Isaac, Taylor, and Zac. What are you going to play and is it from the new CD?
TAYLOR: This is a song called "Penny & Me." It's off the new record.
RAY: This is the first single, right?
TAYLOR: Yep. This'll be the first record.
RAY: Here they are, it's Hanson. Live on Star 94.
"PENNY & ME"
RAY: Star 94. Home of the cash cow. And we have the members of hanson in the studio here with us and we're just having a great time talking to you guys. Glad you could be here, appreciate it.
TAYLOR: Yeah, thanks for having us.
RAY: Isaac, Taylor, and Zac.
ZAC: *high-pitched voice* Yes?
RAY: And… we talked about "MMMBop" already, how big that was. But I read something, just today, Avril Lavigne won an award for Song of The Year for "Complicated" last night at the Radio Music Awards. But she said that Hanson was one of her main influences as she got into her musical career. Do you find that's the case, or do you run into people now that say to you, "man! I was all about you guys!"
TAYLOR: What's so cool about now having history in the broad sense-I mean, we've been a band for almost twelve years but the first major record came out almost seven years ago. And what's so cool about that is now you begin to see people that are like, "wow, I've been a fan for this long and now I'm in college and now I'm doing a totally different thing in my life but you've been such a part of my life." And people like Avril and…
ISAAC: Michelle Branch.
TAYLOR: Michelle Branch is a really good friend of ours who opened up for us and got signed and she's a great artist and you know, it's really amazing to have people that go, "wow, I was inspired by you and you made me want to go for it," I mean, that's all you can really hope for.
ISAAC: I mean, you constantly find people who will walk up to you during shows and things and say, "I've started doing music or started doing something that I really loved to do because you kind of inspired me to go for it."
TAYLOR: And that's sort of the whole point. You love what you do, we've sort of always said we can't not do it, we might as well do it as a career, and so when you actually get to meet people that said, "Wow, I was inspired by you," you know how that feels.
ISAAC: You've been inspired by other people too.
TAYLOR: Other artists, yeah.
ISAAC: We just feel lucky that we have the opportunity and hopefully our music has been influential enough to certain people that they can be encouraged to do stuff they love.
TAYLOR: You just go up there and rock.
ISAAC: It's all about the rock!
TAYLOR: And hopefully it turns around.
CINDY: Is it neat to you that your fans have stuck through the beginning and everything and now you're finding you guys have grown up, they've grown up, and like you said they're in college. You guys are selling out shows left and right.
ZAC: Hopefully you can still be relevant to your fans and as you change and as your fans change you can still be relevant to them though your life. And hopefully you desire to take your fan base through your entire career.
ISAAC: It's the challenge of any artist; every artist has that challenge to remain relevant to their audience and not only grow their fan base but hold on to the ones they originally had. And what's interesting is you'll find situations like we were in London this young lady whose 23, she has kind of been following the band for years and we've watched her start out as just a fan to being part of several small magazines to then, when we did an interview with her last time, she's now a part of the Associated Press.
CINDY: Wow.
TAYLOR: She's a major writer.
ISAAC: So, she's a major writer now. So, it's very, very cool to watch people keep going and yet you're still relevant to them in their lives. It's very, very cool.
CINDY: Were you worried at all that when you guys came back around, like, "oh my gosh, are they still going to be there?"
TAYLOR: Well, it's been three years since the last album, even since the last album, and a lot of people think of us from when the first album came out, so yeah, I mean, you're always kind of putting your music out. I mean, every time you put a record out you're always crossing your fingers to a certain extent, I mean, you go out to make a record, you put your passion onto the music, and then you hope that you can touch people with it. So, the whole idea of the acoustic tour was it's been that long, it's sort of a thank you to a lot of the most devoted fans, doing smaller shows, more intimate places, playing acoustically, the whole kind of idea of it was we really kind of wanted to sort of charge the fans who have been there from the beginning to kind of say, "hey guys, we appreciate your devotion."
RAY: Well, they've been there for you cos I understand they've all been sold out and that's fantastic. And you're going to end the tour, as I understand it, playing Carnegie Hall November 5th.
TAYLOR: Yeah, Carnegie Hall in New York.
RAY: That's going to be a kick, isn't it?
TAYLOR: It's going to be amazing. What an amazing place.
ZAC: I don't know if any of you guys have been in there, but you walk in and stand on that stage and it's just like…
CINDY: Chills?
RAY: Every great musician you can think of has played Carnegie Hall.
TAYLOR: In fact, Zac was taking the planks from the floor and rubbing them on his arms and his body. "Feels so good."
RAY: Before they play Carnegie Hall, they will have played Earthlink Live, in Atlanta. Which is tomorrow night, Halloween Bash. Still can get the last few tickets at ticketmaster.com, and we'd love for you to play some more music for us, can you do that?
TAYLOR: Yeah, absolutely. Is this "Deeper?"
ISAAC: Yeah, this is "Deeper."
TAYLOR: This is a song called "Deeper" off the acoustic EP.
RAY: It's Hanson, live on Star 94.
"DEEPER"
RAY: Star 94. That's Hanson, live in the studio with us. Man, that's awesome.
TAYLOR: Thanks so much.
RAY: Rolling Stone said that first CD you put out, Middle of Nowhere, is one of the essential albums of the 90s.
COMMERCIAL
RAY: Star 94. Home of the cash cow. We're Cindy and Ray with the guys from Hanson in here. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac are here.
ZAC: *moo* noises
RAY: So, I just found out…
ZAC: Making animal noises.
RAY: I just found out that one of your guitar picks goes for like, $60 on ebay! It's insane!
CINDY: Shut up! Are you kidding?
RAY: 60 bucks for a guitar pick!
ISAAC: Well, Taylor always forgets to throw his guitar picks out so…
TAYLOR: So they're worth more.
ZAC: And especially with the new special edition Pearl ones that Ike has.
ISAAC: I have the special edition Pearle, yeah.
TAYLOR: Pearle picks.
ZAC: Like mother of pearl picks, they're awesome.
TAYLOR: Ebay is definitely a beast that you can't control, I mean it's just about supply and demand.
ZAC: Zac Hanson's thong underwear! "I don't wear thong underwear!" They still buy it!
TAYLOR: One crazy person is like, "I'll pay $1000 for that!" and suddenly it's worth $1000.
RAY: Are you guys… some bands that I know don't like to sign things like guitars cos they say they just end up on ebay.
TAYLOR: Well, we've always had a huge problem with that. Everything that has been given away, sold. Radio stations take stuff that we sign and sell it, so we're like, "what's your name…?" BOB!
CINDY: Do you guys buy stuff off ebay?
TAYLOR: My own autograph.
ISAAC: I have to confess: I have an obsession since I was three years old I've been into LEGO.
ZAC: Yeah, he's obsessive.
ISAAC: And I do buy LEGO, like old stuff from the 80s.
TAYLOR: But that's not that weird.
ISAAC: Medieval stuff. So I'll go on and find rare pieces.
CINDY: I love ebay.
ZAC: You buy stuff like special edition (?)
TAYLOR: Stuff like that. And it is cool for musical instruments sometimes, the only problem with it is you can't test them out but you can get finds, there are some times where people don't know what they have and you're like, "oh my god, that's $4, okay."
CINDY: Sucker!
RAY: All right, well, we do this thing as we mentioned, just to give you a little heads up, we're getting ready to do 60 Seconds where we find out… we're going to shoot some questions at you and if you would, just answer those questions.
ISAAC: Does it have to be like, each one of us answer it, or…?
RAY: Well, we've never done it with multiple people.
TAYLOR: Just aim it, just decide who you want to answer each question as you go or something like that and we'll just...
RAY: You want to just go in order? Cindy? We'll just go like, Isaac, Taylor, Zac. Isaac, Taylor, Zac.
TAYLOR: Random is fun!
CINDY: All right, so we're going to do Isaac, Taylor, Zac.
RAY: That's right. Isaac, Taylor, Zac, and we'll be good to go. You ready?
CINDY: I'm ready! Isaac, what TV show can't you live without?
ISAAC: Don't watch TV enough to know.
CINDY: All right, Taylor, most expensive thing you ever bought for yourself.
TAYLOR: Most expensive thing I ever bought… gold plated underwear.
CINDY: Zac, favorite Halloween costume as a kid.
ZAC: Dead army man.
CINDY: Isaac, boxers or briefs?
ISAAC: Boxers, baby!
CINDY: Taylor, last person you said "I love you" to?
TAYLOR: Um… my… wife.
ISAAC: He had to think about that! *laughs*
TAYLOR: I was going to say my son, I was trying to think which one was last.
CINDY: Zac, favorite snack food?
ZAC: These cookies!
CINDY: Isaac, one thing you would miss if you weren't a celebrity?
ISAAC: Uh… not much!
ZAC: These cookies!
ISAAC: Not that much.
CINDY: Taylor, favorite Halloween prank.
TAYLOR: Favorite Halloween prank. Definitely leaving a big bucket of water on the front door and having people open it up and then, you know, dumping it.
CINDY: Ooh, terrible. Zac, have you been to the Emergency Room and, if so, for what?
ZAC: No and nothing!
CINDY: Okay, Isaac, what food do you cook the best?
ZAC: Nothing!
ISAAC: No, pasta or pico de gayo.
TAYLOR: Aw, 60 seconds is up! Didn't that stop?
RAY: I didn't hear the buzzer, but it is over.
ZAC: Aww!
RAY: 60 seconds is over.
CINDY: I was having so much fun, I could have kept going.
ZAC: Tay, I thought you were going to say the poo in a bag.
CINDY: Euw, Zac!
TAYLOR: But honestly, that's not nearly as effective. It's really nasty, but the bucket on the door… somebody opens the door…
CINDY: It's not as effective as poo?
TAYLOR: No, it doesn't have the impact. It doesn't have the same kind of…
ZAC: Egging cars, keying cars, I mean, there's so many great ones.
ISAAC: Bologna on the car. That sucks, dude.
TAYLOR: Did you really find out more about Hanson or are you just…
RAY: I think we found out a little more about you.
CINDY: I'm still stuck on boxers or briefs with Isaac, so I'm going to need a minute.
ZAC: The real answer to that, which I wish it would have been for me, was commando!
CINDY: I've now moved to Zac!
RAY: That's great. Well, we really want to thank you guys. Hanson, here in the studio with us. Tomorrow they'll be playing Halloween Bash at Earthlink Live. You can get their latest CD, Underneath Acoustic at hanson.net and then look forward to getting the full-blown, fully plugged-in Underneath.
TAYLOR: And it'll be out everywhere.
ISAAC: Out in stores all over the world.
ZAC: Yesss! Sweeeet!
RAY: Hanson! Good luck, thanks, we'll see you tomorrow night for sure.
CINDY: We're introducing you guys tomorrow night.
TAYLOR: Oh, it'll be great.
RAY: We might as well go back to music, playing a song by a girl who won a Radio Music Award yesterday, or last night, and also says who you guys were her main influences…