Steve Wright
London, England
08 February 2005STEVE: Hanson, by the way, say that they are fans of British irony and they love Britain; in fact, you guys don't live here now, do you? Cos it seems like you live here!
ISAAC: No, we don't live here but we've been here enough in the last few months to feel like we do!
STEVE: Okay, now you're going to have to say… which one are you?
ISAAC: I'm Isaac. I play guitar.
STEVE: And then this one is…?
TAYLOR: This is Taylor.
STEVE: And then there's…
ZAC: Zac.
STEVE: Now where's the one with the very long hair?
ZAC: We killed him. *laughs*
ISAAC: He's dead.
TAYLOR: We had him shot.
ISAAC: There were three other members in this band… they're dead.
STEVE: Ooh, no!
TAYLOR: We are the real Hanson.
ISAAC: We're sick and tired of those dang posers! Okay? They were stealing our spotlight; we're taking it back.
STEVE: No, but do you ever think, seriously, do you ever look back and think, "what did we look like?"
ZAC: No. I mean, you are what you are. You know, there are things, "maybe I wouldn't have worn that shirt" or whatever. I was 11 when people first saw us, so you're a young kid. People are going to make fun of you whether it's your hair or your high voice or whatever it is.
TAYLOR: But no, honestly, not at all. We're proud of everything that we've done.
STEVE: Now are you surprised… you were around… I'm just trying to think, "MMMBop" was like 97?
ISAAC: 97, 98.
STEVE: Okay, so then you had an incredible career for about 2-3 years, and then for British people you suddenly disappeared and were nowhere! And then suddenly you come back and you're as big as ever! How does that happen?
ISAAC: Well, we like to cross our fingers and hope that it's the fact that we killed the other guys in the band. *laughs*
TAYLOR: Seriously, I mean, I'll try and give you a quick history of where we are and why that's true… I mean, a lot of it has to do with the way the music industry has changed over the last couple records… *cell phone rings in background* Oh, that would be a phone.
ZAC: They told us-they're like, "turn off your mobiles! Make sure your mobiles are off!"
STEVE: I am so unprofessional, I'm sorry guys. I should turn that off now. I didn't know that was on.
TIM: I can't believe it, that's only the second time this week you've done that.
STEVE: I know, but this does video everyone.
ZAC: He's just so star struck that he forgot to turn off his mobile.
JANEY: Someone's called him saying, "get a video! Quick!"
STEVE: "Get a video of the band!" But that's the thing, you're talking about the posters on the walls, the young girls and everything and then suddenly it went and then suddenly it's back.
TAYLOR: Well basically on the second album, the second album came out in 2000 and by the time we got to the second recprd-the music industry, if anyone looks at it, you see merger after merger, record companies buying each other. And by the time we got to the second album, we were basically on a rap label. And so when we came into the promoting of that record, it was kind of like, the whole structure of the company said, "well, we really think you guys have sold a lot of records, but we really don't know what to do with it." And so that second record, I think, survived and it still sold a million records, but survived the process of having people that were none of the people that were originally with us…
ISAAC: And didn't have the focus.
TAYLOR: Didn't have the focus. And so as we go into making this new record, Underneath, we began to realize more and more that we didn't have the relationships in order to go forward and make records the way we always had, which was to make music that we were passionate about, have people that were partners that really understood it, and then that's when we chose to start our own record company and release it independently and now we're finally back with this third record.
JANEY: But for you it was always a case that you were going to carry on writing…
TAYLOR: Of course.
JANEY: You never thought, "okay, I'm going to go off and be a hairdresser."
TAYLOR: There was never any time… a hairdresser? That's an interesting choice.
ISAAC: Definitely not a hairdresser.
TAYLOR: Have you seen our hair?! *laughs* No, I wish we could say that we spent some time in Tahiti getting a really good tan, but as you can see, we definitely don't have one. NO. There was never at all even a second where we thought for a second that we would stop, but there has been an immense amount of life lived and things that have gone on even since 2000 to now, five years since the last album. So, I guess for us we're in an amazing position now where we're with Cooking Vinyl here, which is a really cool independent record company, and working with independent record companies all over the world. We own our own music. And our biggest focus is not the next single, or even the next album. We can actually set the precedent a little bit more, and of course making sure that we keep our hair short.
STEVE: But you missed the boy band thing really cos you were a kid band, so boy band in between, and now you're an adult group.
ZAC: Well, I guess we're a man band.
STEVE: Yeah, you must be a man band!
ZAC: What comes after man band?
TAYLOR: Rubber band.
ISAAC: Or Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club's Band.
STEVE: Yeah, could be! But obviously you had to move on and will continue to do so. Who do you think, or who do you know, are the people that buy the records now?
TAYLOR: We do know who our true hardcore fans are, which are mostly our peers. I mean, Zac's 19, Isaac's 24. So I mean, that span, the most devoted, the ones who have stayed with us from the beginning till now, really. And you always have anomalies, a lot older fans and then younger fans that are coming along and hearing the new records but those are the ones… and that's the thing I'm most proud of is taking your fans with you.
STEVE: "Penny & Me," by the way, is such a great record.
TAYLOR: Oh thank you!
STEVE: Without knowing it was you, everybody said, "oh, this is great!" And then they discover it's you, and you think, "oh, okay. It's not as they used to be." It's not even in the style of 'MMMBop,' is it?
TAYLOR: Well, it has words.
STEVE: That's the only similarity I can hear! And so is it a big time responsibility having your own record company and your own management…
TAYLOR: It's huge!
ISAAC: It is huge.
TAYLOR: A big responsibility, and it's hard to do. You know why a lot of artists don't choose to go there cos it's hard to be the CEO, quote unquote, and the artist.
ZAC: Who wants to work for us?
TAYLOR: But I guess for us, we love what we do music-wise that I guess we're willing to take those chances because it allows us to do it more.
STEVE: So when you were first around, was it all going on around you really? Were you victims as such?
TAYLOR: Of what?
STEVE: Of your own success? Of record companies and puppets? Were you puppets?
TAYLOR: Absolutely not. Without a doubt. You see, it's hard for people to realize - "you guys are pretty together right now!" - we were always like this. And it's scary, but it's true!
ZAC: They thought we were aliens when we were younger too!
TAYLOR: Just meaning that we always really wanted it in that way and also we were really lucky to have really good people early on that kept us from getting taken advantage of. Of course, everybody has their horror stories. It's a business of leeches. You've got something that people want and they're going to suck the blood out until you're dry. You'll always find those people and there's many stories of that. But lucky enough to have people around us that we trusted and we've carried forward with a lot of those people, so.
STEVE: You know why I like talking to you guys because the other day I was reading in a magazine, "oh yeah, Hanson were in doing a TV show and they NEVER. STOPPED. TALKING." And if you're interviewers, that's good.
TAYLOR: You just have to say, "GO!"
STEVE: It said, "and they never. Stopped. Talking." *laughs* Did you see it? It was in the Heat magazine or something.
ISAAC: No, I didn't actually see that but I wish I would have.
ZAC: We tend to run into a question for each other. So I'll answer a question and he'll answer another question off of my question.
TAYLOR: The difference is, you guys are good interviewers. And you have to learn how to compensate for the ones that aren't.
STEVE: Ah yeah, yeah, well, I don't know…
TIM: I believe that was a compliment, move on! Quickly!
STEVE: Alright. "Penny & Me," by the way, is brilliant, and there's another single that's going to be "Lost Without Each Other?"
ZAC: That's correct.
STEVE: Okay. And that's coming out in March, am I correct?
TAYLOR: It's actually coming out… going to radio in the next couple weeks, so…
STEVE: Oh, okay, yeah, so we'll get that soon. So we're going to play the current hit, and then after that we're going to play "Lost Without Each Other." And thanks very much boys, we'll see you next time! Hanson! Hanson!
[typed up by THD]