DJ: Thanks for that. Hanson is on campus today and they are going to show their documentary Strong Enough To Break on Marquette Hall, room 100 today at noon. So right now we’re just going to kind of talk to you guys and see what’s going on. You’ve been involved in other film projects in the past, such as your Tulsa, Tokyo, & the Middle of Nowhere and Hanson: At The Fillmore DVDs. How would you say that this documentary is different from those projects?

ISAAC: I would say this documentary almost couldn’t be more different, although they were both shot in many cases… yeah, by actually… our director/friend, Ashley Greyson, who was a part of this film, Strong Enough To Break, he was involved in Tulsa, Tokyo…. He was not specifically involved in…

ZAC: …it was a big part of the reason why we felt confident enough with letting him make the film cos we had worked with him, we did know—have that—we were comfortable, when he came into the studio with us writing songs, it wasn’t like some random guy with a camera. It was somebody you knew.

TAYLOR: The whole thing about the film—the film is a documentary. It was originally designed to be a film about music and because we knew Ashley and because we had done some of the things you mentioned with him before, we were comfortable, and what it became was, instead of a film about the way you make music, it became a film sort of about the political struggles in today’s record companies, especially the major labels, and especially our particular situation cos we’re, like many bands, were signed to a record company that had been bought by another one and because of that we were working with a lot of people that weren’t originally on the label, like accountants, lawyers, and it was a situation where we didn’t have any passion from anybody and the whole system was dying with just really short-term thinking, cos everyone—you’ve got these big companies that are based on public ownership, they’re public companies so every quarter they’ll look at stockholders, so every time you’re making a record, you got a project, you’re working with accountants and lawyers doing a creative job.

ISAAC: It ends up being a bit counterintuitive.

TAYLOR: All these cycles, like you start going through this list of things that you go, “This is a music company.” You feel like you’re in the twilight zone and you’re Hanson working with an accountant on a rap label. That’s where we were. And the film illustrates that and ultimately our decision to make our own record company. So, I’d say this is definitely a leap and a jump from anything we’ve ever done, but it is cool that we are the producers of the film, we made sure we got it done, but the story is what it is about.

DJ: So you guys were the producers on the film? Were you guys involved at all in the editing process or the filming process, or were you guys just the subjects and Ashley filmed you guys?

ISAAC: We tried to stay as out of the process as possible in the sense that we didn’t want our own personal bias to get involved in some of the aspects of the film. We wanted it to be used—the film was an opportunity to try and tell as honest as a story, and as producers we made a specific point of saying, “Look, we want to make sure we’re as accurately as possible depicting what was going on as you were watching it, as we were watching it unfold, and try to keep it to that.”

TAYLOR: As far as filming goes, the thing about the documentary is there’s definitely moments in there that were so unexpected, even though Ashley was there with us all the time. Sometimes somebody that was just standing there had to just pick up a camera. Sometimes it was one of us, sometimes it was a friend that was just there, and it was like, “Okay, this is a moment” and the camera didn’t happen to be rolling. You just kind of go with it.

ISAAC: There are couple points even in the documentary trailer that you see where there’s one point where we’re having a conversation and Tay says a couple key lines right there, like, “What have we got to lose? We’ve got to do this or I’m going to drive off a cliff, I can’t take it anymore!” And that was a conversation that we were having and I was like, “This is really important conversation” and I literally ran around the corner and found a camera and turned it on and pointed it at everybody and made sure that we were capturing the conversation, so it was an involved process on everybody’s part cos we were all wanting to make sure that as much as of what was going on was accurate and captured and dynamic.

ZAC: When it came to editing and when it came to putting film together, that was really two guys—Ashley Greyson, who filmed most of it and is the director, and then a guy named John Russell, who was the editor of the film.

DJ: Awesome. Obviously you guys, you have made a name for yourselves and you have a strong, supportive fan base. Some might consider releasing a film that shows a harsher reality about the music industry a risky move. You guys said, “We have to do this no matter what,” to break away from the label. But the film, was that scary at all? Were you hesitant at all to release something like that?

ISAAC: Well, you know, we would have preferred to be able to release it right when we were releasing Underneath, but the film wasn’t done. So, we are using this tour as an opportunity to take this story around and tell people before we move on to the next record, what it took to get Underneath out and just talk about the importance of the growing independent music scene and everything. It’s important to say, we don’t want to be caught in a situation where people think that we’re French writing, “slave” on our face or something like that. We’re not out there to say, “Oh, the major labels are wrong and we’re an artist, take care of us and we should be treated better.” No. What we’re really saying is that there’s an epidemic in the record industry right now, which is that you’ve got people doing creative jobs that really aren’t qualified to do them. And the net result is, I believe, that overall, record sales are down, I believe in large part because of that phenomenon. I also believe that is fueled by the quality of music that is being made and also radio listenership as a whole is down. There’s a lot of problems within the record industry, but what we’re trying to say is, “Look, there’s all these problems. What are the problems?” We believe, in large part the problems starts on the ground floor, which is the making of records and singing of bands, and the only way to sign quality bands and make quality records is to have people in those positions who really understood through years of experience how to get records made, how to be productive, and how to be efficient in the way they make them. People spend too much money on records anyway, in large part because they’re not experienced.

TAYLOR: In the end, we can talk about it till the sun rises again tomorrow, all the different things going on in the business, but the ultimate goal is, the solution is today’s music business is one that’s unique cos it’s being reinvented. They’re teaching in all the music business courses in schools around the country and most of the things they’re teaching—they’re not even going to be useful because a lot of the structure of the business is reshaping itself. What we’re trying to say, is, “Here’s one example of problem with the current major label system, which is developed over a period of years, which is related to making albums and developing bands.” Okay? That’s one problem that’s become an epidemic for bands on major labels. But there’s more and more things going on like that and as fans of music and as active, young people that are educating themselves, we should all be taking a role of involvement in what goes on in how the new infrastructure develops, getting our opinion out there, supporting bands that we’re into, supporting independent bands, and trying to say that because things are changing, a lot of the independent outlets are the ones that are doing things right. They’re thinking outside the box, they’re focusing on their fans, and it’s really, it’s trying to say, “We have one part of the story,” if we show the negative, we can draw a positive out of that and hopefully give students some kind of motivation to say, “Okay, wow, here’s one example of a problem so I can get my head around that there’s something to kind of fix” and work from there.

ISAAC: And the last final point would be that in addition to the fact that the industry has shrinking in large part major labels not doing the creative job and not being responsible to their fans, cos their fans really don’t care anymore. You can’t look at a record label logo and say, “Oh! I trust that!” unless it’s an indie. SubPop. Victory Records. Many others. You can actually look at the logo and say, “Oh! I know them! I know that they deliver quality to me when I purchased a record, I liked it.” So, what’s important to say is that with practically every percentage point that the majors lose in market share, an indie gains, in the industry right now. 1 in 4 records that are sold are through independent labels. There is a massive number of albums being released every day by independent labels and so it’s important to say that cos that is unique to the last few years. There has not been that kind of influx of indies up until a few years ago, so.

DJ: You guys are talking about the problems within the music industry… is there anything you think the audiences can do to influence the way that music is being released to them?

TAYLOR: Well, there’s huge things they can do. The key is that it’s always hard being one person, but the thing that’s happened with the internet is it’s made one person 100x more powerful than they’ve ever been, and that’s a key point that we’ve been making to students, is the way that—communities like MySpace were invented because now you can actually—you trust your friends, and one thing that’s happened especially with the music business is you trust your friends more than anybody else. I’d say one of the big things you can do is play a role of involvement in the places—if you are happy or even if you’re not or even if you are, being in touch with—whether it’s your local radio station or whether it’s your local clubs--

ISAAC: College station…

TAYLOR: Your local college station… get your voice out there and be the active passionate music fan, coming up with ideas, telling people about the bands you’re into. Use those communities on the web to not just be the fifth or tenth person that hears about a band and follows the crowd, but be talking about it and fueling the ideas of new bands. Use the tools like the internet that allow you to instantly reach hundreds, even thousands of people to help spread the word. What’s happened is the internet has leveled the playing field for ideas, it’s given all thee other avenues, and then at the same time, be active in really playing a role in supporting a lot of the independent outlets that are really giving you more. Bands that are really touring and coming to support their record to schools and local clubs, reaching out and making—being responsible in the way you download music. Finding legitimate ways to get tunes so you can support bands, while at the same way looking to a new way to get music, and also just looking at making sure that you realize that your opinion is going to affect something because it’s not just you now, it’s a whole generation of people that are looking for answers, that are looking for new and exciting thing to talk about in music, and to realize that probably if you’re frustrated with music right now, if you’re thinking to yourself, “Man, I wish I heard more songs on the radio,” or, “I wish that band didn’t take five years to put out an album.” Then you probably are one of millions at this point that feel that way and so I think the biggest part is you use the tools you have to play an active role of being involved and I think it’s pretty board but to break it down and be like, “Go do these three things,” is not the job. It’s to realize that you can never go on autopilot. The whole thing the music business has done, and industry after industry goes through these cycles where they become so successful that they come complacent and then they lose their focus and then ultimately they have to be rebuilt. You see it not only in industries but you see it in countries. Our country, as a whole, we’re the most powerful, wealthy country in the world and the challenge to us as a generation that’s literally going to take over the country and the world as we grow and grow up is, are we going to be comfortable or are we going to be active and we going to be looking for ways to keep our culture alive and well and be the ones that are cultivating these things? Music is just sort of like the first thing that we’re going to lose if we don’t do that, cos it’s so vapid. It can be crushed, cos it’s a small group of people making music successfully. So, that’s going to go before a lot of other things will, so I think it’s a sign of the times, the activity.

DJ: Did you guys target college audiences strictly because you feel that younger audience has that capability to go on MySpace and have that word of mouth?

ZAC: We targeted that audience because they are the people who are most active in music, they are the people who are already finding a lot of the great bands that are indie and doing it right, working with a lot of the labels. You’re never going to be more active than you are now, for the most part. Most people. So I think it’s important also cos they’re going to take over the jobs. They’re going to be the ones taking over the next label jobs, being the next head of A&R or marketing or whatever it is, and I think trying to talk to people now about what’s going on and hopefully they can develop their own ideas about what they want to change and what they want to do to make it a stronger community of people really giving out great music.

DJ: What’s the future for this documentary? I know you guys are kind of showing it college campuses. Are you planning on releasing it like a limited release, like at art houses or are you just going to put it out on DVD? Is it even going to be available after this?

TAYLOR: We sort of look at colleges as almost like film festivals. We’ve gone to about 40 schools in the last 6 weeks, which is awesome. That’s just the beginning. Schools around the country have begun picking it up as a tool, incorporating it into their curriculum. Putting it in music school programs like USC in LA and NYU in New York, which are some of the biggest music business schools and I think we’d like to see that happen, just a grassroots effect, just more and more schools requesting the use of it and screening it, whether we’re theater to do Q&As or not. Just incorporate it. What we need to be doing is not saying, “Screw you!” to the man, going to the big industry, going, “You suck!” But saying to ourselves, “We all want to benefit from great music, we all need to figure out how we can get our opinion out there,” and educate people that their opinion matters. So, we’d like for that to happen. There’s been interest from companies about screening it in select theaters and putting it on TV, but I would say there’s no question we’re going to release it on DVD some point. Probably some time next year. But I would encourage people that if they’re curious about it, especially if they’re a student, if they want to bring it to their school or if they have friends that are interested, you can contact us through hanson.net or you can go to 3cgrecords.com, there’s a contact and you can say, “Hey, I want to help bring the film to my school, how do I do that?” cos we want to give our peers a chance to be the first ones. We’re saying, “Take leadership,” so do. If you want to bring the film, take leadership and help bring it to your school.

DJ: Awesome. And just kind of one last question about the documentary before we move on—if there was one message that you could have an audience member walk away from the film with, what would you want that one message to be?

TAYLOR: I think the one message is that the story that you’re watching is one example of the problem. It’s a representative of a problem, and that you have a role to play in music. It’s not—a lot of times you have a conversation with someone or you do something, you feel like this is just an isolated thing. But this film is one example of what many artists are going through in today’s big record companies that are consolidated, that have put in accountants and lawyers to do creative jobs, and ultimately it’s not knowing how to make records, cos they just don’t know how to do it, they don’t know how to focus on making albums, and as students that one problems is a domino and that you do have a role to play in affecting the solution.

DJ: Awesome. Kind of moving onto about you guys being an independent band now. In the year 2004, your album Underneath entered the Billboard independent chart at #1. What did that feel like? Were you guys at all surprised or did it feel like your hard work and persistence to keep going paid off?

ZAC: It felt awesome. I think it was something we hoped we could do but obviously the gratification of working really hard to form this company and this whole process with that record to have people recognize that in a way of buying albums is a very amazing thing. Also, as a company for your first release to be a #1 independent album, that was a very cool thing for us. You actually see it, if people come to the documentary—I don’t know, what is the building that it’s showing in?

DJ: It’s Marquette Hall, room 100. At noon.

ZAC: At noon. And you actually see—the film goes through that whole process and shows us on our first moment of finding out and I think it was just kind of a joyous shock.

TAYLOR: We were just sitting here talking about the album and then we were talking about the documentary. Why don’t we segway into a live version of the title track of the documentary, “Strong Enough To Break,” which was also the first song on the album Underneath that we released last year, our first independent release? This is from the live album that we

HANSON – “STRONG ENOUGH TO BREAK” (from L&E)

DJ: Alright, we’re back with Hanson. You just heard “Strong Enough To Break” off of their Live & Electric album. Why did you guys choose to release a live album before another studio album?

TAYLOR: Well, again, like we said, that song is the title track of the documentary we’re screening later on, on campus. It’s called Strong Enough To Break. That song is from the last album Underneath, it was the last studio album. I think the reason we wanted to put out a live album first is first of all, we’ve been touring for about 2 years promoting the last album we just felt like we were in a good place as a band—the sound and the way we sound as a band and the things we’re doing and it’s kind of a good time to sort of pull everything tour, wrap up everything we’ve done. It has songs off the first record, the second album, plus random covers, plus songs people may not have heard, and a couple new songs. So, it just seemed like a great way to pull it all together.

DJ: How has being an independent band changed the daily operations of the band, or has it at all? Kind of when you think of indie bands you think of them in a little bus—or a little van, carrying around all their stuff. Has it really changed the way you guys operate on a daily basis?

TAYLOR: It’s changed everything about the actual business in the sense of exactly how we do a lot of the tasks, but as far as the actual—the process of who we are as a band, it’s really just facilitated it.

ZAC: It hasn’t changed, even being an indie band we were in something like 35 countries last year touring, promoting the last record. Obviously, we’re touring all around the country right now. It hasn’t changed that for us, it’s more changed I think the mindset and the way we can do things as a band and as a label.

TAYLOR: The key thing is that we’re trying to sort of reeducate or redefine what it means to be a independent. The thing about independent music obviously yes, you tend to think of someone who is not as necessarily big, doing something more underground, but what’s amazing about independent music now is, because major labels have become so consolidated and they focus on so few artists an don’t really have the focus of building careers, you have a huge gap where music fans don’t have music that they want. There’s not a lot of great bands out there being promoted by the major labels. So, what’s happening is the independent music scene has the ability to grow, and it is growing. So, the fact that Hanson is independent is a good sign because we’re a band who’s perceived as being a fairly mainstream artist, and why would we be independent? We sort of try to use that to our advantage in saying, “The fact that you don’t expect us to be independent is part of our message.” There’s so much great music out there that’s not reaching people and the independent music scene is going to allow for a rebirth of a lot of great music and we’re lucky that we have a really strong touring base; we’ve always—like Zac said, we toured the world on an independent record that we own and that’s something that is a huge credit to our fans but also a credit to the way we’re doing the business itself. We set it up so that we own our music but we also work with other indie labels around the world to help us get it out around the world. So you have the reach of a major with the mindset of an indie, which, for us, we couldn’t really have anything better than that.

DJ: You guys have been running a contest where you allow your fans to vote on the opening act on each stop on your current tour. Where did you come up with that idea and what really pushed you to move forward with it?

TAYLOR: It all came, I think, from the original concept of just helping out indie bands. Everyone is helped by someone, everyone is assisted many, many times over by people saying, “Hey, I’ll give you a chance.” On our very first major tour we played arenas and we could have taken out other bands that could have helped sell more tickets, and taken it to even bigger venues. We took out indie bands. We took out a local band from our hometown. On our second tour, Michelle Branch, who was, at the time just a singer-songwriter in Arizona, she opened up for us. Both cases where the band got signed and Michelle especially went on to obviously have lots of success and continues to have success. We felt like we could take it up a notch and not only do that with a band or two but incorporate the local music scene and also involve, in a lot of cases, college radio stations to help promote their favorite bands locally and say to ourselves, “There’s not that many opportunities for local independent bands, especially today,” and we just wanted to come up with a simple way to empower them, and at the same time, give our fans a lot more because when you come to a show, you’re going to see that local band that as voted on by the fans and by the local fans, and you’re also going to see the Pat McGee Band, who is another band, a great touring band, they’ve been touring around for years and they’re great. They’re also opening up. Plus us. So you get three bands in that same night, one of which is voted on by you. And again, if you choose to be involved, if you choose to be one of the more active music people, you may actually help decide whether that local band is your favorite local band.

DJ: Are you happy with how the contest has been going? Have you received feedback from any of the bands that have opened, saying, “Thanks a lot you guys!”

TAYLOR: Oh yeah, every show we hang out with them and we just talk them and they’re usually just thrilled because, you know, obviously we’re just one band. We have an active group of fans, but those bands are just going, “How do I get out of my local scene? How do I reach more people?” and what we’re saying is, “Well, you come play the Hanson show.” We have active fans that are hungry for music, not just Hanson music, and I think what’s happened is the bands have sold tons of records at each show and I know, for a fact, that they’ve gained fans. They’ve gained local fans that are going to support what they do and that’s exactly what you need to have happen. We wanted to put our money where our mouth was and just say, “Hey, let’s do something that’s very real.” And it’s really cool. It’s been awesome to meet so many bands, almost 30 bands.

DJ: That’s cool. Tonight is the show over in Milwaukee at The Rave. What can concert attendees expect from tonight’s show? Will there be any “Man From Milwaukee” at all?

TAYLOR: It’s hard to play Milwaukee and not play “Man From Milwaukee.” I don’t want to make it a cliché though.

DJ: I don’t think it is.

ZAC: I’m sure we’ll bring that one out of the closet, that’s one that… we mix up every set at every show. We do different stuff, so I think it’s very much a possibly that we’ll be playing that song. That’s a fun one, that’s one that we really enjoy, pulling it out. Just like every song, when you get the chance to throw different songs in there, do different sets each night, and that was obviously one that’s a very light hearted song but I think we do our best to have a lot of fun while playing it.

DJ: I think it’ll be good, I’m kind of excited to hear it. So, if you want more information about the show tonight at The Rave you can go online to therave.com. Hanson’s new release is The Best of Hanson: Live & Electric. Visit their website hanson.net, and definitely if you’re anywhere in the Milwaukee area, come on over to Marquette Hall, room 100, on Marquette’s campus. It’s free; it’s a free event to see their documentary, which I am really excited about.

TAYLOR: We’re also doing—after the screening we’re doing a Q&A where we’ll talk to students about their feedback and answer questions. Do you want to play another CD?

DJ: Sure, what number?

TAYLOR: #1 off the live album. This is, again, the live album is the latest thing we’ve released. This is a cover of a Radiohead song called “Optimistic.” It’s off their album Kid A and this is us performing live in Australia, playing “Optimistic.”

DJ: Okay, thanks guys.

HANSON – “OPTIMISTIC” (from L&E)

TAYLOR: Welcome back! We are Hanson. Actually, we are going to take over the radio station for just a little while. You just heard a guy named Davíd Garza. One of the things we’re doing on this tour, we’re playing shows all over the country. We’re actually giving away independent music, it’s called the Live & Electric Indie Sampler. The whole concept of that is of course to give people music. One thing so important I think with bands today is to realize obviously you’re not an island; you can work with other bands, you can help cross-pollinate and connect with other fans. Davíd Garza is an amazing artist. He’s just one of five bands, ourselves included. Hanson, Pat McGee Band, who’s a great band, who’s playing with us throughout this whole tour, and then a couple other great independent artists who are featured on the Live & Electric Indie Sampler.

ISAAC: Also, another cool thing is Davíd just got the opening slot for the new Fiona Apple tour, so Davíd’s going to be opening up for Fiona Apple on a bunch of shows. If you like what you heard, you can go check out Fiona’s show and he’ll be opening up for her on those recent dates. You can check davídgarza.com.

TAYLOR: If you’re listening to the radio station right now, tap your friends on the shoulder and tell them to tune in. we’re going to play a lot of great music.

ISAAC: Exactly. In the meantime, we figure we might as well, since were talking about exposing indie music and local bands, here’s a local band from Tulsa, Oklahoma. They’re also on the indie sampler and they’re a band called The Hero Factor. Here we go. This is a song called “Come Down.”

THE HERO FACTOR – “COME DOWN”

BEN KWELLER

ISAAC: That is our friend Ben Kweller. That track was off his latest album On My Way and it’s a rockin’ record. If you guys don’t have it already, you should check it out because there’s a bunch of excellent songs on there, including one of my favorites, which is actually the title track “On My Way.” There’s some brilliant lyrics on that song.

TAYLOR: I was actually thinking about—it’s sort of funny, I don’t know if Ben was actually on the radio… what day did he come into the station? I talked to him the other day right after he’d come here and he was like, “I was just in Milwaukee guys, that’s so weird!” One of the cool things about what we’ve been doing on this tour is we were talking earlier about promoting local bands and just giving away music, the Live & Electric Indie Sampler which we were playing parts of earlier, it’s a sampler of 7 tunes that we give away with the ticket to our shows. It’s so important, as artists, it’s often hard to really make connections with other artists, but at the same time you always have your friends or somebody who’s also a friend, and as artists we also need to work on building a community, which is something we’ve been really active in trying to do, because fans are looking for music, you’re always going up and going, “Hey.” You want to find out what your friends are listening to, and that’s an amazing way to spread things because of the way the internet plays into music these days. But also, as musicians, we need to help you guys out so that we can connect with one another and give you more. Ben is—I was thinking about Adam Green cos of Ben Kweller, cos Adam’s a friend. Adam Green used to be in the Moldy Peaches, a friend of Ben’s, who we met through him and because of that…

ISAAC: Classic, eccentric artist, that guy.

TAYLOR: Yeah, but Adam’s really awesome. He sort of surprises you. You listen a record and you’re like, “Okay, that was foul.” But then you’re like, “that was really sweet and brilliant.”

ISAAC: Exactly. “Emily” is one of my all-time favorites and he’s just got some of the most hilariously cheeky lyrics ever. I’m using a British term, but…

ZAC: That’s really gay, just to say “cheeky.” Come on.

ISAAC: I don’t know how else to describe it though.

ZAC: He’s completely random! In a genius kind of way.

TAYLOR: Adam is the only one who can take lounge singing, put it with an acoustic guitar and then, like, lots of expletives, and still come out of it being kind of cool.

ZAC: Adam is—and this is no offense to him, but he’s like one of those guys that you meet and you go, “This guy is so on drugs!” and then, he’s not. Cos he’s just chilled.

ISAAC: Mellow.

TAYLOR: I’m burning a CD of a couple cool tunes we can play. What do you want to play next, Ike?

ISAAC: Cool. Well, in the meantime I figure we’ll head to the Live & Electric Indie Sampler again. This particular artist is a band called the Pat McGee Band. They’re opening up for us on the entire tour. This is a song that’s going to be released a single later on next year and it’s a song called “You & I.” So, check it out.

PAT McGEE BAND – “YOU & I”

ISAAC: Hey everybody, we’re Hanson. That was our buddy Ben Kweller doing a little Marquette radio station ID. I just saw it and I had to play it because every once in a while I just get this missing feeling for a little Ben Kweller sense of humor and I like it. One more time! (plays Ben’s station ID). And here’s a Guster ID! (plays Guster’s station ID)

TAYLOR: Also other guys that are friends of ours.

ZAC: It’s like they’re here in spirit. I feel so strange.

ISAAC: It’s so true and so weird. Anyway.

TAYLOR: The Pat McGee Band is the song you just heard, not Ben Kweller. Pat McGee Band, that’s a song called “You & I” that’s going to be released as a single pretty soon. I think coming out sometime next year. Pat has actually come with us to some of the schools we’ve visited, but they’re a really great band. You should also check them out. They’re going to be playing with us live, opening up and just a fantastic band. Just a straight-up, like a little more acoustic based. Originally they didn’t even have electric guitars for years, actually.

ISAAC: Oh, Pat McGee Band?

TAYLOR: Yeah, it was just acoustic for a long time.

ISAAC: Kind of much like Vertical Horizon.

TAYLOR: Yeah, I would say similar to that. But really good songs great vibe. We had great time playing with those guys. We had them come on and jam with us in Chicago and do a little “Sweet Home Chicago” rendition. (Isaac mimics guitar riff). That’s not how it sounded, but you know.

ISAAC: I totally changed the keys on you there.

ZAC: You shouldn’t start with the opening riff if you can’t sing it in key. (all start singing “Sweet Home Chicago”)

TAYLOR: Okay, thank you very much. We’re not in Chicago. It’s is a good song.

ZAC: No, we’re not. But we drove from there this morning.

TAYLOR: It’s a good song.

ISAAC: That was random.

TAYLOR: What are you going to play, Ike?

ISAAC: I was going to play a little bit of Andrew Duggan, is that cool?

TAYLOR: This is a South African artist. We wrote on this tune actually with a friend of ours named Andrew Duggan. Zac’s rockin’ the drums. Something that’s just different, kind of heavy. A lot of guitars, really cool riffs, rock kind of stuff. Coming straight to you out of South Africa. Andrew Duggan.

ANDREW DUGGAN – “WASTING AWAY”

JOHNNY SOCIETY – “21st CENTURY WALL”

TAYLOR: That’s just—you never hear stuff like that on radio, or at least I never do, so I thought we should play it.

ISAAC: Not any radio station that I’ve been listening to until now, before Marquette Radio.

TAYLOR: Before that you heard Andrew Duggan, which is a South African rock artist, and then we heard Johnny Society with “21st Century Wall.” Again, we are Hanson, taking over the station, playing a lot of cool tunes. We’re having a really good time. Hopefully you guys are all enjoying. Zac is answering instant messages.

ZAC: Yes, I am. Alabama is listening!

TAYLOR: Good to know! Hello Alabama!

ISAAC: ALABAMA IS LISTENING! (in hick accent) *inaudible mumblings*

ZAC: No, no, no! That’s mean, guys! That’s mean! That is so mean! No! That is so mean, so mean. Thank you Alabama! I have spelled a lot of things very wrong cos I can’t spell.

ISAAC: Anyway, we’re hearing “Pink”—just for everybody who wants to know, we’re hearing “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake in the background there.

TAYLOR: Which is honestly, one of the greatest artists ever.

ISAAC: Nick Drake?

TAYLOR: Nick Drake. Well, just one of those artists that is just the perfect to put in the car, driving late at night. Staring at the stars.

ISAAC: Mmhmm. I’m with you on that. Anyway. What should we cue up next?

ZAC: We are a radio station.

TAYLOR: Why don’t you tell everybody about why we’re here? The documentary?

TAYLOR: Oh yeah. For anybody that wonders why Hanson has taken over Marquette Radio, it’s because we are screening a documentary Strong Enough To Break and Strong Enough To Break is the story of why we decided to start our own independent record company and why we have taken this opportunity as we toured around the United States on the Live & Electric Tour to go to colleges and talk about the importance of independent music and talk to fans about the way they can get involved and improve the state of the music industry, the radio industry, and so on. So, that screening is what we’re doing here today.

TAYLOR: It’s actually happening right now, isn’t it? The screening, it started at 12 o’clock?

ISAAC: It started at 12.

TAYLOR: At Marquette Hall, Strong Enough To Break, the film is screening right now if you are a Marquette student, come check it out. After the screening we’re actually going to be leaving the radio station and we’re going to go hang out and do a Q&A, we’re going to be taking feedback from everybody who saw the film, so even if you don’t get to see the whole thing cos you’re hearing now, go check it out and we’ll be able to take you questions, get your feedback and it’ll be a good time. I’m just really glad that it’s not as cold here in Milwaukee as it was in Chicago two days ago. I just want to say that. It’s a beautiful day.

ISAAC: I don’t know, I’m kind of a big fan of the cold weather.

TAYLOR: Of frostbite?

ISAAC: Of frostbite sometimes, I guess. I’ve never actually had frostbite, but I’m sure it’s not particularly fun though.

TAYLOR: I don’t think it’s categorized as fun, I don’t think that would be the technical, medical term.

ZAC: Kansas is also listening.

TAYLOR: That’s good to know!

ZAC: We have Alabama and Kansas so far and someone from Australia just went to sleep.

ISAAC: Well, we’re going to be playing in Lawrence, Kansas real soon.

TAYLOR: Yes we will. If anybody is listening in Kansas, come check out the show in Lawrence. You can check www.hanson.net for all the details on venues, how to get tickets and other stuff you wouldn’t want to be interested in if you don’t like Hanson.

ISAAC: In the meantime, I figured we should cue up another song; this is, after all, radio and not AM talk radio. But this is FM-ish music.

TAYLOR: FM streaming radio.

ISAAC: FM-ish music, streaming radio.

ZAC: Internet radio! Rockin’ radio!

ISAAC: Exactly. It’s the only thing that really matters in life. Anyway, so I’m going to play a little Bob Schneider, because Bob Schneider is cool. He’s from Texas for all of you who don’t know and this is off of his most recent album, I believe—oh no, this is actually off Lonely Land. So anyway, a song off Lonely Land, here you go.

ZAC: What is the song?

TAYLOR: “World Exploded Into Love.” Sorry, I couldn’t read. There we go. *laughs*

BOB SCHNEIDER – “WORLD EXPLODED INTO LOVE”

HANSON – “MISERY”

ISAAC: Hey everybody, this is Marquette Radio and that was us, Hanson. That was Zac singing lead vocals, playing drums, and I think doing a little guitar in there somewhere. And that was a song called “Misery” off of the last album, Underneath, and before that you heard Bob Schneider, frickin’ great artist. I think we can say “frickin’” on the radio. Yeah, I don’t think it really matters. *laughs*

TAYLOR: We are Hanson. We have taken over the radio station for just a little while. We are here screening our documentary, Strong Enough To Break, which is actually airing right now on campus. After we finish this we are going to be doing a Q&A following the screening. So, we’re hanging out. Actually, some of the DJs said, “We want to go watch!” and so we said, “Okay! Well, we’ll take over.” We’ve seen the film before, so we figured we’d just play music. And we’re having a good time.

ISAAC: Also, I figured we’d just do something really, really random. Our friend, Gus Van Sant…

TAYLOR: Brilliant director, and also not a lot of people know, he’s actually a really good guitarist.

ZAC: Good Will Hunting, Drug Store Cowboy, I mean, he’s directed so many great movies. I think I was way too far away from the mic. Good Will Hunting, Drug Store Cowboy, Finding Forrester, he’s done all these awesome movies and…

TAYLOR: …also a really good musician.

ZAC: He’s a really awesome musician. He did a video for us and that’s how we got a hold of him.

TAYLOR: This is pretty obscure one though, he did an entire album called 18 Songs About Golf. 18 songs, every song is about golf in some way.

ISAAC: This was like, 15 years ago.

TAYLOR: Yeah, he did all the music with acoustic guitar and pots and pans around and… enjoy.

ISAAC: 18 Songs About Golf is the record and here is the song called “Nothing For Free.”

GUS VAN SANT – “NOTHING FOR FREE”

ZAC: That was Strongbad! Thank you for being here!

TAYLOR: Yes, thank you Strongbad.

ZAC: Here’s your $50.

TAYLOR: He’s already left… Strongbad! Man, what a jerk. He comes in for a dumb ID, that’s all he’ll do.

ISAAC: Exactly, all he’ll do is this: (replays Strongbad station ID).

ISAAC: “This is Strongbad. I hate you guys!”

TAYLOR: For anybody listening, we are Hanson and we’ve taken over the radio station. Don’t worry; it won’t be for much longer. It’ll only be for a little longer. What you just heard was actually a song of our off the live album, Live & Electric, a song called “This Time Around” and before that you heard Calexico and before that you heard Alex Lloyd.

ISAAC: And before that you heard Gus Van Sant.

TAYLOR: Yes! We’ve been bouncing all over the map. For anybody who is listening right now, turn on your stream so we can get more people checking that out. And if you’d like to call into the radio station, it’s 414-288-7167. You can call in and we’ll maybe take your call, get your requests. If you have questions for us…

ZAC: Or we’ll just hang up on you!

TAYLOR: Or we’ll just hang up on you *laughs*

ISAAC: “Hello! This is Strongbad! You suck!” (imitation)

TAYLOR: Isaac will do a bad impression of that.

ISAAC: “Hello! I do those arpeggios and staccatos and things like that! Yes!” (imitation). That’s probably one of my favorites.

TAYLOR: If anybody doesn’t know what Strongbad is, then you’ll have no idea what we’re talking about.

ZAC: homestarrunner.com. Just do it.

ISAAC: That is really, really, really funny. If you can find that particular episode of that particular piece, of Strongbad…

ZAC: I have two things to say. Scotland is listening. And apparently Maryland is listening and also Boston is listening.

ISAAC: Sweet.

ZAC: And Chicago is listening. Lots of people are listening. Anyway.

ISAAC: Do we have any Bleu available?

TAYLOR: I don’t have any.

ISAAC: Speaking of “Boston is listening,” I kind of wanted to play some Bleu.

TAYLOR: Why don’t we play something else first?

ISAAC: In the meantime, while I’m looking for something, I’m going to do another one of these: (plays Strongbad station ID AGAIN).

THREE DAY’S GRACE -- “I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU”

ISAAC: Okay! Hang on! That track just really rocked my socks off. Okay, it blew my ass out.

ZAC: Hey! You can’t say that!

ISAAC: Can’t say…? Oh, sorry.

TAYLOR: There you go, you just did. That was Three Day’s Grace with “I Hate Everything About You.” Honestly, that really did kick a… kick butt.

ISAAC: Exactly, we can’t say the “A” word.

TAYLOR: Just the groove of it, it was really awesome. We’re going to play another tune; this is off the Live & Electric Indie Sampler. If you are coming to a Hanson show or coming to the show tonight, you’ll actually get a copy of the Live & Electric Indie Sampler, which contains tunes from several different independent bands. This is a local band from our hometown, of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s a band called The Hero Factor.

ISAAC: I still gotta say that again—that track was really, really great.

ZAC: Should we say the other part again? If you come to the show tonight, the Hanson show at The Rave… *laughs* I don’t want to repeat, but you’re going to get a CD with music on it that has five bands. It has us, it has the Pat McGee Band, it has a band called 28 Days, a guy named Davíd Garza, pronounced Dav-eed Garza, and it has this band, The Hero Factor, with a song called “Come Down.” But Ike really likes Three Days Grace.

ISAAC: Exactly. I also like The Hero Factor.

THE HERO FACTOR – “COME DOWN”

ISAAC: Let’s see, I believe we had Three Days Grace, is that right? Three Days Grace, that was really great track too, and a bunch of other stuff. A local band from Tulsa, Oklahoma called The Hero Factor, and we’re just playing a bunch of stuff so we hope you guys are enjoying yourselves on this lovely afternoon. And I’m going to jump real quick to a non-indie artist but a great song, a song called “Kate” by Ben Folds. Here we go. Or actually, wait a second!

TAYLOR: I think we have a caller, but we should definitely play that. We’ve got somebody on the line right now.

ISAAC: Hello, are you there on the line?

CARLY: Yep, I’m here.

ISAAC: She’s been waiting around…

TAYLOR: Thanks for waiting around, we almost forgot about you! What’s your name?

CARLY: I’m Carly, from Boston.

TAYLOR: Carly, what was your question?

CARLY: I just want to know, what was up with Are You Listening and how you guys are getting that out there to people.

TAYLOR: Are You Listening. If anybody doesn’t know, areoyulistening.com is a website. We’ve sort of been one of the active members in trying to get the word out there and it’s basically—the concept of the site is that as independent artists we need to work together, combine our fan bases, build a strong community of independent artists and not just independent artists but also just people who are passionate that are about independent music.

ISAAC: We’ve been talking to a lot of different radio stations, a lot of people have been spreading the word and a lot of people have found the site and we’ve talked to a lot of radio stations around the country about pulling resources and talking about the local bands in their area and stuff and just spreading the word.

TAYLOR: Ultimately, the part we’ve been trying to play is to use our passionate fans and our tours to help build relationships with DJs and with great artists in order to build a stronger community. Ultimately, we just feel the future of music—there’s a whole new door opened through the web cos you can stream music, you can stream video, you can play—in essence, becoming our own radio station. Here we are right now, we’re streaming on the internet. I think that’s the essence of getting music out there, and I think the other thing that’s some important is the community aspect. Right now, if you go to areyoulistneing.com it basically just gives you a message for independent music and leadership and it gives you links to a lot of other independent bands but the hope is that we’d really grow and become a site that allows for people to communicate with one another, share ideas, and ultimately work together to complete on a big scale as individual independent artists and media outlets, but ultimately if we’re sharing ideas and sharing good bands and helping coordinate, we can all have a better shot at exposing great independent music.

ISAAC: A lot of the bands we’ve been playing today are also all featured on areyoulistening.com.

TAYLOR: In fact, we’ve been talking about the Live & Electric Indie Sampler a lot, we’re playing tunes from it a lot, that’s the thing we’re giving it away with our ticket, free. All of the bands that are on that are Are You Listening artists. They’re all within that community and we looked at that community of different bands and began pulling from that, and that’s how we figured out what bands were going to be on there and I think more and more bands need to take advantage of the opportunity to do things like that; taking a group of artists that share a vision and you can, all the sudden you can spend as much money to print one CD and a bunch of bands can contribute to that and put a tune from each band and circulate it to your fans.

ISAAC: And for people who don’t know, there are various artists on there. Arcade Fire, we just played them. They’re also on areyoulistening.com. Cosmic Rough Riders, they’re also on there. Bob Schneider, Calexico, you’ve got Sufjan Stevens. I never know exactly how to say “Sufjan.”

TAYLOR: “Suf-ee-yan.”

ISAAC: “Suf-ee-yan.”

TAYLOR: You know what? It doesn’t matter! Areyoulistening.com, check it out if you want to, discover some really good bands, some of which you’ve heard today on Marquette Radio. And we’re going to keep playing music.

ISAAC: I’m actually going to kick it to Sufjan Stevens.

TAYLOR: Good idea. This is a comical, but very enjoyable tune called “Super Sexy Woman.”

SUFJAN STEVENS – “SUPER SEXY WOMAN”

ISAAC: Okay, that was “Super Sexy Woman” by Sufjan Stevens. Now, Ben Lee, “Catch My Disease.” This is a really fun song and if you don’t like it, you’re retarded, or you’re so far…

ZAC: And your momma’s… YOUR MOMMA!

ISAAC: Or you’re so self-conscious that you just can’t enjoy a good song.

BEN LEE – “CATCH MY DISEASE”

ISAAC: Hey everybody. We are Hanson. This is Marquette Radio and that was “Catch My Disease” by Ben Lee. And again, if you can’t enjoy that song, there’s something wrong with you. You’re like, one of those people that doesn’t enjoy pets or babies.

zac: Or old people!

ISAAC: Or old people, exactly.

TAYLOR: You’re assuming everybody doesn’t like that song, Ike.

ISAAC: No, I’m just saying. I’m just saying, cos there’s some people who are so self-conscious about the music that they listen to that they can’t admit, like those songs that just make you feel good and that’s one of those songs. And that’s an example to me of a song that probably will not get as much of a shot as it should on mainstream radio…

TAYLOR: They’re not spending as much money as they need to on radio.

ISAAC: Exactly. Cos that song is a hit.

TAYLOR: You’re hearing it on Marquette right now. We had a request come in, another thing that doesn’t happen on a lot of commercial radio stations; we respond to requests! Here at Marquette we had a request for a Pat McGee Band song. The Pat McGee Band is actually opening up for us here tonight at The Rave. You also heard them earlier on the Live & Electric Indie Sampler which you get with your ticket to the show, but this is a song off their album Save Me. It’s a song called “Annabel.”

ISAAC: Actually, we don’t have that up yet, I was going to try and interrupt you there.

TAYLOR: Well, one thing we do need to say is someone called in and requested a band called Averi, which is a really great band, and we said we’d play it, but then we realized we don’t have any of their music.

ISAAC: We have a CD on the bus, but we don’t actually have a CD with us.

TAYLOR: A great band.

ZAC: A Boston area band.

TAYLOR: Yeah, a Boston band, they played with us actually in Hampton Beach and I really—I was like, “Oh yeah, great! No, don’t have it.” But if you guys want to find out about them, you can go to iTunes. You can also go to areyoulistening.com and check out a link to their site and you’ll hear music and find out about other bands too, but really sorry about that. Great request. Averi, great Boston band.

ISAAC: In the meantime, we’re going to kill just a little bit of time with a great song by a band called Travis. This is a song called “Writing To Reach You.” Right after “Writing To Reach You” we’re going to go into The Pat McGee Band and it’s going to be a song called “Annabel.” But in the meantime, here is Travis! Check it out!

TRAVIS – “WRITING TO REACH YOU”

ISAAC: Hey everybody, you are listening to Marquette Radio. We are cuing up The Pat McGee Band’s track, this next song is a song called “Annabel.” And I am ejecting the CD right now!

TAYLOR: We had to play something that was not quite as recently released. That was a song by Travis. I just love Travis. One of my favorite shows—I’ve actually seen them a couple different times, but such a great band.

ZAC: Yeah, it was incredible seeing them at The Knitting Factory in Los Angeles, California. Like, it sounded like the record. You walked in and you went, “I feel almost jipped.” They sound so good and they were such a great band live that it felt like exactly like the album in a great way.

ISAAC: Also for them though, too, because we were at The Knitting Factory and only a few hundred people, it was so intimate it was almost like being In the studio with them. So, they’re an excellent, excellent live band,

TAYLOR: Another good band, this is The Pat McGee Band again, a song called “Annabel,” by request right here on Marquette.

PAT McGEE BAND – “ANNABEL”

COHEED & CAMBRIA – “SISTER CHRISTIAN”

ISAAC: Hey everybody, this is Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson. We are DJ’ing here at Marquette.

TAYLOR: We have been. That was Coheed & Cambria with their cover of “Sister Christian.” That was really cool. I’m not a huge Coheed & Cambria fan, at least I haven’t followed enough, but I went and saw them at CMJ Music Conference a couple months ago and they played their electric set, which was amazing, and I was down in the mosh pit, and it was totally awesome, but that was an amazing—as a rock band, they were really great—and then hearing that, I was even more impressed, because to hear that a band can do both things. I think so many bands today, believe that to be cool is just to have one sound, like The Stroke syndrome. Like, “Last nightttt.” Like, The Strokes have some cool stuff, but being multi-dimensional is so cool to see.

ISAAC: Oh yeah. Like, for instance, a band I think is multi-dimensional that has been really successful is a band called Jet.

TAYLOR: Yeah, Jet.

ISAAC: They went very kind of mellow with that last single and still have all that rockin’ stuff. They’re a good band too.

TAYLOR: We’re going to have to sign off. It’s been really great playing tunes here on Marquette.

ZAC: We’re actually going over to do the question and answer.

TAYLOR: The documentary Strong Enough To Break, which we mention earlier…

ISAAC: Is about to end.

TAYLOR: …is about to end, which we produced, and we’ll be doing a question and answer over at—what’s the theater? The Marquette Hall and we’re about to head over there. Thanks everybody for listening, I know there’s people all over the country and the world listening and that’s really awesome. Keep listening and if you’d like to find out more about Hanson you can check out www.hanson.net. Also, we mentioned areyoulistening.com. A lot of the artists we played today you can find featured there and of course keep listening to Marquette right here. We’re going to leave you with a song off of our latest album, Live & Electric. From the Indie Sampler that you get with your ticket to tonight’s show at The Rave, here it is: “Rock & Roll Razorblade.” Thanks for listening.