DJ: Are you there?

TAYLOR: Yes, hey.

DJ: Oh my goodness, Taylor Hanson!

TAYLOR: Hey, how’s it going?

DJ: Great! I wonder if our radio audience can hear you… Taylor, I’ll tell you something, what we do is we try to find someone of some notoriety, of some fame, and we try to make them the very first phone guest that we put on the air, because that is going out without a net.

TAYLOR: Well, I, uh, I’m really familiar with going out without a net, so…but that’s good!

DJ: Taylor, you’re calling us –

TAYLOR: But let’s just hope that we don’t flip, fall and break our necks.

DJ: It’s not gonna happen, buddy! I wonder if – can our radio audience hear this right now? Is this loud enough? This is so amazing! Taylor, let me set the scene for you, Taylor: we’re in Winter Park FL, we’re in a basement radio station right now, and we’re just coded in people right now. Have they explained to you what we’re about to do here?

TAYLOR: Not exactly, no.

DJ: No exactly. For the next five days, Taylor, we are going to be broadcasting live changing between 4 DJs, myself and Mr Gorney included. At this moment, bands are setting up in one room, and we’re in another room; there’s engineers and techs and managers and producers just buzzing around everywhere.

TAYLOR: I love it!

DJ: It’s going to be 70 bands. And speaking of 70 bands, you’ve got a lot of bands on a web site, and I want to talk about that. Areyoulistening.com.

TAYLOR: Hmhm.

DJ: What is that about, what are you trying to do?

TAYLOR: Well, we’re just one band that’s a part of it, and our story is several years ago we decided to leave our old record company and start our own independent record company. And as we’ve watched the industry change, we’ve really seen this real kind of catastrophe of the corporate music business really forgetting how to build artists with careers and watching technology and independent labels really grow and show signs of real life. And we’re just one of the bands that really feels like the idea of taking a message of saying, “Look, we as music fans and as artist needs to come together,” start a conversation and expose fan bases to one another to organically grow and reach new people. The strength in those numbers and that shared passion is really the currency that we have right now. And that, if we don’t get involved and become active, then who else are we going to blame when we don’t have great music to listen to?

DJ: What’s been wrong with it so far? What are other promoters doing differently that you feel that they’re doing poorly?

TAYLOR: Well, you’ve got a real tragedy, a real system that’s basically - over the last 15-20 years - you’ve got big record companies that have become more and more consolidated and taking the entrepreneurs that started great companies like Island or Mercury, and you’ve replaced them with accountants and attorneys and it’s become about this quarterly billing and, you know corporate America. And, what you’re lacking is people that really believe in music and believe in their business. You know? It’s not about saying, “Okay, we’re going to go sing Kumbaya," or whatever. It’s about really believing in careers, and where it’s exciting is there’s a lot of independent labels, there’s a lot of – through the internet and through file trading and through direct relationships with fans – you’re really seeing an upswing happen with a lot of independent record companies and a lot of independent bands. And – I – that’s really the place where I think the future of major labels will come from, but not if fans and artists don’t decide to say, “Look, this is our future. Our future is quality, our future is this great music, our future is a relationship with the bands that have passionate lives, message,” and that we’re not just going to sit back and go, “Oh, wow, I guess (?) music isn’t that good anymore, I’m just going to turn off the radio. We’re going to be active, you know?

DJ: Taylor? By the way, folks, we’re listening to a phone interview of Taylor Hanson of HANSON, whom I’m sure everybody out there knows. Taylor, I’d like to talk about the economics of this. Can you speak a little bit about record sales, about how many sales you need to make to even get close to even, ah, in the way you would selling, say, a million or two records on a major label and finally getting a statement that shows that you’re going to get a royalty for it. Can you speak about that for a little bit, and maybe a reason why another band would want to kinda join a consorting like yours instead of going with a major label?

TAYLOR: Well, what you have to understand is what the major record companies are doing now is not what major labels have done for a long time. When great labels that we think of – the brands, that are called majors – when they started out, they were “indies,” quote unquote. They were, independent companies with entrepreneurs and they had distribution, and they had, you know, with third parties, and they just built their companies, because they believed in people like U2 and Bob Marley and The Police and just, you go down the list – the great bands that we think of. What’s happened is the record companies have grown to such a level that they’ve shrunk their list of priorities down; they have really… everything that they do is “okay We’re only going to focus on a few bands, put way more money behind them with a lot less artist development and therefore a hurtle to ever make money on a is we have to have massive hits every time we put it out, and there’s only a very few that we care about.” Because all that matter is that we report quarterly to our stockholders. The issue there is you’ve stopped building any real artists; you’ve stopped building careers. And therefore, you can only have a very small percentage of artists that ever get the attention of a master record company, which has forgotten how to build anything long term. So, what you’re missing is if, for the most part, all they’re looking for is "We have a sure guarantee next quarter that we’re going to raise our stock price because our overall value is going to grow.” And whatever it takes to do that, that’s what matters. And it’s accountants that are saying, “Now you’ve got a good single, you’ve got a good record,” you’ve just got to step back from that and say – it’d be as if you took a car company and you fire all your designers and you’re like, “This is great! We just made the most economical, ugly ass car on the planet!”

DJ: Which sounds like Detroit, in the model year 2005, right?

TAYLOR: What’s that?

DJ: …which sounds like Detroit in the year 2005! What you’re saying…

TAYLOR: There’s some truth to that!

DJ: So, basically, the record business which was an interesting, at least a fun business after the second world war, has kind of become like every other business or every other corporation in America. So the fun and the entrepreneurship is gone. But – are you able to speak about – let’s say, you know, your first major label record was a massive hit. How long was it until – I mean, are you privy to the information as to how long –

TAYLOR: Oh yeah…

DJ: -- how long was it until you actually got money from the record label after your record came out and the hits started coming in for that record?

TAYLOR: Well, you’re really trying to focus on a really specific thing of bands, and being a working band, really. Right?

DJ: Right.

TAYLOR: It’s probably going to make sense for me to literally break down how long it was before I got paid, but what is really important is to just look at the way it works, which is: When you sign with a major label – really, any record company – you’re really just saying, “You’re the bank, and you’re going to sign me, you’re going to promote me, and then whatever you spend, you’re gonna make back before you ever pay me, but you’re going to pay me a fairly small percentage because you can, because you hold the power.” But unlike any other investment, in most cases, if you get a loan on a house, you own the house when you pay it off.

DJ: Right.

TAYLOR: In the case of a record deal, you pay the money back and they still own it.

DJ: Right.

TAYLOR: That’s not necessarily something that is going to change, but what happens with our particular situation is you say, “We’re going to take the risk, we’re going to find independent people around us, and we’re going to go to them to really focus on the passion, and focus on the message that we believe in, and we’re going to individually find those people and put them in our team, as opposed to attaching ourselves to a team of people that we can’t necessarily depend on.” And that just brings you close every time to achieving your goals. And knowing that you can say, “Look, all I’ve gotta do is sell 15,000 records or 10,000 records or this many downloads,” because I’m going to make it reasonable, I’m going to set my goals to reach real fans who are really passionate and they’re going to buy records, and I can go out there and continue to build that, as opposed to spending five or six years going around in circles with attorneys and accountants that don’t know music trying to help you find the hit or find the perfect, you know, thing that’s gonna suddenly light the world on fire – that don’t know what music is. And then, spend all that time just dying, because you can’t even go out there and be a band, and I’ve seen that over and over and over and over, and that’s really, that’s the crux of the problem. Where does the artist development begin? And it’s pretty much ended.

DJ: It’s ended… So really what you’re – this situation sounds like – we have a case of, you’re Taylor Hanson from the band Hanson and you’ve made a virtual dent in popular culture to a certain point, and now you’re in a position to affect the music business. This, to me, kinda sounds like, you know, this story’s happened over and over. It sounds like the Beatles when they started Capitol Records – I’m sorry, they started Apple Records and leave Capitol – and they start signing some bands. And really, they had almost the same motivations, but you know, the difference was, in the 60s, it was too cool to have real accountants and real people involved. Can you talk a little bit about if you’re going to be involved in this? What do you do on your end to make sure the whole thing stays afloat? Because it’s been tried before.

TAYLOR: Well, it starts with a purpose and with a mission statement. One joke about the current music business is that people can’t even, I mean, a lot of the major record companies right now, they don’t have TIME to even think, “Wow, is this record going to do well in three months? Because they might not have a job…” Because things are turning over so much. There is so much corporate changeover. So what you start with is you start with looking at a band, looking at your artists, and say, “Okay, you guys are our partners, you understand what risks we’re going to take if we’re a record company," and these are the people that are really involved with this. And these are the people that are going to be really committed to your project. These people that believe in this message, and they’re not just hoping that tomorrow we’re going to have a hit and then all of a sudden, we’re going to make our money back. We’re really believing that you have to start with your audience, find who they are, and let that build, because we believe in the next record, and the next record.

DJ: Taylor, you’ve got the ability to do that, considering your pop past. You’ve made a lot of, you’ve made a lot of money! You’ve got comfort right now and you’re able to do that. I’m sure a lot of the artists that you represent, that maybe have not yet been as popular as you guys were, you know, get to enjoy your success through this. But what about, you’re starting an independent record label. What about your pop past being an impediment on – how do you get that indie cred?

TAYLOR: Well, you actually do something. I think that’s how.

DJ: Okay.

TAYLOR: Well, you know, like, independence, being an indie rock band for instance, or being an indie band, there’s a certain sound that you associate that with. I mean, early on, you had something like REM or people that were starting at universities or building a fan base from there, but the thing that needs to switch in people’s heads now is the idea that there is actually an opportunity now where the big business has really missed it. And there’s this excitement about what could happen with the independent music that’s out there where you could really take advantage of this lack of passion for what’s on the mainstream and really bring forward better quality and really capture the imagination and passion of the music fans that are really starving, they’re going, like, “Give me something great.” And so I think for us, it’s really been about saying, it’s not about what kind of music you make, it’s not about a style. It’s about an actual state of mind. And areyoulistening.com – that’s the slogan, “An Indie State of Mind” – it’s an approach and it’s a belief that your relationship with your music and with your fans is the place that everything has to start.

DJ: Taylor, what are some of the bands on areyoulistening.com right now? Can you name off a couple?

TAYLOR: What kind of bands?

DJ: Yeah!

TAYLOR: Everything from folky to rap. A guy named Madvillain who is this theme-kind-of rap – he raps about stories through the eyes of a master villain. I mean, it’s just like, totally out there! Somebody like Sufjan Stevens who is a really phenomenal singer/songwriter. I suggest listening to “SuperSexyWoman,” which is just a hilarious song. There is no genre. It’s not about a genre. It’s really about taking all these fan bases that would never talk to each other and realizing that they all share a similar goal which is to take the artist that they love and help those artists gain new, passionate fans in order to allow that to continue to make music and allow fans to continue to get music. And, you know, again, I’m just one artist that’s connected with that idea. And there’s a lot of passion from fans that go on there and there’s a lot of passion from artists that I talk to, where I go, “You know what? This is not a rocket science concept. This is just about saying, ‘Let’s take a lot of little groups and, some bigger, some smaller, and let’s get them all to meet each other.’” Because if we can all share an idea of trading fans, trading – spreading the word about the music, saying, “Hey, have you heard this?” I mean, then we can actually be bigger than we are on our own, and in the end each one of us, each artist, will have a larger fan base to bring forward and those fans will have more artists that they didn’t know about. And all of a sudden you’ve begun something, because you decided you were gonna actually work together.

DJ: Taylor, I have a two-part question. By the way, for our listeners, this is Taylor Hanson of Hanson fame, he’s our first guest on the second annual WPRK now, it’s the Labor marathon. Without sounding disparaging, it’s actually a two-part question. Is this the hardest thing you’ve done? Is the first question. The second one is, how much harder do you have to work because you’re Taylor Hanson of Hanson? Has that made it any harder for you?

TAYLOR: Sorry, what was the first question again?

DJ: The part of the question was, is this the hardest thing you’ve ever done?

TAYLOR: What is the hardest thing I’ve ever done… the hardest thing I’ve ever done…you mean, in music, or just in general?

DJ: I was speaking about areyoulistening.com and getting these people to sign on and to make the whole thing work.

TAYLOR: Well, the hardest thing that we’ve done, again, this is…the hardest thing I’ve ever done is to look at artists, artists who are peers of mine, and really get the mold to break in the sense of, there’s a real fear from artists of actually stepping out. And actually saying, “Not that we need to look at the – go ‘screw the man’ just out of our own stupidity,” but you need to actually look at the numbers and look at the facts and say, “We’re not just going to sit and drown, we’re actually going to be involved in the solution.” You know?

DJ: Right.

TAYLOR: I think the hardest thing is to say to your friends, and to say to artists, you know, people that are you friends, people that you respect, “Look, this is something that’s important.” You know, that’s a hard thing to challenge people around you and say something that’s not necessarily popular. But once you accept that, it’s so liberating and exciting. And is it harder being Taylor in regards to areyoulistening?

DJ: Right – to do this.

TAYLOR: Well, and again, like I said, Hanson is just one piece of areyoulistening. I have a real passion for it, and I think, sure, in some ways, but you know, part of the thing about what we’re saying about independent music is that this fall we’re going to universities all over the country talking about this stuff, talking about independent music and bringing focus to how much great music there is out there. Part of the importance to the story is that I am Taylor Hanson in the sense that we’ve done – we’ve had a lot of success, we’ve been in the mainstream, we’ve really reached a lot of people outside what you would think of us traditional indie, the indie mantra. But the idea is that being independent is a level of passion; a level of belief in your independence, and the need to want that relationship with your fans and the belief in a long-term career. And you know, Pavarotti is independent, you know, Pearl Jam in independent, Hanson is independent, you know, what’s the genre? And so, I kind of see that as a positive.

DJ: Right. The genre sounds like the genre is angry! You’re angry, and it’s time to move on and try something else. We’re actually going to play some Sufjan Stevens…

TAYLOR: Cool.

DJ: …upon your suggestion, and folks, you’ve been listening to Taylor Hanson of the internationally famous Hanson. Thank you very much for being the first guest on the WPRK Labor Day marathon. Thank you, Taylor.

TAYLOR: Not a problem.

DJ 2: And we’re going to go live right into one of the areyoulistening.com performers, Sufjan Stevens, on WPRK.