Home Free Interview, 4 August 1997, Austereo Radio Network, Interviewer Keith
Williams.
Interviewer: We have Hanson here. Welcome to Australia guys!
Isaac: Hi.
Taylor: Hey, thanks great to be here.
Zac: Thank you.
Isaac: Hi. Good to be here.
Interviewer: Let’s get the names and the ages straight, because every time I read your ages
it’s
different. [laughter]
Taylor: Okay...
Interviewer: So Isaac...
Isaac: I am 16.
Interviewer: And Taylor...
Taylor: 14.
Interviewer: And Zac...
Interviewer: That’s what I had written down anyway.
Isaac: Yeah.
Interviewer: But everyone Zac, calls you the youngest in the family, but that’s just not true
is it?
Taylor: No.
Zac: Nope there’s...
Taylor: He’s the youngest in the group.
Interviewer: Youngest in the band.
Isaac: There are two younger sisters and a younger brother in the family.
Interviewer: Jessica.
Taylor: Avery.
Interviewer: Avery.
Isaac: Yes.
Interviewer: And Mackenzie.
Isaac: Yes.
Interviewer: Boy oh boy, and are they singing and writing songs too yet?
Isaac: You know, I mean they're, they're - they’ve got the music in them I think but it’s
funny
we’ve actually asked our sister, Jessica, if she wanted to join the band. You know you can
play the
bass and she kinda looked at us and went, "ummm no".
Interviewer: You’re looking for a bass player are you? [laughter]
Taylor: Ah, well.
Isaac: We just thought we thought we’d with the idea of adding another member of the
family to
the band or something. I don’t know.
Taylor: Who knows.
Interviewer: Okay, well listen I’ve gotta ask this question as well, why aren’t you at
school at the
moment?
Taylor: Well actually in the States, it’s summer break, but we home school.
Isaac: Yeah.
Interviewer: You do home school totally.
Taylor: Yeah.
Isaac: Yeah.
Taylor: Even before we sang that’s how we did it. It just works for us.
Interviewer: Is that right, now, now is that a situation where you don’t let touring get in
the way of
your home school or you take the home school with you?
Taylor: No, you take the home school with you.
Isaac: Unfortunatly... [laughter]
Taylor: It’s more like band school...
Isaac: ...Hotel school.
Taylor: Yeah.
Interviewer: It’s a portable school.
Taylor: Yeah.
Isaac: Yeah.
Interviewer: It fits in very well with the band who needs to go out on the run.
Taylor: Definitely.
Zac: Yeah, it fits in your pocket [slow weird voice]
Isaac: Pull it out and it’s a school!
Interviewer: So, Mum and Dad, are they with you on the road?
Isaac: Yes.
Taylor: The whole family goes.
Isaac: Whole family.
Interviewer: Are they on the tour?
Isaac: Yes.
Interviewer: So the other 3 kids are with you as well?
Taylor: Yes.
Isaac: Yes.
Interviewer: Oh, okay, so its a Tarago van to get around!
Isaac: Well, yeah.
Taylor: It makes it more fun for us though, if the whole family comes. It’s more enjoyable.
Interviewer: It’s nice sharing these new sites and new countries...
Taylor: Oh, definitely.
Interviewer: ...with Mum and Dad and your family. Okay guys. You promised you were
going to
sing a song for us. Let’s kick off HomeFree. What are you going to do now?
Taylor: Here is MMMBop.
[MMMBop played live in studio, then ad break]
Interviewer: We have Isaac, Taylor and we’ve got Zac here. We have the three of the guys
here at
the moment.
Isaac: Hello.
Taylor: Hey.
Zac: Hi! [high pitched]
Interviewer: How big is Tulsa, Oklahoma?
Isaac: Tulsa, there’s about a million people in Tulsa.
Taylor: That’s with all the surrounding areas.
Isaac: And the surrounding communities.
Interviewer: It’s not a small place by any means. It’s a drilling town isn’t it? Based on it??
Taylor: Yeah, it was on the top of the world for a while.
Zac: Not... anymore.
Taylor: Not anymore but it was. That was definitely its foundation.
Interviewer: You know the incredible thing about you situation even though your
teenagers it’s
still not an overnight success story. Because you’ve released a couple of cd’s previously to
Middle
of Nowhere.
Isaac: They were independently made. I mean we did them ourselves and sold them at
shows we
did locally.
Taylor: And we used them as demos for record companies. We did one in ‘94 and in ‘95
we did
the next one.
Interviewer: One of them was called Boomerang wasn’t it?
Isaac: One was called Boomerang and one was called MMMBop.
Interviewer: Where did you get the Boomerang from?
Isaac: From a song called...
Taylor: Boomerang.
Isaac: Yeah!!!
Interviewer: Oh, really and you wrote that?
Isaac: On all the songs...on all the songs!!! On all the albums we had written material. On
the first
album there was five originals and three covers.
Taylor: And on the second we wrote all the songs.
Isaac: Yeah, wrote all the songs, produced it and played it all and everything.
Interviewer: So at what age did you start singing it together?
Taylor: Umm, it really started six years ago at that point we were just acappella, no
instruments at
all, and then after about three years Ike got a guitar from a pawn shop, Zac got some
drums from a
friend who had them in the attic and I already had a keyboard because we played classical
piano.
Zac: We had already been playing keyboard.
[commercial break, music played etc.]
Interviewer: What do you think of her? (referring to previous singer)
Isaac: Oh, definitely.
Taylor: I don’t think male or female - that’s a pretty damn good voice!!
Interviewer: Indeed it is. And this is HomeFree on today’s Austereo Network. And it’s
Keith
Williams here with Hanson. Middle of Nowhere already sold 3 million copies worldwide
and it’s
still on the way up. It’s still top ten in America.
Isaac: Wow.
Interviewer: And Australia. I noticed some of the illustrations on the album, was it you
Taylor
who did some artwork on there?
Taylor: That’s actually Zac.
Isaac: Yeah, Zac’s.
Taylor: Zac’s artwork!!
Interviewer: Is that one of your passions you like drawing, Zac?
Zac: Yeah, I...Tay, I and Ike - we all draw.
Taylor: Actually on our downstairs - our garage in our house has now become our studio.
So we
have like a huge mural of things that we’ve drawn.
Isaac: All over the walls and things like that. It’s pretty cool.
Interviewer: Well we’ll look forward to the next album, next year to see some more!
Taylor: Yeah! [laughs]
Isaac: Yeah, Yeah!!!
Interviewer: Now we’ve got Alinda Slone who’s called in from St.Clare. Are you there
Alinda?
Alinda: Hello?
Interviewer: Are you going to ask a question of Hanson?
Taylor: Hey.
Alinda: Yeah.
Zac: Hello Alinda. [weird voice]
Isaac: Hello! [very deep, put on voice]
Alinda: Hi. How are you?
Taylor: Good.
Zac: Fine.
Isaac: Good.
Alinda: I really liked your album, have you got any plans for a new one?
Isaac: Ah, well, you know new ones come along eventually, not quite yet though.
Taylor: As far as the new album, no not yet, but songs are always being written.
Interviewer: Thanks for your call Alinda. We’ve got Jacinta Tompkin calling from
Kogarah. Have
you got a question for one of Hanson there Jacinta?
Jacinta: Yeah.
Interviewer: Which one?
Jacinta: Well, what do you mean like?
Zac: How about all of us?
Isaac: Yeah all of us that would work.
Interviewer: What’s your question?
Jacinta: Okay, it’s why’d you call your CD "Middle of Nowhere?"
Taylor: Have you heard the bonus track "Man from Milwaukee?"
Jacinta: No.
Zac: Okay, if you have the CD it’s track 21.
Taylor: You have to let the last song keep playing until the next song starts. It’s starts out,
the song
says, "It started at a bus stop, in the Middle of Nowhere".
Isaac: And we liked the phrase Middle of Nowhere.
Taylor: And it just sounded really cool. "Middle of Nowhere" was a cool title we thought.
Jacinta: Oh, okay.
Interviewer: Thanks for your call.
Taylor: Thanks a lot.
Interviewer: In fact it didn’t start off as Milwaukee, didn’t it start off as somewhere else?
Taylor: We wrote it when we broke down on our way to make the album in...
Isaac: Albuquerque.
Interviewer: Albuquerque.
Taylor: And it was "I’ve been sitting here too long by a man from Albuquerque". But
Milwaukee
sounded cool.
Interviewer: Now we have Greg James from Liverpool on the line. Greg your question for
the
boys...
Greg: Hi Hanson. How are you?
Taylor: Hey.
Isaac: Hello.
Zac: Fine.
Greg: Guys what music did you grow up on and what music do you like listening to now?
Isaac: Well, the music that we started listening to first of all was 50’s and 60’s rock and
roll.
People like Chuck Berry, Aretha Frankilin.
Taylor: Otis Redding.
Isaac: Yep, Otis Redding, The Temptations.
Taylor: Beach Boys, Beatles. All the original Rock ‘n’ Roll soul music mostly.
Zac: Everybody! [loud happy voice]
Taylor: It goes on forever.
Isaac: Yeah, and the music that we listen to now, pretty much everything that is popular.
Taylor: Pop music. Popular music, yeah.
Interviewer: Thanks for your call Greg.
Greg: Thank you. Seeya.
Interviewer: Cheers.
[another commercial break and more music!]
Interviewer: Do you guys like Alanis Morissette? (previous song)
Isaac: Oh, yeah.
Taylor: Oh, yeah.
Interviewer: Now there’s a success story again...
Taylor: Definitely.
Isaac: Very good.
Interviewer: ...from a debut album. We’re talking to Isaac, we’re talking to Zac and we’re
talking
to Taylor. Hanson. Simoné is on line 2. Simoné Rubin is calling. Your question for
Hanson,
Simoné.
Simoné: Hello.
Taylor: Hi.
Isaac: Hello.
Zac: Hi. (weird voice)
Simoné: Oh, my God. Hello. Oh, my God.
Zac: Oh, my God. (weird voice)
Simoné: I’m talking to Hanson. Oh, my God.
Sarah (in background): I love you too Zac!
Simoné: Oh, my God. Well you heard that? Well yeah. My friend Sarah is here, and we’re
both
psyched up so much. Oh, my God.
Interviewer: Okay the question.
Zac: Yeah, we need the question. (said slowly)
Simoné: Oh, yeah I’d just like to know, how big is your fan club? Cause you know I’m a
major
part of it.
Taylor: Okay. You mean you want to be on the fan club?
Simoné: Pardon?
Taylor: Do you want to be on the fan club?
Simoné: Sorry, one second, sorry!
Taylor: Do you want to be on the fan club?
Interviewer: [laughing]
Simoné: Sorry, one second. Hello, sorry.
Zac: DO YOU WANT TO BE IN THE FAN CLUB? [sarcastic]
Simoné: Of course I do. I am already in it.
Isaac: Okay. Well, how big is the fan club?
Simoné: Yah.
Isaac: There’s a lot of people on the fan club.
Taylor: If you want to be on it just write us.
Simoné: Oh, my God.
Interviewer: Well in actual fact the other thing, I think we might let her "Oh, my God"
elsewhere.
[everyone laughs]
Zac: Either write us or get on our web-site.
Taylor: Check out our web-site - Hanson Online.
Interviewer: Listen the website, the Hanson website is sensational, www.hansonline.com
... Have I
got it guys?
Taylor: Yes.
Isaac: It’s actually a combination between Hanson Online. You know you squish it
together and
it’s...
Taylor and Isaac: Hansonline.
Interviewer: Yes, we got that subtlety.
Isaac: [laughs]
Interviewer: And it is in actual fact itself today, it actually lists that the guys are here now.
[another music and commercial break]
Interviewer: This is Keith Williams. Hanson are still with us, Zac, Isaac and Taylor. Shall
we take
one more call guys or will we...?
Taylor: Sure, let’s hear it.
Zac: Sure.
Isaac: Sure, why not.
Interviewer: We’ll see if we can get one on line here. Cassey Millicant from Seven Hills,
you're
talking to Hanson.
Cassey: Hi.
Taylor: Hello.
Isaac: Hi.
Zac: Hi. (very high pitched and soppy)
Interviewer: Your question.
Cassey: Are any of your songs inspired by real events?
Isaac: Ah, yes, songs are definitely inspired by real events, along with being inspired by
not real
events.
Taylor: The song "With You In Your Dreams" was written about our Grandma, when she
was
dying so, I guess that was definitely a real event.
Isaac: Yeah, so I mean, songs are inspired in all kinds of different way, cause you never
know
what kind of thing is going to happen, and what your going to be inspired by.
Interviewer: Thanks very much for your call Cassey.
Taylor: Thanks alot.
Interviewer: Couple of questions from me guys, ‘cause I know that you’ve got to go.
You’ve got
other things to attend to. Is this the sort of success you wanted, when you started off
obviously
doing a couple of CD’s before you did this major debut. Is this what you wanted to be
doing, is
this where you want to be at.
Isaac: I think music is definitely what we wanted to be doing, you know however...
Zac: We want to be wherever music is.
Interviewer: Yes, but your lives are never going to be the same, is the point I’m making.
Taylor: Oh, yeah, I mean this is definitely surpassed all our hopes, I mean it was only a
dream, so
this is way over what we expected. So definitely it is.
Isaac: You know I guess you could say being, we just wanted to do the music, that’s
really why we
were doing it not necessarily for the popularity of it but because we just loved to do
music.
Interviewer: Now how do you feel also when you do a concert and I know you do many,
when the
doors open you guys go on stage the crowd comes in and they’re all your same age. I
mean is that
what you want?
Isaac: You know I think that’s really cool.
Zac: You want, I guess you know.
Taylor: Um, I think really.
Interviewer: Well they not be your age Zac.
Zac: You want whoever likes the music if someone 80 likes the music you want them to
come to
the concert.
Taylor: There’s somebody 18 or somebody 14 or somebody 35, I mean it doesn’t matter
how old
you are. If you like the music then it’s...
Isaac: You know it’s one of those universal languages, you never know who’s going to
come to
the concert or whatever, so yeah I mean you just hope that all kinds of people like the
music.
Interviewer: Absolutely.
Taylor: Hope that somebody does.
Interviewer: Music speaks all kinds of languages there’s no doubt about that. Little did
you know
that we were listening to Hanson Down Under.
Taylor: Yeah [laughs]
Interviewer: And a big hit as well, we hope you have a wonderful stay in our country.
Thanks for
joining us on Home Free guys.
Taylor: Thank-you.
Isaac: Thanks a lot
Zac: Thanks (deep voice)
[end of interview]