X = InterviewerMI = IsaacMT = TaylorMZ = Zachary
Teen Magazine, June, 2000
Hanson Is Hot - The Original
Boy Band, Hanson
X: What's up with the new album?
T: The songs are about life.
I: Everything from, you know, broken relationships to fighting for
what you believe in.
Taylor : It's about feelings. About being happy and being
depressed. But it's also about just rocking out.
X: Do you need sadness and angst, or do you need joy and happiness to write a
hit album?
T: You need both.
Z: When you're listening to the songs and thinking about what they
actually say, it's not what they necessarily should like that's the important
thing.
T: There's a song called "Wish That I Was There," which is
basically talking about how every time you're gone, I wish that was with you. So
that's really a happy song. But a lot of times a song we write feels upbeat or
it rocks, even if the lyrics are down.
Do you write the lyrics first or the tune first?
T: It depends on the song.
Z: I would usually say music first, just because...
T: Music drives the lyrics.
X: Do you guys bring different talents to the songwriting table?
Z: He brought the radio and he brought the batteries.
X: Funny, Zac. Just answer the question before you get smacked
T: That's a good one, actually. What we bring to the table is the fact that
everyone of us is different. What makes it work is each of us has our own deal.
I can't tell you what it is, though. The fact that we are constantly switching
roles makes that impossible to answer. One guy's being goofy one day, and one
guy's being the guy who gets work done the next.
Z: My official title is "Father."
T: Yes, we call him Father. If we're put with friends or whatever,
Zac's like "OK, we've got to be home in 20 minutes."
X: Why is Zac so responsible?
T: He has some kind of psychotic weird thing where he wants to be
goofy when he's not supposed to be and he wants to be strict when he's supposed
to have fun.
X: What's different now, other than the fact that Zac is a foot taller?
I: We've matured a little bit musically. We've gotten better at our
craft. Better at songwriting.
T: I think that tour helped to strengthen our playing and our
musicianship and everything.
X: Would you call yourselves rock stars?
I: I don't feel like a rock star.
X: Don't you ever think to yourselves, "hey, I could have this or I could
have that if I wanted," like riding around in a limo or getting tickets to
see a show?
I: I don't like limos, personally. They're way too self-indulgent.
X: No special celebrity privileges at all?
I: We met George Lucas (Star Wars' director). His daughter
introduced us. She goes, "Dad this is Hanson," and he goes, "I
know who they are," and we just sat there.
Z: It's cool when you walk up and you're like, "Hi, what do you
mean you already know I'm Zac from Hanson?"
X: Does the fame thing ever bug you?
I: There are some fans who are really weird, but then there are other
fans who are cool.
X: Describe what makes for a weird fan versus a cool fan.
T: We have amazing fans. Our fans are really great, but...
I: ...there are some scary ones. Sometimes we can't go in our
backyard.
T: What would you do if you looked in your backyard and there's your
old treehouse and there's somebody just swinging on your treehouse.
X: You could put up a fence.
I: That would look dumb.
X: So, you'd rather just keep it open and the fanatics are going to just keep hanging in your treehouse waiting for you to come be their best friend?
Z: They're not always in our backyard.
T: We have this security. It's actually funny because we have these
little things in the trees that have an alarm and if you walk by they say,
"Don't enter the yard."
X: But you still find people in your yard anyway?
I: We've had whole tour buses in front of our house. we've had 30
people on our front lawn- one of them with a guitar singing songs.
Z: They steal our basketball. Some lady comes back and she's like,
"My daughter stole this, I'm sorry."
X: Was she returning the basketball?
I: No, she was proud of the fact that her daughter took our
basketball. And I was like, "And you're telling me this because why?"
She still has it. That girl still has it in her room. Actually the mothers of
the girls who are fans are the worst.
Z: Sometimes the dads are really bad because they just insist. You
know, they're like, "I'm 'The Dad', and this is my daughter and she likes
you guys."
X: That's definitely over the top. But some guys would love to have all those
girls after them.
T: Can we not talk about girls?
X: You guys must date once in a while. Isaac?
I: Not very often, actually.
Z: if it's not recreational time, we don't spend it...
I: ...dating
Z: I don't have anyone to date right now.
X: Zac, you are making so many girls so happy! Are you all single?
I: I was dating a girl off and on for a while recently. But that
didn't work out, so...
T: I haven't really dated a lot of people. I mean, I probably
wouldn't talk about it anyway.
X: You're a little touchy on the girl subject, Taylor.
T: Well, you know, people are always asking "Who's your
girlfriend?" or "Do you have one?" and I'm like "Well, you
know what? If I did have one, I wouldn't tell you who she was."
X: C'mon. Who is she?
Z: [joking] Here's her address.
I: That's the hard part, because if I take a girl somewhere, then all
of a sudden people start stalking her.
X: So when you finally take a girl out, where do you go to not get noticed?
I: Nowhere.
Z: We sit in the backyard and say, "This is great!"
X: You guys are really into that treehouse.
I: We just expect to get noticed. But I guess I take girls to the
movies. To dinner. I don't know. Wherever she likes to go.
Z: Or bowling.
I: Oh, I almost always bring a girl flowers, like almost every time I
take a girl out on a date.
Z: I'd give a girl tapes of the Weather Channel.
X: And you wonder why you don't have girlfriends?
T: Isn't there anything better to talk about than dating?
X: Isaac, is Taylor the nightmare little brother when it comes to your love
life?
I: [laughs] Yeah, exactly.
X: You must have a dating horror story.
I: Yeah, the little brother.
T: No, I mean, classically, it's the little brother who shoes up in
the movie, and like, you know, the big brother is about to go in for the kiss
and then it's like "Hey guys, how's it goin'"?
X: You did that?
T: No, I mean that's the classic.
I: But if I'm really going on a date...
Z: You would check the back seats to make sure that no one is there. No
family stowaways.
X: Ok, now we can ditch the dating talk and get to the really important stuff,
like, your hair.
I: When I first cut my hair, I flew back home for a weekend and I
couldn't believe people still recognized me.
X: Was it tough to cut it all off?
I: I just wanted to. I thought about cutting it when we did the first
record.
Z: I believe they wanted us all to cut our hair.
T: Yeah, everybody's like "You gotta cut your hair," and
we're like, "We love our hair."
X: Boys are lucky because they can just go and shave their heads.
T: [joking] Zac's going to shave his head.
Z: I don't know. See, the good thing about this is girls like to play
with my hair since I have so much.
X: What girls, Zac? You don't have girls around remember?
T: No, he said he didn't have a girlfriend. He's a player. [laughs]
X: That'll break a lot of hearts. Do you guys have anything you can't live
without, say, health food?
I: We're into beef.
Z: We're from the Midwest, so we're "meatatarians."
T: We love meat.
Z: I prefer frozen beef jerky on a popsicle stick and you just lick it!
It's great.
T: You realize we're joking.
Z: Dr. Pepper.
X: What about it?
T: That's another Midwest thing. Everybody drinks Dr. Pepper.
X: What do your rooms look like?
Z: We share a room. It smells gooooood.
X: One room? With like, one hamper? All those dirty socks and underwear in one
hamper?
I: Yep. Lots of underwear, man. Lots of underwear.
X: How often do you change your underwear?
T: That is where we're going to have to draw the line!
X: Settle! Just kidding!
Z: I have one of those race car beds. It's great.
X: And a wagon wheel lamp?
I: Actually, we had cool beds made that are log-cabin looking. Very
rural. But our room is boring. There is not a single poster on our walls.
T: We have a little living room area outside of our room and we
spend time there.
X: Doing what?
I: We don't watch very much TV. We don't have time.
Z: The Simpsons is great.
T: Actually, I love the Discovery Channel. It's awesome.
Z: There's a crodle hunter, and he's insane. [in a accent]
'...I have here a snake in the wild...four inches from my face...I will surely
die...'
I: "That's why I'm going to poke it with this short stick!"
X: Well, at least it's educational TV. Speaking of, how's school?
Z: We're homeschooled.
T: It's like our parents are our personal teachers.
X: What are your favorite subjects?
Z: Recess.
T: Yes, recess.
Z: And creative spelling.
X: Got it! Last question: What CDs are you listening to right now?
I: Sheryl Crow abd Lauryn Hill.
Z: Beck, all the Crows: Sheryl Crow, Black Crowes
T: Lenny Kravitz and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.