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As anyone who's jumped on the boy bandwagon can tell you, Hanson's the anomaly of the music industry. Rarely do these groups write their own music, play their own instruments and still manage to impress gaggles of girls (and boys). A&F's guy from down under, David Jackson, caught up with Isaac, 19, Taylor, 17, and Zac, 15, in New York City, somewhere on tour for their latest album,
This Time
Around.
Taylor: Are you from New York?
David: No, I'm actually Australian
Isaac: Oh, wow, I love Australia
Taylor: Do you surf much?
David: Yeah, actually a lot. Do you get to the beach often?
Taylor: A bit less when we're doing a record. But we try to get there when we have some time, mostly on the West Coast, like San Diego, San Clemente, San Onofre- which is a little rocky, but nice.
David: On one of the 371 websites dedicated to Hanson, I read that you guys started singing as a family around the dinner table. Is this still your favorite way to express yourself musically?
Isaac: It didn't happen on a regular basis but I think it's where our parents noticed that we were into music so much.
Taylor: Back then, we seemed to be singing acapella everywhere. I mean, at the dinner table, someone might kick into song, but music is what we do, whether it's in a car, at home or on the road.
Isaac: Music was-and is- everywhere in our lives.
David: Do you still rock out to all those gospel and 50's and 60's tracks that you started with?
Isaac: We did, "Johnny Be Goode" at the show last night.
Taylor: We played some Stones last night too. That music is so good. Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding... We rock out with Cream. We love it all.
David: You've worked with some great producers such as the Dust Brothers and Steve Lironi. Is it all down to business with making a record, or do you get to jam with them, in the purest sense of the word?
Taylor: Making the record is about being creative and work, but you're having fun as well.
Isaac: I wouldn't say that making a record is just business.
Taylor: But it is long hours. And the creative juices are flowing the whole time.
Isaac: You take the songs into the studio that you wrote and have an idea of their direction but they can take a left-or right-hand turn that you don't expect. That's kind of the whole point: to try new things.
David: Do you ever get sick of the "pop star" experience and just want to go shoot hoops?
Taylor: No, because music is a passion. I mean, we do get to shoot hoops, but we also get to travel the world and do things that a lot of people don't.
David: What are you writing songs about in particular?
Isaac: Here's the thing- we don't write songs about those literal experiences, because that would be kind of stupid.
Zac: We write songs about everything. We write more about how we're feeling, which most of the time is not literal.
Taylor: For instance, the song, "This Time
Around" is about war and dying- literally about someone being interrogated in war and stuff. "if you don't tell us, we'll kill you." It's about war and death and stuff like that, but we haven't experienced those things. It's all metaphorical, but it tells those stories, it's like being a playwright or something. You're creating a story line and it connects to a feeling, but
you're thinking about it and you find ways to express them in a song.
Isaac: So you're not writing about literal experiences; you're writing about all the emotions you feel at different times.
David: What's the writing process like?
Zac: It's creative. It's not like we sit down and say, "Let's write a song," or we do it the same way every time.
Taylor: Sometimes someone will start with a lyric and say, "What about this? Let's write about that."
Zac: In the end, everybody ends up writing on each song.
Isaac: One example is when we were on a bus about two and half weeks ago. It was three in the morning and me and Tay were sitting across from each other and Zac was in front and we were playing this one song. It was basically finished and we had written the bridge but there was something not quite right about it. I actually had a chord progression from a different song that I was trying to work on and I accidentally played it at that time and Tay said, "Hey, wait a minute, play that over this!" And it completely changed the bridge. And we were all like, Whoa, that's it, that really works. And it's those moments that you're always excited for. Those are the moments that songwriters and musicians live for.
Taylor: Songs start building themselves. We could blab on forever about songs.
David: I've got some quick questions for you. If you could tour with any band, who would it be?
Taylor: Any band? That's really hard. I guess The Who.
Isaac: Aerosmith.
David: Britney or Christina?
Isaac: Britney or Christina?
Taylor: I'll plead the Fifth thank you very much.
David: NSYNC or Backstreet Boys?
Taylor: I'll plead the Fifth on that too.
David: Do you have a favorite Christmas carol?
Isaac: They can be fun! "Oh, the weather outside is frightful....let it snow, let it snow..."
David: You've already done a Christmas album right?
Taylor: Yeah, but it's definitely not Christmas carols.
Isaac: It's like, "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" It's very rock 'n' roll.
Taylor: You'd definitely be surprised.
David: If there's a brawl who wins?
Isaac and Taylor: Zac!
Isaac: Okay, here's the thing. I'd get slugged first, so I'd be out cold. If it's between Tay and Zac, it's a toss-up depending on who's most passionate at the moment. Zac has overall endurance though.
David: Your favorite Hanson song?
Zac: Haven't written it yet.
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