Thursday, August 13, 1998
By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun
Teen pop family act the Moffatts have already
learned to shrug off inevitable comparisons to Hanson.
In fact, the four Victoria, B.C., natives -- 14-year-old triplets
Clint (bass), Bob (drums) and Dave (keyboards), and 15-year-old
Scott (guitar) -- claim it was they who influenced the three
Hanson brothers.
"Obviously they're going to compare us because we're
brothers, they're brothers, and the age thing," Clint said
yesterday, while he and the other Moffatts lunched in a downtown
hotel restaurant.
"But actually, we have a fan club in the U.S. and one week
we got a lot of letters saying that they were watching David
Letterman or Jay Leno, and Hanson said one of their influences
was us."
Still, nobody can really be blamed for thinking of the Moffatts
as the Canadian equivalent of Hanson -- especially since the
Moffatts' boppy breakthrough Top 40 single, I'll Be There For
You, like most of the material on their most recent album,
Chapter 1: A New Beginning, was co-written and co-produced by the
Berman Brothers, who remixed -- you guessed it -- Hanson's Mmmbop.
"Before, we were the only young band touring and making
music," Dave said. "Now that Hanson's come out, it's
opened the door for a new era of music. Now you have, like,
Silverchair, so I think it's turned out to be a good thing."
The Moffatts, who have been living with their father and
stepmother in Nashville since 1994, claim they started singing
together when they were only about three and four years old.
"We were singing, but it wasn't on key," Bob said.
"It was Grandpa by The Judds."
The Judds as in Naomi and Wynonna.
For people so young, it's hard to believe this fresh-faced and
exceedingly polite foursome (they stand up to greet me when I
come over to their table) have already had a three-album, first
phase of their career as a country music act.
The switch to pop-rock came with age.
"It wasn't a drastic change for us, because in our live
concerts we would do songs by Bryan Adams (Kids Wanna Rock), by
Van Halen (You Really Got Me)," Bob said. "We did
Aerosmith's Fever."
This from a group of guys who claim never to have experienced
love, even though most of the songs on Chapter One -- which has
sold 400,000 copies worldwide -- have to do with the L-word.
"But the reason why we changed," continued Scott,
"was because rock-pop music was what we listened to. And if
we were going to play music, why didn't we play what we were
listening to? I mean, if we got into the car, we'd play Nirvana,
Bush, Silverchair."
The four boys, who are home-schooled by their father -- a
watchful presence at the other end of the restaurant table -- are
currently nearing the end of a cross-Canada promotional trip
which has so far taken them to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary,
Winnipeg, Ottawa and Quebec City.
They perform two shows Saturday at YTV's annual Psyko Blast at
Paramount Canada's Wonderland, which will be broadcast live
beginning at 2 p.m, before returning to the West Coast to play
concerts in Victoria and Vancouver.
"We haven't been home in eight months," Clint said.
"We've been pretty much just living in hotel rooms, but you
know it's always a new experience."
Like their recent five-week trip to southeast Asia, where the
Moffatts were mobbed by fans who have made Miss You Like Crazy,
the next single in Canada, the No. 1 song.
"We did in-stores in the Phillipines, Malaysia and Thailand
that were like 10,000, 12,000-plus people," said Scott.
"The great thing about it was, in Thailand we did one
concert that was live, it was sold out really quickly, like 6,000
tickets," Clint said. "And we went out there and
everybody was waving Canadian flags and, you know, we're very
proud of it.
"Everyone knows we're Canadian even though we're living in
the U.S."
(Original text: http://www.canoe.ca/AllPop-Moffatts/980813_oldhands.html)