Do Ike and Taylor ever fight over girls?
Ike: No. We definitely don't fight over girls, but we can't agree on who is cute. You know what's funny, a lot of times when we're onstage, I'll say 'Oh, I think that girl's cute,' and Taylor will say, 'Oh, I think that girl next to her is cuter.' It [makes things easier], really.
When Hanson first became popular, Zac said he thought girls were "yucky" -- does he still feel the same way?
Zac: No, it's not 'girls, yuck' anymore but I dont have anyone special right now. I haven't really gone out on dates yet, because I dont have anyone in mind to ask out. I don't think I've been in love yet.
When do you know it's the right time to ask a girl out?
Taylor: Well, see at that point, if you're gonna ask someone out for a date, you already know her. It's not like you meet somebody and go 'Wow, she's hot,' and you ask her out. I want to make friends with her first. I want to make sure it's actually about her liking me as opposed to her thinking 'Wow, I'm gonna date a guy from Hanson.' I dont want dating to be something superficial . . . I'm not seeing anyone right now -- no steady girlfriend.
What do Isaac, Taylor and Zac look for in a girl?
Taylor: I always get asked what kind of girls I think are attractive. I don't have a certain type.
Ike: I don't have a certain type, either. It's not a good idea. If you have a type then you limit yourself and you might be closing your mind to a wonderful girl who could surprise you.
Zac: I don't have a girlfriend. That's all in the future for me. I don't know what love is all about yet. I've got to find that out. It should be OK.
Hanson ever written a song about a real-life girl?
Ike: Yes.
Taylor: Most of those girls don't know it --- we've written a lot of love songs, and there are many girls who've been in relationships with us that we've written about."
Ike:"I think I gave one girl a cassette tape with songs on it for Valentines Day -- a long time ago.
Zac: I'd never admit to something like that.
What has been the most outrageous e-mail message Hanson has gotten?
Besides marriage proposals and declarations of undying love, the guys think that the most surprising messages were when they cut their hair. They got all sorts of E-mail telling Ike that they weren't mad at him for cutting his hair. They even got phone messages on the Hanson Hotline about Ike's lost locks. Zac laughs in an Entertainment Weekly article, "The hotline is to give the fans information, and it'd be like, 'Isaac . . . [sob] . . . we're . . . sup . . . porting . . . you . . . [choking sob] . . . and your haircut!"
Are Ike, Taylor and Zac Web surfers?
Taylor: That's something we are very into. We like going on-line and looking at all the Hanson sites. I think it's cool to go see different sites because that's how you see everybody else's perspective of you and their different ideas about songs and stuff like that.
Do Zac's parents or brothers treat him differently now that he's a teenager?
Zac: No, I'm not really treated any differently. I've always been treated the same way. We really don't treat each other like we're different ages. As far as I'm concerned, I'm eighteen and Ike is two.
What was the worst fight Isaac, Taylor and Zac have ever had?
Taylor: We don't fight very much at all. We spend so much time together that there seems to be less of an age gap between us.
Ike: We [fight] occasionally. We've had fights when we were younger where we've nearly killed each other!
Taylor: Once I got Zac so wound up that he dragged me around the [room] by my hair!
Zac: We were play-fighting [a couple of years ago] and I broke my nose. We were all wrestling together and I fell. I don't know whether it was Taylor or Ike, because we were all wrestling together.
When they do have disagreements, do they hold grudges?
Taylor: No. Being in a band together makes it even better, because we know each other so well. It's like, you're gonna argue, then it's over and you're still together. What are you gonna do? Walk across the room and pout?"
Ike: "You still gotta rehearse.
Are Ike, Taylor and Zac competitive with one another?
Ike: I would never really say we're competitive.
Taylor: Unless you're talking video games!
Ike: Zac kills us!
Zac: That's because I've been playing since I was three.
How do Ike, Taylor and Zac describe one another?
Taylor: We hate each other!
Zac: We have restrictions. Taylor has to stay at least two feet away!
When Zac goes on tour is there one thing he must have with him?
Zac: I always take a Nintendo or a Sony PlayStation to entertain myself on the tour bus.
What is Zac's favorite high-tech toy?
Zac: We like to play around with the digital video cameras and go on the Net.
What's Hanson's favorite kind of fanmail?
Taylor: Cool letters, like, 'I was doing this and that, and I realized when I heard your music I wanted to do this other thing because you guys are doing what you love.' That's very cool, to be able to inspire people. But you still can't let that stuff go to your head, because it's so fleeting.
How does Hanson get their ideas for songs?
Ike: I think we tend to write about all kinds of different things, and it's whatever comes into your mind. Life is your inspiration. You never know what's going to happen. Some of the songs are about love, about relationships breaking up, some about being crazy about a girl."
Taylor: "We write songs about every facet of life.
What's the worst thing about touring?
Zac: Sleeping in a bus bed. You wake up with your face stuck to the wall! Pretty scary!
Has Hanson ever gone out in public in disguises so they wouldn't be regognized?
Ike: No, not really. We just are ourselves and . .
Taylor: . . . deal with it as we go. There are certain times, like in movie theaters, where you have to sneak in once the lights go down or something like that. It's kind of a joke, but sometimes we'll just go in a really big group or we'll take walkie-talkies. It's almost more fun. . . . You become like a secret agent almost.
Do the guys in Hanson read all the unofficial books written about them?
Taylor: A lot of those books are fairly funny, because they make up things you didn't know about yourself. You're like, 'Huh, I didn't know that. And that. And that.' It definitely gives you a blow to the head; you laugh at it.
What's the most mischievious thing Taylor has ever done?
Taylor: When I was really little, I stole a little toy like a Transformer from a friend. He didn't get all mad, but he told his mom it was missing.
Ike: It was kinda my fault that Taylor got found out, because I told on him!
How have he groups friends reacted to their success?
Taylor: Our friends have become part of our fleet now. A lot of times there's so much mail that comes in, we say, 'Lets have a mail-opening party,' and [they come over] and we read 'em.
Ike: They've been very much into the band and kind of been with us for quite awhile. They remember the old records when they weren't being released and stuff like that. It's very cool for us and for them.
It is true that Hanson has started rock climbing?
Taylor: Yes. We practiced by rock climbing in indoor gums, and then we worked out way up to real rocks -- Joshua Tree and the San Bernadino National Forest. It was a lot of dun. It has amazing views.
What's the best advice Hanson's mom, Diana, has ever give them?
When a reporter at a This Time Around press conference asked this question, Zac was typical Zac. He answered, "Don't talk to strangers." And then he got up to leave!
Is it true that Taylor is left handed and dyslexic?
Taylor doesn't even know how that particular rumor got started, but he has explained many times since he first heard it, "I'm right-handed and not dyslexic."
What was the writing process you went through for This Time Around?
Ike: The process itself was not particularly different [from before]. You like to think that you get better as you do it more. But I mean, you know, it's just things are different. You write new songs, you come up with different chord ideas, you write in a different key.
Taylor: I think [This Time Around] is definitely taking the next step -- as far as just getting a little more rock and roll. Some of the chord structures are a little more complicated, but yeah, you hope you are continuing to improve your craft a little bit. As far as the writing goes, you're just taking a little different perspective on things, on some of the songs.
What were the themes for the songs?
Taylor: Everything we think and see and experience could be presented in a song. So the experiences of being able to travel and meet people and talk, definitely changes your perspective and could change how you write. It might influence your songwriting. And also just being on the road, a lot of these songs were written while traveling, while we were in a hotel room with a little piano.
Ike: You evolve naturally. I don't think it's so much directly related to travel or things like that. It's more that as natural evolution goes on, you just grow and you change. That's just a natural progression -- that's something that happens.
Taylor: And you never really notice it. People go 'Wow, you guys have really changed a lot!' And we're like, 'Really? Wow, I didn't notice it.' We were actually listening to Middle Of Nowhere and we [realized it would] be interesting to see how people respond to This Time Around. Because if you're only familiar with 'MMMBop' and you haven't really listened through Middle Of Nowhere... This Time Around is gonna be quite a jump for people.
How do you go about writing your songs?
Ike: It happens in all different ways.... It's completely spontaneous.
Taylor: It can be anything from [one of us] has a lyrics he wants to write a song about, or just a melody that comes into his head. Or we're jamming together, just messing around, and a song comes about. Like the first song, 'In The City' -- that was all based around this groove that we made up.
Ike: We were just down in the garage and Tay started goofing around on the keyboards, and I was actually playing the bass at the same time just for the heck of it.
Taylor: And in about an hour the song was basically done. So that's one example. But the song 'Runaway Run' was very much like a piece here, a piece there, and it all kind of came together and turned into a song.
Ike: Every part was completely individual, written completely separately from each other, written for a totally separate song, so all the little sections were not written for that song.
Taylor: Yeah, there's not really a way not write. I wish I could say there's a way to write songs, but there's no formula.
Ike: In fact you'll find that the hardest writing situations are the ones where you actually have to sit down and say, '[Darn], we need to write that second verse to that song.
Zac: What were we thinking? Why didn't we write it in the spur of the moment?
Ike: And that's the hardest part -- going back to a song and realizing we need to finish these lyrics because they're not quite right.
Any interesting stories behind any of the songs that are on the album?
Ike: A lot of the songs are often times not really related to direct life experiences. I think 'Bridges of Stone' [a song we cut from the album but will perform live] would be one.
Taylor: 'Bridges of Stone' is a good one. The song 'Wish That I Was There' -- we were demoing a different song and we were supposed to be working on it. I kept picking up the acoustic guitar; playing over the part right before we recorded it; and then all of a sudden I started playing something else. We just completely went off on this song and it just totally came together.
You collaborate with a lot of people on the new album. What was the most exciting collaboration?
Taylor: There were kind of three main ones: Jonny Lang, John Popper, and Rose Stone and the choir. I mean I think as far as Rose being there, well that was just amazing, because she was the keyboardist for Sly and the Family Stone. She steps in and she just has this aura..."
Ike: She's a very cool person and the group, the choir that she put together..."
Taylor: ... Is just really amazing.
Ike: You realize just how far you have to go as far as a singer.
Taylor: That was really cool, a very cool experience, and I think it really added to the album, just kind of the sound overall. The collaborations were a lot of fun.
What did you learn from the collaborations?
Taylor: I think the biggest thing... that we learned was just how to work with [other] people, learning how to give and take and be politically correct also. You have to work with people and make it happen -- it's just kind of the life experience of getting through it. |
