Настроение: I want 1997 back!
Откуда: Russia, Saint Petersburg
Репутация:
12
Отправлено: 25.01.10 17:06. Заголовок: SuperAnny я его уже ..
SuperAnny я его уже переводила, мне Лиана давала ссылку и я выложила в этой же теме! Называется "3 свадьбы и 7 детей спустя: Хэны все еще существуют!!!!"
Настроение: Не подходите ко мне близко, я тигренок, а не киска!
Откуда: Россия, Ярославль
Репутация:
10
Отправлено: 22.02.10 23:51. Заголовок: не знаю было такое и..
не знаю было такое или нет., ну в общем у китайцев нашла
Exclusive Q&A with Taylor Hanson!
Between touring with new rock supergroup Tinted Windows and recording a new album with the band he's been in since he was nine (hello, Hanson!) - Taylor Hanson is one busy guy! Even with a hectic summer schedule, he found some time to chat with J-14's biggest Hanson fan about Tinted Windows, his two Twitters, and what he thinks of Taylor Swift!
J-14: What are you up to right now? Are you touring with Hanson and Tinted Windows? Taylor: I'm working on the new Hanson record right now (out next spring) and we're touring this fall. With Hanson, we have our own record company, we run a very active online fan club, and then with Tinted Windows, we're touring, the record's out, the single is on the radio - so I'm kind of bouncing back and forth.
J-14: You have Twitter accounts for both bands - do you answer your @replies? Taylor: We do! For Hanson, one of the things that - especially in the last five years - we've always championed is having a connection with your fans. Music sales declining and people losing the sense of "I need to go buy a record" comes from having a lack of connection with the artist. People are like, "oh, it's just some song I heard" as opposed to, "I love this band. I love this artist. I love what they're doing. I want to have their record. I want to go to their show." Twitter is just one more opportunity to stay current with those that are reaching out to you. We set up a Twitter for Hanson recently, and I'm kind of the designated Twitterer of Tinted Windows.
J-14: Did you know Taylor Swift Tweeted about you? Taylor: I heard she said a couple of really, very nice things. I think Taylor Swift is really talented. She has an amazing head on her shoulders already and any compliment from her is really flattering.
J-14: I think you guys should do a country pop duo! Taylor: (laughs) Maybe! I will say this, she's really talented and I think it would be great to do something together.
J-14: Do your children listen to your music or are they listening to Miley and the Jonas Brothers? Taylor: They're kind of picky. My son is a little music critic and he'll criticize our stuff and then he'll tell me what he likes and doesn't like. They like Taylor Swift and haven't connected as much with Miley Cyrus, probably because we haven't bought that record, but Miley Cryrus and the Jonas Brothers, they're out there and they watch the Disney Channel.
J-14: I'm sure you have to watch it all too! Taylor: I see parts of it, but also, in the cases of Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers, it's knowing what it's like to be a younger artist. I definitely admire the amount of work that they're clearly putting into their careers. It's hard work to keep up with the sudden enthusiasm and accolades that they're receiving so I wish them much luck.
J-14: You're a good role model for them! Taylor: In the end it comes down to wanting to be able to do what you love doing and no matter who you are - if you start at 25 or if you start at 10 - if you're really in it because this is what you want to do, it's an obligation you have to fulfill for yourself and hopefully it'll keep happening.
Настроение: But I kind of like the Beatles
Откуда: Санкт-Петербург
Репутация:
10
Отправлено: 05.11.10 08:38. Заголовок: Полное интервью с Ай..
Полное интервью с Айзеком Хэнсоном
Isaac Hanson calling from some shady corner of the world, most likely Hanson’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where it was sunny with temperatures in the 70’s. We haven’t been to Fort Lauderdale or St. Petersburg much, but we’re excited to come back down to the very Southern part of Florida.
And we are excited to have you. Speaking of being excited to have you, we are planning on hosting a walk on campus and I’m finding that many people are put off by the idea of the walk being barefoot. How do you overcome this and why is it so important that people do it barefoot?
Well, the fact that they’re put off by it being barefoot is important. ‘Cause we’re talking about is, when we do these one mile barefoot walks our focus has been, not specifically that oh please donate money and lets raise as much as humanly possible. Of course the goal is to raise money on some level or other. But, what we’re focused on is helping one another understand the capacity to lead or the capacity to do positive things in the world and to help those who need help and to understand what it is to not have something to understand what it is to live a life of poverty. And so remarkably basic but interestingly, as you hinted to, it really gets people confused and thrown off they’re like, ‘wait I’ve got to walk without my shoes?” And they start like acting hysterical almost sometimes. Like, ‘well that’s scary.” We’re like, “well, what do you think we’ve got needles on campus?’ I think that it’s important to walk barefoot because without walking barefoot you don’t have the opportunity to truly examine psychologically what it is to not have them. And most of the time when you’re walking barefoot it’s not a big deal I mean you put you’re foot underneath some water or something and put you’re socks back on you’re good, you know. I mean it is truly about understanding what it is to live a life of poverty and that’s why we walk barefoot. Because what we’re trying to get to is leadership requires you being willing to do something that others won’t do. Leadership requires you being one of the few not the many. Leadership and making positive impact unifying the world around you leaving it better than you found it is about being willing to go out there and put yourself in someone else’s shoes or lack thereof. And also we give a dollar for every single person that walks, for every person that registers a walk on takethewalk.net we will give a dollar for every single person that walks with them, if they come to a walk we’re hosting we will give a dollar for them and whoever shows up as well. And, what’s also important about that is we’re talking about people who are living on less than a dollar a day. We’re talking about a day’s worth of income [?]. We as a band are donating those dollars out of our pocket because we think it is much more important that we address the realities of leadership of understanding what it is to be in poverty and of doing something of taking action than it is for someone to reach in their wallet or pull out a credit card and give a dollar. It is about the psychological reality that is living without that we’re trying to understand.
Now I understand that you just made the 113 paintings you painted for the special packages available for pre-order on your site yesterday, how do these paintings add to the message/feel of Shout it Out or how did they come out of the album?
Well one of the things is actually the backdrop that we just used on the Shout it Out tour has been a good portion of those paintings enlarged and displayed in a kind of a grid type pattern. So you see about 90 different paintings behind us. The colors are inspired by the colors of the record. The art and the way it was done is very inspired by you know the message of the art of the record you know with a kind of a very it’s kind of this very hand painted very bold color and stuff. Amongst other things it was just a real artistic outlet for us. This record I think is a very [personal], very expressive kind of bold color type of record to have paintings that kind of were very bold and kind of exciting and what not was something we were really excited about. And also we’d never really done anything like that before. Taylor and Zac in particular are really great painters and artists and so it was really nice to have a different set of outlets for the album. And also in addition to that they were tied to the really extensive package that we provided for people which was if people wanted to they could by this platinum package which included sets of headphones, a limited edition double LP, the album, the photobook, the original an original painting as in they got the canvas and the original one-of-a-kind painting one of the 113 that were made they got one of them, and several other very customized items. And so that’s kind of where that came from was we said, ‘well lets put together this special package what would make it extra special?’ ‘oh, you know paintings, artwork something truly one-of-a-kind, so that’s what we did. And then we took extensive photographs of the painting of the artwork as well as just photographing paintings themselves as well it’s a shame for everybody not to have the chance to see all of these pieces of art so we put it all together in one cohesive book.
There seems to be a trend in album releases with a new album coming out every 3 years, almost like clockwork (the one exception being Underneath). Mostly, it seems that this has been less intentional and more based on circumstances. Is that safe to say?
Yeah it is safe to say. I mean most of the records are released in the spring or summertime. Middle of Nowhere was released in May, This Time Around was released in May, Underneath was released in April, at the very end of April, The Walk was released the latest in the year, it was actually released at the end of July. It was originally slated to be released in May but got pushed back a couple of months. And then Shout it Out was released at the very beginning of June. So, yeah it is less intentional and more circumstantial. We’d like to think that we’ll increase the speed of records in the years to come but know that it’s taking longer and longer to promote albums then to release them around the world then to get songs heard on whether it be getting videos spread through the internet or getting songs played on the radio or whatever it is. So, unfortunately the business as a whole is going slower, but I feel like the fan base as a whole, music fans in general, not just Hanson fans, are wanting less content more frequently. I think people would generally be happier if they were getting between 3 and 5 songs from the band every 9 months or less and consistently getting music because it keeps things fresh and then it makes tours a little bit more exciting because every single time you go over and see a show there’s something new to hear and something new to buy and stuff like that. So, I’d like to think that things if we change a little bit, but unfortunately the music business as a whole is not changing very well, but of course the music business is going bankrupt so I don’t think we should really be chasing the music business as a whole these days anyway. But my goal would be, sure, my goal would be increasing the speed. . .
What’s more frustrating, the Hanson “All Grown Up” articles, the Hanson “Mmm Bopping their way [insert location or chart position here]” articles or the reviews with compliments that almost sound begrudging I mean they’re almost like “yeah Hanson’s kind of great, I guess, considering they’re Hanson”?
That is a really, really funny thing to ask and you know what it’s, I will tell you this, you are the first person that I can remember to ask that question with that clarity and with that context. And my answer to that is that on some level or other you always want to be judged based on the content of the album itself. And that I think far too often you’re in scenarios where people are comparing things in various different ways and I per- well I’ll just flat out say it: I think all of those articles are kind of silly and frustrating. Because the underhanded comments are kind of silly because I think on some level or another you just need to come to a show and deal with it from a musical level and stop trying to justify it so if you’re going to write an article have balls and say ‘I like this band, end of story.’ And if you want to give context and write actual context not silly tag lines. And the irony is the reason why the silly tag lines and the ‘all grown up’ stuff is silly is because it’s incredibly tired, we’ve been ‘all grown up’ since 2000.
Since ’97, basically. You’ve been all grown up since ‘97
Well, but what I’m saying is people have been writing those articles since then. Every, a huge portion, huge portion of the articles since 2000 that are kind of general, overarching articles are like, ‘wow, Hanson’s more mature. Wow, Hanson’s all grown up.” And I just think it’s silly, I think it’s tired and I think somebody needs to actually start listening to music instead of talking about the past. Let’s talk about the past, let’s talk about the future. And, the truth is I’m really really proud of what we’ve done. I’m really, really proud of my teenage self as well as what we have been able to do over the last 10 years. I mean everybody always goes for huge hits, but what really matters is what happens in between the huge hits and we’ve been the underdogs the whole time. We’ve either been too young or you know I even read an article not too long ago that said that, ‘Hanson should start acting their age’ you know, with regard to Shout it Out because it was an upbeat record and I was like, ‘wow, you can’t win either way.’ So the truth is it’s always that way and I guarantee you the Black Crowes and U2 and all kinds of other people have all kinds of similar kind of random issues and so it’s kind of one of those things that’s just a part of being a band. We’ve got incredible fans. We’ve been able to continue to tour successfully for over a decade and I don’t see it going anywhere in a bad way, I mean actually, we’re seeing, we’ve been better in the last few years than we’ve ever done as far as seeing progressive increases in ticket sales and in all that kind of stuff. So, things are continuing to grow not shrink.
Well, I’m hoping that this article won’t be one of those, I’m sure that it won’t-
By the way sorry to interrupt but you seem like somebody who’s got a lot of context for us as a band and what not. I will say this other thing which is, if you’re coming to a Hanson show just to see “Mmm Bop” you’re coming for the wrong reasons. We’d love for you to come see “Mmm Bop” and come see stuff from our first record and our first couple records and we will play that and love it and you will hear it because it’s who we are. But, we’re going to play 23 songs, 25 songs for two hours, you know, and I don’t know I just think that there’s -- people who are coming to see Hanson concerts and people who are buying Hanson records are not buying them because Hanson wrote a song called “Mmm Bop” 13 years ago and that’s the reason why they’re buying Shout it Out. The reason why they’re buying Shout it Out is because they like it.
в двух словах, о чем интервью, для тех, кто не читает на инглише.
Тэй говорит, что Кэти Пери пригласила их в свой клип, потому что как она сказала, она была их фанаткой. Им приятно, конечно же.
Тинтед Виндоус останется проектом на стороне, т.е. может, запишут еще один альбом, но хз когда, потому что он остается для развлечения.
Сейчас они работают за сценой для других музыкантов. Пишут им песни. Пока для своего альбома ничего не делали.
У них с братьями разный стиль написания, Тей больше склоняется к поп-музыке в плане текста, Айк больше пишет пишет реальные истории, а Зак любит прикрывать вещи (типа иносказательно?).
Тэя спросили, привлекают ли они детей к музыке. Он ответил, что его старший, ему 8 лет, явно имеет склонности к музыке, впрочем все мои дети, скромно добавляет Тэй. Но я их не заставляю, не настаиваю, грит Тэй.
Ну и конечно вопрос про мммбоп, не тошнит ли еще их играть ее. Тэй грит, что нет, т.к. они играют еще и другие песни, и вообще во время исполнения этой песни у него все время возникают разные эмоции, типа сентиментальных. Грит, слава богу, эта песня лишь одна из 70.
Отправлено: 16.10.11 07:32. Заголовок: Posted on October 12, 2011 by HILARY HUGHES
LISTEN GONE GONZO: HANSON Posted on October 12, 2011 by HILARY HUGHES Email
What happened when we met Hanson outside the House of Blues before their set last Sunday night? A lot of girls started screaming up the block and surprising, enlightening conversation with the brother band ensued. Yes, you read that correctly.
I will be the first person to tell you that I went into this Gone Gonzo episode with a ton of assumptions that weren’t exactly fair regarding Hanson. How could I not, really? When I was 11, I was patting myself on the back for stealing my dad’s Rolling Stones tapes out of his glove compartment and spending my allowance on Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill. I was not hanging posters of Taylor Hanson on my wall and making collages cut from the pages of Seventeen and Tiger Beat. The blonde, bright-eyed brother band--whose zillion-watt smiles have been plastered all over every glossy rag under the sun and whose voices changed alongside ours as they were broadcast over Top 40 airwaves--will never be anything but the band that gave us “MMMBop” for plenty of people in my generation, myself included. As a pop culture fanatic, a musician and a music journalist, Hanson have never been on my radar as they’ve never resonated with my personal tastes.
And then, as Mikey and I were waiting outside the House of Blues, I realized I was a jerk.
Who the hell am I to write Hanson off as the MMMBop guys with the ponytails? I gave them credit for the hit that lay the foundation for their career without making an effort to listen to anything else they’d produced since then. With the line of fans growing in number as it crawled up Lansdowne Street, I lost a bit of my resolve on my previous stance as to how lame Hanson was. I mean, these dudes are known for that one song that they wrote when they were kids, but there’s gotta be more at play here than a single record to maintain a fanbase of this size years and years later, right? But critics and haters don’t just tear things apart for no reason, and I can’t just forget their cheesy reputation, right? Either way, as Isaac, Taylor and Zac got out of their tour bus and walked towards Mikey and I grinning and extending their hands, I just went into interview mode. These guys weren’t Hanson. They were a three-piece band headlining the House of Blues and I would chat them up about creative process, inspiration and guilty pleasures the same as I would WITH anyone else who writes their own music, treats their fans well and constantly works to improve their songwriting and playing skills. And I’d cut them some slack for the crappy hair cuts they sported when they were kids, because hell, I wasn’t exactly a fashion plate myself and none of us are proud of the duds we wore when we were 14.
Welcome back to Boston! We were just trying to figure out when your last show was here--2009? 2010?
Isaac: I think 2009 was the last time we played at the House of Blues, yeah.
Gotta be honest, I don’t even know where to start with you. We could start with the obvious and talk about where you’ve been since the MMMBop days--
Taylor: Hey, we could start with the obvious.
You’ve been doing this for quite some time. You’ve also been brothers for quite some time (laughs). Isaac: All of our lives, actually (laughs). Taylor: Well, no, all of our lives we’ve been brothers. Because for a period of your life you were-- Isaac: Yeah, I had a period of my life where I was solo act. I was a solo act back in 1980, 1981 and 1982. Zac: Almost three good years of solo-ness.
It was an experimental phase, I guess. What’s the toughest thing about being in a band with your brothers? Taylor: It’s a little hard because we’ve been in a band with our brothers for a long time too. It’s more like what’s it like not being in a band with our brothers. Because that’s what our experience has been.
Well, you know what that’s like, too, given your involvement with Tinted Windows [a side project made up of Taylor, James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and Bun E. Carlo of Cheap Trick--Ed.]
Taylor: That’s true—Which was different. The one thing that I noticed that was particularly different about that experience as it compares is that as a strength, and maybe sometimes it makes it complicated, but one of the strengths of being brothers is just shared experience. You have shared influences and shared backgrounds. When you go to do something like Tinted Windows, the only commonality is that you know music and there’s sort of the “musician’s code.” With us, there’s so many things that are just unsaid as far as making music goes, and I think that’s a strength. Sometimes it makes it complicated because you sort of read each other’s minds and people [in sibling bands] kind of fall back on crutches--sort of like, “Oh yeah, I’m gonna sing the melody, Isaac’s gonna sing the low part and oops—he didn’t sing the [low] part.” Because you’ve done stuff together for so long.
Isaac: I think bands for generations have proven more that family works in bands and music. In a lot of cases, more so than [when] it doesn’t.
Zac: Everyone from the Everly Brothers to the Beach Boys to the Jackson Five to Stone Temple Pilots. There’s some bad cases like Oasis, Kings of Leon, where people are exploding at each other, but that’s—if you compare that … there’s a rich history of siblings and brothers and relatives in bands because there’s such a genetic connection that is undeniable. The way you sound when you sing--there’s no closer vocal cords than those of brothers or siblings. Isaac: Yeah. When we just answer the phone and say “Hello,” 50% of the time our Mom would mistake whose voice it was. Zac: Do you think that makes you feel good? Or younger? Isaac: I’m just trying to prove the point! (laughs)
It’s interesting that you bring up the Followills and the Gallaghers in the sense that, yes, they definitely are “exploding” all over the place, and there are a lot of issues going on there. But I find that that almost works for them--they can tap into that in some of their music when they’re not self-imploding. Zac: I just bring them up because they’re sort of famous train wrecks—publicly. Notoriously brawlers. When we fight, we’re brothers—we’re human beings. We fight and we have our struggles, we just don’t tend to do that onstage or in front of the camera, and I think in the last—Gosh, it’s scary to say this—but when Oasis first broke up it was almost twenty years ago. “Brothers fight, why don’t you fight?” Isaac: Actually, we got that all the time, especially early on. Taylor: And the main thing is, once you succeed, people want to talk about and break apart the different things or aspects of ex-bands, but we still see ourselves as us against the odds, as a unit. Yes we don’t like each other all the time, yes we don’t get along, yes we have days, but it’s more like us against the world versus us against each other. So I think that’s what probably keeps it together more than anything. It’s just—you know that your weird cousin is kind of awkward, and you joke about it with other relatives. But then when your other friend comes in and says “Man what a weirdo,” you and all your cousins are like--
Isaac: YOU DON’T MESS WITH MY COUSIN!!! (laughs)
Zac: We’re the Danish Mafia.
… The Danish Mafia?
Zac: Yeah, we’re Danish. We’re actually pretty Danish. We were in Denmark and people were asking us questions in Danish. “Whoa! Whoa! We’re American!” (laughs) Taylor: They’re the happiest people on the Earth.
So you say that your strong familial connection is a good, positive thing for working together as a band, and that you come from similar backgrounds--but you’ve gotta have some creative differences.
Taylor: We have a lot of experience with each other, so a lot of times the guess for what the person is leaning towards is pretty good. It’s not necessarily always on, but… Zac: There’s this documentary about our third record where in part of it we said “pessimist [Isaac], optimist [Taylor], realist [Zac].” And I realized that was slightly off. It’s idealist, optimist, realist. But essentially we all come at things from different angles--and that’s where the creative process is. Taylor: Different way of getting to the destination, for sure. Zac: I wouldn’t know [what it's like being in a band without brothers], to be honest. There are bands of not brothers like, “We’re like brothers, we’re so close!” And then you see bands of brothers and they say stupid stuff like “It’s beyond brothers!” It’s like, “You don’t know!” You’re not in a brother band. You’re not in a not-brother band. You just know what it’s like to be in Hanson.
Well, also, when you talk to a band breaking up or post-break up, creative differences frequently come up--”We’re not in the same spot right now, creatively” or something. But you guys have to go to Thanksgiving in the same place every year. You can’t exactly do that.
Taylor: Well doing different things doesn’t necessarily mean conflict, I mean there’s—that’s just part of the process. We’re coming up on twenty years as a band, next year.
You gonna have a big party? Taylor: We should. Isaac: We should, we’re kinda thinking about it. Zac: We’re all getting spider tattoos on our elbow.
Nice. Taylor: ‘Cause that’s what really tough guys do, you know. And then I’m thinking I might also double it up with some barbed wire around my bicep. Zac: Yeah I’m getting skulls on my knuckles, it’s gonna be awesome.
Do you guys have any ink, or no? Isaac: No, no ink yet. It may happen one of these days…
Cool (laughs.) So, you’re gonna do something big for your twentieth year as a band. Isaac: Thinking about it! Taylor: Just thinking about different things we would do. Twenty years is a big landmark, so we could do different things, and that wouldn’t necessarily be a sign of demise. That’s part of the flexibility and creative energy to make stuff work. If you weren’t continuing to try things you would just continue to tour on the one record you released—for twenty years. Even going out to make albums every couple years and continuing to do things as a band is that continual pursuit of being interested in something—excited and creating something. So if somebody wants to try something else, then that would be good. Isaac: I think there’s a lot of room for us as a band to push the envelope a little bit farther, even just for the three of us, and I think that’s kind of part of why we never have felt particularly limited or something to that effect. In doing what we do, I mean, I think we’re always kinda feeling like we’ve got something that we haven’t done before. We express ourselves what we wanna get to the forefront. I think about the latest record, Shout it Out, and that was the easiest record we’ve ever made. It was kind of crazy. Taylor: It definitely had the least drama around it. It had a pretty clear attitude and approach and style early on. Isaac: We knew where we were going with it. It was exciting, like, “Wait a minute--maybe we’ve hit a little bit of stride here.”
Well with that record, let’s state the obvious--you’re older. There’s something to be said for artistic and emotional maturity. You’re gonna write a different record at 25 than you were gonna write at 15 or at 10.
Zac: Yeah, sure. I’m surprised how well the records play together.
This tour, we’ve been playing old records. So, every night, fans are voting for which record they want to hear. And so, tonight we’re playing This Time Around, our second record. And we’ll play every song off of This Time Around as part of the set. And we’ll play other songs too, but it’s been surprising to me, like, when we play Middle of Nowhere, This Time Around, like old records—they don’t particularly sound like something we wouldn’t write now. They still sound … Isaac: There were a few random lyrics that were like “Eh, yeah, I was sixteen when I wrote that.” Zac: We just rhymed it, you know (laughs). Isaac: --But not a whole lot. Zac: I think the main difference for us is just … you’re pushing yourself and finding slightly different styles that you accentuate with each record. I think the latest record, you definitely hear our core ’60s pop influences. The horns—that stuff coming through, that you didn’t hear on other records as much. We’re still Hanson, but there’s just a little bit of a throwback quality to the record. Isaac: I think the one thing that people have to—the tricky thing is as a musician, we speak in a broader way and in many cases we’re less subtle because we see the connections. Some people, if they listen to Middle of Nowhere, immediately they’re gonna hear the fact that Zac is 11 and Taylor is 14 and the voices are inherently higher. Zac: And it was recorded in the ’90s. Isaac: Yeah, and some of the production style--they’re gonna automatically assume that when they listen to Shout it Out that there’s these drastic differences, but actually when you break it down, it’s not really that different. There are some inherent things about it that—the Shout it Out record is definitely a more manic record … I guess what I’m really getting at is that--
Taylor: We’ve stayed the course from the beginning
Isaac: --Yeah. Taylor: We’ve stayed the course. We’ve grown and definitely improved but with the body of work, if you look at each record, we’ve always been—our roots and our backbone comes from classic songwriters, melodic songwriters, rock and roll, soul music, and that’s always been there. Isaac: --Little hint of gospel. Taylor: So even those changes and stuff, that’s kind of what we see as the gold standard. Everything gets compared to that. It’s funny because, really, since the ’60s there was that whole idea of sex, drugs and rock and roll, and all the lifestyle I think that’s supposed to go with being in bands and stuff like that. But the thing was like, our whole thing has always been music first. It’s the great melodic song that everybody—like their grandma and the five year old and everyone in between—they all like it.
But your fan base can grow with you, and they definitely did, but if the music was gonna suck or if there was a huge departure that was foreign to your fans or if you had been lying to yourselves in your own lyrics, I guess that wouldn’t really be the case. People would absolutely leave that. Taylor: Yeah. Zac: Yeah.
The fact that you have such a loyal fanbase—which, you guys stepped out of a bus for a second… and I’m sure that happens to you every day, but that does not happen at the House of Blues when … I don’t know, when Adele was here you didn’t have people outside, freaking the fuck out. It’s an interesting kind of phenomenon that happened with you guys. The time where Middle of Nowhere came out, I mean, who else were you on the charts with?
Zac: Like, us, and the Spice Girls, and later Britney. Isaac: And yeah, about a year and a half later, and then Britney and… N’Sync. Taylor: Each time stuff has come along… inherently we’re compared to things. You compare things because you’re like “Oh this new band I like..” --Oh what is it? “Oh it’s Counting Crows meets Depeche Mode” but I think probably more than anything what’s made our connection with our fans work is that—not to be too frou frou—but you can’t really compare it to anything. It’s their personal connection with who they were at that time. The fact that we were interested in it was the going concern. Because at some point if we said, “Heeeey, we’ve got passionate fans. They love us, because they loved us when we were 14!” Then it would stop. The fact that you can reminisce and love that thing because you are also connected with something else is the only real ingredient that makes it work, because you can only run on one tank of gas for so long.
Is it scary, dealing with the pressure and attention that comes with being a teen idol, if you will?
Zac: We always look at teen idols as sort of like acne. It’s just a phase. The only bad thing about teen idols is when people sort of discount what you do because of it. I think by definition when people say that it’s a little bit of a like, “Teen idols … they liked you because you were cute.” And I looked at pictures. We weren’t that cute.
Isaac: No, we weren’t that cute.
Well, tell the girls downstairs—they would say otherwise. But do you know what I’m saying, though? Is there ever a time where you’re like, “This is too much!” and you need to step back for a minute? Isaac: I think we’re pretty well beyond that. Taylor: It’s a circus and it’s always been a circus. Zac: There are crazy people, but that’s not the general fan. That’s just—there are people who have psychosis problems and then they attach that to you, and then they take their craziness and become crazy for you. But in general, no, I mean I think having passionate fans is good. There’s nothing worse than going to a John Mayer concert and the whole audience is like [miming standing with arms crossed] “What’s a lick? You call that a guitar lick? Come ON.”
We actually call that the Boston Effect. (laughs) I mean, Boston crowds can be tough sometimes.
Taylor: Do they do that at John Mayer concerts? I’ve never been to a John Mayer concert. Zac: I’ve been to one John Mayer concert, and it was … I mean … like every dude in the audience … I mean our fans jump and they dance and they sing.
They get into it. Isaac: Well, we also give ‘em a hard time if they don’t.
Zac: But you’re supposed to go to a concert and enjoy yourself, not wait to be entertained. And I think there’s sort of an amazing way our fans connect with the music—you never wanna take that for granted. We can have boring cross-your-arms concerts when we’re old.
For sure. Zac: I’m 25, LET’S GO. Isaac: You asked about the teen idol thing and I think in a lot of ways too, we never cared about that. We never wanted that. We were never sitting around like “You know what we really want? Is to be on the cover of blah blah blah” Zac: You don’t not want it either. Isaac: You don’t not want it, but what I’m saying is, that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to write a song that everybody wants to sing, and we did that. Zac: I gotta figure out how to be a teen idol when I’m no longer a teen. Taylor: That would be impressive. Isaac: Exactly. Zac: It’s like, “Whoa.” 25…
Taylor: First 30-year-old teen idol.
Zac: It’s gonna happen dude. Watch out.
Looking back, what was the hardest song to write? Is there one that stands out that’s like, “Holy shit, I can’t believe that actually made that on the record!”? Taylor: That’s an interesting question. The hardest song? Isaac: Well there are a lot of songs that have portions of them that sit around for, you know, several years in many cases. Like a song like “MMMbop,” the chorus sat around for about a year and a half, two years before the verses kinda were glued to that chorus. There’s a song off the fourth record called “Your Illusion” which was originally intended to be the title of the documentary that we ultimately released about the third record called Strong Enough to Break. And we started writing during that record but it didn’t come out for four and a half years—or actually, probably five years after it started.
Any songs that especially hit you in the gut?
Isaac: I think lyrics are inevitably always the hardest. Zac: Some of my favorite lyrics that come to mind are off the-- Taylor: The third record? Zac: Well, no, I was gonna say “Me Myself and I” had some really good lyrics. Taylor: Oh, oh yeah. Tells a story. Zac: --A song that was sort of like “I don’t wanna screw this up.” It was a good idea that was sitting around for a long time. And it was sort of—finishing it was sort of like—you’ve gotta—part of finishing a hard song like that is pushing through it and forcing yourself to attach to a new lyric, to attach to new music because you’re so focused on what you’ve had for years … Isaac: Or finding a lyric that you doesn’t fit. Zac: The last verse of that song—that one—we were talking about it yesterday. Taylor: “Maybe happiness is worth the chance of a bitter end.” Zac: I think that’s a pretty poignant, good lyric that I’m proud of. Taylor: If there’s a hint, or a theme of stuff that we end up talking about—not that there’s one theme—but if there is one, it’s probably recognizing difficulty and sort of rising above it in some respect. And a lot of our songs-- Isaac: The righteous struggle. Taylor: Those songs summarized in some ways that feeling that was painful—it wasn’t painful but it was painstaking. Isaac: As ironic as it-- Zac: Righteous might not be quite a right word--just to struggle and persevere. Isaac: Well the “worthy struggle” of persevering through difficulty. Interestingly though, in a weird way, “MMMbop” actually [was the] put-the-needle-through-the-fabric kind of song. Zac: ‘Cause it’s such an early example. Isaac: But it’s an early example of that, because the early example of it is asking the question “What really matters to you in your life?” Ironically it’s also a really kind of upbeat song, but there’s a lot of examples of that in Hanson music where it sounds like really kinda-- Taylor: To persevere is to be able to brush it off. Isaac: Exactly. Taylor: So yeah, a lot of the most upbeat songs are about how life kinda sucks sometimes. Isaac: Exactly. Taylor: I say that because that song is one where you were trying to figure out a way to say that in a different respect—the song is about—the last song on the new record Me, Myself and I, and it had been—it literally had been around for seven years, and it was always like “Oh this is gonna go on this record—nope.” And really deciding to finish it was, “Okay, what is the story really?” And it’s about the fact that, ultimately, you kind of all of a sudden have to be okay with being alone, with being solo. Zac: And it’s also being okay with your part of the disaster of the love lost. The things lost. It’s like, I did what I could do and-- Taylor: Did my best. Zac: In the last verse it says “Maybe happiness is worth the chance of a bitter end” and I ended up with a bitter end, but it was worth the chance for happiness. To go through this—and to end this way I can be sort of satisfied and in my own way happy knowing I gave it a shot rather than sort of the fear of loss. There’s another song called “Use Me Up” which is all about sort of how I would rather experience pain, experience lost love than be so afraid to not experiencing anything at all. Abuse me, rather than leave me alone. Taylor: Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Isaac: And it is interesting though because that is definitely a pretty consistent theme throughout. There were always probably three songs on any Hanson record that have that kind of theme.
Zac: Ultimately, to survive in this business, you either become completely jaded or you have some sort of perspective that is—sort of persevering through.
There are so many things that don’t relate to the quality of your art or your shows that determine whether you’re successful or not. So you really have to find some way to have a perspective that will persevere, like, “You know, we’re just gonna go for the next one” because otherwise you’ll implode and you’ll quit.
Because there’s just too many things.
Yeah. People are constantly saying, “Okay, I’m putting the record out, making sure I’m doing something, making sure I’m moving.” But sometimes you just can’t move, and sometimes there are things that are keeping you from moving. Do you just sit there and wait it out or is that when you go back and start writing again? It’s just interesting to see how different musicians approach it.
Isaac: Nothing ever happens when you’re sitting still. Zac: That’s why it’s good to name your band something sort of, like, Hanson. (laughs) ‘Cause that ain’t goin anywhere. (laughs) Zac: I mean chances are, the worst thing that could happen is that some guy becomes a serial killer named Hanson. I would guess. Or some dictator. Taylor: Or leader of some cult. Zac: Yeah, that would be bad. If Charles Manson was actually Charles Hanson. Taylor: That would make it hard to be Hanson.
But you know, then you probably would have had a different name and you guys would’ve done something differently back when … Isaac: Yeah, yeah.
Dude, pop culture’s heavy, man. Isaac: So heavy, man. [laughing] Zac: We would’ve been Danson, and then Ted Danson would’ve been in every Hanson music video.
That would’ve been kind of awesome, actually. Zac: He would’ve had, like, an Oreck vacuum cleaner in every video, sponsored by Oreck and Ted Danson. Taylor: Ted Danson was kind of the godfather of the band so we start off every video with kissing his ring. Zac: LET’S START A BAND CALLED DANSON.
This is out of control.
Isaac: We are changing our name. Besides your new Ted Danson inspired name, got any final words for your fans in Boston? Taylor: We love you! Zac: I am sorry for the content in this interview. Taylor: Yes, we apologize. We cannot be held responsible, and you cannot prove that this was actually Hanson doing an interview. These photographs could be taken from a different location, and this recording …
We’ve been framed.
The final words to your Boston fans are “We’ve been framed”?! Taylor: (laughs) Yes.
Отправлено: 17.10.11 15:56. Заголовок: Q&A with Taylor ..
Q&A with Taylor Hanson of Hanson, part 1 By Alexia, 11:00 am October 17th, 2011
Most of you out there remember the band Hanson (brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac) as the cheerful trio of kid pop stars responsible for the infectiously catchy song ”MmmBop” in the late nineties. What you may not know is that they were more than one-hit wonders. Their major label debut album Middle of Nowhere earned them three Grammy nominations, and produced six top 40 singles in the US. After that album the group split from their major label, formed their own label and has since released five studio albums. They have maintained a loyal fanbase, and are dedicated to giving their fans unique and personal experiences through their live shows. While Isaac, Taylor and Zac are still young (30, 28 and 25 respectively) they have the kind of musical career that so many work for their whole lives to attain. They are successfully maintaining their own label, touring, and continue to produce albums that chart high on the Billboard Independent Albums chart. Their latest album, Shout It Out returns to their roots, bringing back a more pop sound, with some nods to Motown and old-school Rock & Roll.
Hanson is currently on tour, and will be playing Wednesday, October 19th at the State Theater in Falls Church. Lead singer/keyboardist Taylor Hanson took a break out of his busy tour schedule to talk with We Love DC’s Alexia Kauffman (and make one of her teenage dreams come true) about tour, becoming famous as a kid, the music industry, and even Katy Perry. (Full disclosure: Alexia was a big fan back in the 90s, and knows all the lyrics to every song on Middle of Nowhere.)
Alexia Kauffman: How’s your tour going?
Taylor Hanson: Tour’s going really good. You know we’ve definitely focused a lot on touring the last several years, being a live band that continues to change things up and make things interesting, so this tour, kind of the whole mission was just to make sure that every time fans came out to see a show that they were, you know, catching something new.
AK: How did you come up with the idea of having fans vote for what album they will hear on your “Musical Ride Tour”?
TH: Well it was actually kind of inspired by the series of shows we did called “Five of Five.” The first one we did was in New York last year, and you know this album is our fifth album, kind of like a landmark, and so we put together this series where we played each of our albums top to bottom and in a row, for a period of five days. And so we did that in London a second time, we just thought it was one of those things that was unique and fun, and it was something that was only available as far as the actual shows to a pretty small group of people, and it seemed like it’d be great to take it on the road. You know there’s something different about hearing a full album, you know actually hearing a lot of songs from one period which is kind of special, so we threw around different ideas and eventually ‘poof’, the “Musical Ride Tour” arrived.
AK: Did you have to relearn any of your songs?
TH: No, there’s definitely a bit of a hurdle to sharpen ourselves, you know sharpen up the band on everything. I mean we do play a wide range of songs, and have always played songs from every record but there’s also always songs from albums that just …you don’t play them that often. You know, a random ballad or quirky song…or just some songs that don’t make it into the set. So by doing this it definitely has forced us to step up our game a little bit, and it’s been really great.
AK: So you all started out with the band at such a young age, but you really seem to have your heads on straight, and seem to have kept it focused on music all these years. Do you have any thoughts about how you think it is that you avoided some of the pitfalls other young artists (and lots of artists in general) fall into, getting sidetracked?
TH: Well, so much of being a great artist or having a great career, to some degree just involves endurance. And I think you can’t endure time and stress and work without knowing why you’re there, knowing what it’s about. I think for us, we always have been able to just remain grateful for what we get to do. And like what you just said, essentially the answer is in the question in a way- keeping your focus on the music itself and kind of being reminded that that is why you’re there, that’s the thing that helps keep things together. By doing that and staying focused on the music you’re also trying to stay excited about it, and that helps keep you on track. Continuing to do things each time that genuinely make you feel proud of what you’re doing, and you’re not just going on autopilot; that keeps it exciting for you, and hopefully keeps it exciting for fans. I think that this is a really hard business from the point of sustainablity, because it kind of thrives, so much of the industry thrives on all the things that tear people apart. And that’s why, you know, you often see things come and go, but I think just staying centered on where you started off, that’s always a good idea.
AK: Did you ever feel like it was a challenge to move forward musically after having such a huge success with Middle of Nowhere, and becoming so huge at a young age?
TH: Well it’s definitely a double-edged sword. You get the incredible benefit of reaching millions of people, and essentially being a household name, and then also having to continue that and to grow people’s perception. It’s definitely…a mixed bag. But knowing that no matter what you end up with some kind of a challenge, I mean every band, everybody has their thing that they have to do. I would still take the challenge of having something that is really a strong impression that lasts on a lot of people and then build on that, than the other way.
AK: I know you all own your own label- how did that come about, and what has that been like? Do you all have help with that?
TH: Well, yeah we have a team- we don’t physically do every single thing, though we do a lot. We’re pretty hands-on. Essentially starting a label was driven by necessity. We didn’t start out in the business saying ‘What we really want to do is to be our own record label, and you know, run all the marketing top to bottom.’ But when we came up on our third record [we were] just being caught in record label mergers like a lot of bands, and our one label was swallowed up by another label. You know, in many ways we would have been better off if we were dropped in those days, because you find yourself with a new label that just comes from a totally different place. So we kind of survived a long, drawn-out process trying to make that record and eventually just said to the label ‘Hey, this is the record we want to make, and actually I think we’d rather leave now.’ It was really not a matter of anything except for the problem of the corporate kind of environment, where they’re not necessarily focused on the product they’re putting out, they’re really more focused on kind of towing the line for the corporate system. Anyway, the one thing that’s unique about what we did is I think a lot of artists, for good reason, would probably have opted not to go ahead and start their own thing, because there’s so much different kind of risk in that. We’ve never had another partnership as far as financing. We’ve never turned around and handed over what we want to somebody else after the fact. I mean we basically looked at all the labels that were out there, and we had a ton of other majors that were interested when we left our label in 2002, and we just said ‘You know, they’re kind of all the same.’ And so we set up shop. We began hiring a few key people, got distribution for the label, and now here we are, eight years later, and we’ve put out more records as an indie than we did as a major. So we’re proud of it, and we feel like we’re beating the odds as a young label. Every major record we’ve put out has been number one or number two as an independent release on Billboard, and we’ve continued to keep a strong fan-base and do things that we’re excited about, and work with people based on their merit instead of based on more convoluted politics within the label. It’s not that necessarily the whole process is easier, it’s just that you get to wake up every morning and go to sleep each night knowing what the challenges are, and knowing what you’re going to have to do to resolve them, and get your music out there.
AK: Do you have any interest in or plans to add any artists to your label?
TH: We definitely do have interest in working with other bands. I think we just felt like the process of signing bands feels like it’s not the future; but at the same time many bands starting off need somebody to help finance them or help get them off the ground. So that idea of a label coming in and helping makes sense, but I think what we would like to do is to be more of a service provider- to kind of come in and partner. So you’ll see us doing that in the next couple years. We finally reached that point where we feel like as a team we’ve been the guinea pigs for our own ideas enough times that we know what we feel is effective, and what we feel isn’t effective. And that’s what you really want to do…you want to be a good partner for somebody. You don’t wanna just kinda go ‘Hey, let’s sign bands!’ because we can.
AK: Right, it doesn’t make sense exactly.
TH: Yeah, but it happens a lot.
AK: Your latest album Shout It Out sounds different from your past few albums- more electric, more pop, with some moments of Motown vibes.How did you decide/land on the sound for the album? Were there any specific influences for this album?
TH: Well we grew up listening to Motown records and classic Rock & Roll, I mean that’s where we came from and that’s where our soul sort of lives, you know? I mean we love other stuff but that’s really the strongest musical inspiration for our band. So on this record I think we were just kind of reminded of those things a little bit more. The last two albums had been a little bit more layered, and a little bit more pop rock, a little less the R&B thing. I mean obviously R&B in the old-school sense, the Motown kinda sense. And I think we just kinda got a fresh look and started listening to those records a little bit more, and just felt a fresh inspiration. It felt like we really needed to make a record that was old and loud, and kinda celebrating …”Hey this is who we are, this is what we do” and having it be as unapologetic as possible. Also Shout It Out is the first record in all respects to be uninterrupted by outside forces… we really didn’t have any co-writing on the record, we produced the record ourselves, we really recorded it, a lot of it just off the grid. We worked in our studio space in Oklahoma, we worked in a space in El Paso which is really secluded. We knew what record we were making, we went in there, we made it, and we tried to reflect that kind of clarity in all the things around the record- from the artwork to the videos. It’s bright, you know it’s definitely pop, and it’s also really, really organic, and polished in the style, but not polished in the production, it’s just very true.
Part two of this interview will appear on Wednesday! Coming up in part two: Taylor talks Katy Perry, Tinted Windows, and more! Catch Hanson live at the State Theater this Wednesday, October 19th
Отправлено: 20.10.11 07:04. Заголовок: BY ALEXIA part 2
[b]We Love DC: Q&A with Taylor Hanson BY ALEXIA part 2 - Zipkip on October 19 2011
In the midst of their US “Musical Ride” tour, Hanson’s lead singer/keyboardist Taylor Hanson took some time to talk with WLDC’s Alexia Kauffman. You can read the first half of the interview here. In the second half of the interview Taylor talks about being in Katy Perry’s video for “Last Friday Night,” playing music with Adam Schlesinger (songwriter and bassist for Fountains of Wayne and Ivy) and how that led to forming the supergroup Tinted Windows, as well as Hanson’s charitable work and more. Alexia Kauffman: You all appeared in Katy Perry’s video for “Last Friday Night“- how did that come about? What was that experience like? Taylor Hanson: I wish there was some crazy, ecclectic story behind it! I mean essentially the timing worked out really well, because we were running around doing promotion for this record and so there were not a lot of times where we were gonna be in LA doing stuff ’cause we were all over the country doing radio promotion, and they (Katy Perry’s people) called us and basically said “Hey- we’re shooting this video” and said that she had asked about us being in the video. It was a no brainer. They weren’t asking us to do something extreme, they were asking us to play ourselves in her video. It seemed like fun, and obviously she’s doing really well, so it’s a great thing to be asked. The one thing we did do, I wanted to talk to her before we actually did the video, ’cause I just kinda wanted it to be coming from her, versus it just being like “Hey, ‘X band’, please come do our video.” So it was cool, I talked to her a little bit before the video shoot, and she told us about the idea, and we were on. I will say it was pretty complicated to get into character as ourselves[laughs]. The set was fun, it was a big production, and a lot of people just doing a great job, and we just had fun! Set up the band on the lawn, and rocked out for a little while, you know, no complaints. I think it was much like what you see onscreen- everybody was having a good time! AK: So I have a question about Tinted Windows- how did that project come together? TH: The way it started was Adam Schlesinger and I had met years ago- right after he’d written the song “That Thing You Do”- he wrote that song and he’d also written a bunch of other songs for other bands- he got put with us to try and write for our first record, and he was about twenty-five/twenty-six, and I was about fourteen I guess. So we all got together then and we tried to write, and you know nothing ended up happening on that first record- it didn’t produce a song. We just over the years had stayed in touch, and had a lot of mutual friends in bands, and really just one day Adam called me and we started talking about the idea of actually doing a band, instead of just writing something or you know jamming around. I was pretty reluctant at first, just because it takes so much time, and being very much in-house with everything Hanson does it’s hard to leave that- you know physically leave that, and creatively leave it. But the timing worked out really well. Over the period of about three years whenever I got a little window I would go fly to New York or Adam came to our songwriting retreat that we do, and we wrote a song for Tinted Windows during that thing, in fact that was really the first song we wrote together for it, I guess in 2006. Eventually, after a couple years of little sessions here and there we finally had a record. In fact, originally our first drummer was Jason Schwartzman. photo credit Damien Neva AK: Oh wow! TH: He was the original drummer. I knew Jason from Phantom Planet, and I guess the other guys were various friend-of-friendships. We finished a lot of the record, you know- demoed it- with Jason, and when he wasn’t able to continue doing it we all said well, you know the drummer we were always talking about, or sort of thinking of in style and attitude was Bun E. Carlos [drummer for Cheap Trick], the power-pop drumming of him. So Adam just gave him a call, we called [his] management and said “Hey- this is a long-shot, but is there any way that Bun E. would want to join a side-project that we’re doing?” It was kind of an inside joke, you know, we didn’t expect that Bun E. was going to want to do the band, but he heard the stuff that we’d already written, and he loved it. So he said “I’m in!” So that was the formation of the whole thing, and of course I didn’t mention James [Iha]. James is a friend of Adam’s, they’ve been partners for a while so he was always into it, and he’s an amazing guitarist and great musician, and there you go, that’s the band! AK: Are you all still playing/have plans to record/play more live shows? TH: The jury’s out a little bit on it, but the response around it was really, really positive, and I would imagine there will be another project at some point. I have a stack of songs that are sort of like, you put them over on the side…to think about at the next project. But it doesn’t have the same pressure as a full-time deal, I think. Everybody really enjoyed doing it, and so I would imagine something else will happen, but we’ll just have to wait and see. AK: I read that you live in New York now? TH: We did live in New York, we’re actually back in Tulsa. We’ve never really left- we’ve always had houses in Tulsa. We have lived in New York, and love New York, but don’t live there full-time. We’ve just always worked out of there with the label a lot. AK: So, in Tulsa- do you feel like you’re a part of any kind of scene there? I mean I know you all are larger-than-life there probably, but do you feel like there’s any kind of music or artistic scene there that you’re a part of? TH: You know there’ve been waves of scenes there, there have been bands and groups of bands, and in fact Tulsa does have a creative class of people, and there’s definitely bands that have come out of Tulsa. I don’t know if it’s in its most thriving moment right now, but there’s definitely the ability to have a scene there, and great artists have come from there. I think our dream over time is definitely to, anywhere that you are you want to help cultivate good music, and stories and people having a vibrant, creative community. We have a lot of friends who are musicians, and quite a few that are there. photo courtesy of Hanson AK: How do you find new music that you listen to, and do you have any favorite artists right now? TH: Oh gosh, I’m a little bit out of touch creatively as far as a bunch of new music. There are great bands out there- probably the first few things that come to mind are the people that are with us on the road, because we’ve brought both of them out because we’re fans of them. Meiko, who’s a solo female artist, she’s just great, she’s got her second sort of album coming out, she’s made an EP. She’s a singer/songwriter, and she’s just got, I don’t know, her own style, her own sort of quirky character. So she’s somebody that should definitely be checked out. And then Charlie Mars- a solo guy, he’s coming out with us on the second half of the tour. He’s a little bit more established, but one of those guys again that’s just hard to describe, it’s sort of like somewhere between Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz and you know, something else a little bit hipper. [laughs] So he’s really great. Those are the two things that come to my mind at first. I guest mostly the way I hear music is…is everywhere. I mean sometimes you’ll hear…rarely you’ll hear stuff on the radio, you know, because it’s very rare to hear something new on the radio, but through references that people give you, music you hear through other channels- commercials, movies, people recommending it. It’s just like anything, you kind of keep your ears open, and it’s always exciting when you find a new artist or band where you just get really into it. AK: You all have done some charity work- specifically focusing on HIV/AIDS awareness and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Can you tell me a little about that, and how you became involved in that cause, what you all have done, and are you still continuing your work with that? TH: Yeah, we’re in a little bit of a crossroads at the moment trying to continue to create some new tools for people that have supported our effort, and it has been an amazing thing. We are continuing to be a part of that for sure. Essentially there was a certain kind of crossing of events that happened, six or seven years ago, and we just had sort of a desire to make a trip to Africa, and we went there with a few different friends that had been a part of donating some technology they had to a research hospital. They were donating it- they developed a new sort of platform that doctors could use to communicate with patients, and we were just inspired to go. We went during the making of “The Walk” album, and what we saw was, well what particularly resonated with me was, you know, you’ve got HIV, and you’ve got extreme poverty in this part of the world, and people talked about it for a long time. There was a myriad of issues, but in so many cases the issues come down to…you know we’re not talking about curing cancer, where people don’t know the answer, and there are doctors that are working on cures. We’re talking about clean water; people having access to educate themselves; having access to shoes so they don’t get infections just from walking from point A to point B; HIV and AIDS are something that in many cases are preventable and at least treatable for people to maintain a lifestyle. And so with all those things we walked away and went- you know there are real things that can be done, and there are real things that can be done by regular people. And that became our mission- not to preach to people about having to change the world on their own, but to realize there really genuinely are people just like us, especially young people that you as an individual can actually touch. That inspired a lot of different ideas, the main idea being these one-mile barefoot walks that we started doing in 2007. Since we started off we’ve partnered with different great people, like Toms shoes. We started working with them really early on in their process. At the time we met them they had sold about 10,000 shoes, and we helped them reach their next goal of 50,000 shoes, and now they’ve sold millions. And for each one [pair] of their shoes [sold] they donate a pair of shoes to a child that has none. Anyway, our mission is essentially to not only raise money for those causes, whether it’s clean water, or shoes, or HIV antiretroviral drugs, but to really engage as many people on this side as possible. Part of the way we judge our ability to have done something, not only how much money we raised to support the cause, but how many actual individuals decided to do something, and how many people we touched on this side, and inspired hopefully to put themselves in the middle of a situation, and do something. AK: So if someone wants to get involved with this, they can go to your website? TH: Yeah, go to takethewalk.net, and you can do several things. There’s not currently a bunch of official walks announced, but you can organize your own walk event, you can organize it anywhere, and what we do is we sort of sponsor you on your first walk- the campaign will give a dollar for everybody that shows up at your walk that you register. You can also directly donate to any of the causes that you’re supporting- there are several different avenues to support the different causes, whether it’s through purchasing the “Take the Walk” book, or t-shirts, or you know, traditional things you can do to help raise money, and then spread the word about the story. AK: Thank you so much for your time! I really appreciate it, and I can’t wait to see your show at the State Theater in Falls Church! TH: I’m looking forward to it! Thank you for your time, and good conversation! You can see Hanson perform live tonight, Wednesday, October 19th, at the State Theater in Falls Church, VA, or catch one of their upcoming shows on the rest of their “Musical Ride” tour!
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