October 23, 2011<\/p>\n
By Ron Bennington<\/p>\n
Zac, Taylor and Isaac Hanson\u00a0who form the group Hanson stopped by this week to talk with Ron Bennington at the Sirius XM studios. \u00a0The three brothers are best known for their smash hit Grammy nominated song \u201cMmmBop.\u201d \u00a0Because of their quick success at such a young age, some people wrote them off as a flash-in-the-pan pop group, but there is much more to Hanson than meets the eye. \u00a0They\u2019re all grown up with kids of their own now, and recording under their own label. Excerpts from the interview appear below.<\/em><\/p>\n Ron Bennington: That\u2019s Hanson. I gotta tell you the truth, no way those are those kids white. There\u2019s no way in the world that\u2019s a bunch of white boys.<\/strong><\/p>\n Zac Hanson: Well, we heard that we were black Danish.<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: I think I\u2019m going to take that as a compliment.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: You should take it as a compliment because I don\u2019t know if America\u2019s done too many better things than soul music. And when you hear that song, you\u2019re like, alright, that\u2019s Motown, or that\u2019s that Philly Soul sound in the 70s. And that\u2019s exactly what you guys are looking for in this.<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: Again, thank you. I mean, that\u2019s what we grew up with. We\u2019re fans of music, we\u2019re fans first. We could never take that out of what we do. We grew up listening to Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, you know, all the greats. In fact, that song [I\u2019ve Been Thinking Bout Something<\/em>], if anyone\u2019s listening and hasn\u2019t seen the video, the whole idea with the video and the start of this record process\u2013 the album\u2019s called Shout it Out<\/em>\u2013 was to pay homage to that. Very literally, we recreated the scene in the Blues Brothers film where Ray Charles breaks into song and the Blues Brothers are in the music store and people start dancing in the streets.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: Which is one of our all time favourite movies by the way.<\/p>\n Zac Hanson: The thing about that film was, it put together the puzzle pieces in many ways like our life of music has put the puzzle pieces together. It\u2019s a mix of these weird kinds of things. That film put together all these mid-western white guys with soul music and a sense of not taking yourself too seriously but really respecting the roots of that rock and roll soul music.<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: \u00a0That movie\u2019s the perfect combination of great music, car chases and bad humour.<\/p>\n Zac Hanson: \u00a0Also, that song is literally, lyric-by-lyric, references to the songs. I mean the second verse is, \u2018if you ain\u2019t too proud to beg, and give you some respect, \u00a0cause the tune you\u2019re humming is never gonna change\u2019 is a reference to the Four Tops and the Temptations.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: \u2026and Aretha and Otis Redding\u2026<\/p>\n Zac Hanson: \u2026and Sammy Davis. So anyway, the song, the band, that\u2019s where our heart is.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: Now how did you even get introduced to that? Was it the radio? Was it your family? Who introduced you guys to soul music?<\/strong><\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: It was almost by accident, actually. What happened was, our dad was an accountant for an oil company and he was the only one that was willing to \u00a0travel down to South America. Basically he was the guy willing to take the job nobody else would take.<\/p>\n Zac Hanson: He was not some huge executive he was just a CPA.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: So he goes down to South America, and then basically our mom and the three of us and our youngest sister end up going and following him down to South America. Before we leave our mom buys this tape from 1958\u2013 it\u2019s a collection of like 20 singles from that year. So we end up listening to that thing over and over and over again for the next year basically\u2013 memorize every single song, love all those songs. And then we get home and the next thing we start doing is listening to oldies radio and buying all kinds of different collections and old records. And then the next record that we really got into was An Innocent Man<\/em> by Billy Joel.<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: Song writing and soul music. And it was in the blood too. Both of our parents were musical. Our mom was a music major, a voice major\u2013 she was this amazing singer. And our dad was sort of a frustrated poet, but decided to bring in the bread by becoming a CPA. \u00a0 All of that put stuff together. Music is kind of a mysterious thing. You\u2019ve got a lot of really talented people who never really do it. You never know. \u00a0Are you the least or most talented at this or that? A lot of it is just doing it I think.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: Right. And it\u2019s one thing to be a musician, and there\u2019s so many great musicians out there that no one knows because they don\u2019t get that song writing hook. And how the song writing comes in is still the strangest thing in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: Yea, it is. It\u2019s a mystery. Like I said it\u2019s some combination of craft and work. You do learn\u2013 its sort of like becoming a chemist\u2013 you learn there\u2019s rules. \u00a0 But after that\u2026it\u2019s all art. It\u2019s all unknown.<\/p>\n Zac Hanson: It\u2019s also like\u2013 James Taylor, when he was inducted into the songwriters hall of fame he was saying \u201cthank you for this but sometimes I don\u2019t even know where these songs come from\u2026its sort of like a gift from above.\u201d \u00a0All of a sudden it just shows up\u2019 and you\u2019re like, did I make this? Or did somebody just give this to me somehow. You\u2019ve got to respect that.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve got to keep the antenna up. You\u2019ve got to be willing to receive it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Isaac Hanson: And that\u2019s really where I think this song writing thing comes in. Ron Bennington: And you guys always have to have a lick.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of interesting because the truth is, we\u2019re actually really earthy as a band.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Taylor Hanson: It\u2019s kind of interesting because the truth is, we\u2019re actually really earthy as a band. The \u201cpop-ness\u201d really is in the song. \u00a0It\u2019s in the arrangements that makes us \u201cpop\u201d because the approach that we take to it is very much back to the beginnings of things. And even when we produce things\u2013 we all love producing\u2013 we all have a producer brain\u2013 we love to layer things and you can make stuff sound really kind of slicked up. But it really comes back to that song\u2013 to a good hook. I mean there\u2019s nothing like a great melody and a great hook.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: So that\u2019s what comes first? First thing, its finding a hook and then you work from that point out.<\/strong><\/p>\n Zac Hanson: Yea. It\u2019s like sometimes \u201cthe hook\u201d is that idea of just a really really strong story which becomes the hook. Or a thought or sort of an anchor phrase. There\u2019s several song that haven\u2019t been released but will someday make an album. And there\u2019s a song that\u2019s about being sort of uniquely American, and there\u2019s this one guitar phrase that I\u2019m thinking of playing that has not yet been finished, but I think of this one piece and at some point, that little hook, that little guitar riff or that little thought will spark the finishing of the song. \u00a0But it sometimes has to just sit around and stew and find its way.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: Do you guys do that separately or do you bring it in to each other? Do you do it together?<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: It\u2019s a mix. Next year we will have been a band for twenty years, so we\u2019ve kind of done it every way within that time period. Some albums are a lot writing together and some albums are mostly apart.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: \u00a0But because you broke in the way you broke in with people caring about a million different things like they do on TV, that it\u2019s hard to even hear people talk about music.<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: It\u2019s a lot easier to talk about 20,000 screaming girls in their pre-pubescent era.<\/p>\n Zac Hanson: You know, I was eleven when our first record hit. I think I would still be\u2013 right now\u2013 having experienced that, having been that guy\u2013 look at that and go, is that real? It seems kinda like an anomaly. So strange. It\u2019s hard to have good perspective when something is so out of the ordinary. Out of the normal.<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: I will say this, looking back now, you have the history. \u00a0Where you can find random stuff\u2013 crazy weird clips, and you\u2019re like, I don\u2019t even remember that. \u00a0And we have said the same thing since the first interview we ever did. We\u2019ve always talked about music. We\u2019ve always loved to jump generationally back musically. The most fun we\u2019ve had is honestly working with, and writing and collaborating with people that are many many many years older than we are because of where our heart and soul comes from. Those first interviews\u2013 the truth is, we were boring in interviews from the point of view of \u2018sex! And drugs guys?\u2019 And we were like, I love this Otis Redding song! And I think that reality, as we\u2019ve grown older, you know, we\u2019ve had crazy experiences, and we travelled the world and seen a lot of things\u2013 but we\u2019ve always been that way and we\u2019ve always been sort of geeks about it. And I think that\u2019s what\u2019s kept us humble and afraid to lose it. Because we like it.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: Well think about how many great bands have done two or three albums that you wish did ten or twelve. How many times you saw a band that somebody talked the lead singer into moving into different projects because it happen to make somebody else money. I mean, the attacks on the music come almost immediately with success.<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: Oh unbelievably. Without going into the sob stories and kind of the negativity, just for perspective, we have had so many situations and we\u2019ve had less horror stories than most. Mostly because we kind of grew up in Oklahoma where you sort of do what you say you\u2019ll do and kind of have this \u201cwork matters\u201d. \u00a0We\u2019ve always been stubborn. But, thinking about sitting in front of executives\u2013 \u00a0and early on and at the high of things, people are looking at you going \u201coh yeah, well this doesn\u2019t work, this is broken, you need to do this, this and this\u201d. \u00a0And just literally [we’re] looking at these people going \u201cwhat are you smoking?\u201d Like there\u2019s this manipulation that happens and it\u2019s not just true with music. It just happens that music is like an art\u2026it\u2019s somehow more manipulativable because it\u2019s this enigma. You can actually get lucky. You don\u2019t actually have to start a car company and learn how to build cars. You can find some random guy on the street who happens to be Otis Redding. \u00a0And suddenly be making millions of dollars. And I think\u2026<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: Well how many times, amongst other things, how many times did people initially just want to like rip the three of us apart and try to make it into\u2026<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: Of course, solo projects.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: \u201cOh it\u2019s the Taylor Show, it\u2019s the Isaac Show, it\u2019s the Zac Show,\u201d whatever it is, they\u2019re trying to constantly pull the band apart. I remember on our second record, we literally, we left TRL, the Times Square was packed, the video was number one and the label says \u201cthe record\u2019s not working the way we want it to, you guys should do solo projects\u201d. And we went \u201cwhat!?\u201d. \u00a0(laughs)<\/p>\n literally just looked at them, gave them the bird, told them \u201cHey, you can go fuck yourself\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Taylor Hanson: This is literally like four weeks after we had sold about a million records on this new record and we were like \u201cyou know what..\u201d and literally just looked at them, gave them the bird, told them \u201cHey, you can go fuck yourself\u201d. And that was the conversation. That\u2019s just one story of many and we have been amazingly lucky as a band. But it is true that I think, there\u2019s just a lot of short sightedness. \u00a0There\u2019s a reason why everybody doesn\u2019t do this particular job because it is a little bit of a million different things that kind of all have to happen together.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: Well you guys, when you walked away from the big record labels, which is about a few years before a lot of performers did, and now you\u2019re kind of set up doing your own stuff and there\u2019s no \u00a0block between you and your audience, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: Yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: Well that was the number one reason why we did it. Because for us it was about the audience. We were sitting there spending years trying to get our third record recorded after the label told us we should do solo projects. Then we were like \u201cno, we\u2019re not going to do a solo project\u201d, we\u2019re going to go make another record and of course then you can easily see why that became a difficult process. But more importantly, we spend years trying to make a record and then we\u2019re like \u201cwait a second\u201d. We haven\u2019t been able to get out on the road because we don\u2019t have anything to promote. We were just like \u201cforget this\u201d, we\u2019re losing fans everyday, we\u2019re done.<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: The other thing that happened and we could probably spend hours talking about the labels and craziness, but the music industry began to really change. Corporate mergers happened at the rate they had never happened before. On our second record,\u00a0Polygram Universal merged and they became the big conglomerate. Our label disappeared essentially, so we were on a rap label all of sudden and we\u2019re sitting there talking to the Def Jam staff and they\u2019re like \u201cHanson\u201d. You know they dropped two hundred acts from Mercury.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: Which was our label.<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: So we were essentially on a new label with people that don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. But I think the decision to start the label was ultimately\u2026we\u2019ve talked about this a lot because we made a documentary about it. We took the film to about fifty schools and we did lectures with them. We talked to music business students about it and said look, there kind of feels like there\u2019s a villain in this because there\u2019s us and there\u2019s them to some degree. And there is a little bit of a villain, but the truth is this is just the process of a corporate confusion. You know you start hiring lawyers to do artists\u2019 jobs and you start putting the dollars and cents before you put the actual craft or the idea of the craft or either just knowing what you\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: Let\u2019s get back into songwriting. Let\u2019s talk about \u201cGive a Little\u201d and this is the new single. How did this come together?<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: \u201cGive a Little\u201d is one of the last songs we did. The record\u2026it was one of the good things that happened on the record that it helped draw us back to finishing it the right way, I think. The record didn\u2019t have any horn arrangements on it yet. That we had always talked about it. The whole record has a throwback feel about it. And we always talked about these pop horn arrangements. And after we actually made most of the entire record, mixed it once and we sat back for a minute and we went on the road for a few months and just said \u201cYou know, we need to do what we said we were going to do\u201d. And in fact, there\u2019s a couple of other songs that I think that will bring this together. And \u201cGive a Little\u201d was one of them.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: Well, we basically felt like we were missing the right ballad and we knew we were missing an up tempo song. And we kind of, after finishing a month and a half tour, after we were done mixing the record, we\u2019re just like \u201cYou know what?\u2026What are these songs?\u201d So we start going back through the list of songs and start going through ideas and the \u201cGive a Little\u201d idea came up.<\/p>\n I think of \u201cGive a Little\u201d as more of a reference to a sixties pop song. Like a sixties straight more down the middle, little more of a\u2026kind of like The Animals or The Rascals\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Taylor Hanson: The \u201cGive a Little\u201d riff started out as an idea that was\u2026I\u2019m trying to think about where it actually began, but it really is like if \u201cThinking \u2018Bout Something\u201d is a little bit more of a sixties, reference to a sixties soul song, I think of \u201cGive a Little\u201d as more of a reference to a sixties pop song. Like a sixties straight more down the middle, little more of a\u2026kind of like The Animals or The Rascals\u2026<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: Tommy James or something.<\/strong><\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: Yeah. It\u2019s that\u2026(starts humming riff)\u2026It\u2019s like \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d or something. That\u2019s the DNA of the song.<\/p>\n Isaac Hanson: Or even \u201cSugar Sugar\u201d by The Archies almost or something like that.<\/p>\n Taylor Hanson: It doesn\u2019t sound exactly like that, but that\u2019s the DNA of the song. It\u2019s literally as simple as could possibly be and that was our goal. It\u2019s so great when you can hear an intro and have it just be one riff. (humming) And of course, that\u2019s our song, but the idea of just being able to carry it with one riff. \u00a0One of the things that was a spark for me, you can always judge a song by your kids response to it. And I have four little kids and both the other guys each have two. And when my kids heard that song, they involuntarily, now this is kind of weird to say it, but they for some reason, my oldest said \u201cYeah, Dad play that other song. Isn\u2019t that the other \u201cMmmBop\u201d song?\u201d And for whatever reason, he said that. And I don\u2019t know why he said that except for to say that whatever it is in the quality of \u201cMmmBop\u201d or quality of some of the songs that are probably the most catchy of ours. That there\u2019s something in there that\u2019s similar to an eight year old. And I think probably that\u2019s what, that good pop song thing. Whatever that DNA of a pop song is.<\/p>\n Ron Bennington: That\u2019s the great thing about kids. They\u2019re not going to critique it. They\u2019re just going \u201cYeah, that\u2019s it. That\u2019s the sugar\u201d.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0October 23rd, playing the NorVa in Norfolk, Virginia. Doors open at 7 O\u2019Clock. Check out more dates for their Musical Ride tour at Hanson.net. Thanks so much for stopping in guys.\u00a0It\u2019s the fiercely independent Hanson. Thank guys.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Hanson: Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zac, Taylor and Isaac Hanson who form the group Hanson stopped by this week to talk with Ron Bennington at the Sirius XM studios. The three brothers are best known for their smash hit Grammy nominated song \u201cMmmBop.\u201d Because of their quick success at such a young age, some people wrote them off as a flash-in-the-pan pop group, but there is much more to Hanson than meets the eye. They\u2019re all grown up with kids of their own now, and recording under their own label. Excerpts from the interview appear below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[103,1228],"tags":[112,293,17],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-2011","category-article-interviews","tag-interview","tag-ron-bennington","tag-shout-it-out"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nYou\u2019ve got to keep the antenna up. You\u2019ve got to be willing to receive it. And then the other thing too, is, I think listening to late 50\u2032s rock and roll in particular, because those songs were short\u2013 they were two minutes, two and thirty seconds\u2013 and it gives you a really good perspective on what a pop song really is about. And I think that it\u2019s good that we listen to that first as opposed to prog rock. \u00a0Because as amazing as prog rock is, it\u2019s a much bigger progression of pop music\u2013 it\u2019s a broader version of pop music. Whereas those 50\u2032s soul records and rock and roll records were just \u2018to the vein.\u2019 \u00a0Hook us or we\u2019re kicking you out.<\/p>\n