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Hanson
On What Is Hip, Hot, and Happening
6/1/00 (Jump Magazine) |
With a rockin' new record,
This Time
Around, Hanson is proving to be even hipper than the last time around. So who better to give us their views on all things cool than Isaac, Taylor, and Zac? They insist they're just a bunch of "dorks," but to us, that just makes them even cooler.
Do you have any idea why thousands of screaming girls think you guys are so cool?
Taylor: I don't think it has anything to do with how cool we are as people. Fans appreciate the band and the music we make. When it comes to screaming girls saying "I love you, I want to marry you," they could be saying that to anybody.
Isaac: It's just a rock 'n' roll thing. It comes and goes.
Taylor: You can't take it personally or let it go to your head. It's just because we're in the public eye. When you're onstage, it creates excitement and girls start screaming.
Zac: Oh yeah, women love me! [Laughs]
Taylor: You can't let yourself think that girls want to be near you because you're so cool. Honestly, I don't think we're cool at all.
So you don't stare into the mirror and tell yourselves how cool you are?
Isaac: No, no, no! We look in the mirror and think, Wow, what are they thinking? Honestly, the day that I say "Wow, I'm cool," I hope somebody slaps me.
Taylor: Oh, we will!
But what do you think of these girls who go crazy and pass out because of you?
Taylor: We invoke seizures. [Laughs] It's just what happens. It's just the way fans are.
Isaac: It's very cool to have people who are into the band and what we do, but it all comes down to the music. They might not necessarily be into us as people, except for the fact that we're musicians.
Taylor: We haven't really figured out the girl thing yet. And no one will ever figure out the screaming thing.
Isaac: I don't think anybody's figured it out. Guys just can't figure girls. I think girls have the guys whipped the whole time.
What are some of the best compliments you've received from fans?
Taylor: It's inspiring when we get letters from people saying, "You've changed our lives." Or "I was gonna commit suicide and now I'm not because of one of your songs."
Isaac: Those are cool! But even the littlest compliments, like somebody walking up and saying "I just wanted to say I really like your music and I think you guys are cool," encourages us to keep doing it -- not only because we love doing it, but because people identify with our music and actually get something out of it.
People you grew up with must think it's cool to be friends with Hanson.
Isaac: One of my best friends isn't even a fan of the band.
Zac: Yeah, we have a lot of friends who don't dig the music. They're just like, "Guys, I'm sorry, but I think your music is crappy. But, uh, you guys are cool."
Taylor: Yeah, exactly, and that's fine with us. That's what's so cool about music; you can hate some of it and love some of it.
Do you feel cooler, or less cool, when people call you a boy band?
Taylor: Every band gets put in a box -- whether it's the Black Crowes being too hard and retro or the Backstreet Boys being called teenyboppers. In the beginning, we were young and blond and we seemed like a cheesy pop band. When you think of Hanson, you think of "MMMBop," right? There were some deeper things going on, but people tended to focus on the young, pop side of things.
Isaac: We definitely had people patting us on the head, saying, "Oh, you're so cute."
Taylor: But we've always been a pop-rock band. Now that we've grown up a little bit, hopefully it will be easier for people to accept us and get into our music.
How have other bands and artists treated you?
Isaac: We've had people like Lenny Kravitz walk up to us and say, "Hey, I really love your record." And we're thinking, Whoa, Lenny Kravitz knows who we are and he likes our music. That was really cool. Actually, we've been embraced by many of our musical peers.
Which female artists are you into?
Taylor: Sheryl Crow, Lauryn Hill, and, without a doubt, Aretha Franklin.
Isaac: We want to meet her so badly. She's the queen of soul!
Taylor: She's the ultimate diva.
Isaac: Yeah, when VH1 did that divas concert with Celine Dion and Shania Twain, we were sitting there going, "Come on! Give us a break!" Then Aretha Franklin came out and just whipped them off the planet. No offense to them, but it would be like putting any rock band up against Aerosmith or the Stones.
Have you ever felt like losers?
Taylor: Yeah--when we were recording the new album and Rose Stone [former Sly and the Family Stone singers] was there with a choir. When they sang with us, we felt like we couldn't sing at all.
Isaac: That little bit of soul we thought we had going on-- nuh-uh! [Laughs]
Taylor: [Laughs] We felt transparent. Our ability to sing with soul didn't exist.
What qualities make a girl cool?
Zac: She needs to be absolutely perfect. [Laughs]
Isaac: No, I don't think there's any one quality that makes a girl cool. You know, you find yourself meeting all kinds of different people, but until you finally find that girl and go, Whoa, she's it, I don't think you can really pinpoint it. You never know until you meet the girl. Hopefully, it's more than just being physically attracted to her. It's not like I'm instantly into someone because she looks like Cindy Crawford.
Taylor: Looks may be the initial reason you're attracted to someone, but after that, it becomes more about the kind of person she is.
What would you do on a date to make it really cool?
Zac: Go skydiving!
Isaac: It could be any of a bazillion things.
Zac: The thing is, you could plan the ultimate date, and something could still go wrong and screw it all up.
Taylor: You can have the best time just going to a movie or a romantic dinner. If you want to do crazy stuff, then you can take her skydiving. It depends on the girl.
Isaac: Hopefully, she's the kind of person who doesn't mind if it's not perfectly romantic -- she has a good time because she enjoys my company, and vice versa. That's actually what makes any relationship good at the end of the day.
Who's the coolest person in your family?
Taylor: There are four other kids, besides the three of us. Our baby sister is the most pampered, so she's probably considered the coolest.
Zac: And she has eight people to hold her, so what do you expect?
Isaac: None of us gets that much attention.
But of the three of you, who's the coolest?
Taylor: What makes someone cool is just being yourself and not trying to be something you aren't. So we're all equally cool.
Isaac: No, we're all dorks.
Zac: Yeah -- I'm not that conceited. Please let me be the dork!
Taylor: No, Zac's the coolest.
Zac: No, I want to be the dork.
Taylor: Honestly, none of us is the coolest, because we're all dorks.
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