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PHONE INTERVIEW WITH ISAAC HANSON A An exclusive chat with Isaac Hanson of Hanson
Conducted by Valerie V. Mayuga 20 May 2004, 9:00 am
VAL: Can you give me a brief history on how you got started in the music?
ISAAC HANSON: When I was 9, I first heard a rock and roll song. It was Johnny Be Good… We first started writing songs, singing together. Years went by, at 11, I began singing with Taylor and Zach, and at 16, we started as a band.
How did you get into the music business?
“I just got into it by just loving music,” says Isaac when asked how he got into the music business. As for getting the band’s music out there, he says, “We made it happen, whatever it took, we were gonna do it.”
How do you think being brothers affect your music?
I think being brothers has made it a lot easier for us to be able to uh… start at such a young age. It made it possible for us to, ah, to work together when we were young kids, and ah, continuing to evolve to now, I think it is own-made music easier and better because we worked together so much. Um, it’s-it’s… hard at times, there’s always struggle here… there are moments when we get on each other’s nerves that uh, we definitely love what we do, and because we love music and what we do so much, it keeps us together.
What are the ups and downs of having your brothers as band members?
Well, the good thing is, is, we, ah, we know each other really and ah, because of that, we work very well together. It’s kinda, (yawns – sorry) um, but also, ah, iot’s hard for the same reason. We, um, we know each other very well, so… because of that certain things get on each other’s…uh, ah… on our nerves, because, because we’ve worked so long together, so much together, that certain things become, shall we say, pet peeves. Or things that annoy you more easily. Um, so yeah… that’s it.
You have a new album, Underneath. Can you tell us a little something about your album?
Well, underneath took four years to, ah, ah, to come out between…the last time we had an album out was 2000…ah, we we’re very…we’re very proud of this record. I think it shows a lot of who we are as a band very, very well. I think it’s um, I think it’s going to be a surprising experience for people who are not familiar with Hanson, and for fans of the band, I think it will also – it will also be a positive change – the music is always changing and, and, this record has continued to evolve.
How has your sound evolved compared to the previous album, This Time Around? And What do think has remained the same?
Well I think we’re always going to be, a, ah, ah pop band. We love writing pop songs. Um, we’re always looking for that chorus that will fix in your head, and um, and that maintains to be true. Ah, we, ah, we’re always looking for the good pop songs. Um, but there’s also a lot of very intimate, um, mellow moments in the album also which I think shows a new side of who we are (yawns -- ) so it shows a more mellow side of who we are – this record does. But songs like “Lost Without each other” and “Get Up and Go,” and “Deeper” and “Penny and Me” are examples of songs that are very, very much straight up rock and roll-pop songs and that I think, uh, I think, everyone will be, ah, will be familiar with the similarities between these songs and the previous record.
How did you approach the songwriting process in coming up with songs for Underneath?
Well song writing is always an interesting thing because it’s always changing. You never know when a song is gonna come, when you’re gonna be inspired. Um… a lot of the music on this, on this record was, was written, um, during um, during 2001 or 2002. There’s also um, some songs, uh, y’know, there was a lot of songwriting that happened during those couple of years, and ah… And so, um, there’re a lot of different ways the music got written. The song, “Misery.” Ah… the verse of that song, Zach HAD Written um, he had a melody -- he had a melody and lyric idea, which we ah, really liked, and then Taylor had a, um, a chorus idea, but the chorus lyric was totally different. And Zach said – and Zach said, “Taylor,” he said, “That—that lyric sucks. That lyric’s horrible. I mean, we need to change that.” So, so… we changed the lyric, and then, ah, as we continued to write the song, the main riff and the chorus is a piano riff that goes (sings!), and ah, that riff was something that happened while we were writing the song. I said, “That that piano was sort of playing” and, ah, came up with that. So it’s just, ah, you never know how a song is gonna come about, and that song is a good example of collaboration.
Cool. So what fueled the songwriting? Where do you draw inspiration from?
Uh…that’s a good question. I, uh…sometimes I don’t even know. Uh, I remember…I saw James Taylor uh, who obviously is a very famous songwriter. He, ah, he was accepting an award for songwriting, ah, at the songwriter’s hall of fame, he was being inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.” And I was there, and he gave this speech, and he talked about music and songwriting and what he said was, I feel weird accepting this award because I don’t really feel like these songs really come from me.” He’s like, “I always feel like when the good songs happen, it’s like, they were tbere, and you just found them. It was almost as if you didn’t really write them.” And ah, he said, ah, “ I feel really lucky to be able to take credit for these songs, um, but I, I’m just thankful that, um, that I get to be the person who, who channeled that, those songs, an—and, comes up with them. But I don’t even know where they come from.” And, and so because of what he said about that, tha-that he expressed ah, an emotion that I’ve always felt about song writing which is that, the good songs, the things that stick in your head, the things that you’re most proud of, are almost always the ones that you’re not really sure where they came from? They just, ah, they just happen.
Amazing.
So, um, and, and, and, and, lyric – but when it comes to the lyrics and certain things, there are definitely very personal things that are part of songs. There are always certain elements of your life that inspire things, but it always, it always feels like those good songs just kinda come from another place.
What was it like collaborating with some of the big names in the music industry (like Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson, New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander and pop king Matthew Sweet)?
Um, it was very cool. Ah, we’ve always been, ah, we’ve always enjoyed collaborations and working with people. Ah, on all kinds of levels. And song writing is something that we all love to do. It—it—it’s something, ah (yawns) something that we do a lot of. Ah, and so getting the chance to write with people like, ah, Ed Robertson, and ah, Greg Alexander, and, and Matthew Sweet, who we wrote the song “Underneath” with --- it was a very exciting thing. Um, it’s——it’s very cool when you, when you stumble across, um, good songs, because, um, because I—it, there’s there’s nothing quite like it. It’s, it’s ah… it’s a very, um, it’s a very, kind of, disarming recording thing, because you don’t always come up with, with, with good songs. But when you do come up with a good one, everybody kind of looks at each other and goes, “Wow! That’s really cool!” So, so, a, it was really, it was a very good experience and we, we, we felt really happy that we had the chance to work with people that we did.
I was just gonna say, one of my favorites, I realized, one of my favorite collaborations on this record was working with, um, the producer Danny Kwerphmar um, because he worked a lot on my favorite albums in the last ten years which is, a Billy Joel album called, The River of Dreams, which I really, really love, and uh, and so it was really exciting to, to get the chance to work with him, because um, he, he was, that record was a very, ah, inspirational record for me, and we spent a lot of the time when we were in the studio, talking about making, him making that record with Billy Joel because, um, I’m such a Billy Joel fan.
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