Translation:

Music - Interview.

OWN LABEL.
Their label is called 3CG, is the abbreviation of 3 Car Garage, in tribute to the place they began to play.

COLLABORATIONS DE LUXE.
There are famous collaborators on the album: Matthew Sweet and the New Radicals leader, Gregg Alexander.

PRECOCIOUS.
They've been precocious in everything, Isaac and Zac have serious girlfriends and Taylor is married and he is the father of a 2 year old child.

HANSON.
"WE HAVE NEVER CONSIDERATED OURSELVES A GROUP OF ADOLESCENTS".
IN A FULL PUBERTY, THEY HAD A HUGE HIT WITH MMMBOP, 8 YEARS LATER, NOW IN THE TWENTIES, THEY ARE LOOKING TO REPEAT THE PLAY.

HANSON THEIR NEW ALBUM UNDERNEATH IN THE STORES NOW.

Perhaps you remember 3 little blonds kids who assaulted the hits lists in 1997 with that catchy pop song called MMMBop. Isaac, vocalist and guitarist, was 16 years old, Taylor -keyboards- 13, and the drumer Zac, 11. Now the Hanson brothers are 8 years old older and their pop has grown up as well without loosing its pop catchiness. Underneath is their new album, it makes the fourth one. Very restless in a Madrid hotel suite, they spoke with passion (all 3 of them at the same time), they stand, pace, or they stop a moment at their portable computers.

QUESTION - What's happened in the 5 years that have passed since This Time Around, your last album?

ANSWER - Basically 3 things: We left our old record comapany and we created our own label, we spent a lot of time moving licences and partners. Once we started, decreed everything, we began to think about the album. Then, we played an acoustic tour around the World before the record came out, because we wanted to come back to the basic, to what we were since the beginning. If only we had a free time, in fact.

Q - It seemed you composed 300 songs, but your records company didn't want to put out more albums. What did they dislike about Hanson?

A - Well, actually they didn't know. The model of the companies is totally broken. They come back being so commercial since the eightees that now they don't have any idea of what they're doing, they have lost the contact with the music fans. Our old label was reorganized all time and at the end we had to work with people who didn't support our music in any way, and who didn't have the same vision.

Q - You have been become heroes of the independent music...

A - Yes, lots of people say "Oh, but is it true that now Hanson is an independent band?". I think we are too much established for the indie and that we are too much indie for the established. What is true is that, what we do right or wrong, we always wanted to do the things in our own way, and we have been always completely out of the wave, especially in the United States.

Q - It is supposed that now you're not a band for adolescents. In what measurement do you think your public have changed?

A - Firstly, we have never been a group directed to young or to old people, the thing is that we had fans of all ages. Obviously we began attracting people who were the same ages than us, such us the singer Michelle Branch, who decided to make music because she was a fan of us and now she is 21 years old. It's logical that lots of young people saw a kid who was 11 years old playing the drums and said "Oh! That's cool!", but we've never directed to that kind of public. All we can say is that lots of the fans have grown up with us.

Q - Is it a problem that you are together all time, because of your family relations and also because of your professional commitments?

A - Sometimes, yes. People have asked us this question in a thousand of occasions and maybe we have to emphasize that in the rock story there have been lots of brother bands: Beach Boys, Isley Brothers, Van Halen, Bee Gees, the Black Crowes, Jackson Five... The important thing is that our personalities are different and that all of us believe in what we do, so, although if there is friction, we finish to come back. We respect each other a lot as artists and as people.

Q- How has your success at a very young age affected you? We can speak about the Macaulay Culkin syndrome...

A - Yes, if you use it in a bad way it can be very destructive. There are many cases like this, the one with Charlie Sheen or the one with Drew Brarrymore, but then they have known how to recover. Obviously, in an age that you are not ready, but it's also a big chance to open your eyes very well. We always wanted to have it and we don't want to change anything that has happened. We hope to continue a long time more.

Text: David Saavedra. Photo: Nacho Cachero.