Issue date: 4/17/08

The following is the text of an interview with Hanson, conducted by Meg Massey, '08, and Betsy Vance, '08. Betsy Vance transcribed the interview for your reading pleasure...

Question: The Walk is a rootsier album than Underneath sound-wise. Can you talk about how your sound and influences have evolved since you became independent and where you see it going for your next album?

Isaac: That's an interesting question. For us with The Walk, it definitely…we were focused on performing the record as much or as live as possible. Trying to bring out the kind of rawness, the rootsiness of the performances as much as we could. Trying to restrict the amount of colors we used to the painting to give an analogy. And saying, alright, you know, maybe simple is better. And so for us this whole record was about simplifying. And I think what it's done is that it's definitely brought out a lot of the kind of you know 60's R&B influences and early rock and roll kind of things that we've always had as a part of who we were and as part of our influences but I think it's a little bit more obvious in any case that that's kind of where this band comes from. And I think every record is different. I think this record, The Walk, has a lot of similarities interestingly enough to our second record, This Time Around. And musically, the type of songs that were written for the record- there's a lot of melodical connections between those records. But I think it's a much rootsier approach in this case, in the case of The Walk than This Time Around. So I see the future being somewhat similar to The Walk in that, I think where the record, how the record sounds, the approach of the album I think will begin to be a sound for this band. And one of the things that we were very focused on for this record which is part of I think why we perform it live also is that, you know, people always thought of Hanson as singers or as songwriters but have not always thought of what it is that Hanson sounds like as a band, as a musical entity.

One of our primary goals with this record is to try and accentuate what it is that Hanson, as three musicians, sounds like. And I think that this record very much goes down that road and accomplishes that quite well. I think you hear some of the subtleties of the way that we play and you can hear, okay that sounds like, that's Taylor, that's the way he sings it and feels like he plays piano; that's Zac, and his approach, I hear the way Zac drums, I hear the way Isaac plays guitar- you know, those kinds of things that we try and accentuate that on some level or another people are hearing what Hanson is about not just from a song, or just from a local performance but also from a point of view of a sound as a band. And 'cause, you know, when it comes to great bands that all of us like, you know as we're growing up listening to music, the bands that we like have a sound and you can recognize that sound. And we've always, you know, we feel like it's long past due to make sure that people hear who Hanson is as a sound.

Question: Could you tell us a little bit more about Fool's Banquet, the songwriting retreat that you guys have been doing?

Isaac: (laughs) Um, well, we do a songwriting retreat every year. It is a private event that we host for different artists and for friends of ours, who we've had connections with whether it be mutual friends, or whether it be a direct connection, whether it be a band that we really like that um chills with us. Any number of things can happen when it comes to that event. And what it is all about is sparking relationships, growing a community of like-minded artists and having a kind of connection with one another. But also, it's about kind of setting ourselves free as artists from the feeling that we have to write a certain type of song or we're not capable of collaborating or something to that effect. It's about freeing our creativity, to just say: it doesn't matter whether this is for your record or not, what matters is that you have a good time and that you write a song that you feel like is decent, that you feel like is the best song you could write today- not tomorrow, not yesterday, not next week, whatever-it's about the best song that you can write today and record today. And it's turned out some really good stuff. Um, it's turned out some really interesting stuff as well. A bunch of things this year are probably going to end up on records. So it's a very fun experience, but it's you know, not for the faint of heart. Like I said, we write a song a day; each group writes a song a day and as a group of three people, and generally there's usually four or five groups of people, so anywhere from four to five songs being written and recorded in one day, or over the course of multiple days which can multiply itself quite quickly. And you can have more than an album's worth of songs very, very fast.

 Question: You guys have been real pioneers in calling to attention the importance of independent music with your documentary. Do you see music's future being more about touring, and digital downloads, and small labels or do you still see the major labels kind of having a big stake but merely getting more competition?

Isaac: Well, that's a, that's a, that's a, boy, that's a big question. Let me answer- let me start with a couple things about touring. I think touring is absolutely necessary. It doesn't matter who you are. It's absolutely necessary. One of the biggest problems with the music business in the last 10 or so years has been that live music became less necessary for a band to succeed. It became less important as far as a record company trying to expose their developing act. You know, when we went on our first major concert tour in 1998, um almost a year after our record was released, actually over a year after our first record was released, we were having to pull teeth to get our record company to stop trying to fill our time so that we could go out on the road and what we said to them was: "We're a band, we need to be playing some shows. That's the whole point. If people don't see that Hanson is an actual band, then we won't have a future, we won't have a career. This is incredibly- we spent, you know, years and years of our lives as young kids, and you know, living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, going wherever we could playing gigs. We played hundreds of gigs before we were signed. We're not about to stop just 'cause we got signed. We like playing music live. That's part- that's a part of who we are, you know. And so, so it's those kind of, it's that kind deck that began to take prevalence in the business, or more prevalence. Oh, it's not as important to go out on the road. You know, blah, blah, blah. Oh you know, signing an act, but they have no real experience. You know they haven't grown their own fan base, they haven't gone out and done, you know, the hands on work, you know, we're just signing them because we either think they look good or because they have talent but we're also not invested in helping them to develop and grow. So I think that that's a huge part of being a band and making a career happen. If you're in a situation where you're signing to a record company and you're not getting anywhere, just go out on the road, just go. Stop worrying about whether or not you've got the perfect single or not. Just go. Just play. Find an audience. Find an audience and…Go on, you know? So, I think that that's incredibly necessary, 'cause that's a long way of getting, of addressing one of the many issues. I think the record- the large record companies will still be around but I think that mostly what they will be is a catalog-house meaning all the music from the last 50 years developed by various different companies, but they're not necessarily accessed in the same way that most record companies are. I think that's just gonna happen because they've become so big and they're not about taking risks. I think the industry as a whole represented by the RIAA and many others, and many other groups, and many, you know, other varying perspectives, have been very resistant to digital music, very resistant to the evolution of fan culture, very resistant to understanding that it's not that a music fan wants to steal a record; they just want their music to go with them in the way that their life has evolved. They, you know, in the same way that people stopped buying LP's and started buying cassettes so they could put them in a little walkman, and you know, walk around with headphones on. They wanna put, they wanna have music that is digital whether or not those MP3s sound as good as CDs or not. They wanna be able to listen to them and have the opportunity to buy a single, to buy one song or three songs because they can. And that's totally fine. And I think what iTtunes has proven is that, yes, people are buying less overall music, as far as, sorry…less dollar value when it comes to music. But, they are buying music more often.

They're buying ringtones, they're buying individual songs, they are in isolated cases, they are going out and buying and making the action of buying music more regularly. You know, it's something asinine, like between 5 and 700 percent in the amount of- is how much the overall instances of purchases of music have gone up. The music business is [inaudible - "still willing to give that change"?] because they have put so much emphasis on the old system that is not really bringing the bread and butter like it used to because they haven't embraced all the other ways that the audience can get music. The final thing though, I think is that you cannot address independent music and the fact that there are a growing amount of independent labels that are providing the quality music, that are, you know, connecting with a certain group of fans and so on and growing the business and could produce the next Bob Dylan or the next U2. I think it's more likely that those companies will produce those types of bands than it is that the larger, you know majors. But, that being said, you cannot say all of these things without saying that we as/have music fans have to, have to remember that- and this is myself included- we have to remember that, making sure that buying records is necessary to keep those bands touring and those bands making records. And that it's convenient, and it's easy to you know trade, to you know, to pirate, you know, digital copies, 'cause you don't see the physical effect. It's not- it doesn't have the same effect on us walking into a convenience store and swiping a couple candy bars, you know.

It doesn't have the same effect, you know. We don't make, we almost don't realize that we're doing it in the same way. It doesn't trigger that conscience thing in our heads. And you know, and so, fans will have to remember that that is the bread and butter for bands. And you know, it hurts small bands way more than it does bigger bands because they sell less records, you know less of an opportunity to reach people. But, I am also a proponent- this is where it all gets complicated- I am also a proponent of giving away music. I think you need to give away music as a part of what you do. I think it makes sense. Radio stations don't play near enough songs anymore; they're not in the record business of appealing to a fan base and motivating the sale of records; they're not in that business. They're not in the business of selling music period. They're in the business of advertising. So, you've got to judge the position (juxtaposition)in a band that you've got to try and fix and one of the way you can try and fix it is to say: alright, here's my website. I wanna sell records but you know what, here's one or two songs that I want people to hear, and so, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna make those songs available for free. And you know, we've done that in various ways. We try to give music for free at shows, you know. We'll make certain things available for free to fanclub members or to non-fanclub members. You know, we do stuff like that. We're in the process of beginning to do that more regularly, um, because, you know, we've had to evolve the technology on our website to make it easy to do that. But, or easier in a way that we feel like is, maintains a certain level of quality. So, you know, it's a complicated scenario, but I think ultimately it's all gonna work out. All of us really like music. (laughter)

And all of us… and we would be really bummed if our favorite bands stopped making records. But we gotta remember that in some cases we might be the silent party that was hurting their chances of making a record a second record unless, unless we all fess up as fans to saying, you know what, trading is cool but I gotta remember that this is my band. I gotta have some pride in the music I love.

Question: You got involved recently with 'Rock the Vote'- Are you supporting a candidate in the presidential election or are you staying neutral?

Isaac: Absolutely not supporting a candidate. Because for me it's not about the candidate, it's about issues. Particularly for us, obviously poverty and HIV/AIDS. But a lot of issues are important to me. Um, I have felt like when it comes to human beings, and life, and diseases and, you know, and children having a fighting chance in the world, that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what side of the political aisle you're on. I think we can all relate to that.

But there's been a lot of aggressive discussion on both sides of the political spectrum in the United States lately. I think some of it has to do with all of us being really idealistic and I think some of it also has to deal with, you know, with bad situations and and bad situations and whatever it is. And so, you know I think we all need to make the judgement for ourselves. But I do think it is valuable that young people take the opportunity to register, to take the opportunity that is given 'cause they are in a free society no matter how much that people complain about, you know, 'oh we're not free, there's all this oppression.' No, the only reason why we say that is 'cause we don't know what real oppression is.

We are all really- we all have an incredible opportunity you know to make our voices known and to find out what the candidates really stand for and what we believe that they will do. We also have to try our best, you know, to look through the tours, the speeches, the "this's", the "thats", whatever it is, and really try and look at the history of whoever those people are and try and be, you know, and try and do our…______?? The truth is, you know, you never know how you could end up electing a guy that you thought was the greatest guy since sliced bread and he turns out to be not at all what you wanted him to be. That's always the case. You just have to do the best you can as a voter to learn and to be active and there you go. And so I am, no, definitely not supporting a candidate. But I am supporting- but I do support the further use of the you know 7 extra bbillion dollars accepted to be sent to Africa that even though we are already spending a lot of money in the Middle East, I think that 7 billion that we could be sending to Africa could do a lot of good. And I've seen the good that it's done and that it definitely needs to be furthered.

Question: The Walk has been incredibly successful, and you've made The Walk really accessible to people all over the country…So I was wondering if maybe you could give some advice or some suggestions for other young people who are interested in becoming involved in causes but are a little intimidated or overwhelmed by the process?

Isaac: Well, I think part of our challenge is a band is, I suppose, we're reluctant to… we're a reluctant leader on some levels because, you know, you're the one kind of getting it out there, encouraging people to do stuff. Part of that is that we've got to help each other with what the right causes are and what the right organizations are. And that is one of the big challenges. The process of creating a funnel, maybe, a digital funnel, an online funnel to help people find those particular groups and those particular opportunities that might help out with those questions that you're having. And we've been working very, very hard to try and get that done for the spring tour. I think it's probably not going to sort itself out until the very beginning of the summer, 'til right after the tour is over. Because it is complicated, it is important that you do it right. But with regard to advice that I would give, you know, I believe that we as a generation, as a country, have the opportunity to move beyond just being aware of a problem and have the opportunity to, with technology to direct communication with one another, to truly take action on issues. And I think for me, that is the crux of the issue. It's not being aware- we're all pretty dang aware. The question is how do we act? And what do we do? And I think trying to find ways to, you know- Take Tom's Shoes for example, the company that we've worked with on these walks, which we were looking for a partner for this, to kind of perpetuate what we felt like this album was about, and then when we found Tom's Shoes, you know, 'Oh my gosh, they sponsor/support/ the walk, they give away shoes every time they sell them, wow, this is providence'. Let's look at companies like that. Let's look at all of our businesses and see how might we pick, how might we take our daily life, our daily living, our daily job, and turn it into life, turn it into help for someone else. And you know, a friend of mine, says, you know, 'I don't wanna lead with my check book; I don't wanna lead with my day job'. I think it is up to us, 'cause we are creative people; the experience is as much about, has as much capacity to create and to challenge and to learn as it does to just do. You know, to just do the daily necessary things. We also have an incredible capacity to search for the right… I think it's not just about doing specific things, I think it is very much about saying, 'we don't have the answers. But you might. So help me to find the right opportunity. Help me to find the right thing. Because being a leader is not just about being the one who organizes a group. Or being the one who presents an idea. Being a leader is also about being a person who has the most open ears. You know being the one that says, when it's all said and done, 'I believe it's my responsibility not only to engage one another and engage you in being involved. I think it's also about being open to hearing the new ideas and the opportunities that you might find that I didn't. Not because I didn't try, but because you might have had a different idea. And so you know, I think the goal should be to challenge each other to search. And then hopefully through that- you never know, you might find an incredible idea, an incredible group, an incredible technology, an incredible organization of people that's collective. You know, think about Wikipedia. Think of all of the stuff that you can find on Wikipedia. And you know, that's a collusion of people gathering together information. Now, imagine if we could take something like Wikipedia and turn it into something that is actively helping people. And so I say that to say 'The world is your oyster'. You know, it's about that motivation. About motivating one another to not be aware but to take action. Awareness is good, action is better.

Question: Do you have a favorite story or inspiring story from doing these walks?

Isaac: Inspiring story… Well, you know, on some level, I would hate to select people in some way because there have been a lot of people who have really meaningful and simple things that I think are just as valuable as kind of quote-unquote, exceptional. Because exceptional in some cases is about where you're coming from. You know, there are parables that talk about, you know, is it really- what's really better? For a man who is wealthy to give me a large sum of money or what about, this poor person who gives me the shirt off their back? Is that less significant? I think not. Because actually that person couldn't afford to give me the shirt off their back. And it's not devaluing the person that has the wealth, it's just saying that it's about perspective. It's about whether- because you need both. You need a person who's willing to give the shirt off their backs, and you also need a person who has a lot more access to monetary wealth, to provide, you know, food to provide resources to make things happen. But without a person who is willing to give the shirt off their back, you could have trucks full of soup or food or both or medicine, but no one to give those things to the people who need them. So, you know, we are all called in some way or another to maybe do different things, and it's just a matter or whether or not we answer the call that is presented to us in our lives. Um, I think the inspiration for me- sorry, that's a longwinded way to answer that, but I think it had to be said. (Tape ended)

… people who come to walks and have said, 'here is three hundred dollars, here is two hundred dollars, here is seventy-five dollars.' People who have - like, there was one case where a group, I forget what city it was, well there was one case where a group of that kind of started an organization that you know, was just their own community but they were at a show, and they said, 'I don't know if any of you guys' - 'cause the line had grown, we had done the walk, and all this kind of stuff and after the show, they came up to us and said, 'Once you guys left, and once you did the walk, a lot more people showed up and what we did was, we went down the line and we said, and we told them about what you've done and we wanted to make sure that everybody knew, and there were a lot of people that didn't. And we asked them if they would donate some money so that we could then give it to you.' And they did that, and they gave it to us and we gave it to HIVSA which is the pre-natal, HIV/AIDS research group who has reduced the transmission rate from HIV-positive pregnant mothers to their unborn children by 90%. They have done incredible work and we have been able to work them through the actions of our incredible fans. So, you know, I think that those are examples. The other one that I think is important to say to is, and you know, I've told this story a couple of times- There was a school teacher who was someone who was about 25 years-old, walking the Las Vegas Strip with us. We were, you know, walking barefoot, down the Las Vegas strip which of course is scary, in and of itself. And she asked, 'I'm just a teacher of middle school kids. What can I do? How can I encourage my kids to do things? What can I tell them to do? And I said, 'You know what? I think what's more important now is that you ask yourself, not what can I tell others to do, but I think you should ask yourself, what are can I do right now?' And she says, 'Well, what do you mean?' and I said, 'What are you doing right now?' I said, 'You're taking a walk. You're walking. You're, you are, you have gone from being a person who didn't know about something to motivating yourself to take action to represent a goal. Now, think about that for a second and say, 'what are things that I can do to motivate others to search within themselves to and ask the questions you're asking. Because it is as much about encouraging somebody to ask a question as it is showing them something to do. And so she said, 'O.K., I get what you mean.' And I said 'Yeah. You just need to lead by doing. And your students will ask you because you have done stuff. I think it's more important to do first, and then people will ask. So, I think you've gotta do it. Sorry, that's a really - I just don't know how to boil it down into soundbites sometimes. It's not always so simple. There are the soundbyte versions, the simplified- you know, here's the goal in a sentence, or in, you know, a phrase. And then there's the reality of doing it.

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