Molly Meldrum [the interviewer] talked with Natalie Imbruglia about being lonely on the road...

M : When I was in America I caught up with these young band called Hanson, they're 3 brothers and it's quite...

N : that little one ..

(M : Zac)

N : ...he's just ..oh.. [with huge eyes on her face..]

M : he's a little terror..[smiling..]..I love him, but he's a little terror... but ahm..they're quite extraordinary, coz they are very very talented. And yet when they're tour the whole family tour..Mom, Dad, little brother and sisters..there's a new baby at the moment, and it's quite a family affair y'know..

N: is Dad manage?

M : ehm... are partly manage them, and he's ..where ever..you see the Dad, there's this thing on "Hey Hey", coz he's got this video recorder and he goes around recording everything including "Hey Hey", normally 'no..no cameras on Hey Hey', but because he's Hanson's Dad he's allowed to do it. But what I admire them, they did this gig at the Bottom Line on a Sunday..no on Saturday, and all these fans..flown in (?) from all over the world, went to the Bottom Line and they gave them lunch, and then the boys walked out with 3 other members, musicians, and did a 45 minutes... live, y'know (N : ahh...) with Zac playing Drums, Taylor on keyboards and Isaac on guitar... and they were fantastic

N : they're brilliant

M : They really were..and no frills no nothing you know, and so..I admire them very much, so we caught up with the boys and they were in Planet Hollywood in New York, and ehm..these what they had to say...

[playing a clip from MMMBop...]

M : well lads, welcome to Australia via satellite

At the same time : T : thanx, thank you for having us

I : it's nice to be on your show...

M : hey, it's cool.

M : first of all congratulations on all the success you've had..y'know

I : well..thank you

T : thank you Australia

M : and congratulations for being so game and daring to bring out this album of (T : yeah.) ..of tracks that were done way before y'know... you actually recorded the first album..

T : yeah.. the 3CG is the name of the album, yeah.., it's exactly what you said..it's kinda..it's the music that we did before..did actually... it was our second independent record that we did before MON and it has original version of WYIYD, TOY & MMMBop. The one that we y'know..versions before MON..so..

M : but I mean..it's a pretty daring move for any band to do that y'know, Hanson the first album, to decided to do that y'know... when did you come to this decision... y'know..

T : well, it was really because of the fans..

M : yes..?

Z : it's because we've gotta a lotta requests from people who hear the music, they wanna get the CDs that we've done before, so finally we just give in and...

M : yeah..?

T : well..it was..I mean it was really... we told... we talked about it a lot, we've said we did two independent records..so it's kinda like we're asking for it in a way he he he...

M : yeah..?

T : we like..'we did two independent records..but you can't get it... you know..

I : yeah..so..yeah, we have thousands of e-mails and letters and things freom fans everywhere, from Australia..from all over the world, saying y'know..we wanna hear the old music, and so we decided let's do it, let's let them hear it, and that's really what it is, and you know... it's not.. it's not a new album, it's an old album and you gotta remember that because they're y'know... [ grinning...]... we spent 4 hours a song in a garage studio that was a couple miles away from our house and y'know..it's..it's nothing special but I guess y'know..it's..it's..

T : and I guess if anybody ever doubted us that Hanson was 3 guys that play instruments and wrote their songs..just kinda convert/confirm (?) that.. coz we were a lot younger than we are now (M : sure... ehm hm..) and we're doing the same thing just in a garage y'know...

[play clip from Where's The Love]

M : that day in Melbourne..(T : ehm hm yeah..), and I mean..excuse me for being not cynical (T: yeah ; I : he he) but 3 guys y'know, brothers etc etc from America and got this song called MMMBop right (I : right) and I had to introduced you on stage, very early on a Saturday morning (I : he he he yeah..) out of a shopping center and there's 25.000 kids going crazy, and you got up, and what shocked me was how you were just improvized and do live... (T : yeah) the numbers y'know... that shocked me, I gotta tell you that surprised me and shocked me..

[they went quite for a second...]

T : well, that's... that's what we do, that's what we're... that's what we're all about, we're playin' live...

Z : playing live and do music...

I : yeah, we're actually getting ready to go out on tour, which is gonna be very very cool for us, because we've been... for the past y'know 6 months or so we've really been trying to go out and things has been so busy and now we've gotten the opportunity to ehm..to tour and so that's what we're gonna do over the summer..

T : and it's really just... it's really just a short tour kinda, because we've really just wanna get out and play shows and ehm..it's kinda..it's..we're gonna be doing a few dates in Europe and then in the States, just because we wanna get out there, then we're gonna focus on doing the next album and getting the songs done and get in the studio and then when that's ..that's done we'll really be able to go out and do a real world tour, really hit a lot more places.

M : well now..yesterday down at the Bottom Line in New York where they flew Hanson contestant winners in from all around the world including Australia (T&I : ehm hm..yeah..) you got up on stage did 40 45 minutes (T&I : ehm hm yeah) with 3 other musicians... that again..fantastic you know..

[they seems to lost their tongue for a second..]

T : yeah... it was..

Z : thank you!

I : he he he

M : [I can't make out what he's saying to Zac but everybody is laughing]

[Then Zac got up and pretended to strangle the guy. He played along with Zac's act.]

M : aargh... he he he

[Then Zac sat down again, still grinning, while Tay & Ike just laughing]

T : well..ehm..yeah, exactly , that's what we do, we had been preparing playin' a lot and hope they like it..

I : yeah, so..yesterday..yesterday was a good show for us, we really y'know..it's fun to y'know have... have a show that you got to do for your fans period but, the fact that we got the opportunity to do it for people from all over the world.. (T : yeah..it's cool) performing for that show was very very cool for us.

T : and it's also kinda preparation for going out..get on the road for the real full out show, was kinda like you gotta really go out and... we've been playing short show all over the place..but you gotta do kinda..(I : a longer show..) a longer show for a day, it was fun...

[playing a clip IWCTY from the Beacon Theater]

M : would it be fair to say then, that your mom and dad, and the influences of music that you had, which is not quite normal, maybe, for the average American family or the average Australian family (I : yeah..) that..they gave you a great inside into music y'know..

T : the family ?

M : well, also of all the influences of music you're listening to y'know..

T : yeah I'm..I would say, you mean the Rock N' Roll music or the different musics..

M : yeah..yeah..

T : yeah, I would say..whenever you..whenever someone... whenever you hear music and if you're musical in any way... if you're a writer and you read a book that's probably gonna influence your writing or it's gonna influence..if you're musician it's influence your music so..

I : or trigger something in you that kinda makes you want to do it

Z : it's..it's kinda no matter what, if you listen to Hard Rock music everyday, then you gonna kinda..get into Hard Rock (T : get into writing Hard Rock)

T : so and..I would say whenever there's music around that was definitely a big part of what..

Z : it's just makes you more (T : made us want to do it ..more)... You, I wanna be in music

M : right..

T : you know, even though..you know if we done music, if we were writing song then our parents would like ehm... You have to be a lawyer, y'know..then it'll probably lean towards that..so it was definitely a group efforts... but we've always done it, so we can't really extract the music..

M : right... so listen to this album of the first recorded version basically of mmmbop right, did you realize then that it's gonna be a massive song? that this could possibly be..a big song..

I : it..it..

Z : you know, when you write a song, you like your song, coz you wrote it... you never go..[change into his wacky voice and act..] this song is gonna be huge..[the guy started to laugh], it's amazing... SO GREAT... YES! [normal again] you..it's just kinda like..go..I like this song..it's kinda cool..

[his YES sounds very deep, like a big burly guy in bar just won arm wrestling or something..I think Zac forgot his voice is not those wacky high pitched anymore..he he he]

T : the thing is... mmmbop wasn't even get that much respond from our audience when we were doing locally..

I : actually, it's also because we had a very short amount of time to really play it, there were actually several other songs on...

Z : like the song Stories and the song River..

T : which are songs on 3CG..

Z : they... we got way more responds out of that songs than we did ..

T : coz our fans were new and we've play those for a long time..and y'know..those were songs that fans into when we were playing locally...

I : yeah, and it was actually quite funny coz we only had that album out for what.. (T : ah..2 or 3 shows..) 2 or 3 shows, like... (T : before we went out..) weeks kinda thing y'know..., yeah ...before we went out to LA.

[play clip from MMMBOP]

M : even with this album now, the current..the new one, there's some songs on that that if you re-recorded will be fantastic y'know.. (I : ehm hm) I mean could be massive hits as well y'know..I mean (T : yeah I know..) would..would... is there a possibility that you would re-recorded them y'know...

I : I.. well... there are songs that y'know..we..we definitely feel very good about (T : welp..) and feel we possibly could re-recorded on the second record (M : sure..) or records later than that...

T : well the thing is actaully some of the songs were candidates for the MON like y'know, we chose MMMBop and TOY and WYIYD, so we were taking..we took some songs out of that album, but really..ahmm you know, you never know..we all we..we think to ourselves all those songs coz we like ..we wrote songs, you think that's cool y'know.., but y'know we always writing new songs, so...

I : that's all... that's the other weird balances you have a lot of songs that you written a long time ago (T : that you like..) that you feel very good about, and then there the songs that you recently written that you feel good about and it's one of those... uh, which one do I put on..(M: sure..) ..kinda thing, which one do I set to record.

M : now, when you started with..with..with..a performance, I love the balance and then when you settle in (?) to Weird, I mean that's great (T : yeah..) you started with keyboards and that, I mean there's a great balance there y'know..now a lot... when you do the big performance..ehm..you gonna leave that simple aren't you..coz it should be that simple..

I : oh it's very...

T : with Weird and things like that?

M : yeah..

T : oh yeah, I think... it's really... what's really important with our show is that... I guess if you play ballads all the time you'd be like (Z : the crowds would go..) [Tay had a sleepy expression on his face and Zac throw back his head and gave a loud snore..]

(M : oh sure..)

T : you fall asleep..you know, but if you play all jump and down song [jumping up & down in his his seat..] all the time you'd be like..

Z : the crowds would go... [jumping up & down in his seat wildly and 'head banging'..] (T : I would y'know...) STOP! Argh..argh... argh...

T : [put his hand on Zac's arm...] he's been into many of those shows... (I : he he he yeah..)

[ the interviewer guy laughed... really loud !!]

[play a clip from Weird]

M : touring wise, what..what do you anticipate with that ..y'know, you gonna leave it with those musicians you're touring now, or..

T : well..we have you know..it's really the 3 of us is what the band is about, and then you have a bass player..you need a bass, and then we have..there's a ccertain part in the song... I only have two hands..I can't make this part... so you know, we have..so there's 3 other guys, who play bass, another guitar and another keyboardist, but ehm..it's yeah... it's.. those were the guys who've always..were gonna stick with us, we're gonna have a lot of fun doin' it..

Z : always... hopefully, (I : yeah hopefully..) it's up to them whether they gonna stick with us or not..

T : it's all, yeah... it sorta up to them but we're..ehm..we have..we have ..ehm..real good..ehm..chemistry with the guys on stage, so...

M : ehm..and Australia, I mean like..there was a talked about you may come down this year...

I : yeah, yeah..

T : and we really wanted to... and we..we're actually gonna start the tour in Australia, but it because..y'know..we..we're wanted to next/met (?) now..how can we get the next album out, so that became another key thing and getting the next album out is gonna be a big..big..crunch (?), once we..once we just get out and flashed out the live thing... coz we just personally want to go out and play some shows, so that's really what it's really about, and then getting the next album out that is a really priority too, so...

[the interview ended here with a clip from TOY out of the TTMON]