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Hanson Hotel


Back to the Sound-Off Room

German MTV Select Interview (June 17, 1998)
Typed and submitted by Elke

When the show starts Hanson hasn't arrived yet, so VJ Nandini talks a little bit about Hanson in German.They then show the "MMMBop" video. When the video is over Hanson has arrived. They are sitting in some kind of semi-circle with VJ Nandini on the left side, next to her is Taylor, then Zac, Isaac and on the right side is VJ Steven.

Nandini: A few days ago you played in Germany, in Cologne. How do you like Germany?

Isaac: Germany was great. Everybody responded very, very well to. We had a great crowd.

Taylor: Very great, devoted fans. There was a lot of...extremely...I mean, every single song they sang back to us and that's always cool.

Zac: We had a great time in Germany.

Nandini: You once said that Germany is very different from the other countries in Europe. What is so different?

Taylor: Actually I don't remember that we said that, but... It's not...I think every country is definitely different, every country speaks a different language.

Nandini: Oh yes, really? (laughs)

Taylor: So everywhere they are speaking different languages, so it's definitely very different, when you go to each different one. We've been to Germany a lot - very cool, we have a lot of fans there.

Nandini: You don't speak any German?

Zac shakes his head.

Taylor: I wish we did, we should...We should try.

Nandini: "Hello" or something like that?

Taylor: No...We can say "Danke", you know...things like that.

Nandini (pointing at the camera): You can say it now. It's your chance - to your fans.

Taylor: We can say "Dankeschoen", that's about all.

(He and Zac wave into the camera)

Taylor: It's like, you know (extends his right hand): "Nice to meet you. Dankeschoen."

Nandini: And how do you like live performances?

Isaac: Great, we love them.

Taylor: We love to play live. It's definitely the most fun thing to do.

Zac: Because, you know, you're out there, you're with the fans and, you know, when you are in the studio you are creating the songs. But when you are out live, you're actually performing it for the fans. You get to interact and talk to all the fans...

Taylor: It's just great. The energy coming off the audience, just being out there. You're just playing the music, so it's cool. I mean, it's just fun. There's nothing like it.

Nandini then explains in German that they will now show a little "roll in", as she calls it, of the "Where's the Love?" video.

They show some parts of the video in which you can see this girl with short blond hair, wearing a red shirt and yellow glasses, standing in the background beside a pillar at the mall, at which Hanson performed live. You barely hear the music. Instead you can hear all of them talking in the off. Steven explains to Hanson that everybody at MTV thinks he looks exactly like a person on this video and he and Nandini point the girl out to Hanson.

Nandini goes "Oh there's Steven!" and words to that effect every time they show this girl.

(Note: There is some kind of similarity between Steven and the girl: he also has short blond hair, kind of standing up in front on top of his head, and he wears yellow glasses.) They then cut back to the interview.

Steven: Listen. To defend myself, they've been joking about it for the past couple of months that I look exactly like that...person in your video.

Taylor: I...I hate to crush you, but...that was a girl!

Nandini laughs.

Steven starts to say something in German.

Taylor: I don't know what that means, but it was...(turns his head aside and speaks in such a low voice that I don't get what he says. Sorry.)

They all laugh.

Steven: Thank you very much.

Taylor: Well, actually I have to say we've met her in real life and you don't look anything like her. That's true.

Steven: Thank you very much. I have a question. About your album "3 Car Garage", the early years. You know, when I heard about it, it sounded sort of fact - you know, the "Star Wars Trilogy". (Isaac, Taylor and Zac start to laugh) They first released like the middle part and then the first...the first two...So how did that come about?

Taylor: Well, really, that's the record we recorded before "Middle of Nowhere" and it has the original versions of "MMMBop", "Thinking of You" and "With You in Your Dreams", which are all on "Middle of Nowhere", but... Really, we got a lot of requests because we talked about the two albums we did before "Middle of Nowhere" and then, you know, they kept asking and asking and asking. And because we don't have anything out right now, a new product, we thought, you know, it might be a good idea, you know. And also we're gonna be...we're on tour right now, so we're playing some of the original songs...

Isaac: We're playing our older songs...

Taylor: We thought we'll...the fans will be more familiar with those songs if we decide to play them, so... It's very low-key, unproduced. We spent about 4 hours a song and it's really... I mean, it's for the die-hard fans, for the fans that are really like...(Makes some kind of gesture with clenched fists)

Steven: There's one song on the album called "River" and you've done a video with Weird Al Yankovic. How did you do that and especially it's sort of like a joke on "Titanic", isn't it?

Isaac: Yeah.

Taylor: "Titanic is...it's been such a huge movie and nobody has really made fun of it yet. And this is sort of...it's not a complete like spoof because we didn't mock the...didn't mock the...

Isaac: We didn't mock the song...

Taylor: The song that's off it, the Celine Dion song, we didn't really mock it, but it's more like a spoof. And we got Gloria Stewart, who played the old Rose in the movie to be in the video, so that was really cool. And Weird Al is just very cool to work with, you know and...It's fun, a fun video.

Steven (to Taylor): I have to move your microphone.

(There are two microphones set up on the floor before them, one before Isaac, the other one before Taylor. Steven moves the microphone in front of Taylor a little to the left because there had been some interferences during Taylor's last answer.

Taylor gets kind of a mischievous look on his face, glances quickly at the camera and starts kicking the microphone with his right foot, thus creating some unpleasant noises. Nandini puts her hand on his knee to make him stop. Taylor, Zac and Isaac are laughing.)

Steven: You also had Ringo Starr starring in one of your videos...

Isaac, Zac and Taylor protest simultaneously.

Zac: Well, actually we were starring...

Isaac: We were starring...

Taylor: Well, actually we were starring...

Steven: Oh, you were starring, sorry!

Taylor: We did a small guest-cameo in his latest video "La Di Da", so...

Steven: Yes, I mean...

Isaac: It was great, I mean...Hey, you're meeting a Beatle, you know! It was pretty awesome.

Taylor: Yeah...very nice.

Steven: Is he sort of like an idol for you guys, because...

Taylor: He is Ringo Starr, I mean, he's huge! So I'm ...Who wouldn't want to meet a Beatle, it's amazing to get to...to get to meet somebody like that.

Isaac: Yeah. I mean, we had a mutual friend and that was kind of how we got the opportunity to be in the video. A friend of ours knew him and...

Taylor: ...worked on his record.

Isaac: So like that and so we just had the opportunity to meet him and be in his video. And that was fun. It's very cool.

Steven: So what exactly did you in the video?

Taylor: Well, it was in Times Square and it was pouring rain and...The idea is...The song is kinda like, you know, no matter what happens, it's all just...It's called "La Di Da", so... It is... It was coincidence that it was pouring rain. So we're coming there and there's all these people and basically we just walk past and say "Hi" to him and then, you know, the fans - the crowd - chases us.

Steven: So it's sort of like a turnaround of Beatlemania?

Taylor: Yeah...no...

Isaac: No!

Zac: No!

Taylor: ...that's not how it was meant, it was just for fun. I mean, we just cameo, we just basically walk in and say "Hi" to him and then walk on really.

Nandini: What about your haircut?

Taylor: Our haircut...

Nandini: I heard a story about you want...maybe you want to cut your hair?

Taylor: Erm...well, we've thought about it. I mean, it's just hair, so...

Nandini (sounding incredulous): Just hair???

Taylor: It's actually kind of, I mean, it definitely takes a lot to cut off your hair, because you get used to it. But it's definitely not, it's definitely not something that we're very...that we are totally stuck on. So we just may cut it off, you know.

Nandini: Thank you very much for coming!

Isaac and Zac: Thank you!

Taylor: Thanks!

Nandini: It was very nice to have you here. Good luck for your future!

Isaac: Thanks!

Taylor: Thanks!

Isaac, Zac and Taylor wave into the camera, smiling. They then play the "Weird" video. THE END

As you can see, Taylor does most of the talking. (Not such a great surprise, is it?:-)) Zac was smiling nearly all the time and sometimes laughing at what Taylor was saying. He was very quiet, but he looked very happy. Isaac was listening with his usual patience and his friendly smile to his younger brother. It was quite interesting to watch their faces during those parts of the interview in which Nandini and Steven explained to the German viewers what they were talking about with Hanson. Especially Taylor's face was worth watching. He kept looking at Nandini with kind of an incredulous or at times even slightly horrified expression on his face whenever she was talking. And sometimes it seemed as if he tried to lean away from her as far as possible. I can't explain why. It was quite funny to watch. On the whole Hanson seemed very relaxed and happy and they all smiled a lot.