ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let's talk about a struggle at home: Radio play. I'm frustrated for you guys.
Taylor: We're not even going to radio with a single. We haven't even sent a CD to radio.... Regardless of Eliot Spitzer [the governor of New York, who prosecuted labels for the practice of payola when he was the state's Attorney General] and the good stuff that's going on on radio, money buys radio, and we want to spend our money in other places.
Isaac: I really don't think ''MMMBop'' would be a hit today. I don't think that pop radio would take a chance on it. One of the first people that added the record was somewhere like Appleton, Wisconsin. Appleton, Wisconsin can't add a record on their own. It's a slight generalization, but for all intents and purposes, radio stations have so little autonomy that they can't really say, ''You know what, I like that record. I'm gonna kind of give it a fair shot.'' There's very little risk being taken.
So how are you promoting the record? I saw the Song for You Sweepstakes on your website. [Fans put a Hanson banner on their personal websites, and they're entered into the contest every time someone clicks on it. Hanson will write a song for the randomly selected winner.] How did that come about?
Zac: We wanted to do something that no band would ever do. At first, it was like a stupid idea. And then we just went, actually, it's kinda genius. What fan wouldn't want their favorite band to write a song about them? That's like the ultimate.
Isaac: Not to mention that we would push ourselves really hard to make it cool.
Zac: It's the type of thing that a lot of people might look at and go, ''Wow, that's totally uncool.'' And the rest of the people are gonna go, ''Wow, that's the coolest thing ever.'' We've always been a band that has been kind of polarizing. I've never met people who are like, ''Hanson? Oh yeah, I'm kind of a fan.'' I guess we're not afraid to do things that people might respond good or bad to.
You're also filming a pilot for a reality show that would follow you on the road, right?
Taylor: We'd call it a docuseries. We want people to really get (1) what artists really do and (2) what it is we actually really do. When we talk about all this stuff, and Zac's like, ''People really report to us,'' that is what we do. What we're interested in is actually showing reality.
Isaac: The problem is most ''docuseries'' or ''reality'' production companies don't really want reality. They want sensationalized trainwrecks.
Taylor: Which is why we've leaned away from doing those. We've been asked to do a lot of things we would have never been interested in doing.
Isaac: We're used to turning stuff like that down.
What's the worst thing you've ever been offered?
Isaac: We were asked to open for Britney Spears on her Hawaiian TV special back in 2000, during our second record [This Time Around]. Our label was like, ''Are you nuts?'' And we're like, ''No. Here's the deal: We're a band. And people keep going, 'Aren't you guys teen pop?' And we're going, 'No. We're young kids in a band. It just so happens that we like to write pop songs. But we're not the same as 'N Sync, Backstreet, and Britney.' And we keep having to say that in every single interview, and it hurts our brains. So we're not gonna cause more brain damage for ourselves, and potential career damage, by standing next to Britney.'' Not that there aren't tons of Britney fans, it's just we were always making decisions based on career, not based on Will this sell us more records this week? Maybe it would've been a really good thing for our record, but I'm not so sure in the long run we would've been happy about it. I feel pretty confident that that was the right choice.
Taylor: Our whole kind of band value system is still the same. We were asked to do a lot of things that people around us were like, ''Guys, it's called money. Do you hate it?''
Zac: ''Guys, it's called integrity. Do you know what it is?''
Taylor: ''Underwear, lunchboxes, thermoses, dolls — perfect. Go!'' We're like... ''No.''
Is there anything you did do back then that you wish you hadn't?
Zac: I wore some oddly colored pants that probably didn't do us any good. You can't give someone of that age that much authority over what they wear.
When I interviewed Carson Daly back around the time you guys first broke, he told me that you, Zac, had gotten restless during an on-camera chat and accidentally kneed him in the nuts. Any memorable talk show appearances recently?
Taylor: It's funny, Carson needs a knee in the nuts from a few people. He was a really nice guy back then, but now he's just a tool, sorry for saying. TO EW.
Zac: That's on the record!
Taylor: [Pulls his chair closer] Do you think that you could start that feud for us? We have a bone to pick with Carson, not for us personally, but for the friends of ours, like Samaire Armstrong [who starred in their 2004 ''Penny & Me'' video] and Frankie Muniz [whom Zac taught how to play the drums], that he's dissed when they have stepped out to support us.
Isaac: No. The problem is, he's not funny. He's trying to be funny and —
Taylor: No, the problem is he has the power to do the right stuff, and he's a guy who knows what's going down, but.... Like when Ashlee Simpson got caught [lip-synching on SNL], he made the point of like going on all these channels talking about how it wasn't her fault and she didn't really have tracks. He was hosting the [Radio Music Awards], which she was featured on, and the network was like, We need a talking head, so he covered it up. It's like, Dude, say what happened. [A representative for Carson Daly declined to comment.]
Taylor: He's also mean-spirited, I think. But how did we start talking about him?
Zac: I kneed him in the nuts, I think.
Taylor: Oh, some great host-attacking. Zac has some issue —
Zac: My wife, Kate, complains that I don't know my own body size.
Isaac: Actually, say strength.
Yes, that could be taken out of context.
Zac: She's like, ''Honey, half the time you give me a hug it hurts.'' ''I won't dance with you.''
Taylor: You've actually taken out a few people.
Zac: I took Rob Schneider out with a clipboard by accident. I pushed Ashton Kutcher off a stage by accident.
Isaac: You kneed Carson Daly in the nuts by accident.
Zac: I kneed Carson Daly in the nuts by accident... I still think I'm like this big, honestly. I still think I weigh like a 110 pounds, and I'm 4'8''.
