eyewitness
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Eyewitness Accounts
These are the true stories of the people who were chosen to work with Hanson. This is what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.
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Dust
Brothers Aaron Parker:
How did the Dust begin to form? Aaron Parker: Yeah, like Spice Girls! Mike Simpson: Yeah, but Spice Girls are so gimmicky. Aaron Parker: True. There's no soul. Mike Simpson: So, I had heard the demo, sight unseen and I didn't know anything about the band and I was just BLOWN AWAY to hear that it was three teen brothers from Oklahoma . . .and I was also blown away to find out they were white. Aaron Parker: Me too. Mike Simpson: Yeah, and Aaron, you hit it on the head when you said soul. There is definitely some soul there. I immediately had ideas for how to make the demo better. How to make it a hit. Aaron Parker: How much did you change the song from what you first heard to what it is today? Mike Simpson: It was originally more of a mid-tempo song, it was a lot looser, the tempo went up and down. There was a lot of percussion. It was a demo. The song is the song though. They probably could have released the demo and it would have been a hit. Aaron Parker: Ahhh cummon! Mike Simpson: Really! The demo was that compelling. Aaron Parker: Do they really play and sing? Mike Simpson: For the most part. Zac, the youngest was 10 when we recorded. He's the drummer. Taylor [was 12 years old during recording] the middle brother is the main writer and singer. He also plays keyboards. Isaac, who was 14, plays guitar and bass. Aaron Parker: What instrumentation did you add? Mike Simpson: Well, what we did was take Zac and had him play along with one of our drum loops and we incorporated some of his fills and his crashes then we added the percussion and we had our friend, Sheldon, come in and play bass. Then, Taylor's voice began changing and he lost about two notes of his range. Aaron Parker: The Peter Brady syndrome? Mike Simpson: Yeah and it was a shame, because he has such a sweet voice. When he hits those high notes it just makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up . . . after a few weeks, his voice sort of settled back in though and he was able to hit those high notes. Aaron Parker: Do you prefer working with the lesser experienced artists, where they're more moldable? Or, do you enjoy working with someone like the Stones with whom you don't need to spend a great deal of time explaining things to? Mike Simpson: It's all fun. With the Stones it's good, because they understand what we're doing in terms of the computer and the arrangements. They know that the song's not done until it's done. They know it goes through this incredible transformation from like sounding good, to sounding like there is too much stuff going on, to weeding out the unneeded parts. Aaron Parker: And Hanson? Mike Simpson: They had no idea what we were doing and were very intimidated. They thought they were being replaced by machines. You just have to be patient and explain that the song is not getting out of control, that you're recording all this stuff but it's not going to all end up on the song and that everything in the end is going to sound good. Stephen LIroni Another recent writing/production assignment for Lironi has been a pop/R&B album by Hanson entitled Middle Of Nowhere, released on the Mercury label and featuring the talents of three brothers: 16-year-old Isaac on guitar, 13-year-old Taylor on lead vocal and keyboards, and 11-year-old Zachary on drums. Recorded at Scream Studios in Studio City, close to Los Angeles, the album was engineered by Niven Garland on an SSL G Series console with two 24-track Studer analogue machines. Lironi initially heard a demo of two songs -- one of which, 'MMMBop', is now the first single off the album -- and was immediately hooked. "I loved the songs and the vocals were just unbelievable," he says. "[Taylor had] really great phrasing, really soulful, and sounded like a really young Michael Jackson back in the days when he was singing things such as 'ABC'. Remarkable." Not least because these are three white kids from Tulsa, Oklahoma. "It really was a privilege to work with kids who are that talented," Lironi continues. "We did, of course, have to use other people to augment Zachary's drum parts. He played some parts, but when you're 11 you don't have the stamina to hit really precisely. I mean, I was playing at that age and he's a lot better than I was, but while maybe 50 per cent of your snare hits are going to be great you're probably going to miss the rest of them." As for the producer himself, he actually managed to miss all of the drum hits. "Drums are the one thing that I never play on anyone else's tracks," he says. "That was my first instrument and it's just impossible to produce myself playing them. It's hard enough producing myself playing acoustic guitar, because I'm out in the studio, but when it comes to playing drums it's so hard to hear what I'm actually doing, since I'm physically in a different room. With everything else, I can work in the control room.
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Bob
Weir JW: I know you've collaborated with Hanson in the past, which I thought was interesting. BW: Well, I'm not entirely sure it amounts to collaboration. They sat in with Rob and me and Jay Lane a while back and then on this Other Ones tour they came and sat in with us. They're gonna be giants in American music if they continue their trajectory. They have a couple of advantages that almost no one ever gets. They've been playing together since they were tots and they have a sibling vocal blend that's just so tight and so great-sounding that it's just a joy to listen to . They have a great deal of respect for American musical tradition and they ask all the right questions. The last couple times I've met them, you know, they're all over me about this tune and that tune and where did it come from? Who is Rev. Gary Davis That kind of stuff, They remind me of me when I was a kid. JW: That was going to be my next question. Have you sort of taken them under your wing, because they're around the age that you were when you began playing with the Grateful Dead? BW: They don't need anyone to take them under their wing. They're gonna find out what they need to find out because they're curious (laughs). If they want any advice or any direction from me, they've got my number. Gus
Van Sant Bruce LaBruce: Who is your current favourite musical group or performer? Gus Van Sant: Hanson or Bill Frisell, I can't decide which. Bruce LaBruce: What is it like working with Hansen? Gus Van Sant: It's Hanson, Bruce, jeeze. They were fantastic. They are very smart and very successful because of their talent and perseverance, not just because they got lucky. They have been singing for seven years, and one of them, Zac, is only 12. Taylor has the charisma of a young prophet and is in love with people, and Isaac is the comedian, although Zac is pretty funny too. After we got finished putting together their new video, I had to go to Europe and they came in and made some changes to the cut at my invitation, and they made it much better and the possibility of that happening, especially by kids with no film background, is like zero, but they still managed to have the insight and the intelligence to know how to improve the cut. Bruce LaBruce: Is the littlest one really as big a brat as he seems to be in interviews? Gus Van Sant: You know, I was wondering the same thing before I met them, and to my relief he is not at all. Zac is really personable and friendly and not challenging in that kind of way, although in videos of them it looks like he is being trying. He is very gleefully loud, which I don't find distracting, and this prompts his brother Taylor to sometimes say "Zac be quiet' which is cute, but, he's like twelve. The other thing is that interviews, when they are done for six hours a day, seven days a week, is something like torture and the subjects often go nutty. I have personally experienced this many times. And Hanson have had those sorts of weeks where they are interviewed all day long, and they don't exactly put up with too much bullshit because they are perceptive, so when someone asks a stupid question, one of the band members, usually Zac, feels free to call them on it. Bruce LaBruce: Tell a funny anecdote about making your Hansen video. Gus Van Sant: C'mon, Bruce, it's Hanson, with an "o." Or is that the Canadian spelling? My favourite moment was when we had the band walk into the middle of Times Square, Saturday at midnight singing to their playback—their song "Weird"—and walking by regular people on the street. The first take was successful and we tried it again, but just as we started out, there were these partying fraternity brothers who were coming out of a subway stairwell and they recognized the band. They screamed "Hanson!!!," or maybe they screamed "Hansen," and the first A.D. said, "no boys, it's not Hanson" but they screamed, "We're Delta Phi from Oklahoma State. We know Hanson when we see them!!!" and 25 blustery, plastered and loud jock-type guys surrounded the band and started jumping into the shot shoving their fists in the air and screaming into the camera, but from where I was standing all I saw was a complete mob scene moving its way across Broadway. I began running toward the crowd with newspaper headlines flashing behind my eyes: "Hanson Ripped Apart by Drunk Oklahoma Fraternity Brothers." But when I got to them, the band was skipping away from the mob laughing and exclaiming, "Wow!! Male energy!!"' ________________
Tamra
Davis Tamra just finished a video with the Hanson Brothers, a group of three brothers aged 11, 13, and 16. They're all cute as a button and the video is charming—they take taxis and jump on the moon. Tamra took the job because she wanted to practice working with young kids. The record company warned her that the boys were picky and difficult, but after working with Tamra, they don't want anyone but her to do their videos. She tells me she let them come up with ideas and have a lot of say in the video—she wanted them to ride bikes, but the Hanson Brothers thought it would make them look too young so they compromised with some killer shots of the kids rollerblading. Tamra talks about the responsibility of working with kids. It's weird to work with young boys you would have had a crush on as a little girl.
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