PCM's Emily had the chance to fulfill a childhood dream by speaking with Zac Hanson. He and his brothers Taylor and Isaac are about to go on tour this fall and will be releasing their eighth studio album in the spring!

Q: So how are you today?
Zac: Doing pretty good, can't complain. Didn't crash or anything while I drove to the office, so it's all good.

Q. Well, that's always a good thing! So, you are about to embark on a tour. Can you give us a few details about it?
Z. Sure, well it's called the "Use Your Sole" tour. With this tour, we're going out with a few different bands - HelloGoodbye is one of them, also a couple openers, Steel Train and a band called Sherwood. But one of the things about this tour - and the reason it's called "Use Your Sole" - is Tom's Shoes is getting involved again with this tour, because it's a continuation of our Walk campaign that we've tried to encourage and go out there and talk to our fans and anybody who will listen about, which is where we - basically before every show, we take a one-mile barefoot walk to talk to people about what's going on with AIDS, particularly in Africa, and the issues that surround that: children getting an education, access to medication, clean water, and shoes - and we're trying to encourage our fans, and like I said anybody who's there, that this is a unique time for us as a generation, and that we have tools to fight this problem that no one's ever had before, and that we have an opportunity to live up to our potential and really take on a disease that's going to change the world whether we do anything about it or not, and that we want to have a role in what it does - we want to stop the horrific effects of AIDS in whatever way we can and really give a whole generation and a continent of people the opportunity to...live.

Q. I have heard about the Barefoot Walk - how long have you been doing it?
Z. We've been doing the Barefoot Walk for a couple years now. We've personally done a couple - I guess its about 150 of them or something like that, and one of the things we've done is really ask people to host their own walk, and all over the ocuntry and the world there have been walks hosted by people who said, "Yeah, I'm willing to organize a walk and get my friends, or my church, or my high school, or my college, or my rotary club, to come out and walk and help raise money and talk to them about why I'm passionate about doing this and maybe get a few more people excited and realizing that this is an issue they should care about."

Q. That's really great! Also with this tour, I heard something about an EP that you'll be releasing and selling at shows?
Z. Yeah, one of these things that we're doing with this tour is releasing something called the Stand up, Stand Up EP, and basically what it is is four acoustic performances of brand new songs off the new record that we just finished recording, which will come out in spring 2010, and there's one full electric song from the new record, called "World on Fire." The message of the song really fits more with the tour and the walks, and also the sound of the song I think is a much better bridge from our last album. There were lots of reasons we felt like releasing the one electric song was a good thing to do, it was the right time, and so that EP will be available on our tour, so people can pick it up and get a vibe of what the new record sounds like.

Q. So what can fans expect to hear with this new record?
Z. I think as usual, its really a continuation of Hanson. We don't try to sound like anything, we just try to make music we enjoy and are passionate about. I mean, it definitely sounds like Hanson, but it's a continuation forward, like every record has been. I think we let loose a little more with this record - there's kind of a sense of "We've done it, we've survived, we've been around, this is record number five, we're way past a decade of being a band." So I think there's a certain sense of release in the message and sound of this record that's different from other albums. I also think it's a little more of a pop record than our last record. The Walk had a little more guitars and was a little rougher around the edges, the way we recorded it. This record, because a lot of it was either written or started on tour, it's a lot more piano-driven as a whole, so I think that kind of affects the whole sound of the album.

Q. So it's a little bit of a different sound, but still sounds like you, is what you're saying?
Z. I think every record evolves and pulls from new - you have a new tendency to write songs like this or like that, so I guess what I'm saying is this record, like all our records, has continued to do that. It doesn't sound like The Walk or Middle of Nowhere or This Time Around or Underneath - it sounds like a new iteration of what Hanson is.

Q. What do you think affects that kind of evolution? Do you think it's getting older, different events in your life - what affects that for you?
Z. I think it's probably all those things. Obviously when writing a song you're pulling from feelings and emotions, and sometimes real-life events, and sometimes made up things that you want to write about. But I think that if you have kids, get married, reach some milestone in your life or career - those things are gonna affect your music, they're gonna affect the things you write or the way you write or add something to what you're writing. Mostly I think this record sounds the way it does because we're really happy to be what we are, that we feel, like I said, we've made it through a lot as a band, we've been doing it now for quite a few years. I think you can tell that we're happy to still be doing it, that we're proud of what we've accomplished but still excited for what we haven't done yet.

Q. A while ago you moved from a major label to your very own indie label, so how would you say that has affected your career and the way you write music?
Z. We formed 3CG records, which is a record label that we're on - I guess it was '04 when we created the label, and obviously it affects things in a huge way. For us, we're really happy to be here and feel like we've made the right decisions, partly from looking at our friends in the music business and seeing how many are now leading labels and doing it themselves and trying to form their own lables, or just completely unsatisfied and stuck in a rut with being on a major label. That has made us feel good about that decision, but also I think we've always been, even from when I was 10 and 11, really involved in every decision that was made about our career.

There's a reason why there was never Hanson Barbie Dolls or lunch boxes and things like that. We never wanted to do that, we never felt that represented our music very well. So I think being the label, it's not easier, but there's one middle man removed. When you're on a major label, you're trying to manage what people are doing and what people are saying about you and your music, and you're going, "Ok, what's the radio guy doing, what's the press person doing, make sure they don't say the wrong thing or go to the wrong magazine or put us in the wrong place as a band." Whereas now, because we're the label, those people are directly accountable to us, so it makes that easier. But it also sometimes means that you have one less person on your team, but we're happy to have that extra workload if it means it can be done right and in a way that we feel represents us best and gives us the most flexibilty to do new things.

Q. I do have to say, though - going back to the lunchbox thing - that I remember a time when there was a lot of Hanson merchandise available.
Z. Yeah, you're probably right, but we never really did - we did things like T-shirts and posters, but that's the type of stuff all bands do. Anything like Hanson binders and whatever, those all tended to be done by people who were breaking copyright laws and doing unofficial Hanson merchandise, not stuff we really supported.

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