Today Show - August 1/97

Interviewer: I guess the first thing we should say is congratulations - your success is incredible, has it surprised yourselves?

Isaac: I think it's definitely surprised us, yeah, very much.
Zac: Very much so
Taylor: Definitely surprised us, I mean, you can't expect this at all so it's definitely exceeded any of our expectations by far
Isaac: Yeah...
Taylor: So I mean what's happened so far has been just... people say is it a dream, and it is, it's only a dream

Interviewer: When did you realise this singing business could turn into a career?

Zac: Umm you know what? I don't think we did.
Taylor: Yeah I don't think we ever really thought about it that way - I think you just knew you loved doing music and that was... it was part of you and whether you did it on a large scale or not, it was gonna be a part of you... either way.

Interviewer: Whilst your parents have been supportive, were they wary of the downside of fame and fortune in this perilous music business?

Isaac: Our parents have always been very supportive of us and you know have always been behind us and everything... they say, "Guys, if you wanna stop doing this, you stop doing this, and if you wanna keep going, we're gonna be completely behind you." And it's always been that way... and... you know, we're doing what we love to do. I mean, if you can do something that you love to do, and do it as a career, why not do it, so that...
Taylor: Yeah, I mean, our parents they were with us when we were doing it locally - it's not like all of a sudden our parents came in as it started happening and go - "Yeah, these are our kids - here!" - they were there the entire time and have always been there... it's kinda... I mean, our family goes with us everywhere we go and it's just... it's what we do.

Interviewer: Isaac, most 16 year olds probably don't get on so well with their 11 year old brother - "It's just some young kid!" ...

Isaac: Well I think it definitely has to do with how we've home schooled all our lives and really haven't had that... I guess grade difference... so in a lot of ways we think of each other as peers more than a different age...
Taylor: Or because you're around each other a lot, you just... you're always hanging out and you do stuff together. We all sing together, we like the same music, I mean... you don't even think about it, you just do it.

Interviewer: Take us back a few years guys, when did it start?

Taylor: Isaac was in 3rd grade, we were in South America because of our Dad's job and...
Isaac: We lived in Ecuador, Venezuela and Trinidad.
Taylor: Yeah and over a period of a year we listened to 50s and 60s tapes... it was a tape from 1958, and we had a small keyboard and Ike learned a few chords, and later we started doing classical piano, but he started...
Isaac: Yeah I started playing chords and writing songs...
Taylor: ...and writing songs, and then we would all sing the 50s and 60s rock 'n roll, because that was what we heard - no radio to listen to - and that was what stuck in our heads and we would just sing it together... and it was just obvious that that was in us.

Interviewer: The song that's done it for you right around the world is MMMBop - what the dickens is an MMMBop??

Taylor: Umm, some people ask us if it's a word actually...
Zac: What about...
Taylor: ...people say, "Is MMMBop a word?", but no...
Zac: No!
Isaac: It's kinda something that we just made up.
Taylor: Yeah umm in the song it's like a frame of time - "In a mmmbop they're gone, in a mmmbop they're not there" - like a moment or an instant or a second... and it says you have so many relationships in this life only one or two will last, and it's like saying hold on to the friends who are really gonna stick around.

Interviewer: Gimme a quick demo...
[Hanson sing MMMBop Acapella, commercial break, interview end]

(c) Today Show, 1997