HANSON OUT OF NOWHERE...THE HANSON STORY

ALL IT TOOK WAS AN MMMBOP...
Blimey! One mmminute, nobody had heard of Hanson; the next, the whole world was goin' mmmad for 'em! Did the three brothers really bop from the middle of nowhere to number one overnight? Course not. The Hanson plan for world domination was years in the making...

MIDDLE OF AMERICA
The Hanson story begins with mom and pop Hanson, Diana and Walker. Mr and Mrs Hanson were a nice couple living in a nice town - Tulsa, Oklahoma, slap-bang in the middle of the USA. But on November 17th, 1980, their lives changed. On that day, Clarke Isaac Hanson was born. Just over two years later, on March 14th, 1983, 'ickle Ike was introduced to a blue-eyed baby bro, christened Jordan Taylor. And on October 22nd, 1985, Zachary Walker, the third Hanson boy put in a typically noisy appearance! All the brothers had to do now was learn to sing (oh, and walk,
of course).

SINGING START
"There was always singing and music around the house," Isaac recalls. In fact, both Hanson parents were members of a well-known gospel group, so no one was surprised when the boys pitched straight into three-part harmonies. As Isaac says, "It was the most natural thing in the world for us to sing together."

JUNGLE BREAK
Not every band needs to spend time in the Jungle, but that's where Ike, Tay and Zac ended up. When Walker's job took him to South America and the Caribbean for 12 months, the family decided to stay together, taking the boys out of school, with Diana as their teacher. This sense of adventure and family unity would become invaluable to their musical career. They also took some important luggage with them. "Before we left, we bought a bunch of tapes of old '50s and '6os rock 'n' roll," Isaac later explained. "We had no radio to listen to and it was just coincidence that
we picked that particular style to take with us. But it was very inspirational." It was these songs which the public would first hear Hanson sing.

THE HANSON BROTHERS
Back in Tulsa, the boys didn't stop singing, and once they had ran out of old tunes, they started making up their own. "We didn't even think about it," Taylor explained. "It just happened." Soon the boys had begun taking piano lessons and by the time he was in third grade (aged nine!) Isaac had scribbled his first proper lyrics - a song called Rain Falling Down. In 1992, they decided to take their show on the road. They called themselves "The Hanson Brothers" and sang oldies (plus the odd original) to anyone who'd listen. By 1995, they had recorded a CD called Boomerang which
they sold at concerts all over the States. However, the brothers weren't satisfied with what they were doing. "We were white kids doing R'n'B and it didn't exactly work," Isaac explains. There
was no choice but to become a proper pop band!

BANG, PLONK AND STRUM
The problem was, even if they'd had instruments (which they didn't) they wouldn't have been able to play them! Still, the boys weren't going to let details hold them back, so Taylor borrowed a keyboard, Ike bought a second-hand guitar and Zac found a very old drum kit in the attic! "In the beginning we weren't very good at our instruments," Zac later admitted. "We're pretty much self-taught, and when we started playing we just did simple stuff, bang, bang, bang."

SHOW TIME
As soon as the boys had got past the 'bang, bang, bang' stage, they were back gigging hard, but it took hours of practice, 100(!) original Hanson songs, several dodgy experiments and over 250 concerts before they were really ready! In early 1996, the brothers recorded a second independent album, this time with Ike, Tay and Zac singing and playing original Hanson numbers, including a catchy little title track! Mmmbop, the album, was released in May 1996 and just one month later the teen sensations had been snapped up by a major record label. Hansonmania was about to hit planet pop...

Weird fact - The Hanson Brothers would dress exactly alike on stage. The first 'look' was jeans, demin jackets, crew cuts and sunglasses.

Weird fact - After gigs at local schools, the boys would take orders for their CD. A week later, Ike, Taylor and Zac would deliver copies of the Boomerang album personally!

Weird fact - In return for playing gigs at Tulsa's Big Splash Water Park, the whole Hanson family (which also includes youngsters Jessica, Avery, Mac and now baby Zoe) were given season tickets!

IN THEIR OWN WORDS!

ZAC

On girlfriends... "Girlfriends would see us about one minute a year!"

On hair... "Hair is hair."

On success... "It's not important in our eyes. It doesn't change you in the slightest. I'm enjoying life now as much as I enjoyed life before."

On Younger Hansons... "We're willing to let them in the band. We've asked them before. But I think they really want to do their own thing."

On Keith Prodigy... "Now there's someone who was rejected as a child!"

On aliens... "There was no alien abduction. I've never had a close encounter. But who knows? A lot of weird things go on. Maybe I could have been an alien in a past life?"

ISAAC

On Star signs... "People ask us our astrological signs and we're like, 'Who cares?' We're not superstitious. We don't believe that if you walk under a ladder anything bad will happen."

On Zac and Taylor... "It's really great. We all get along really well. It's not like we're just brothers. It's like we're best friends."

On inspiration... "Inspiration is from everyday life. We look around and see what's going on, and that's what makes into our songs."

On success... "It's just funny how people respond to it. All these screaming girls and guys going crazy... You just have to have fun with it. It's not about you. It's about the position you're in."

On dating... "I haven't dated yet, but I'm looking forward to that experience."

On the future... "It could all finish as soon as it's started. But whatever happens, we'll carry on playing music. because that's what we've always done."

TAYLOR

On fans... "They're not screaming at you, they're screaming at the fact that you're in a band and they hear you on the radio and see you on the TV. It's not like your special."

On crazy rumors... "There's a rumor going round that's Zac's dead. We were going to spread a rumor that he had died and that we had covered it up. Just to see what would happen."

On love songs... "We were writing songs about our girlfriends leaving us before we even cared if our girlfriends left us!"

On Girlfriends... "We're not looking for, nor do we have, girlfriends. We're travelling a lot, so it would make it kind of hard to have a girlfriend."

On girlfriends (part 2)... "Fans don't like it. It's pretty weird. You have a fan trying to get your autograph, and then you tell her you have a girlfriend, and it's like, 'Oh, bummer!'"

On travel... "It's the best part of what we are doing. Most people don't get to see what we have in their entire lifetime. We're lucky."

On Talent... "I can't think of us as having a god-given talent. It's not like we're these child geniuses who woke up one morning suddenly able to write good songs."

On Zac and Isaac... "We're best friends. We don't get in each other's hair."

On dating Fans... "Not if she was obsessed, but if she was nice, yeah."

On having fun... "We like to rollerblade, and play speed hockey and basketball. Plus Zac and I both draw."

On being the lead singer... "Part of what Hanson is, is that there's not just one guy who sings. Having three voices is what makes us Hanson."

On the Future... "We'd like to produce music and movies, whatever inspires us. We might consider doing music for other artists. But obviously, we're always going to sing."

HEADING FOR HOLLYWOOD
No sooner had Hanson scribbled on the dotted line then they whisked off to a flashy Los Angeles recording studio. Their record company were keen for the brothers to mix it up with established songwriters and hip producers, the process Isaac found, "weird at first, just learning to work with other people." But by the end Ike would admit, "we learned a lot." They spent the first five months recording in LA where the whole family lived in a luxury home overlooking the famous 'Hollywood' sign! Although they loved LA, after five months Taylor would confess "we were definitely to come home to Tulsa." This was a feeling all three brothers would have to
get used to.

BREAKING DOWN
One problem with recording was that Hanson were still growing up - literally! Taylor's voice begun to break right in the middle of making to album! Of course, Tay wouldn't let this slow him down. "If you listen closely, you'll hear my voice is about four notes lower at the end of the
album than at the beginning!" In fact, by the time Hanson were playing live, Taylor was forced to sing Mmmbop in a lower key than the single version!

HANSONMANIA HITS HOME
The precise moment Hanson knew things had changed forever was in Paramus Park Mall, New Jersey. By this time, Mmmbop was on the radio and Hanson hoped to promote the upcoming single by playing a little acoustic set for a few hundred fans. Instead, 6,000 screaming girls stormed the mall and created a near-riot! Hanson needed bodyguards just to reach the stage and
the screams were so loud that the performance had to be abandoned after only ten minutes! "In that situation," Taylor said later, "you're not nervous about singing in front of everyone - you're nervous for your life!"

HANSON HIT THE HITS
Meanwhile, a promo of Mmmbop had smuggled its way into the Smash Hits office, buried deep in the usual bumper post bag. It took just one play for Gav the editor to literally stop the press and squeeze the good news into the next issue. The headline simply said "We love Hanson!" and promised that Mmmbop "could just be the 'best single in the world!'" In their first UK interview, Taylor modestly told Smash Hits, "We're totally chuffed you like us! We haven't sold a record here yet."

WORD GETS OUT
But all that soon changed! Mmmbop gate crashed the top of the UK charts on June 1, the same week it topped the chart in America. And it didn't stop there. Mmmbop went on to reach number one in 25 countries! Soon, Middle Of Nowhere was tracking Mmmbop's sky-rocket flight path, topping album charts all over the world. And just as they were selling records, Hanson were
breaking others - they became the youngest act to go platinum in the UK (ie. they sold oodles!), the youngest act to have a number UK album and the first debut act to have a number one single on both sides of the Atlantic at the same time!

LIVING WITH FAME
Since the summer of 1997, life for Hanson has been a whirl of press interviews, promotional duties and TV appearances. Sometimes it can get a bit much - "We're fed up with dumb questions!" They told Smash Hits recently -but the brothers have hardly complained. On the contrary, during one interview Taylor was so anxious to prove Hanson do get time alone that
he hid behind his chair! And of course, there's still loads of fun to be had! Hanson got the opportunity to record some of their favorite seasonal songs for their Christmas album, Snowed In, and then there was the small matter of winning Best New Band and Best Single awards at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party 1997!

HERE TO STAY
Hanson's future is ultra-bright! Their debut US tour begins in April and, fingers crossed, they'll bring the show to the UK later this year. Then there are side projects - rumors of a TV series pop up all the time, and Isaac has expressed interest in doing a movie. Whatever happens, Hanson
will always make music together. After all, as Zac puts it, "We can't break up. We're brothers!"