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An Older, Wiser Hanson
8/16/00 (Wall of Sound) |
Hanson — the trio of brothers Isaac, 19, Taylor, 17, and Zac, 14 — may not invoke the same degree of hysteria today that it did in 1997, when the group's major-label debut,
Middle of
Nowhere, featuring the chart-topping
"MMMBop," was released. But beneath their celebrated blond locks, these three boys still have firm heads on their shoulders.
Which is perhaps more than can be said for the enthusiastic young girls who still greet them — albeit in diminished numbers — at concerts. According to Zac, no amount of screaming teens is going to
over-inflate their egos, "because you realize that if it weren't you, it would be some other band, like the Backstreet Boys. Or whatever other band is popular at the time."
Hanson's success helped jumpstart today's craze for teen artists, but aside from their ages, Zac sees little in common between his band and the 'NSYNCs and Britneys of the world. "I keep wondering why we're even put in the same category as those bands," he confesses. "Hanson writes their own songs, plays their own instruments, don't dance — boy bands are just the opposite."
Taylor concurs that Hanson is completely in charge of its own destiny, and every aspect of its music. "Everything we do is us, whether it's approving a photo or writing something on our Web site. We meet with producers ourselves. You can't let it get too far away from you."
So there was never any pressure to ditch the instruments and learn a bunch of fancy dance steps? "Shut up!" shouts Zac. "We would not have let ourselves go that way. Our label was really supportive in letting us decide for ourselves which direction to go in. They never tried to make us do another
Middle of Nowhere
or
'MMMBop.'"
To date, the trio's latest album,
This Time
Around, has sold just over 300,000 copies in the United States, versus the almost 4 million for
Middle of
Nowhere. But the men of Hanson say the band is in it for the long haul, regardless.
"We're musicians," concludes Taylor. "Why would we stop playing and writing? Someone asked me once how to get into music. I thought that was funny, because it isn't something you choose to do, it really has to be something you have to do. It has to be a passion, something that drives you, like being a writer.
"It's not like in 20 years I'm going to decide to be a politician. We'll keep playing, even if we're doing it in a bar in Des Moines, Iowa."
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