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A NEW
HANSON
Underneath it all,
there's more to the trio than the late 90s hit "Mmmbop!"
Published in PRESS
Magazine
June 2004
Back in 1994, a
three-piece pop rock band composed of three teeny-bopper brothers came out of
the middle of nowhere and took the pop scene by storm with a high-energy power
bop sound whose catchy chorus began with an unintelligible “word” made of a
weird combination of five consonants and one vowel: MMMBop!
Now, more than a decade
later, say “MMMBop” and it makes complete sense. No, it didn’t end up in the
Webster’s dictionary as a new addition to the English language, but it did put
Hanson on the map and created a music phenomenon that has exploded all over the
world and across age limits, proving that brilliant records can come from just
about anywhere.
Continuing to reinvent
themselves and redefine their music, Hanson returns to the mainstream music
scene, this time with a new look, a new label and a new album, proving once
again that they are musically talented beyond their years.
Yes, we know. While you may
not want to admit that you own Hanson's first release, Middle of Nowhere,
their new album, Underneath is one that you would most likely want to
tell your friends about. Believe it or not, Hanson is no longer your typical boy
band. Well past the “MMMBop” days, the fraternal trio have cut off their
trademark golden locks. Guitarist Isaac, now 22, is sporting a mohawk.
Singer/keyboard player Taylor, the middle brother, is a husband and father at
the age of 20. And the youngest, drummer Zac, who was just 11 yrs. old when
“MMMBop” became a pop phenomenon, is now a mature young man at the age of 18.
Their music, however, while remaining to be the same great songs whose devotion
to melody is as strong as ever, show off, at the same time, an ever-growing
maturity in the band's songwriting.
Band of Brothers from the
Middle of Nowhere
Born and raised in Tulsa,
Oklahoma, the boys developed an obsessive love for the Time/Life compilation
records covering the years 1957-1969 at an early age. It’s no surprise then,
that Hanson’s sound, which is a fusion of '70s bubblegum pop and peach-fuzz rock
is conceived from a long list of influences that encompass both the great
musicians of the past as well as present, as enumerated by Isaac when asked
about whom he thinks the band hails its musical influences from. “Definitely
Chuck Berry, the Beatles, ah…Billy Joel, um… ah… gosh, Beach Boys,” he says
slowly, referring to the '50's and early '60's rock and roll music they grew up
with. “Ah, let’s see… gosh…ah… things like, some Sam and Dave, we really like
some of the old soul music of Sam and Dave, and the Isaac Brothers. Uh, and, and
more modern stuff that I really like that I think is just— is just really good
music,” he says, before naming the present-day artists. “People like Coldplay,
Counting Crows, or, ah… there’s a band from the UK called um, Muse, they’re
really good. Y’know, you’re always being inspired by, ah, by different music,”
he explains. “Ah, new things that you discover, new music that you find to
listen to, and then, ah, and then of course, music that inspired you in the
first place, like, Billy Joel and Chuck Berry.”
Inspired by what they heard
and driven to come up with their own sound, it didn’t take much for the trio to
completely immerse themselves in music. Ask Isaac Hanson how he got into the
music business and he simply replies, “I just got into it by just loving music.”
As for getting the band’s music out there, he says, “We made it happen, whatever
it took, we were gonna do it.”
And it did happen. After all,
rare talent, as they say, never goes unnoticed.
In 1991, brothers Isaac,
Taylor and Zachary Hanson started writing music and performing together at the
ages of 11, 9 and 6. Shortly thereafter, in 1994 they produced their first
independent album, Boomerang, which consisted of a mixture of cover
versions and original material, such as “Boomerang” and “Rain,” the first song
they wrote together. Initially going by the name The Hanson Brothers before
calling themselves Hanson, as a result of people often mistaking them for The
Handsome Brothers, Hanson performed a cappella in and around their hometown of
Tulsa, singing 50s and 60s rock and roll, as well as original songs to anyone
who would listen, while selling their album themselves at shows.
Of
course, it helps a lot that they all share the same blood and live under the
same roof. “I think being brothers has made it a lot easier for us to be able to
uh, start at such a young age,” starts Isaac, when asked how he thinks their
being brothers affect their music in any way. “It made it possible for us to,
ah, to work together when we were young kids, and ah, continuing to evolve to
now, I think it is own-made music easier and better because we worked together
so much.” Of course, you can’t have the sweet without the sour. “It’s hard at
times, there’s always a struggle here,’ he explains matter-of-factly. “There are
moments when we get on each other’s nerves.”
As
with everything, it comes with its usual set of ups and downs. “Well, the good
thing is, we, ah, we know each other really well, and ah, because of that, we
work very well together,” says Isaac. “But also, ah, it’s hard for the
same reason,” he continues. “We, um, we know each other very well, so, because
of that, certain things get on each other’s, uh, on our nerves, because we’ve
worked so long together, so much together, that certain things become, shall we
say, pet peeves. Or things that annoy you more easily.”
At
the end of the day, though, “We definitely love what we do, and because we love
music and what we do so much, it keeps us together,” says Isaac.
 Hanson
Bops their Way Into Stardom
In
1995, the fraternal trio had picked up instruments and moved from being a vocal
harmony group to a pop-rock band and began working on their second independent
album with Taylor on keyboards, Isaac on guitar and Zachary on drums. An album
they wrote and produced entirely by themselves, it included the first version of
the smash hit “MMMBop,” the very song that attracted the attention of major
record company Mercury executive Steve Greenberg who heard them at a county fair
in Kansas in the fall of 1996. Immediately signing the trio up, Hanson went to
Los Angeles and worked on an album, this time on a much larger budget, which
included songs co-written with established songwriters such as Desmond Child,
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Released in May of the following year, their
youthful, exuberant, and positively joyous label debut, Middle of Nowhere,
contained the infectious, international smash single “MMMBop,” the song that won
the brothers both critical and mainstream success as they gained a crucial
demographic of fans in 25 different countries where it topped the charts for
weeks, as well as three 1998 Grammy nominations for the band, including Record
of the Year, Best New Artist and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With
Vocals. Middle of Nowhere quickly followed and sold eight million CDs
worldwide, as it soared to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200 and was named by
Rolling Stone as one of its "Essential Albums of the '90s."
Following the success of
Middle of nowhere, Hanson released their second studio album, the
introspective This Time Around, accompanied by a single, “If Only,” in
2000, which included collaborations with Johnny Lang and John Popper. While it
only sold over a million copies worldwide as opposed to the previous album’s
success, This Time Around did, however, earn the band even more respect
in critical circles. And while the record climbed into the Billboard Top 20, a
better indication of the group's popularity can be seen in the fact that it went
to #3 on the Top Internet Album chart, a result of Hanson’s huge Internet fan
base that hailed from an online fan club which developed into one of the largest
such sites in music history as a result of the band going with the flow back in
1992 when software companies began to pioneer sound on the Internet.
Underneath
In April this year, Hanson
released their long-awaited third studio album. Entitled Underneath, and
released on the boys' own, self-funded 3CG Records, the 14-track album
represents the group's most accomplished effort yet as it debuted at #1 on
Billboard's Independent Albums Chart and at #25 on Billboard's Top 200 chart, as
well as having sold over 37K in its first week, making it one of the most
successful selling self-released albums of all time. On the other hand, the
commercial single from the album, "Penny and Me" debuted at #2 on the Billboard
Top 30 Singles Sales Chart last month and remains in the top 10 after 5 weeks.
“Well, Underneath took
four years to, ah, to come out between, the last time we had an album out was
2000,” says Isaac. “We’re very proud of this record. I think it shows a lot of
who we are as a band very, very well. I think it’s um, I think it’s going to be
a surprising experience for people who are not familiar with Hanson, and for
fans of the band, I think it will also be a positive change. The music is always
changing and, (in) this record (it) has continued to evolve.”
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