Planet Pop? Planet Mmmbop more like it! It's all long hair, top tunes and big smiles as Smash Hits spends an interstellar afternoon with rising stars Zac, Taylor and Isaac, aka Hanson!

Being the biggest and best new pop band on the planet, topping the charts throughout the world with fame, fortune, adulation and loadsa fans beckoning, Hanson should be the happiest people in the world. Except that Zac is sitting, his face is all forlom and sad. " I don't tend to get girls as fans", he sighs, bottom lip is sticking out. "I just get all the young guys and weirdos." Hanson are talking about girls, one of their favourite topics and it seems a certain glum looking 11-year-old is being left out of the conversation. But at this point of potential crisis, when it seems like the youngest, smiliest third of pop's future is being seriously upset, Taylor hits him forcefully on the head with a copy of Smash Hits and announces: "Now that's not true, is it?" "OK", says Zac, and a huge infectious grin spreads across his face at long last. "I guess I get a few girl fans." And Zac, Isaac and Taylor all start to laugh. Phew! Hanson are the happiest people in the world. Not only is their single MMMBop the cheeriest, brighest, shiniest pop song ever but even more than that, spending an afternoon in the lads' company is about as much fun you can possibly handle fully clothed! "Being serious is so boring," Taylor says. "Anyone can act like Oasis, what's the point? You can do that anytime, in any job. We love music, it's what we love to do. So we like having fun." "We goof off," Zac confesses. "We like to, say, climb up on a roof and drop water bombs on people. Stuff like that!" During the Hits photo shoot 'goofing off' is an all to regular occurence. Be it Zac's daft robotic dancing, their tendency to break into song or the high spirits with which they approach even the most boring tasks. They love 'goofing', but it's only one side of Hanson. "We also take our music seriously, we goof off, but we're certainly not goof balls," he nods firmly. Hanson may be fun, young, good looking and poptastic but they are also real, talanted musicians. Hanson are as they describe themselves: "Brothers who write, sing and play everything." Isaac wrote his first song when he was eight years old. Zac started playing gigs with his big brothers when he was only six. "We've been listening to and playing music since we were born," Isaac explains as if being in bands since nappies is the most normal thing on earth. "But it all started properly about five years ago," he says. "We started performing and doing some gigs. Originally we were doing á capella music and clicking our fingers - but for the last couple of years we've all had instruments. There were some drums in the attic that dad got down for Zac and within a week we were playing live!" Zac: "I guess I'm a natural drummer, although at the beginning I wasn't doing much. And on top of being the best pre-teen drummer in the world, Zac also writes songs. He wrote Man from Milwaukee, the bonus track on their brill album Middle Of Nowhere. So are Hanson the new Jackson five, the group that saw 'King Of Pop' Michael Jackson shoot to fame at a similar young age? Not according to Taylor. "There's not five of us. It was Michael and four brothers", he points out. "We're all the same. We all make the music." 'Cos the Hanson lads have private tutors instead of going to school, they get loadsa time to rehearse their top tunes. "We've been able to practise rather than being stuck up with school and all that," Taylor says. "It's really nice because you can focus on the subjects you really like and are interested in." The brothers had an history lesson this moring before meeting the Hits. The lesson involved going around in the London Dungeons and the Tower Of London History Ride. "We've been experiencing new people and new cultures," Isaac explains. "How many US history teachers would die to be able to send their class to London!" But, if it's cool missing school, Zac adds that bed-time hasn't got any later just because they're pop stars. "It's worse 'cos we have to get up early to go and work, we were up six this morning so we do get told to go to bed early." All the Hanson family are over in London. There's mum and dad, as well as sisters Jessica (8) and Avery (6) and yet another Hanson bro, Mackie (3). So are their younger family a Hanson Jnr, another pop band only years away? Taylor shrugs. "I don't know, Maxi has got the rhythm - he could play drums." And he's three years old? "Yeah!" Next time Hanson come over they'll be much bigger stars and they'll be on their own, without the full Hanson clan. "We can't afford to to fly everyone everywhere 'cos there's too many of us," says Taylor, insisting that they wouldn't be lost without mum and dad: "It usually ends up with Zac looking after us!" Zac adds: "I guess I need looking after sometimes. We look after each other, but I don't need baby sitting. I don't think of those two as older than me, I think they're 11 as well. To Tay we're all 14 and to Ike we're all 16, I guess." "It's great to be good friends with your brothers," Taylor adds smiling. "Then you've got friends for life." Zac looks at the smiling Taylor, puts a finger in his mouth and starts making barfing noises. The conversation, inevitably, returns to girls - and the good news for lay-dees in Britain is that none of the band is attached. Tay wonders why we're surprised (perhaps cause he's already challenging Ronan for 'Best looking fella' at the SH annual Poll Winner's bash). "I thought you weren't mean to be into girls until you were about 14, but it seems everyone is getting girlfriends younger." But he thinks that Zac may have a few years to wait. "What's the point of getting a girlfriend when you're 11?" he says. "What do you do? Ring up and go 'let's get together and talk'." "Yeah, or go out rollerblading," adds Zac in full agreement. Isaac leans over to Zac and says: "It's not like you're going to make out." And all three start making barfing noises, "Bleuurghh!" So here we have the future of pop. Right now you can get their toppermost debut single, Mmmbop. Soon you'll be able to get posters, T-shirts and the album, but you may have to wait a while before Zac is ready to be your boyfriend!