|
 |
|
Hanson This Time Around
5/1/00 (Teen People Magazine) |
It's hard not to stare when laying eyes on the Hanson brothers for the first time in three years. Hard to believe it's been that long since the blond bunch reached the top of the pop charts, and my, how they have grown. Kicking back in the Hollywood recording studio where they're finishing up their new album,
This Time Around
(due May 9), the trio could be poster boys for those TV milk commercials that promise impressive growth spurts to kids who drink up.
Indeed, in three years since Hanson's 1997 breakthrough album,
Middle of
Nowhere, Taylor, now 17, has outgrown his big brother Isaac, 19, by one inch (he's now six feet), and Zachary, 13, is not far behind. They've also evolved in other ways. Isaac's braces are long gone; Taylor's sprouting facial hair; and Zac is looking borderline brawny.
The boys themselves downplay the changes. "We are the same people we were before", says Taylor. "I don't think a ton has changed for us as people, except we're bigger."
"What's great is that our fans are getting older with us," Isaac adds. "On our Internet message board
[www.Hanson.net], people are like, 'I've been a fan of Hanson since I was 16, now I'm 19.' Like us, they're not young anymore."
It may be a little early to break out the Geritol, but these guys are teen pop's elder statesmen. They broke the mopey spell of grunge with Middle Of Nowhere's effervescent sing-along anthems. Selling more than 8 million copies world-wide, thanks, in large part, to the No. 1 hit,
"MmmBop", the album
foreshadowed the U.S. success of teen sensations like Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.
Although they're uncomfortable talking about teen pop's new wave and try to distance themselves from it-- after all, these guys play instruments and write their own tunes-- they know what it's like to be dismissed because of their youth.
"We were young, so that [teen idol] card was pulled out." says Taylor of Hanson's breakthrough era. "People thought, 'How could they possibly have a future? They're too young.' But as musicians, we've always aimed to be a band with longevity."
This much is true:
This Time
Around, written and
co-produced by the group, is hardly kid's stuff. Songs like
"Runaway
Run" blend modern sounds and classic Motown grooves with Taylor's
surprisingly gritty vocals. And the album shows Hanson delving deeper into raw soul. They've enlisted fellow teen virtuoso, blues guitarist Jonny Lang and John Popper of Blues Traveler to play along.
"I've always liked their music", says John, 33, who contributed harmonica to the track,
"If
Only". "But I realized when I came in just what a true, real band they are. I felt a bit like the old man giving them advice all the time, but I can't help it. I just see a long career for this band."
The new album is testament to Hanson's musical growth. "We've definitely moved more and more toward rock and roll." says Taylor of the group's new Black
Crowes-meets-"MmmBop" sound. Dressed in brown corduroy trousers, a tight black T-shirt and a metal choker bearing a cross (the Hansons are devout evangelical Christians), Taylor has evolved into the group's resident fashion plate. But he feels true change has come from the inside: "You can't just say, 'Ok, now we're gonna be more rock. Put on your leather, Isaac, get your nose pierced. Taylor, dye your hair green. And Zac, you're already there, just stop bathing.' The only way is to actually change where the songs are coming from."
Some things never change, though. In conversation, Isaac and Taylor offer insightful opinions, with the more clownish Zac often providing punch lines. But hold the tired-and-true labels! "Zac's the goofy
one; Isaac's the serious one..." Zac says mockingly. "So, who's the stupid one?" Taylor interrupts. I want to be branded the buff, tall, handsome one." cracks the still-skinny Isaac.
"Seriously, though, he continues, "I think our personalities ground each other. Alone, left to our own devices, we'd really be in trouble. The three of us put together makes for a tight group."
Taylor agrees. "I think the reason Hanson works is that we all trade off roles. For instance, at times, Zac can
be psychotic, and other times, totally linear, like 'Shut up, we gotta work on this'. I think if you're trying to describe what role we play, we all play every role."
That's not to say their existence is always as harmonious as their tunes. After all, at home in Tulsa, where they live with their dad, Walker, and mom, Diana (both parents travel with them and help manage them) and their four younger siblings (Jessica,11, Avery, 9, Mackenzie, 6, and Zoe, 2), the three aren't always on their best behavior. "There's the occasional getting pissed off at each other," says Isaac. "But thankfully, not very often, or we'd all have black eyes."
Actually Zac counters, "If we did fight, we all know I'd be the only one left standing."
Zac hardly even learned to stand when the brothers, inspired by Mom's Time Life compilation of 1958 hits, began performing together in 1990. Soon they were singing a capella in the living room and at county fairs, where they'd hit the stage dressed in leather jackets and sunglasses and sing oldies like "Summertime Blues" to mainly empty seats. "We didn't care." recalls Isaac. "We were having fun."
In 1994, they released the first of two independent, self-distributed albums. Two years later, they were signed by Mercury Records after a label rep spotted by the boys at a state fair in Coffeyville, Kans.
Subsequent platinum albums (Nowhere in 1997 and
Snowed In
that Christmas) made them a hot ticket among their teen peers--even as the boys were living less and less like them. Taught by their parents at home and on the road (Isaac is technically finished with high school), the boys may never experience firsthand most of the campus drama chronicled during prime time WB. But don't think they've missed out-- at least not academically.
"It's pretty hard to say what we do hasn't been a massive education." says Zac. Taylor nods in agreement. "People go to college to study music," he says, "but [growing up] we were reading a college textbook on miking and drums, and we already know that stuff. [And], of course, we've still got to do history, math and [everything]."
They've mastered the internet too, having started an official online fan center last year to complement their self-produced glossy fanzine Moe, which is available on their website,
www.Hansonline.com.
Fans can also log on to
www.Hanson.net
to post messages about the group. "After two weeks up, we had forty thousand registered posters," says Taylor proudly. "When it initially went up, we were getting about a million hits an hour. It was pretty crazy. We had to get a new server to handle it because our server started
smoking."
They won't have much time for logging on this summer, when Hanson will most likely embark on a world tour. But they're not complaining. "Playing has always been the big enjoyment for us," says Isaac. "When the audience is getting into it, that energy comes back to you, and you throw it back at them. But I'm not sure how much you're able to hear us. Our audience [screams] get up to one hundred and fifty-five decibels. I have to have ear monitors in. Otherwise, I'd go deaf."
As if major hearing loss could ever stop Hanson from kicking out the melodic jams. "We want to do it as long as we can," says Taylor. "Till we can't do it anymore. Till my hands can't physically do it." But, he adds, "No matter what, even if everything crashes and burns, at least we enjoyed ourselves and had a passion for our work."
-- Lorraine Ali
Back
to Articles
|
|
|
|
|
