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"Music Interview: The boys are back in town" Sara Havens LEO It's about time to give credit where credit is due, don't you agree? It's time to chisel out Hanson from the boy-band grouping in your mind. Come on, give 'em up. Tell Lance and Jordan and Justin and Howie and Donnie to let go of poor Isaac, Taylor and Zac, the singing/songwriting/ instrument-playing brothers that make up Hanson. They do not deserve to be intermingled with the formulas and patterns of today's pop music. What separates these boys from "boy bands" is talent -- more specifically, talent beyond the voices. And don't expect to find them anytime in the next decade or so on VH1's "Where are They Now?" because they're in it for life. "In the end, it is really about the love of music," said Zac, the youngest of the group at age 14. "It's something we're going to do for a long time." And although their newest album, This Time Around, has a different sound from their last multi-platinum CD Middle of Nowhere, the boys admit that not much has changed -- and they're not trying to separate from any mold they may be in. "There were three years between Middle of Nowhere and This Time Around," Zac said in a telephone interview last week. "I think that played a big role in the sound -- it was a natural evolution." "Everybody keeps talking about how our sound's changed," said oldest brother Isaac, 19. "But I think it's still very much pop and has similarities to the last record ... It's all part of a perception, too -- three years ago if we would have released this record, everyone would have thought it was very poppy, but now, everyone's like, "Wow, it's rock," because there's no synthesizers in it." If they're not battling for respect with their sound, they're battling for it with songwriting. On This Time Around, the three brothers wrote each and every song on the 13-track CD. Songs of heartbreak, longing and love -- from teen-agers?! "You have to feel it, but you don't have to experience it," said Taylor, 17. "In this day of open-mindedness, everyone still wants to put you in this box -- at this age, you do this and you do that." "I think songwriting and songs are something that no one knows where they come from, not even the songwriter It comes from some other place," Zac said. "You have to get outside of yourself and come from a different angle," Isaac added. "To a certain extent, you don't know where it comes from." Obviously adamant about the basis of songwriting and emotions, Taylor continued: "Songwriting and being a musician is about stepping outside of yourself and seeing things in a different way ... being about to interpret things you couldn't just by standing there. That's what's so great about music, and that's why it's so glorified and that's why it rules the world -- because you can't say everything you want to say sometimes by saying it ... a song can say so much. There's magic in it, I don't know where the heck it comes from, but I'm glad it comes." As for the band's future, they're already getting a head start on the next album, writing songs between tour stops. Isaac is thinking about college, but right now, it would only be part time. "I think college is definitely something I'm considering," he said. "But it'll have to be a secondary thing to the band." Their tour, which stops in Louisville on Thursday, includes a stage set and songs that change for each show. "The main thing that's different with this tour is that we have a lot more songs to play, and the set changes with every show," Zac said. "We want our fans to see something different every time they see us." As I wrapped up the interview, I still had one burning question: What the hell does "MMM-Bop" mean? Or better yet: What is it? Noun? Verb? Gerund? Dangling participle? After a brief chuckle, Taylor replied: "It's a creation of the mind -- songwriting at its best, or worst -- however you want to look at it." And that pretty much sums it up this time around. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Louisville Palace. Tickets are $25.50 and can be purchased by calling Ticketmaster at 361-3100. |