LIFE AFTER MMMBOP
Believe it or not, Hanson — yes, that Hanson — turns 25. Cheers, gentlemen.
TULSA, OKLA. It’s hard to believe brothers, Zachary, Taylor and Isaac are preparing for a tour celebrating a quarter century as a band that sold 10 million copies of its 1997 debut album. The Hanson way has been marked by the brothers’ special ability to say no — always politely, of course — to record execs who didn’t get it; to a culture desperate for confessions; even, at times, to each other.
As they embark on the American leg of their anniversary tour, the brothers haven’t so much reinvented themselves as merely grown into older versions of their teenage selves.
“They beat the system,” says Danny Goldberg, who signed Hanson while chairman of Mercury Records and both praises them and laments they didn’t listen to him more.
“They used it, they got what they wanted out of it and then they’ve done things completely on their own terms, without worrying about any other metrics except their own. They could have done other things to make more money, but they put their personal happiness and contentment first.”
BIG BEGINNINGS
MMMBop arrived April 15, 1997. By May, it had knocked off the Notorious B.I.G. and taken the top slot of the Billboard Hot 100. The single remained at No. 1 for three weeks and topped the charts in 27 countries.
There is one secret Isaac shares. “That song,” he says, “was basically about getting the stink eye from a bunch of folks at our church because we wanted to do rock ’n’ roll, and they were like, ‘Why would you do rock ’n’ roll? Why wouldn’t you just sing gospel songs?’”
As teen stars in a secular field, they knew people wouldn’t understand why they still went to church. They made it clear that music and religion were separate in their lives.
That dynamic, of keeping things to themselves, extends to the relationship among the brothers.
For Hanson, a low point came about four years ago, when the band embarked on what was meant to be a 20th-anniversary celebration. In 2013, after releasing their sixth studio album, Anthem, and touring, they were tired of the record-tour-record cycle — and of each other.
What exactly happened is unclear. But Hanson took most of 2014 off. Ultimately, they decided to regroup.
“When we yell at each other, we yell at each other until we are not yelling at each other,” says Zac. “And when somebody says, ‘Maybe I’ll quit today,’ you say, ‘You are an idiot and I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Because there is so much in it, so much you care about. The answer is not ‘I give up.’ It’s just not.”
FAN-DEMONIUM
“There was no way I was going to sign them,” says Steve Greenberg, a Mercury talent scout. “We were just coming out of grunge, and everything was so dark and negative.”
Then Greenberg had an epiphany. “I pulled out one of those teen magazines and realized as I was looking through, there were no pictures of any musicians,” he says. “It was all pictures of Jonathan Taylor Thomas and actors. … I just realized there was a huge hole here. I thought, ‘I wish there was somebody like that.’”
A Mercury colleague slipped Greenberg a tape, which included a rawer version of MMMBop. Greenberg signed Hanson and brought in the Dust Brothers, fresh off Beck’s Odelay, to give the song a little extra punch.
With 1997’s Middle of Nowhere, Hanson became the rare teen band on the cover of Teen and topping the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop critics poll.
Greenberg recalls how he and Goldberg pushed Hanson to get back into the studio to capitalize on the success of Middle of Nowhere. They refused, wanting instead to prove themselves on the road. Their followup, This Time Around, didn’t arrive until 2000. It barely cracked the Top 20.
“They never regained their teen audience,” says Greenberg. “What they got was the undying loyalty of the core of their original fans. They’re able to go out, able to tour, and they’re a really excellent band. Instead of looking out and seeing a room of 13-year-old girls, what you see is a room full of 33-yearold women.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Taylor is not just the lead singer. He also sets the tone in interviews: warm, gracious but never confessional or uncontrolled. At one point, Goldberg expected him to break away from the band.
“There’s just no question that Taylor could have gone solo right away and tried to compete with Justin Timberlake for that slot in the culture,” he says.
The brothers moved their base of operations back to Tulsa in 2008 and began releasing albums on their own and having children. (The brothers, all married, have 12 among them.) They also established Hanson Inc.
They have offices in a downtown building stuffed with employees, a recording studio and everything from jewelry and T-shirts to the Hansonopoly board game. They launched a beer company, and in 2014 started Hop Jam, a craft beer and music festival in Tulsa.
None of it is meant to replace the band’s central mission: music.