Youngest Hanson Brother Tells The Student What They've Been Up To
by Amanda Hensel

It’s 8 a.m. on a mid-November Monday. The sky is blue and cloudless in Bloomington, Indiana, and at 15 degrees the air is crisp and frigid. It’s a seemingly typical Monday morning for Indiana University students. The weather doesn’t faze them; wearing only light jackets they carry heavy book bags and step hurriedly to class. But atop Indiana University’s student union building, a line a dozen girls-long snakes around. All in sleeping bags, the line is coiled tightly, by request of the faculty, to keep a clear pathway. Many in passing stop and gawk. This is not a regular Monday morning occurrence for the union– students passed out on the couches from late night studying inside the warmth of the building are typical– but not camped out in the cold fall air. Not one of the weary eyed girls huddled together outside the union doors is a student of Indiana University. In fact, not one of them is from Indiana.

They’re Hanson fans, and they’ve driven through the night from Hanson’s concert the previous night in Cincinnati, Ohio. Many of them are catching up on their lack of sleep and few heads pop up when curious students and faculty question them of their presence. The girls are quite used to the attention and surprised response they get about sleeping outside in this, or any, weather temperament. They’ve been doing it for nine years.

Inside the building and just down the hall, another line grows quickly. Word has spread that 1998 Grammy-nominated teen pop act Hanson is on campus. Students in passing stop to see what the buzz is about. ‘A movie.’ ‘Hanson’s here.’ ‘Yeah, that Hanson. Mmmbop.’ A woman cracks the door to the auditorium and sticks her head out. An announcement is made. Students who show their student ID card will get in first. Fans will be last, if there is room. The fans outside are aware of the line, but none of them are prepared to risk their spot in line for the concert that is being held in the union that night, even if it is warm inside. They’re there for the music.

They’re making up for lost time– for a time in Hanson history they refer to as the "Hanson drought"– the three years in between albums when Hanson was in the studio, riding a virtual roller coaster with their record company, struggling to release the next album. Besides, Hanson’s most hardcore fans saw the documentary when it premiered at a special fan-only event last May.

That’s what brings Hanson to Indiana this November day. Between concert stops in Ohio and Illinois, Hanson visits Indiana University to hold a screening of their documentary "Strong Enough to Break" for students, and to play a concert in the union’s concert hall.

"The events we're doing in schools are an amazing opportunity to start a conversation about our passion for independent music," says middle brother Taylor. "The documentary gets people to kind of understand where we've come from and why we became independent."

Within an hour Hanson will fill the 300 seats of the lecture hall to capacity. Students will pack in and line the walls, many just hoping to ask Isaac, Taylor or Zac a question during the question and answer session, or to get the free CD they are promised if they attend.

Initially, Ashley Greyson, who was behind the camera during the filming of the documentary, came to Hanson with plans to simply show the process of making an album through a camera lens. To everyone’s surprise, and Hanson’s dismay, the documentary did a virtual 360 and became something completely different. "Strong Enough to Break" shows the trials and tribulations Hanson met with their record label during the recording of their most recent album, Underneath.

"The film addresses issues that broadly recognized as problems in the industry," says Zac, the youngest of the Hanson brothers. "If you talk to most artists, or anyone who is knowledgeable about the industry, they'll say yeah, that’s one of the big problems with records: how they're made, how long it takes and how much money is spent. And in a lot of cases, records are made that labels don’t know what to do with or don’t even release!"

In 1997 the brothers Hanson were the poster children for apple-cheeked innocence and great pop tunes. They released their first album, Middle of Nowhere, on Mercury records when they were just 16, 14, and 11-years-old and sold 11-million copies. They blew up the airwaves with their first single, "Mmmbop", which shot straight to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 charts and rode the wave for most of the spring and summer of 97'.

But when Mercury Records was absorbed by Island Def Jam, Hanson was sponged in too.

In May of 2000 Hanson released another album, This Time Around, which was their first and only release on IDJ Records. The album birthed two successful commercial singles– the second of which, "If Only", stayed on MTV’s TRL countdown until it was forced to a retire– a life span of 60 days.

Hanson did a 48-city tour in the fall of 2000 to showcase their album as well as many new songs they had written. As the tour came to an end in November, Hanson were more than eager to get into the studio to record their next record.

"We started in 2001 making this record and we wanted to do a couple of demos and get right into the final recordings," says the voice of Zac at the start of the film. "I guess it all turned out to be something we didn’t expect."

Zac narrates for the entirety of the two-hour film. It spans three of Hanson’s toughest years, from their time in the studio to the numerous heavy phone conversations and meetings with IDJ when they were not seeing eye-to-eye on the direction of their album.

The IDJ representative that worked with the band during the recording process plays the villain in the story of Hanson’s triumph over a corporate monster. "The A&R guy is basically the one managing the whole record process." says Zac. "If you have no reference for knowing how to make music, how are you going to be capable to really do that well?"

Zac insists that the film isn’t solely about their A&R guy, but that he represents a long line of messengers from the record company. "He's just one guy," he says. "There are so many guys that are like him in his same position. He's got a Harvard law degree. Smart guy. Stupid people don't have those! But he doesn't have any credits that say ‘Hi, I should be the head of A&R.’ He can crunch numbers really well, but that won’t get great records made. That won’t help him know what producer to put with a band or how it works in the studio, how it works to write songs, how it works to be us."

The film brings humor and a lot of laughs from the audience, but also shows Hanson at their lowest point. It climaxes when the scenes enter the year 2003 and the band leaves IDJ to start their own independent label, 3CG.

After the documentary ends, Hanson sits at a podium in front of the screen and answers questions.

"Can I sing with you on stage tonight?" a girl in a brown shirt asks giddily into the microphone. "Let’s try to stick to questions about the documentary, please." Taylor says for the third time. There is obvious frustration in his voice.

He takes another sip of his large coffee and asks for the next question. With college visits early each morning and concerts until past midnight each night, the band’s energy wears thin. It isn’t the caffeine that keeps them going– it’s their passion. They continue to preach their gospel about the fallacy in the music industry in hopes of being the spark that causes the blaze of change. But without their dedicated fan base, Hanson says they wouldn’t be able to tour the country with and spread the message.

"We are lucky to have really devoted fans. We definitely have a group who are hardcore on anyone’s level, in a good way. There are fans who travel to every show on a 40-show tour and you're just like ‘that’s awesome!’ I would get tired of seeing me that much," says Zac.
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