Mmm Bop grows up and throws away the rollerblades

Andromeda Huff talks with Hanson's guitarist Isaac...well...Hanson about their recent work
By Andromeda Huff
Published: 11/17/05

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If checking www.hanson.net, the official Web site of the band Hanson, has not been a daily thing for you these past few years - and we all know you secretly do - you might not be aware of what the trio has been up to lately. With a new label, new tour and new album, the brothers have been busier than the Grease Trucks come Saturday night. Not that they would even have time for a fat sandwich.

"I only had one meal yesterday," admits Isaac Hanson, the guitarist and eldest of the trio, on a phone interview squeezed in before a concert last Tuesday night, "I was just too busy to eat."

Sound familiar? The average college student can certainly sympathize with the feeling of too much work and too little time. And as a newly independent band starting its own label, Hanson certainly has a fair bit of work to do. After splitting from Island Def Jam, Hanson set about producing and releasing their next full-length studio album completely on their own. The entire process of leaving one label and starting a new one took four long years. The final result seems to be worth it though. Released in 2004 on 3CG Records, Underneath debuted at #1 on Billboard's independent charts. The total freedom of having their own label allows is evident in the work, a huge departure from the sound most people associate with the group.

But all that freedom means all the work has to be done by the brothers themselves. "Overworked and underpaid" laughed Isaac. "It's a hard life, but I love what I do."

Hanson has been on tour the last few weeks, promoting a new live album, The Best Of Hanson: Live And Electric, which Isaac says has "more passion than any other record up to this point." Additionally, the band has been showing their documentary Strong Enough To Break at college campuses across the country. The movie follows the long and frustrating break with former label Island Def Jam. A Q&A session after each screening allows for direct feedback from the audience.

(Any chance Rutgers is on the schedule? Not this time around. But Isaac said a DVD release is a possibility for the future.)

A new sound accompanies Hanson's musical independence, with some unexpected songs showing up on the current tour. A few older and rarely played songs are nice treats for longtime fans. Playing "Mmm Bop" acoustic keeps it from sounding too much like a live version of their debut album. U2 and Doobie Brothers' covers round out an eclectic set and serve as even more evidence of the band's maturing personality and vision.

The decision to go independent is, in some ways, linked to U2. As one of Isaac's favorite artists, he feels they are one of the few bands that you can trust to have entire albums that are actually worth $18. The fact that fans can't "trust that there's quality" in an album, released in a market designed to sell quantity over quality, might be a reason for rampant Internet downloading, ruminates Isaac. Overplaying on the radio doesn't help matters either. Without an "element of choice" fans are almost forced to go to the Internet in order to hear something different. And people want that choice, says Isaac; they want "the rush of discovery" that seems to be missing from most music these days. By being independent, Hanson is able to be totally involved in every part of the process, and "that's where the quality is," according to Isaac.

The goal for quality extends to all aspects of their projects. Not only have they teamed up with fellow indie artist Pat McGee for most of the tour, but they are also holding an online contest for opening bands where one of the requirements is to be an independent group. Hanson has certainly grown from those three naiive little boys chanting "Mmm Bop" to a post-grunge audience itching for bubblegum pop. Perhaps they can surprise people with their new material.