Peer into a Sam Goody store at your local mall and it won't take a Mensa membership to realize Generation Y has nothing to do with popular music made before Nirvana. However, perhaps for every 20 malljammers worshipping Disney Channel balladeers and screamo-till-they-vomit punk combos, there's someone like Zac Hanson doing his homework. The 18-year-old drummer for the trio of brothers identified by their last name--rounded out by guitarist Isaac, 23, and lead singer/keyboardist Taylor, 20--recently caught a live show by pushing-90 guitar legend Les Paul and came away with a bit of perspective.

"You see so much joy on his face and in his body language, and he's been playing professionally since his 20s," says Zac. "That needs to be in music, that passion for what he's doing. People should be focusing on music that way. It shouldn't be a surprise when someone has a successful second album, it's when they don't."

Which is exactly what happened when Hanson released This Time Around in 2000. The Tulsa-based act had a global smash with its 1997 album, Middle of Nowhere--thanks to its omnipresent, crack-laced hit, "MMMBop," as well as singles "Where's the Love" and "Weird"--but couldn't drum up nearly the same interest for Around, which sold only a million copies and yielded no major radio hits.

However, it did earn Hanson some unexpected credibility. Instead of staying the MTV teen-pop course, inadvertently laid out with the success of "MMMBop," it concentrated on a more rock-based sound, highlighting the brothers' melodic instincts as opposed to songwriter or producer collaborations. The stripped-down, tunes-first approach stuck with the musicians, who started writing again in earnest in 2001--sometimes by themselves, sometimes with collaborators. For the next three years, they would pen about 80 songs, record 50 of them and, as of a month ago, release 13 of them as their third major album, Underneath.

However, their de facto label, Def Jam, wasn't having it. So, Hanson did exactly what it did with its first release--it went indie with its own 3CG imprint. Not only would the band be beholden to only itself, it would hypothetically enjoy a more direct connection with its audience. "We'd been making a record for a long time and we wanted to do something different with the way our music was released," says Zac. "The industry is in such a place where artists as a whole have an opportunity now...to really build the relationship with their fans, the way it hasn't been available before."

Not to mention the band could ignore the corporate hucksters who didn't hear a multiplatinum comeback in Underneath. Their loss: The album is Hanson's best to date. While none of the songs are as classic as "MMMBop," nearly all of them possess an effortless pop air, while boasting the act's signature, Motown-inspired harmonizing. There isn't a sign of cynicism anywhere on the album, in either tone or content. And despite the signs of growth peppered all over Underneath, there is no denying this is their work.

"People who haven't followed what we've done over the past few years might be surprised," says Zac. "But that always excites me. I want with every record...for someone to go, `I didn't expect that.' [We want] to always push the envelope, to step over that line a little...to never let the box that you get put in limit you. Boxes are made to be broken."

Now comes the promotional part, which the unjaded trio is only happy to partake in. "We were just in Thailand a couple of months ago," says Zac. "You do 24 interviews a day, sleep for six hours--not even that--and then you fly to Seoul and do the same thing. The work is hard, but you do it for the same reason: To get the music out, to say, listen, come along, join me on this journey. We're on chapter three, but there are many to come. Maybe you'll enjoy the book."