Music is the Hanson brothers' curriculum
Friday, October 28, 2005

By MARGARET K. COLLINS
STAFF WRITER

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The spunky trio that turned the non-word "MMMBop" into a 1997 smash hit is making a post-pubescent return.

Brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac (now 24, 22 and 19, respectively) own a record label and self-produced their latest album, "The Best of Hanson: Live and Electric," recorded during a concert in Australia.

They also filmed an autobiographical documentary, "Strong Enough to Break," that has been showing this fall on college campuses, where the brothers have made appearances to speak with audiences.

The Hanson brothers spoke by phone recently about their tour, music piracy and life as a band of brothers.

Q. The talks that you're conducting on college campuses, why did you guys decide to do that and what do you think is the perception out there on college campuses about getting into the music industry?

Taylor: Really the idea of going to universities comes just from a kind of passion. Our real focus is relationship with our fans, relationship with trust.

Q. Did all of you guys go to college? Or did you end up touring and focusing on music?

Zac: None of us has been to college, no. ... It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go to college when you're already actively doing the thing that you're going to do with your life.

Isaac: We found a career and a curriculum before we got to college.

Q. What are your personal views on music piracy?

Zac: We believe in the idea that music has value, because we don't believe we're a communist nation. We believe that there is something called intellectual property. So I think it's important for people to support great music, to support the music they love. ... I think seeing half a billion downloads through iTunes for example, I think it's very, very clear that there is a very legitimate business in the music download world. And I think it's very clear that people have no problem paying for songs and paying for music. They just want quality and they want to know that it's good.

Q. How do you decide which songs you want to cover?

Isaac: That is clearly an artistic decision.

Taylor: It's more like a roll of the dice, you know.

Isaac: Exactly.

Taylor: With "Optimistic," the Radiohead song that's on the new live album, that was actually brought up by [Deion], who plays bass with us live.

Q. I've been hearing rumors that you guys aren't actually brothers.

Isaac: No, that's not true. - We're definitely brothers. Man, how the Internet spreads rumors.

Q. Was there a period of time where you guys decided that you wanted to go your separate ways?

Isaac: People have been asking that question for a lot of years. I guess because they think that, man, when you're in a band and you're brothers, that just must be an impossible task. And in some ways, it is. ... In our case, I don't even really think how old Tay and Zac are, I don't really even think about whether or not they're my brothers, per se. It's really a matter of what we're doing and making music together. And so it's gotten beyond being brothers for, oh, at least five or six years. I would say probably longer than that. I mean, we've been doing this for 13 years, as of May, together.

E-mail: collinsp@northjersey.com

BERGEN BAND TO OPEN:

The final votes have been counted, and Bergen County band State Unfair (pop/punk/emo/alternative) will open for Hanson on Tuesday at the Ritacco Center in Toms River.

The band was chosen by 3CG Records and college radio DJs as a finalist in the Hanson Opening Band Contest. The public was then invited to choose the winner from the top three, which also included New Jersey bands Luzer (garage rock) and Ghost Town Symphony (rock/punk/indie).

State Unfair has just released its first studio-recorded CD, "Fold Your Hand," available at smartpunk.com.

- Kristen A. Lee