Hanson out to prove there’s life after ‘MMMbop’

FYI:
Hanson performs at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 7 at New Oasis, 2100 Victorian Ave. Cost: $20. Tickets are available at Recycled Records in Reno, JJ’s Ear Candy in Carson City, Mad About Music in South Lake Tahoe and through www.ticketweb.com. Details: 826-4119.

Jason Kellner
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
9/4/2003 10:08 pm

Preparing for an interview with Hanson, I imagined a tag-team conversation with the three brothers sitting at the back of their tour bus en route to a show, laughing giddily over questions and answers while one of them played a video game. But if that were to happen, it would have to have been years ago.
The brothers Hanson have grown up since the band ignited the teen-pop fire also fueled by ’N Sync, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. While we may never hear from Backstreet Boys again, Hanson has matured along with its music and fans. Singer-guitarist Isaac is 22; singer-keyboardist Taylor is 20 (married with a kid, too); singer-drummer Zac is 17.

The challenge Hanson has had to overcome is moving its image beyond 1997 -- the year the band was slathered in Grammys, platinums and video music awards behind the bubble-gum pop song "MMMbop."
"MMMbop was a great starting point for me," said Isaac, speaking from a quiet room before a sold-out show at Slim’s in San Francisco. "Talk about being able to make an indelible image with people. It’s a very valuable thing that most people never get to do. I’m OK with people being into ‘MMMbop,’ hell yes! But I think there’s also a lot more to this band too. I think any artist is challenged, as their career goes on, to expand and grow and to take that audience with them. Even Paul McCartney still has that kind of thing where he’s going out and doing different things because he wants his audience to be exposed to sides of him that people haven’t heard before."

Now the band is playing an extensive tour of small-club acoustic shows where it’s about nothing but the music, the band says. The band’s third studio album is due early in 2004.

"The fun thing about (this tour) is it’s such an intimate show," Isaac said. "You really can get the audience involved. What it comes down to is really just a thank-you for the fans waiting around for three years."
On the tour the brothers play mostly acoustic -- focusing on the three-part harmonies that are still an integral part of the sound. It’s part of the band’s evolution that started with the 2000 album "This Time Around." The album, with a rougher, rootsy edge reminiscent of 1970s-era Rolling Stones, was met with favorable reviews but sold only 270,000 copies in the United States. Compare that with the 6 million copies the band’s debut sold, and you have what’s called a flop in the music industry.

"I felt really proud of what we had done," Taylor said of "This Time Around." "We walked off an amazing tour and it was an exciting thing. You’re always hoping that you’re going to touch a billion people. You put music out and you feel proud of it. When it makes an impact on people, you’re excited. A million, 250,000 -- whatever it is, it’s an exciting thing to touch people with what you do."

Bruised, but not beaten by the performance of "This Time Around," the band moved on to album number three. In the meantime it negotiated out of its contract with Island Records, which resulted in the band forming its own company for future albums.

"The industry is in an odd place," Isaac said, "but I don’t feel it’s appropriate for me to digress. If you look around you’ll see a lot of unusual things happening both on an artistic level and a business level -- a lot of things that don’t really make sense. We wanted to move beyond some of that confusion.

"I think the audience will be pleasantly surprised with this new music," Isaac said. "This record is a bigger step than any other record has been."

On the new album the band worked with producer Danny Kortchmar (Carole King, Billy Joel, Neil Young) and had guest musicians including Matthew Sweet, Michelle Branch, David Garza and Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies.

"I think this record is mainly just a sonic difference," Isaac said. "It comes down to how we wanted this record to sound. We knew where we wanted to go with it, the production style and who we were as a band. The word that I would use to describe this record is sonic space -- well, that’s actually two words. You could crank this record up and enjoy it in your car driving like a mofo down the highway, or you could listen to it in the background as you’re chillin’ with friends."

One thing the band seems intent on is longevity.

“You make the best record you can make and the best representation of who you are and what you do right now,” Taylor said. “You get out there and you always cross your fingers. Who knows what’s going to happen? All you can really do is be true to who you are, be passionate about it, and hope that people can feel what you’re feeling. And then you toss a coin and work your ass off."

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