The brothers are all grown up now, with their own label and a new sound

Even their fans come in threes. Kwan, Jak and Kik have been keeping vigil outside the Dusit Thani Hotel since 8am, hoping to get close to Hanson – the trio of blond brothers who shot to global fame a decade ago with the ear-friendly “Mmmbop”.

The fans, aged 23 to 27, have been following Hanson since they arrived in Bangkok last Thursday for the “Hanson Underneath Thailand Promo Tour”, part of a three-country Asian media blitz to promote the band’s new album, “Underneath”.

Kwan shows a record of her efforts on her digital camera: pictures of Isaac, Taylor and Zac from a distance, through windows, at odd angles. It’s Saturday afternoon and she and her friends have only half a day left to accomplish their quest – a photo of each of them standing next to her favourite brother, who in most cases is 20-year-old Taylor, with his smouldering good looks and piercing blue eyes.

Ohney, Mon and Nadia have been a tiny bit luckier. The three, aged 21 to 26, actually checked into the hotel, and for their troubles managed to meet the brothers in the lobby and coax them into posing for photos. “I’ve been waiting eight years to see them,” says Mon, who’d learned about the group’s arrival and found their itinerary on the Sony Music website.

Though she’d traced the brothers to their rooms, she never called nor tried to knock on their door, “out of respect for their privacy”. The fans, like the young Oklahoma gents, are well-mannered, unassuming and gracious.

Still, “I’m kinda nuts, a little cuckoo in the head,” says the oldest of the trio, Isaac, by way of explaining why he loves the spiciest Thai dishes he can find. The 23-year-old, dressed in a crisp white shirt, tan trousers, brown shoes and carefully styled hair, looks like he’s trying to shed his image from the “Mmmbop” days.

“Actually, I write,” he says, when asked about his other interests. “I wish I could say it’s a book ... I wish I could say I have an end in sight ... They’re just stories I tell.”

He says he’s writing “three things”, that they are “mildly autobiographical” and that they “would work better on film than on the page”.

Isaac, or Ike as he prefers to be called, might be suffering jet lag or is just plain exhausted from the press blitz. He drinks endless cups of coffee and speaks quickly and confidently, sounding very much like an older brother. But he rarely makes eye contact with his interviewers.

He and his brothers are meeting about 200 reporters over two days, a Sony executive says. On Saturday afternoon, each of them gives separate 20-minute interviews to consecutive groups of three or four newspaper scribes, and later they’ll give television interviews and even record “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2005” greetings for the TV show “House Party”.

Hanson is “on the verge of fame” again. “Underneath” has sold half a million copies since it was released last month. The group’s first album, “Middle of Nowhere”, released in 1997, sold eight million copies. The second, “This Time Around”, sold a million. After that, they more or less disappeared from the international music scene.

But now the brothers have moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to New York City, ditched their cute-boy looks, lopped off their flaxen locks and grown some hair on their faces.

They’ve also left Universal, set up their own label, 3CG, and acquired a new manager – Jordan Berliant of Tenth Street Entertainment, who’s represented Blondie, Meatloaf and Yes.

Berliant says he “wants people to look beyond their image”, quickly adding - a bit protectively – “they’re very intelligent young men”.

Gone is the pre-teen joy of “Mmmbop”. Now Ike uses words like “eclectic”, “organic” and “evolving” to describe the new album and talks about “the point of being an artist”.

The first single and first hit in years, “Penny and Me”, Ike explains, is about “the things that make you who you are”.

“Everybody has a Penny,” he adds. “The good ones, you never really know where they came from and you never really know how they came about.”

In a television interview, the youngest group member says the title track was “the pillar ... a cornerstone” of their latest effort, encouraging listeners “to look ‘underneath’ Hanson”. Ike says the tune came almost effortlessly – it was written in four hours.

The last number “Believe”, a 12-minute song which morphs into something like the Partridge Family on speed, is what Ike calls the Hanson’s “whacked out experimentation moment”. It also carries a “teaser for their next CD”.

It’s while being interviewed for Thai TV, and later for a Philippine music channel, that the group comes to life. Ike’s at ease, heart-throb Taylor is charming and Zac comes across as any young star in the making should – playful, mischievous and ready with amusing one-liners.

He wants to draw a moustache on one of the give-away posters. Ike does the same on his own picture, saying it’s impossible for him to grow sideburns. “It’s not in the genes!”

Mutual ribbing aside (“We fight with each other but get over it,” according to Zac), the young trio show their talent by launching into an a capella rendition of “Penny and Me” to wrap up one of the interviews.

Berliant explains that “it’s all about the music” for the band. “They respect each other for the sacrifices they all made.”

Later, not wanting to leave behind the few hundred fans who didn’t organise a stake-out at the hotel, the trio perform a short set at Centrepoint in Siam Square and sign autographs – but only for the lucky few who have coupons proving they bought “Underneath”.

Ramona Varma

The Nation

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Press play and listen

Hanson return with a relatively “serious” offering – “Underneath” – complete with “grown-up” lyrics and foot-tapping, hip-swaying melodies.

With their single already making inroads on the charts, the lads certainly sound like they have a little more to offer than the average boy band on the music scene nowadays.

Taylor sounds like he could make a grown woman blush with his vocals in “Lost Without Each Other” and “Dancing in the Wind”, Zac sounds surprisingly deep-voiced on “Misery”, and Isaac comes across as an established musician with his guitar work and vocals on “Strong Enough to Break”.

They harmonise with Michelle Branch as well on “Deeper”.

The album, with its touch of blues and easy-listening numbers, warrants a listen. After all, Isaac did say “just press play and listen” when asked if there was a message behind the album.

You can listen to the songs by accessing www.hanson.net.


(Note: the album sales figure quoted in this article is not accurate)