An MMMbop on the nose for the pop biz

A new documentary charts how, when the former heart-throbs Hanson got mad with their record company, they got even. Stephen Dalton reports

We are living in a golden era for dysfunctional rock documentaries. Metallica, the Dandy Warhols and Daniel Johnston have all committed their psychic traumas and career meltdowns to celluloid in recent years. Reality TV has transformed confessional group therapy into a spectator sport.

Now even those wholesome pop puppies Hanson have joined this trend with Strong Enough to Break, a backstage documentary that follows the marathon struggle by the trio, whose biggest hit was MMMbop, to record their third album, Underneath, for a label whose reaction veered from indifference to hostility.

Three painful years later, following unsatisfactory collaborations with the songwriting legend Carole King and the platinum-plated producer Glen Ballard, band and record company parted in an acrimonious divorce.

Sanctioned and funded by Hanson, Strong Enough to Break is the Oklahoma trio’s poison-pen letter to the music industry, but nobody comes out of it smelling entirely of roses, not even the angelic former teen pop stars themselves, now in their twenties, whose banal banter and prickly studio tantrums reveal a Spinal Tap side.

“There’s a little bit of Spinal Tap in there,” admits the oldest of the three brothers, the guitarist Isaac Hanson. “There’s a reason why that movie has been so successful. Firstly because it is hilarious, but also because it is so true.”

Strong Enough to Break was initially conceived as a straight document of the album’s conception, from songwriting to release. Instead it became a telling portrait of the escalating tensions between an increasingly desperate band and their indecisive, confidence-sapping paymasters. On a wider level, Isaac says, it reveals how super-sized corporate record labels are sacrificing long-term artist development for short-term profit. Some US colleges have even adopted the film as a cautionary teaching tool about modern music business politics.

“It’s an instruction manual on what to look for when you get signed,” Isaac says. “What people can learn from it is that the current music business, I believe, is broken. I’m not saying that from a position of ‘I’m an artist, poor me, boo hoo’. Even Beyoncé Knowles, who is doing very well, is still not living up to what the record companies want from her. The management of the business itself is a problem. The business is too reliant on big sellers.”

If this real-life backstage drama has a villain it is Jeff Fenster, Hanson’s former A&R man at Island/Def Jam, who rejected 80 songs over a three-year period. After bouncing the band between numerous producers and co-writers, he eventually stopped taking their phone calls. Early in filming, Fenster consented for his voice and image to be used, but relations have cooled considerably since the split.

“Jeff’s not the bad guy in the music industry; he’s just somebody who maybe isn’t doing the right job,” argues the drummer and youngest brother Zac Hanson, who narrates the film. “He comes from the legal department; he has a Harvard law degree; he’s not unintelligent. But when you are talking about the creative side of making music, just because you have a law degree doesn’t mean you have a vision for a band. When you put somebody in that position who is not qualified, you end up wasting a lot of money and time.”

Strong Enough to Break has a happy ending, of sorts. After leaving Island/Def Jam, Hanson finally released Underneath on their own label, 3CG. In April 2004 the album topped the US independent charts and made Billboard’s Top 25. One of the most successful indie releases ever, it subsequently sold 250,000 copies around the world.

Hanson are now evangelical about the power of independent labels, with their agile advantages over bloated, bureaucratic majors. “We think of ourselves as spider monkeys and they’re an 800lb gorilla,” says Zac.

The Tulsa-based trio have even turned down major label approaches since leaving Island/Def Jam. “We considered several offers,” says the middle brother and keyboard player, Taylor Hanson. “The funniest being Arista, who offered us a deal: we decided not to go with it, and within six months Jeff Fenster was head of A&R at Arista.”

A DVD release of Strong Enough to Break is planned for next year. Meanwhile the trio are readying their first fully independent album, The Walk, for early 2007. They have even shot another in-the-studio documentary, although their current plan is only to release it online in segments.

Separating from Island/Def Jam, Isaac concludes, ultimately proved to be “the best thing we could have done”. But the scare stories do not necessarily end here. Becoming self-made record moguls in charge of their own destiny must surely feel like a big responsibility for these former child stars.

“There’s definitely a downside to it,” Zac admits. “It’s all on our shoulders. It’s our money, our record, our employees. That’s scary. There’s no one to blame if you fail.”

www.strongenoughtobreak.com