Teen Stars Talented Hanson Trio Break Into Big-Time Music With Genuine, Familial Harmonies
Hanson seems too good to be for real: three angelic-looking brothers (ages 11 to 16) from Oklahoma with heaven-sent voices, the ebullience of the Jackson 5 and a single at No. 1 on the pop charts.
A music fan’s first urge may be to dismiss Hanson as the product of manipulative parents or a record-company marketing strategy, especially since the producers of the moment, the Dust Brothers, worked on the band’s new album along with songwriters for hire who have written for Aerosmith, the Righteous Brothers and Michael Bolton.
But the music tells another story.
Not only is the band’s current single, “MMMBop,” infectious, uplifting and emotionally charged, but so is just about every song on its new album (its third, believe it or not), “Middle of Nowhere” (Mercury), which is No. 6 on the Billboard album chart.
And the talent seems to come from the Hanson brothers themselves.
“Our parents didn’t push us into this,” said Zachary Hanson, the 11-year-old. “This was our thing. But they helped us with it.
“They said, ‘I’m going to drive you to where you want to go and get you what you need.”’
Like their music, the story of the Hanson brothers often seems too pat to be true: It begins in the Caribbean and South America, where the band’s father, Walker, moved from country to country as an international financier for an oil-drilling company and their mother, Diana, schooled the boys at home. The only music the family had was a series of Time/Life compilation records that covered the years 1957 to 1969, which may explain why the band’s light pop seems like an anomaly in a time when harder-edged rap, rock and electronic dance-music are trendy.
Back in Oklahoma one evening after dinner, the boys began singing and realized they could harmonize. In 1992 the three little blond-haired boys performed for the first time at an arts festival in Tulsa, their hometown, singing a cappella, finger-snapping doo-wop versions of songs like “Splish Splash,” “Johnny B. Goode” and “Summertime Blues.”
After learning to write original songs and recording a rhythm-and-blues record, “Boomerang,” with hired musicians, the brothers each decided to learn an instrument.
Taylor, who is 13, borrowed keyboards from a friend. Isaac, 16, bought a guitar at a pawn shop. And Zachary found drums in the attic.
Prouder of its second album, “MMMBop,” which had early versions of three of the songs on its new record, Hanson sent copies to the big record labels.
“I got this tape and loved it, but I was convinced it was fake,” remembered Steve Greenberg, who ended up signing the band to Mercury Records. “I was sure there was some adult pulling the strings or the vocals were manipulated and they weren’t really playing their instruments. I wasn’t going to do it.
“But then I saw them at a county fair in Kansas, and they played and sang just as well they did on the record. There wasn’t an adult in sight, except their dad, who was loading up the equipment, and their mom, who was selling T-shirts.”
In conversation, the brothers seem more intelligent than some musicians three times their age, talking with passion about the early rap label Sugarhill, the pioneering rhythm-and-blues of Stax Records and the roots of rock ‘n’ roll.
Having just been to the virtual reality arcade in Times Square, where they were recognized nearly a dozen times and trailed by several female fans, the brothers were flushed with excitement.
“This is completely fulfilling our expectations, if not exceeding them,” said Isaac. “You can’t expect to have a Top 10 single. You can only hope to be in the Top 40.
“And to be played on MTV as much as we’re getting played is incredible. We didn’t think people would think we’re cool enough.”
Isaac, Taylor and Zachary have two younger sisters and a younger brother, ages 3 to 8.
“We’re willing to let them in the band,” Zachary said. “We’ve asked them before. But I think they really want to do their own thing.”