The Wild World of Hanson

D: You know it's ironic that you bring that up, Zac, because last night, I just gotta get it out, I know you stole my Good 'N' Fruitys in the hotel, I mean I just know you did, I mean I don't deny it. But I was talking with band, and uh, you're not on band probation any more.

Z: Thank you, Thank you.

(Grabs David's shoulders and nods his head)

D: Yeah, you're out.

Z: But...

(Tay shoos Zac away with his hands)

Listen it's called SHOW business, not show family!

I: Um, okay, well, he's our secret shame.

T: Hey, guys maybe we should just read the teleprompter....Okay....

D: I'm really mad at you too...th-the the no---the neme... I can't read! Mom pulled me out of school when I was four...

(he turns away)

Z: The nominees for best fight are...

All: Hiya!!!!

(In Karate stances...Kinda)

'Superstars' Spotlites Hanson

Superstars

They're blond, adorable, talented, and ready to take over the chart with their infectious brand of pop music. Who are they? Hanson, that's who! Isaac, Taylor, and Zachary Hanson are three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma who have been singing and writing songs for as long as they can remember. "We were always singing," says Taylor. "Our parents would go out and ask us to do the dishes, and when they'd come back we wouldn't have done the dishes, but we'd have written a song! We didn't think about it, it just happened."

Eventually the guys decided to take their music more seriously and then they started performing at local festivals in and around Oklahoma. "We started performing as a group about five years ago at a local festival," says Isaac, the groups guitar player. We were actually doing a capella at first, and then about three years after that, we picked up instruments." The response of the crowds was so great, the guys put together two CD's of their songs to sell on the road, and then decided to take their music to the masses after landing their own record deal!

The guys have wide and varied tastes in music, and that's one of the things that makes up their sound so special. "We sang gospel," recalls Isaac. "We sang that a capella (without instruments)." Then they discovered rock 'n' roll, "especially '50's and '60's rock and roll, like Otis Redding and Chuck Berry...Our parents introduced us to certain things," says Isaac. "Our mom really loves Billy Joel, so she'd say 'Here guys, listen to this.'" "Yeah," adds Taylor. "One of the first songs we sand was 'For the Longest Time' by Billy Joel."

Their first national CD, Middle of Nowhere will be hitting the record store near you any day now, and the catchy single, 'MmmBop,' is just made for the radio- no surprise from this talented threesome! Of course, rock and roll doesn't leave the guys with much time to date. None of them has a girlfriend, 'cause they're too busy. "We're allowed to date," explains Isaac, "but right now is probably not the time, For one thing, no girlfriend would probably want to deal with our schedule!" "Yeah," adds Zac. "They'd probably only see us for one minute out of the year, because we live in Oklahoma and then we're in Los Angeles making an album and a video, and then we're performing somewhere else!" We bet most girls would put up with their schedule to get to hang out with this group! The only problem? With three gorgeous brothers to choose from, how can you ever decide which Hanson is the guy for you? Meet them one by one and see if you can decide!

MTV's Week In Rock

Kurt: These weary of pop stars who spend most of their time whining about how tough it is being a pop star will surely cheer the arrival of Hanson, three young brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma, ages 16, 13, and 11, who on Monday take over the number one spot on the "Billboard" chart with their first national single, "MmmBop." Are they excited? Let's find out.

MTV: Hanson's "MmmBop": it's instantly catchy, these days it's inescapable, and as of Monday it's the #1 single in the country. All of this has the boys more than a little bit excited.

ZAC: Yes we did it!!!! (GETS UP AND DANCES AROUND)

ISAAC: You can never expect that. I mean, you can maybe expect to be in the Top 40.

MTV: For Hanson, it all began five years ago when the three brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zachary, started singing as an a capella group. Three years, they picked up instruments and became a band.

TAYLOR: we got the drums and the instruments and then a week later we played live. But that doesn't mean we were good when we played live.

MTV: The Hanson Brothers, as they were originally called, became known in their home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, by playing over 300 local gigs and selling their two independent records at those shows. Now on their first major label album, "Middle of Nowhere," they are joined on two tracks by producers of the moment, The Dust Brothers.

ISAAC: Yeah, the Dust Brothers, which is very cool>

ZAC: The Dust Brothers...they have a very clean house.

TAYLOR: They're not really dusty. I was surprised. I was actually looking for some dust.

MTV: The Dust Brothers produced "MmmBop," which for the record does mean something.

ISAAC: One of the parts in the song says "In an MmmBop they're gone/In an MmmBop they're not there." So MmmBop is like a second or a minute or a year. Probably more like an instant, like a short frame of time.

MTV: And in seems like an instant, Hanson have become one of the most adored bands around. All that adoration leads to crazed promotional appearances and for photo shoots for like of "Seventeen" magazine. And while people are ready to pigeon hole Hanson as a Partridge Family for the 90's, these brothers act a little more like...brothers.

TAYLOR: and then...

ISAAC: (interrupting): You know, you may want to blow your nose

TAYLOR: Why?

ISAAC: Just so you know, your nose is running. (TAYLOR SNIFFS, TRIES TO RUB HIS NOSE, GIVES UP AND MAKES A FACE)

ISAAC: (SHOWING THE SEVENTEEN PHOTOGRAPHER A PIECE OF HIS HAIR) You know what? We used to have a wedge before, and see...

TAYLOR: (Interrupting) Ike, who cares about your hair?

ISAAC: Zac is definitely very crazy.

ZAC: Ike would be the romantic one that would dedicate songs to people.

TAYLOR: I'm the quiet one, obviously.

ISAAC: I'm definitely very goofy.

ISAAC: (Imitating Butthead) Wouldn't it be cool if there was like this chick on stage.

ZAC: He's goofy funny. I'm goofy stupid.

ISAAC: No, I'm goofy stupid.

ZAC: We're both goofy and we're both stupid and it's funny sometimes. Oh God!

KURT: Looks like it may be nap time for Zac there. Hanson's album debuts at number nine on Monday's "Billboard" chart.

Music in the HANSON House

BOP

July 1997

After we chatted with 16-year-old Isaac, 13-year-old Taylor, and 11-year-Zachary Hanson, the brothers that make up the trio Hanson, they broke out into a capella version of "MmmBop," their catchy tune from their just-out pop album "Middle of Nowhere." When we asked them how they became such good singers at a such a young age, the Tulsa, Oklahoma natives said that they a lot of their musical talent to their mom, Diana, and their dad, Walker Hanson. "Our parents did a lot of singing and stuff in high school and college," guitarist Isaac tells BOP. "So it's very much in the genes." Aside for inheriting good vocal chords, they also give their parents credit for turning music-making into a family activity. "There was always music in the house," keyboardist Taylor says. "My mom's been singing around the house and listening to a lot of music since I can remember. Then I started singing, and Zac started singing, so we became a group. It was a very natural thing because there was always music around us."

Yet Zac in a typical little brother fashion, disagrees. He swears he just joined the band to help his brothers out because they didn't sound good without him. "Two-part harmony didn't really sound so right, so they needed a third person," Zac jokes. However, that's not how Isaac remembers it: Basically, he and Taylor didn't leave Zac, now the band's animated drummer, a choice. "Zac kind of got stuck," Isaac laughs. However it happened, Hanson couldn't be happier to be making music together. And thanks to their parents, there's a bright path ahead of them, coming out in the "Middle of Nowhere"

Maximum Tuneage

BOP

July 1997

...And finally , BOP's Carrie and Carmen recently spent some time hanging out with the three Oklahoma born brothers of the new pop band HANSON - 16-year-old ISAAC, 13-year-old TAYLOR, and 11-year-old ZACHARY HANSON. The girls chatted with the three brothers in their penthouse room in the posh Sofitel Hotel in Beverly Hills, where they were taking a break from filming the video for their first single, "MmmBop."

(Hey, sounds like a song us Boppers would like!) Isaac, Taylor and Zachary sang this to Carrie and Carmen, who tell me the brothers' vocal talents in this impromptu performance were very impressive! Hanson's debut album, Middle of Nowhere, arrives in record stores this month. So if you're interested, check it out.

BOP Talk

BOP

July 1997

..."MmmBop" meets BOP! The ultra-energized pop trio, Hanson, made up of babely brothers, Zachary, Isaac, and Taylor, hooks up with BOP's Carrie and Carmen during the Oklahoma group's visit to Los Angeles, California.

With the boys' fun personalities and their catchy pop single named "MmmBop," what's not to love?

Jenny McCarthy Transcript

The Jenny McCarthy Show

ZAC: Hello, we're Hanson.

GIRL: It's great to have a band that's still ticklish!

ISAAC: About five years ago was the first performance, we did a local festival called Mayfest and we were doing just a capella stuff at the time, three part harmony type thing and three years after that we picked up instruments and started playing, you know...drums...

TAYLOR: Keyboards

ISAAC: Drums, guitar, keyboard

GUY: How old are you?

Z: Ike. you first

I: I'm 16

Z: Tay?

T: 13

Z: I'm 11

JENNY: Barney's way past your age, right?

I: Barney is like...

T: We'd like to shoot Barney

I: we'd like to shoot Barney...beat him up

T: Um, yeah, we're gonna do a song called "MmmBop" and it's about holding on to the ones who really matter. It's a...

I: It's about relationships, in this life, only one or two will last.

Z: Okay, man! We love you people!

Planet MmmBop

Smash Hits Magazine

Planet Pop? Planet MmmBop more like! It's all long hair, top tunes, and big smiles as Smash Hits spends an interstellar afternoon with rising stars Zac, Taylor, and Isaac, a.k.a. Hanson!

Being the biggest and best new pop band on the planet, topping the charts throughout the world, with fame, fortune, adulation, and loadsa fans beckoning, Hanson should be the happiest people in the world.

Except that Zac is sitting, his face all forlorn and sad. "I don't tend to get girls as fans," he sigh, bottom lip sticking out. "I just get all the young guys and weirdos."

Hanson are talking about girls, one of their fave topics and it seems a certain glum looking, sulking 11- year old is being left ot of the conversation.

But at this point of potential crisis, when it seems being the youngest, smiliest third of pop's future is being seriously upset, Taylor hits him forcefully on the head with his copy of Smash Hits and announces: "Now that's not true, is it?"

"OK," says Zac, and a huge infectious grin spreads across his face at long last. "I guess I get a few girl fans." And Zac, Isaac and Taylor all start to laugh.

Phew! Hanson are the happiest people in the world. Not only is their single MMMBop the cheeriest, brightest, shiniest pop song ever but even more than that, spending an afternoon in the lads' company is about as much fun as you could possibly have full clothed!

"Being serious is so boring," Taylor says. "Anyone can act like Oasis, what's the point? You can do that anytime, in any job. We make music it's what we love to do. So we like having fun."

"We goof off," Zac confesses. "We like to, say, climb up on a roof and drop water bombs on people. Stuff like that!"During the Hits photo shoot 'goofing off' is an all to regular occurence. Be it Zac's daft robotic dansing, their tendency to break out in song or high spirits with what they approach even the most boring tasks. They love 'goofing', but its only one side of Hanson.

"We also take our music very seriously, we goof off, but we're certainly not goofballs," he nods firmly.

Hanson may fun, young, good looking, and poptastic but they are also real, talented musicians. Hanson areas they describe themselves: "Brothers who write, sing and play everything."

Isaac wrote his first song when he was eight years old. Zac started playing gigs with his brothers when he was only six. "We've been listening and playing music since we were born," Isaac explains as if being in bands since nappies is the most normal thing on earth.

"But it all started properly about five years ago." he says. "We started performing and doing some gigs. Originally we were doing a cappela music and clicking our fingers - but for the last couple of years we've all had instruments. There were some drums in the attic that dad got down for Zac and within a week we were playing live!"

Zac: "I guess I'm a natural drummer, although at the beginning I wasn't doing much." And on top of being the best pre-teen drummer in the world Zac also writes songs. He wrote Man From Milwaukee, the bonus track on their brill album album Middle of Nowhere.

So are Hanson the new Jackson Five, the group that saw "King of Pop" Michael Jackson shoot to fame at a similar young age? Not according to Taylor. "There's not five of us. It was Michael and four brothers," he points out. "We're all the same. We all make the music."

'Cos the Hanson lads have private tutors instead of going to school, they get loadsa time to rehearse their top tunes. "We've been able to practise rather than being stuck up in school and all that," Taylor says. "It's nice because you can focus on the subjects you really like and are interested in."

The brothers had a History lesson this morning before meeting the Hits. The lesson involved going around the London Dungeons and Tower of London Ride. "We're experiencing new people and new cultures," Isaac explains. "How many US History teachers would be die to be able to send their class to London!"

But, if it's cool missing school, Zac adds that bed-time hasn't gotten any later just because they're pop stars. "It's worse 'cos we have to get up to go early to go and work, we were up at six this morning so we so get told to go to bed early.

All the Hanson family are over in London. There's mum and dad, as well as sisters Jessica (8) and Avery (6) and yet another Hanson bro', Mackie (3). So are their younger family a Hanson jnr., andother pop band only years away? Taylor shrugs. "I don't know, Maxi has got the rhthym - he could play drums." Next time Hanson comes over they'll be much bigger stars and they'll be on their own without the without the full Hanson clan. "We can't afford to fly everywhere 'cos there's too many of us." says Taylor, insisting that they wouldn't be lost without mum and dad: "It usually ends up with Zac looking after us!"

Zac adds: "I guess I don't need looking after sometimes. We look after each other, but I don't need baby-sitting. I don't think of those two as older than me, I think they're 11 as well. To Tay we're all 14 and to Ike we're all 16, I guess."

Isaac agrees: "We don't really argue and when we do it's not a big thing. Generally we are best friends for the most part. "I don't think about how old we are."

"It's great to be friends with your brothers," Taylor adds smiling. "Then you've got friends for life."

Zac looks at the smiling Taylor, puts a finger in his mouth and starts making barfing noises.

The conversation, inevitably, returns to girls - and the good news for the lay-dees in Britain is that none of the band are attached.

Tay wonders why we were surprised (perhaps 'cos he's already challenging Ronan Keating from Boyzone for 'best looking fella' at the Smash Hits annual Poll Winners Bash). " I thought you weren't meant to be to be into girls until 14, but it seems that everyone is getting girlfriends younger." But he thinks that Zac may have a few years to wait. "What's the point of getting a girlfriend when you're 11?" he says. "What do you do? Ring her up and go 'lets get together and talk'."

"Yeah, or go rollerblading," adds Zac in full agreement.

Isaac leans over to Zac and says, "It's not like you're going to make out." And the three start making barfing noises, "Bleuurghh!"

So here we have the future of pop. Right now you can get your toppermost debut single MMMBop. Soon you'll be able to get posters, T-shirts, and the album, but you may have to wait a while before Zac's ready to be your boyfriend.

New York Star Ledger

"They're big boppers: The gifted Hanson brothers, who have teen-age girls humming the nonsensical lyrics of "MMMBop," have been anointed the next big literary thing by the publishing world. Would you believe an authorized bio of Zachary-11, Taylor-14, and Isaac-16, will be out by Virgin Publishing in jolly old England? Blame their agents at William Morris. As if that's not enough, the boys will be the subject of an unauthorized bio due in September, from Archway Paperbacks, People Magazine says. And Ballantine is thinking up a Hanson project, too."

People Magazine

Now that Hanson, the Oklahoma-based pop trio comprising the brothers Hanson (Zachary, 11, Taylor, 14, and Isaac, 16), has a monster hit with its first single, "MMMBop", the publishing world is betting that young readers will line up to buy books about the singing sibs. An authorized Hanson bio was just sold by agents at William Morris to Wirgin Publishing in England. At the same time, one unauthorized quickie, Hanson: MMMBop to the Top, is already in the works and is due in September from Archway Paperbacks. Additionally, a rep at Ballantine says that they too are considering taking up a Hanson project.

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