"It was scary," Zac says of working with King. "Afterwards, I was talking to Tay and I was like, 'You know, when I was writing with Carole . . .' and then I sat down and thought, 'What am I doing? I'm calling Carole King by her first name!'"
~"Hanson Work With Carole King", by Greg Heller for Rollingstone.com, June 1, 2001
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SITE OF THE MONTH - JULY
http://www.magicalplace.com/ Liz has done such an excellent job with her site that even Hanson recognized MagicalPlace.com as MOE netpick #9.
No, what's freaking me out is they're sitting in my living room, watching the Super Bowl. And between plays, they're admiring my home. They're offering to help serve. They're playing with my kids. And they're talking about faith, guns in our society, The History Channel.
~"Oh Brothers!", by Johnathan Penner for Modern Maturity magazine, July/August 2001
Thanks to Rebecca for allowing us to use her picture on today's HAD!
"This generation has seen the effects of previous generations, " he explains, focusing as he goes. "In the 60's with the drugs and Vietnam, the 70's with sex, the 80's and AIDS. Ours is one of the most conscious generations. And there is a much broader acceptance of people and a greater equality today, especially for women."
~Isaac, "Oh Brothers!", by Johnathan Penner for Modern Maturity magazine, July/August 2001
For a moment, they lived down to my expectations. In they slouched, casual but cool, a leather jacket on guitarist Isaac, a ponytail on drummer Zac, a smirk on the "cute one," Taylor.
Then they had to go and open their mouths.
~"Oh Brothers!", by Johnathan Penner for Modern Maturity magazine, July/August 2001
Happy 4th of July!!
"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.'"
~"Hanson: These Oklahoma Teens Are For Real", Houston Chronicle, May 22, 1997
Thanks to Christina for sending in this article!
This Time Around successfully blends blues, pop and rock - a combination everyone can enjoy. Let's hope it silences anti-Hanson types. After all, the group is exactly what pop music needs - a real band.
~"This Time Around, Hanson Shows Depth", Houston Chronicle, May 18, 2000
Thanks to Christina for sending in this article!
"Our parents were like hippies without drugs," says Isaac. "They always said, "We think our kids should pursue what they want to pursue. We want them to think for themselves and not follow the crowd."
~"Oh Brothers!", by Johnathan Penner for Modern Maturity magazine, July/August 2001
"You're not making a live record for everyone. Like, a studio record, you're making it as perfect as it can be and you're trying to get that out to as many people as possible. But the live record is more directed to the people who bought the studio record. It's not as much for a mass audience as for the devoted fans. The people who are traveling around the country after the band, recording your shows with their little tape recorders, who ask you, 'Will you make a live record, please make a live record'. That's who it's for."
~Zac, Globo News, Brazil, November 2000
How do three people come together to create songs, I wondered?
"Sometimes we could just be together playing and come up with some kind of piano, guitar riff, something like that; some kind of chord progression and keep playing that and a song comes. Sometimes each individual part of a song might be written completely separate as a completely different idea from the other. I think thatĂs what makes it interesting for you as a songwriter," Isacc explains. "There can be many revisions of the song along the way as the pieces become pulled together in the process of the band working on the song," he added.
~Musically Speaking with Hanson, by Andi Imlej, November 2000
hitzhop:What's the biggest lie you've ever told?
Zac Hanson : If I told you then people would find out...and right now nobody knows.
Zac Hanson : And I'd like to keep it that way!
~Nick Chat, August 2000
"They're going to be giants in American music if they continue their trajectory. They have a couple advantages that almost no one ever gets. They've been playing together since they were tots and they have a sibling vocal blend that's just so tight and so great-sounding that it's just a joy to listen to. They have a great deal of respect for American musical tradition and they ask all the right questions."
~Bob Weir, JamBands.com
"(What inspires us) it's very unpredictable. There's definitely no formula to it by any means. In a sense some of the concepts that come to you when you're playing can sometimes almost be kind of an imaginary moment, something that (of course) is not really happening to you, but you kind of get drawn into it and involved in that emotion, in that story that you're creating."
~Isaac, Musically Speaking with Hanson, by Andi Imlej, November 2000
Isaac: I am anti-superstitious. Like if there is a ladder in front of me, I will walk under it just to defy the superstition.
Zac: I like to break mirrors while walking with umbrellas indoors. And make sure a black cat walks in. On Friday the thirteenth.
Taylor: On the thirteenth floor of a building.
~Globo News, Brazil, November 2000
"I don't think of myself as a rock star, it's more like musician. I've done music basically as far as I can remember. I've been performing live and writing songs and making records my whole life. It's not like all of a sudden I'm like in a band. It's just something I've always done. It's not really about the rock star thing, it's all about the music."
~Zac, "Portrait of Hanson" by Jeff Napier, Indianapolis, October 2000
Photo courtesy of Shirley.
"The cool thing is to collaborate with other musicians that we like. Whenever artists like John Popper, Jonny Lang, come along to get to work with them is really cool. On the next album we will work with some other artists that we like, that we are fans of, it will be really cool to see what comes of it. We are always open to experimentation and seeing what they can add to the music and what kind of friendships we can cultivate. We hope to continue to experiment in that way and in other ways as well, like song writing for other artists or producing for other artists, also looking to other things and hoping to continue in that way. We are always looking for creative outlets to express ourselves through music or any other thing that pushes you creatively."
~ Hanson.net Catches up with the Band, December 28, 2000
"I think, as a band, you just have to deal with the ebbs and flows....I'm not going to curl up and die because a record doesn't sell well. I'm in this for the long haul. I couldn't stop playing music if I tried. It's like a drug, I'm addicted to it."
~Isaac, The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, October 8, 2000
Photo courtesy of Cristi.
Dolly: Do you have any advice for someone who wants to be a musician?
Zac: I think you should probably take advice from someone who's been around longer, but I guess it would be "you've gotta work your butt off, and you've gotta really love doing it!"
~Frisch's activity book interview
Thanks for the pic, Shirl!
"We are constantly writing there is never a moment music cannot emerge, though sometimes you go through dry spells - sometimes you don't write a song for several months hoping some song will come but music has funny way of compensating for that it, once you hit on something the songs come very quickly and you get out of your "dry spell"."
~Hanson.net Catches Up With the Band, December 28, 2000
Photo by Shirley.
"I've never really considered any other career because this is what we wanted to do. Before this we were doing all kinds of things like lawn-mowing and babysitting, but that wasn't a career!
~Isaac, TV Hits, June 2000
Photo by Cristi.
DJ: How do you like being a teen icon dude? That's gotta be pretty out of control.
Zac: Um, I don't know how to answer that question.
DJ: I know, it's kind of a hard question. How old are you?
Zac: I'm fifteen.
DJ: You're fifteen years old, beloved by girls and women everywhere, you're loaded aren't you? You're just filthy, damn rich. How much money do you have Zac, come on.
Zac: I'm not gonna answer that question.
DJ: What's in your wallet right now?
Zac: I plead the fifth.
DJ: He sleeps on a big bed of cash, there you go. That's not bad.
Zac: Um, yeah, my mattress is all green.
~107.5 interview, Salt Lake City, Utah, January 2001
If you could create a band with other musicians alive or dead what musicians you would add to your band?
John Bonham - Drums, Eva La Boraeal - Bass, Jimi Hendrix - Guitar, Steve Winwood, Billy Joel - Keys, Steven Tyler - Vocals, and of course the Beatles.
~Hanson.net Catches Up With the Band, December 28, 2000
Collage made by Marica.
Hanson has had to contend with a kind of typecatsing that resulted from the huge success of the poppy "MmmBop".
"That's a battle that every band fights, " Isaac, who plays lead guitar and sings some lead vocals, says. "Certain people who are very uniformed only know that song."
Lead singer and keyboard player Taylor says,"Do we get caught smoking weed or something to make us look like bad boys?"
~"Hanson, In For the Long Run", by Craig McKee for WestSide, Motreal, Canada, September 27, 2000
During this show, the band showed the maturity and evolution that has taken place since it first hit the scene in 1997. The sheer quality of the songwriting should be enough to get them respect.
~"The Brothers Turn Up the Heat", by Craig McKee for WestSide, Motreal, Canada, September 27, 2000
"I've changed a lot of diapers in my time.There are seven kids in our family, and I've changed the last four kids!"
~Isaac, Hanson Quote Search Engine
But bubblegum isn't just a sound. It's also a steadfastly innocent escape-based music. And anyone who's actually listened to Middle Of Nowhere knows it is neither. The "secret that no one knows" about Middle Of Nowhere (to lift a line from the "Single Of The Summer") is that the entire album is about loss and how to move on in its wake.
"MMMBop," a song about how unpredictable and tenuous our lives really are ("In an mmmbop, they're gone"), is the only most obvious example. A little like a rodent-less "Ben," "Weird" is about the loss of identity in a world where "you don't stand out, and you don't fit in."
Funky and rocking as all hell, "Speechless" is about a loss of innocence. Soaring to string-inspired heights, "Yearbook" reads like a pop ballad about the loss of a friend who has disappeared from the viewpoint of those left behind to worry. "Lucy," sung by the breathy-voiced Zach, is about the loss of love. The stirring "I Will Come to You" is about the loss of a loved one.
"With You In Your Dreams," the most completely gospel moment on the disc, is dedicated to the memory of the boys' grandmother and, as a huge gesture, it's even written in her voice. The song's a dying message, an urging for those left behind to keep on living. And though it springs from the mouths of babes, I'm not certain I've ever heard a truer (albeit metaphorical) testament to the way those we love continue to guide, influence and comfort us (and haunt us too, but that's a different song), even after they're dead and gone.
~"Songwriting Whiz Kids Can Do It All" , By David Cantwell, 1997
In our cynical, post-modern age, any strong statement of hope or faith expressed sincerely, without any poetic distance or winking irony or absent any undercurrent of rage, is supposed to be automatically suspect ("You can't fool me!") and to deserve instant critical trivialization.
So how in the world did three teen-age boys, who've grown up entirely in the age of cynical grunge, create an album that so strongly rejects cynicism as reflex? And with today's guitar rock scene about as encouraging of big public emotional gestures as, well, the typical homeroom, then how in the hell did these kids find the guts to risk making an album that's so willing to just express strong emotions in unmistakable language and to surround it all in larger-than-life arrangements that are unafraid to mirror the larger-than-life way such emotions are often felt?
Perhaps being from out-of-the-loop Oklahoma played a role in this somehow. Certainly their home-schooling, fundamentalist Christian parents have been doing something right, not the least of which was home-schooling them on the Time-Life Rock & Roll CD series. And maybe the fact that they spent several years growing up with their parents in Venezuela, where they could have been influenced by the unabashed emotionalism of so much Latin music, played a factor too. I don't know.
But I do know this album sounds like a wake-up call to anyone with enough heart left to be paying attention, with enough guts to let their guard down and just feel. Whether deliberately, accidentally or instinctively (who cares?), these kids have brought it all back home in a way today's coolest musicians and hippest critics haven't had the guts to.
~"Songwriting Whiz Kids Can Do It All" , By David Cantwell, 1997
They busted into the music world with "Mmmbop" creating skeptics en masse. Zac Hanson told 92 Pro FM Rhode Island two weeks ago, "I would actually like to see a Hanson concert, cause I would actually like to see how skeptical I am of us." ~Debra Halpern The Tartan 10/2/00
Even if something better should come along in '97, I'm still certain of two things: One, Middle Of Nowhere should be recognized as a great album; and two, it won't be. Even those who dig Hanson's "MMMBop"??the Single Of The Summer??are already hedging their bets, scurrying into an armor of predictable defenses so as not to be caught playing the fool.
The predictable defenses are predictably foolish. First off, fans and critics are already dismissing Middle Of Nowhere because it was made by three junior high kids, which is just another way of saying that people don't believe kids could really have made it. But Isaac, Taylor and Zach wrote or co-wrote all of the songs, four of the best here (including the Single Of The Summer) all by themselves, and they did the singing, too.
Granted they got songwriting help on the rest (Mark Hudson on a few, Mann and Weil on another), and surely they also got a ton of assistance from their producers (the Dust Brothers on two tracks, Stephen Lironi on the rest). But anyone who thinks that this assistance somehow diminishes the record isn't just dismissive of teenagers; they simply don't understand the collaborative way, generally, that a lot of great rock music has been made, or the role, specifically, that song doctors, producers and studio musicians have regularly played in that process.
~"Songwriting Whiz Kids Can Do It All" , By David Cantwell, 1997
"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."
~"Hanson: These Oklahoma Teens Are For Real", Houston Chronicle, May 22, 1997
Thanks to Christina for sending in this article!
Why have you decide to put animals in your latest videos? I mean Otto(the mouse)and the spider.. Silvia and Laura from Spain
Isaac : That was really Dave Myers' idea. It wasn't something anyone thought about, it was just one of those things. The rat in "This Time Around" was meant to establish that the place we were performing in was old and decrepit. And the spider was a bug in the desert.
~MSN chat, June 17, 2000
What's the funniest thing a fan ever said to you?
Zac: There's a lot, but probably, "You look a lot thinner on TV."
TeenStar, 10/19/00