LANDGRAAF – Hanson put themselves on the map with their hit Mmmbop in 1997 and after some years of absence the three brothers are finally back in the Netherlands. The threesome grew up whilst touring non-stop. “My first kiss happened back stage, next to the tour bus”, Zac Hanson confesses to NU.nl.
Mmmbop wasn’t the only hit by Hanson, but it was the first and definitely the biggest. And it is the song that got them to play in a packed festival tent on Pinkpop, now fourteen years later. “You’ve got to see things in perspective”, Zac says, the youngest Hanson-member. “Mmmbop will always be a part of our history”.
The song did throw the brothers from Oklahoma lives completely upside down, and this during their puberty. “We played between fifty and hundred concerts each year, since I was eleven years old”. Technically I’m still that small kid from Hanson, only now I am 25 and the father of two children”.
Zac completely understands that a big part of the audience only shows up to see them play Mmmbop and he is okay with that. “A first impression is what counts the most”. Brother Taylor jumps in: “But this does make it a big challenge to keep the people up to date on your new work.”
Coca-Cola
For example their new album Shout It Out, that Hanson wants to release here in the Netherlands by the end of the summer. “It’s definitely a lot of work to let people know you have a new album out there”. Taylor says. “When Coca-Cola produces a new soda, people don’t go off to buy that one just because they like the cola”.
“Of course there’s always a part deep down that tries to write a song better than Mmmbop” Taylor answers on the question if Hanson does any effort to repeat the success of their first hit single. “That is not the reason why we write songs. But of course you always want to write something better then what you hear on the radio.”
Party
According to the brothers, Hanson didn’t fit in, during the nineties. “On one side you had ‘Rage Against The Machine and Foo Fighters and on the other side ‘The Spice Girls’, says Zac.
“We didn’t really belong anywhere” Taylor drops in. “We weren’t invited at anybody’s party, so we decided to throw one of our own”.
Taylor thinks that Hanson belongs at the same party as Maroon 5. “That band does sound very clean the last few years”, oldest brother Isaac confesses. Taylor isn’t surprised about that fact “That’s isn’t such a crazy thing when you ask ‘Mutt’ Lange (producer of Shania, Twain, The Corrs, Def Leppard,…) to produce your album. Then you sound like robots’.
Mars
When Taylor finds out Robert John ‘Mutt” Lange also produced a song on the new Lady Gaga album, he comes up with his own theory about the singer. “She is a robot from planet Mars.”
Zac: “If you wear a dress made of meat, you have to be a robot”
“Within the year Steve Jobs will announce his new product”, Taylor continuous. “The iGaga, everybody can own their own Lady Gaga”. And this statement proves that somewhere the Hanson brothers still are the little boys that they were at the time from their breakthrough.
Women
The big difference is that we have kids on our own now “My oldest is eight years old” Taylor says. “We met all of our ladies at our concerts”, Isaac adds. “They were all fans. The last two weeks we spend in London to promote our new album. Our wives came along, they have vacation while we have to work”
“We started with everything on a young age”, Taylor comes to the realization: “Most of my friends don’t have kids yet”. Isaac: “Most of my friends don’t think I should already be a father”. Zac thinks that he and his bothers find themselves in a position of luxury. “We exchanged the normal for the extraordinary”.
Parents
“My friends all had to read about the Chinese wall, while we actually got to walk on it.” It isn’t unthinkable that the Hanson children start a band on there own someday”. Taylor says: “It is in their blood. But I would never force anything. That never happened to us either. Our parents always protected us.”
Hanson hopes to return to Europe in the fall to tour. Also on those concerts they will play Mmmbop. “We aren’t Radiohead, who refuse to play their famous songs. That band doesn’t make pop music, but art. Radiohead might not be the best band in the world, but they definitely are the coolest.”
Watch the onstage3 session of Hanson on Pinkpop (a backstage acoustic performance). http://presents.3fm.nl/page/pinkpop10_video_3onstage/pinkpop10
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