All Grown Up, Hanson Rock On for Their Hardcore Fans

Shane McCauley

In a little over an hour, Hanson will be onstage playing to 3,000 fans in Hyannis, Massachusetts. But right now they’re bashing out the new ”˜Make It Out Alive’ in a cramped dressing room backstage, playing a show for members of their fan club via live stream. The tiny room vibrates as drummer Zac Hanson, 23, stomps the floor and, with brothers Isaac, 29, and Taylor, 27, bounces three-part harmonies off the walls. Thirteen years after Hanson topped the charts with ”˜MMMBop,’ the brothers have traded pop stardom for the rhythms of life in a hard-touring working band ”“ and it’s little things like the fan-club stream that keep the kids coming back. Says Zac, “The fans respond and connect with you based on the way you give back to them.”

The band is currently touring behind its fifth studio album, Shout It Out, which adds R&B flourishes to the poppy rock the group built its career on. At tonight’s show, Hanson’s die-hard fan base ”“ lots of teenage girls, but also more than a few older fans from the first time around ”“ makes their enthusiasm clear with deafening screams. “I am constantly impressed by the audience that we get to play for,” says frontman Taylor.

But the journey hasn’t been entirely easy. In 1999, a merger eliminated Hanson’s label, Mercury Records. “We ended up on Island Def Jam, which is great if you’re Jay-Z,” says Zac. “But for Hanson, a Middle America pop-rock band, it wasn’t a good fit.” So in 2004, they launched their own independent label, 3CG Records, which allows them to maintain full creative control. “It’s like what they say about motorcycles,” says Zac. “It’s not a question of whether you’ll crash, it’s a question of when you’ll crash.” Adds Taylor, “Being in the music business is not dissimilar to owning a motorcycle.”

After the show, Isaac and Taylor hit a dive bar for a few drinks. “I was sandwiched between two drunk girls who were convinced that I was Leonardo DiCaprio and wanted me to kiss them,” says Taylor, laughing. But even if the grown-up Hanson brothers aren’t as immediately recognisable as the teen versions were, they’ve adjusted comfortably to adult lives. All three are married, and they have seven children between them.

The following afternoon, before the soundcheck at the tour’s next stop, just south of Boston, Taylor sits onstage, playing piano with his 18-month-old son’s arms wrapped around his legs. It’s clear that Taylor is truly happy ”“ and that it’s still good to be in Hanson. All three brothers insist that they are as enthused about making music as they have ever been. Says Zac, “Taylor wants to change the world, Isaac just lives for the emotional high, and I just want to be the youngest person inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”