Hanson reflects on ten years of music
By Rosalyn Stevens
Pop-rock sensations Hanson played to a crowded Bronson Centre last week, performing a range of music old and new as The Walk tour made it’s stop in the capital.
The band, which is generally most well know for it’s 1997 hit Mmmbop, proved to fans and critics alike that during the ten years following the almost instant success, they’ve grown and matured both personally and musically.
Guitarist Isaac Hanson, 27, said one of the greatest highlights of the past decade, in his view, was seeing the group’s success continue without the aid of a major record label.
“Well, honestly, the biggest highlight for me was seeing Underneath hit number one on the indie charts,” he said. “First independent release (going to) number one was a really satisfying experience.”
Along with being the band’s first independent release under their label, 3CG Records, Underneath marked the turning point for the band, he said.
“During that record we, after a couple of years of really trying hard to get a rap label to understand pop rock music, we finally decided, you know what guys, we’re done,” he said.
“We’re going to make this record, and we’ll talk to you once we’re done, and let’s see if we can come to terms with how we’re going to get this record out. And it just didn’t make sense. It was really clear that there was a lack of understanding of passion on their part.”
Drummer, and youngest brother Zac, 22, had a different take on his favourite moments of the past decade.
“I think that was definitely an impact-full moment,” he agreed. “But I mean, there’s so many different things. Playing at the songwriters hall of fame for Brian Wilson was pretty incredible, or playing in China for the first time. You go up to the Great Wall of China, and you’re like, ‘holy crap, this does exist!’”
Beyond that, Zac continued, some of the most incredible moments have come from the past couple of years, including recording with children in Africa for the latest album, The Walk.
“Not, wow, this is so incredible that we’re a band. It’s more of a life experience thing that you go, ok, what really matters here? What’s the importance of things?”
Zac, who’s been in the spotlight since he was just nine years old, said he’s also enjoyed seeing first hand the power of music on the international stage.
“I think also, you talk a lot about the power of music, and pushing boundaries, and music is the international language,” he said. “And then you actually see in a very personal way, the reality of that when you’re halfway around the world and kids are singing in English your songs. It’s a very, personal, real thing that kind of hits you, and you go, Wow! I guess the impact you can have with music.”
Music, to these guys, is not just a phase, they explained. And though they were barely teenagers when the first album, Middle of Nowhere, hit stores everywhere, the brothers said they don’t think their success had changed them.
“I think music shaped us before any of the kind of post or pre-success things happened,” Isaac explained. “I think music is what we were kind of programmed to do on some level. And the experience that we’ve had over the past the year is just, I guess, a further confirmation of our passions and our goals, and your drive to do things.”
Zac, who has essentially known no other life, said he’s unable to imagine his life without music.
“We’ve been a band, we started off just singing acapella when I was six,” he said. “And we’ve been kind of the band as you know it since I was nine.”
“So I’m not sure if music has shaped who we are, or if music is just who we are. But I don’t know if I would know who I am if I didn’t do music,” he said. “People as me that question, and go ‘So, what would you do if you didn’t do music?’ I haven’t met that person before, but if I ever meet him, I’ll let you know.”
Though it’s not common for bands who initially hit the stage as teen pop to hang onto their fans, the brothers agreed that they’re blessed with great fans who have stuck around, and not only supported the band, but introduced new friends to the band.
“I think I’m still blown away a lot of the times by the fact that we really have been able to have people come along with us for ten years,” Zac said. “Sometimes bands don’t stay relevant. And the fact that so many of our fans have been fans for ten years, from age 11 to age 21, from 14 to 24, (is amazing.)”
The reason fans have stuck around, Isaac and middle brother Taylor, 24, agreed, is a lot to do with the fans themselves.
“It’s not necessarily just about us, I guess,” Taylor said.
“And also, I think it’s really exciting because we’ve seen, over the last couple of years, we’ve started to see some really new faces,” Isaac continued.
During the early years, the trio often told reporters the band could never break up, after all, they’re family. In retrospect, the boys laughed, they were just having a bit of fun.
“We were kind of having fun with everybody,” he said. “Because …especially when the interviewers were 15 years older than you, and were very condescending about, oh, you’re young, you don’t know what you’re going to do. And there’s that degree to which you want to very literally flip them off and say, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Zac agreed.
“I don’t think we’re a band because we’re a family,” he said. “I think saying that back them was almost more of a joke, in that, I’m going to see him at Christmas. But many people who are in families don’t even see each other at Christmas. They just don’t go. You just have your own.”
But being family has effected the bands ability to play together for so long, the youngest brother reflected.
“I think being brothers is a real strong reason why we were able to start the band young,” he said. “I think the reason why we’re still a band today is more a testament to us all loving what we do, and saying, I don’t want to lose the ability to make music. I don’t want to be so catty with you that my ability to be a band and enjoy what each guy brings to the table, I don’t want to screw that up. I want to find a way to work through that.”
In typical Zac style—the youngest of the three has been known for his wacky antics from day one—he explained that every work environment required tolerance and compromise.
“I was just joking with a guy in the other interview, saying like, you don’t necessarily like your boss or all your co-workers all the time. But you still work together. You don’t just like, punch him in the middle of a board meeting,” he said, before imitating someone leaping over the table to throw the punch.
“So you just work through the bad times to get to the good times,” he said.
The current tour, named after the band’s latest album, which reflects the groups sound a little truer, Zac said. And while band is completely independent of major labels now, he said the sound of the band hasn’t really changed.
“Going independent has affected the way we release music a lot,” he said. “The way we make music has been not necessarily effect that much.”
In fact, it’s a process to make music faster. Take out some stages where you’d have to be (saying) ‘ok, label this is what we’re doing, this is the sound of this record, this is where we’re going’ and bring people around like they’re on some sort of scooter or something, pull them along in the red wagon.”
“Now we don’t have the wagon where we have to pull people along, we just do it.”
Another factor that makes the current album different, he continued, was the style it was recorded.
“It was done live off the floor, and that adds a different kind of energy I think to the record where you hear, there’s just a spontaneity on the record that you get when you record it that way,” said Zac. “And not every song works that way, but when you have the opportunity to use that, I think it’s a really powerful thing.”
Most importantly, the decision to take their own path was the decision to do things their own way, the youngest brother said.
“It was saying, like, we need to put ourselves in a place that allows us to keep leading by our own passion and things that inspire us,” he said. “You don’t need to shuck and jive, you need to lead with passion.”
And lead with passion is exactly what they do. Throughout the tour, the band has joined it’s fans on a one-mile walk through the community before the evening’s show, to raise awareness of the AIDS crisis and poverty in Africa. During the trip to Ottawa from Hamilton, however, the band was told the temperature was going to drop dramatically, and made the decision to cancel the walk for Ottawa. As it turned out, the temperature really wasn’t so bad, but the band explained, they couldn’t execute the walk since they’d cancelled it the night before. Regardless, many fans took the walk anyway.
The message of the album, and the bands latest efforts, is also reflected on the title track. The song, which was written just after the release of the band’s previous album, touches on just about everything the band is saying right now, explained Zac, who penned the moving lyrics.
“And I think it was about, it wasn’t written directly about anything, but the decision to be an independent band, the decision to take on so much risk, doing things that could possibly end your career permanently,” he said. “And just saying life is about essentially conquering fear. It’s essentially saying so many things in your life are just about you getting over your own fear of failure.”
“And I think now, The Walk still, with the things that we’ve been doing, talking about Africa and trying to do the walks, those things I think it also relates to that. The message is as true to who we are now as much as it was when we wrote it.”
While the brothers readily admit they’ve never really fit with a specific genre of music, Zac said he feels the band fits best with music now than ever before.
“We came out as teen pop, but we weren’t really teen pop,” he said. “Grunge was before us, and now, I don’t even know what the genre (is). Rap’s been huge. And then now, whatever we’re going into now. We’ve never quite fit into anything.”
The song reflects that too, he said.
“It’s saying we’re just walking. We’re not running, we’re not trying to hide anything. We’re not trying to be anything. We’re just walking.”
The band wrapped up the Canadian portion of the current tour last Thursday in London, ON.
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