By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
May 23, 1997
While recording their album “Middle of Nowhere,” the Oklahoma-based trio Hanson went through a problem that few artists have to worry about. The singer’s voice changed.
“Taylor’s voice changed during the recording, but I don’t think that made a noticeable difference on the songs,” said guitarist-vocalist Isaac Hanson, 16. “It wasn’t problematic. Now his voice and mine sound even more alike. It’s really kind of cool when we harmonize.”
Vocalist-keyboardist Taylor, 13, has dealt with the rites of puberty, but there’s still one more Hanson to go – drummer-vocalist Zachary is just 11. The siblings – whose collective age is less than one Mick Jagger – have debuted on the Billboard album chart at No. 9.
“MMMBop” – their deliciously poppy Jacksonsesque ditty – is No. 1 on the singles chart.
Their quick rise to the top has initiated a minor backlash by disbelievers who argue that the band can’t possibly be doing this on their own.
“That’s fair,” said Isaac Hanson, phoning from his family home last week. “A lot of bands (with young people) have never really proven themselves as really being real. Not all of them have written the songs that they play or sung them either. But it’s fun to see the skeptics change their minds. We always say judge us by our music, not our age.”
He’s also quick to point out that while “Middle of Nowhere” may be their major-label debut, Hanson released a pair of indie albums “Boomerang” (1994) and “MMMBop” (1995), “long” before they signed on the dotted line with Mercury Records. (When you’re 16, two years is a long time.)
Also, the flaxen-haired brothers aren’t puppets. They wrote four of the 13 tracks themselves, including their breakthrough single, “MMMBop” (the title refers to how quickly time passes). The others were co-written with parent-age geezers such as Desmond Child, Barry Mann and Ellen Shipley. And the trendy Dust Brothers, who’ve worked with Beck, produced Hanson’s album.
“We hired them before the Beck album came out,” Hanson shyly noted. “They liked our demos.”
Not surprisingly, considering their age, a good chunk of their bouncy songs are about girls.
“Zak just got over the `I hate girls’ phase,” Hanson said. “But he’s not girl crazy.” Pausing, Hanson added, “He’s more into burping all the time. He talks and burps.”
For all those salivating record producers wondering if there are any more like them at home, burps and all, they’re in luck. The boys’ younger siblings – sisters Jessica, 8, and Avery, 6, and baby brother Mackenzie, 4 – may be forming their own group.
MMMBop, indeed.
EYE CANDY: Marcus Gray’s revised book It Crawled in From the South: An R.E.M. Companion (Da Capo, $17.95) is in stock now. . . . E-mail comments to jaehakim@suntimes.com
