Hanson — brothers Isaac, left, Zac and Taylor — performs Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 8-9, at the Royal Oak Music Theatre (Photo by Jonathan Weiner)
We got to know Hanson as teen (and even pre-teen) wunderkinds when the effervescent “MMMBop” hit No. 1 in 1997 pushing the trio of brothers’ “Middle of Nowhere” album to quadruple platinum sales.
Twenty-seven years later Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson are grown men with families, 10 more studio albums behind them — even a custom beer brand (MMMHops). And this fall they’re out celebrating a key step on that journey — the 20th anniversary of “Underneath,” an album that saw the trio form its own record label (3CG) and take greater control of its career, creative and business aspects. It wasn’t the most successful album of the group’s career, peaking at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 chart, but it’s certainly one of the most important and includes songs written by Matthew Sweet, New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander and producer Greg Wells.
The commemoration includes an album, “Underneath Complete, which combines the album with an acoustic “Underneath” EP that preceded it and two new recordings. Hanson has also started a special Underneath: Experience Tour, playing back-to-back nights in just 12 cities, one acoustic the other with the full-band plugged in.
• Zac Hanson, the group’s now 39-year-old drummer, recalls by phone that the band was in a precarious situation after its 2000 album “This Time Around” failed to live up to the success of “Middle of Nowhere.” “Every single person who worked with us on those first two albums had gone, ‘Hey, you’re career’s over.’ I think we fell victim to the classic issues of the label and corporate world. But we said, ‘Nope, it’s not (over). We’re just gonna start at the bottom and build it back up.’ We had to leave our major label and start our own label. We lost our booking agent. We lost our manager. But we knew we had fans, so we just decided to reinvent ourselves to move forward and say, ‘Hey, we’ll go find new people’ and forge our own path.”
• Consequently, Hanson acknowledges, “‘Underneath’ was a very important album for us as a band. I see it as the album where we came to full maturity. We had to put down roots as kind of an indie band. It’s not easy, but we felt like we’d already had success. And, y’know, if you look at the landscape of that period ‘Middle of Nowhere’ came out, it was way out of left field for pop music at that time. I think we’ve always been that kind of band, and we’re OK with that.”
• Each of the Underneath: Experience shows, according to Hanson, are designed to be different from one another, even if a number of songs will be the same each night. “‘Underneath’ had this double cycle when we put it out, so when we were talking about celebrating 20 years we decided to go for it again and recreate the way that it felt and lean on the different parts of who we are as a band. So night one, the acoustic show, is all about harmony, all about the vocals and the songs and something more intimate. It’s more like crying and hugging, and night two is about how ultimately we’re a garage band so we’ll really lean into that and be a rock band, even going back to some of the (other artists’) songs that were inspiring us.”
• One thing that’s been consistent throughout Hanson’s career is the brothers get along — at least as far as the public is concerned. And while Zac says the three have their moments, they’ve never battled like Oasis’ Gallaghers or the Kinks’ Davies or other famously feuding siblings. “It’s an interesting thing to be together this long and to continue to try and avoid the pitfalls of growing apart. It’s always been so clear, what we’re doing on stage, that the more you do that the less there’s conflict. That’s how we’ve managed to survive, that continue strive towards creating new things. That’s allowed us to avoid the bickering. We definitely fight; we can argue for four hours and then go to our mom’s house and have dinner. I think that’s because (the arguments) is usually about something; we’re fighting over, ‘This is my vision, and how do we come together?’ We’re good guys and we try to be good to each other and take care of each other, and that has paid dividends.”
• Hanson’s last album, “Red Green Blue,” came out during 2022, and Hanson says there’s no hurry to do another one. “I think the next project will be in ’25, ’26 — the end of year if it’s in ’25. On the last album we did, instead of writing as a band we wrote as individuals, and it was a really interesting amalgamation of Isaac, Taylor and Zac. I think we’ll continue to push the boundaries of what it is we’ve done. We make EPs every year for our fan club, so there’s always new music coming out into the world. So when we do the bigger projects, the albums, it’s really more about what kind of creative statement are we making, and how are we pushing ourselves to do something that’s exciting that we haven’t done before?”
Hanson performs Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 8-9, at the Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St. Doors at 6 p.m. for both. Matthew Sweet opens on Tuesday, Phantom Planet on Wednesday. (248)399-3065 or royaloakmusictheatre.com.