E News

Turns out “MMMBop” isn’t just a silly sound in a catchy pop song.

Brothers Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson and Zac Hanson sat down with E! News to talk about how they’ve grown over the years and what it means to mark 25 years together as a band.

When asked about how it feels to have been doing their thing for a quarter of a century, Taylor joked, “We’re tired, we’re very tired.” Zach chimed in more seriously, “You know, 25 years is a big deal, and obviously it’s been our life and so you experience it day by day…but being able to put that kind of landmark on what you’ve done, I think there’s a sense of gratification, a sense of completion, that you’ve completed maybe the hardest part, which is to understand who you are.”

While not many bands are able to make it to the level of success and recognition that Hanson has achieved over the years, there is also something to be said about their loyal fans who have stuck with them. “The fans that we have had over the last several decades, you know, there is nothing quite like that…We have a massive debt of gratitude to them because they’ve really stuck through a lot of craziness,” Isaac said in between their String Theory  tour.

The Spinoff

1997 was a simpler time – British anarchists topped the charts and you could buy collections of the day’s hits on little plastic discs. It was also the year the very first local edition of Now That’s What I Call Music was released. Henry Oliver takes a listen to Now! Vol 1.

It’s the end of September 1997. Some guy named Jim Bolger is prime minister (soon to be rolled by Jenny Shipley). Bill Clinton is the still-scandal-free US president. A previously unknown British author has just released an “adult edition” of her smash hit book about a boy at a fancy school for wizards because parents have become embarrassed about reading a kids book on the way to work. All your friends are re-telling jokes from a new cartoon about a group of foul-mouthed kids in Colorado. An infant Lydia Ko has just moved to New Zealand. The world is mourning Princess Diana’s death. And a band of British anarchists is at the top of the New Zealand singles chart.

The song begins with a looping electro-beat and an ascendant synth line which builds to a sample from one of the many feel-good movies about Middle England that came out once a year: “The truth is, I thought it mattered. I thought that music mattered. But does it bollocks, not compared to how people matter.”

The beat stops and some distorted voices, awash in effects, cut in backed by an acoustic guitar: We’ll be singing when we’re winning, we’ll be singing…

Stop.

I GET KNOCKED DOWN, BUT I GET UP AGAIN!
YOU ARE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN!
I GET KNOCKED DOWN, BUT I GET UP AGAIN!
YOU ARE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN!

So begins Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’, the defining song of the year (according to our super scientific Twitter poll) and the first song on the first New Zealand edition of Now That’s What I Call Music (after a short run in the early-90s), the long-running popular music compilation now in its 21st year.

After years of ubiquity on classic hits radio, sports stadiums, and TV ads, it’s easy to forget just how weird a song ‘Tubthumping’ is. While the anthemic (not a word used lightly) chorus is etched in the brains of everyone who lived through the ‘90s, there’s the whiskey/vodka/lager/cider drink bit and the “pissing the night away” bit and the Irish-bar-band “oh, Danny Boy” bit, all squished together by a band of anarchist punks who came up playing squats and releasing their own records.

Basically, it’s the complete opposite of another monster hit from that year, and the second most-voted song on our poll, ‘MMMBop’ by the then 11-, 13-, and 16-year-old Oklahoman brothers Hanson. ‘MMBop’ sounds like a white version of Jackson 5 mixed with the Beach Boys and, perhaps due to the production of the Dust Brothers, a tween-friendly Beck. In fact, except for the record scratches (which are due for a comeback BTW), ‘MMMBop’ sounds strangely fresh, even though upbeat happy music is officially out of fashion and out of the charts. Also surprising is that ‘MMMBop’ was not only a commercial hit (it topped the charts in 14 countries, including New Zealand) but also a critical triumph, topping the most prestigious end-of-year poll (until the mid-00s at least) the Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll. Number two, by the way, was ‘Tubthumping’.

Not a huge vote-getter in our poll, but the subject of the most love in the comments, is The Cardigans’ ‘Lovefool’, initially a sleeper hit that slowly spread from its native Sweden to the UK and, after its inclusion in Romeo + Juliet (which didn’t play here until 1997), to New Zealand and finally the US after a re-release. ‘Lovefool’ is kind of a perfect song: upbeat, lovelorn, catchy as hell and tightly arranged to the micro-second. There’s no moment in the song that can be done without. The drums snap, the rhythm guitar cuts, the lead guitar fuzzes perfectly, and the vocals have that English-as-a-second-language perfection. (Oh, and it’s an almost un-fuckup-able karaoke hit too.)

Other hits that have stood the test of time are Britpop classic ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by The Verve (which, maybe because it’s sample-based, has held up better than, say, Oasis) and Blur’s fake-grunge song ‘Song 2’ which has become a pro sports audience chant as much as an actual song that you’d listen to (still, a great guitar riff and you can’t mess with that chorus – WOOHOO!!). But the best one-hit-wonder of the collection (one of the joys of That’s What I Call Music is that it contains the complete modern history of one-hit-wonders, but more on that in a future episode) is undoubtedly White Town’s ‘Your Woman’.

Built on a sample of Lew Stone Monseigneur Band’s ‘My Woman’ from 1932, the song sounds like a precursor to Gorillaz and other 2000s bands that combined hip-hop inspired sampling/drum machines with indie-ish vocals/arrangements. In this amazing Q&A on his website, White Town’s Jyoti Prakash Mishra says he recorded the song in his bedroom with a couple of grands’ worth of equipment, including an eight-track cassette recorder.

He tells his fans that the song (which reached #5 on the New Zealand charts) is about “being a member of an orthodox Trotskyist / Marxist movement (as I was for three years in the 80s). Being a straight guy in love with a lesbian (ditto). Being a gay guy in love with a straight man (not tried this one yet). Being a straight girl in love with a lying, two-timing, fake-ass Marxist. The hypocrisy that results when love and lust get mixed up with highbrow ideas.” (As an aside: How many other years contained two infectious global hits by anarchists and orthodox Trotskyists?!)

“How do you feel about being a one-hit wonder?” a fan asks.

“Better than being a no-hit wonder!”

Miami New Times

For a band that began in 1992 with members aged 6, 8, and 11, Hanson has always been wise beyond its years. As an 8-year-old fan at the time — and, admittedly, until this interview — I had never really stopped to analyze their music lyrically. But Hanson has an old soul, one that has always manifested in the group’s music.

“Those who know our songs… know [we love] the idea of hooks and choruses,” says Zac Hanson, the youngest brother of the trio. “If you study it, there’s not a lot of fat, not a lot of excess. It’s always been really important for us to be writers and to be the craftsmen of our narrative.”

Maybe that philosophy is what has allowed the band from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to make music for more than 25 years. And now Zac, Taylor, and Isaac are embarking on their latest tour, with a stop at the Fillmore Miami Beach Thursday, October 25, ahead of the November 9 release of their latest album, String Theory.

“The story [of String Theory] is about aspiration and fortitude and facing struggles and what you do with that,” Zac explains. “As we built that story, it became a reflection of who we really are right now.”

A compilation of fan favorites, new songs, and never-before-released music recorded with a 46-piece symphony orchestra, String Theory was arranged by Academy Award-winning composer David Campbell.

“‘MmmBop’ was about life and loss and perspective,” Zac says. “[String Theory] is a reflection of us doing the same thing, but with this new project.”

Though he and his brothers look forward to this next chapter of their musical career, creating music is something they’ve never taken for granted.

“Twenty-five years in, we’re so lucky to be able to do what we do,” he says humbly. “It’s amazing to be these many years into it and still have a global fan base and the ability to travel and make this your life.”

Their drive, passion, and talent are major factors in the band’s longevity, but “a shared ethos” has definitely contributed to their success, Zac says.

“Most people say that being in a band with your siblings must be extremely difficult, but having the same point of reference and going through things together, that’s a huge asset.”

However, having a fruitful career in music isn’t solely determined by the ebb and flow of one’s bandmates — it all goes back to craftsmanship.

“Being the writers of our music has always been key for us,” he says. “We’ve written our music and our stories. I don’t cringe at my thoughts as a kid — it’s who I was then. It’s not somebody else’s thoughts.”

Yet Hanson didn’t always enjoy full creative liberty. The brothers discovered true musical freedom when they established their own label, 3CG Records, in 2003.

“The creation of 3CG wasn’t really a direction to change our course, but to keep it,” Zac recalls. “Digital technology was changing the landscape so desperately. We wanted to be in control of who our relationships were. We didn’t want to be in a position where the whims of the corporate business were crippling our ability to make albums the way we wanted to.”

Sure enough, launching the label proved to be one of the best decisions they could have made, and more than a quarter-century later, here they are. Though it all worked out for them, the industry as a whole hasn’t changed.

“[It] hasn’t become any less volatile,” Zac says. “It’s become more of a mess. I think you see consistently selfish decisions made by the industry as a whole. They have chosen to buy into the technologies that are devaluing music at the hopes of gaining membership, but they’re saying to the artist: ‘Your music is worth almost nothing.'”

Fortunately for Hanson, that hasn’t been the case. The pop trio is still connecting with fans and selling out concerts. In fact, their March 2019 show at the Sydney Opera House is sold out. Now the brothers are gearing up for their gig at the Fillmore, which also marks their first time playing in the Magic City.

“It seems like it’s about time,” Zac laughs. “This is a good thing — that we still find new places to go to.”

And when the lights fade and the show ends, that’s what it’s all about.

“Ultimately, I think the reason we keep going is that we’re all so interested in what happens next and in the songs that haven’t been written,” he says. “It can always get better.”

Hanson. 8 p.m. Thursday, October 25, at the Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-7300; fillmoremb.com. Tickets cost $44.50 to $89.50 plus fees via livenation.com.

Press Pass LA 

Hanson continues to redefine their music, from Middle of Nowhere to Finally It’s Christmas, and everything in between, the trio has done something almost impossible in the music industry – they have stayed relevant. 

The latest iteration of Hanson could be considered one of their most ambitious yet. Along with award-winning composer David Campbell, the brothers have reimagined their songs with an orchestra. Now, one may think that the pop hits Hanson is known for (MMMbop being a legacy that they may or may not appreciate) wouldn’t translate much differently with extra instrumentation – and while the songs played at their latest LA show at The Greek Theatre held strong to the structurally pop sound Hanson is known for, they still added something else, a maturity the band has been striving to make known to the world over the years.

Some of the strongest arrangements from Campbell and Hanson (echoed by the loudest applause at the outdoor theatre) included Battle Cry, The Sound of Light, Siren Call & Me, Myself and I. The nearly 2 hour show had a 15 minute intermission, no encore and minimal commentary, which rattled a few fans but ultimately drew the audience in to feeling more and more like they were at a Symphony.

The upcoming album String Theory (November 9) is accompanied by a YouTube docuseries that dives deeper into the songs and arrangements. You can find the rest of Hanson’s tour dates here: https://hanson.net/tours-events