NYLON

PHOTO BY HAYDEN MANDERS

Hanson has always been about audiences hearing their music for the music, not the gimmicks that often come with being pop stars. “We’re very serious,” Taylor says, “which is funny because people think Hanson as being very pop, very young, and not-so-serious.”

I met with Hanson bright and early at the NYLON offices during a routine fire drill. (No, really.) They took it all in stride; they’re vibrant, and they’re eager. Hanson’s debut album, Middle of Nowhere, celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. It’s the album that skyrocketed the Oklahoma brothers to stardom in the late ’90s, cementing “MMMBop” as pop canon. It’s the album that positioned the trio as a band with soul, that wasn’t some bubblegum product from a hit-making machine, a band with something to say. They wrote all their songs, played all their instruments, and were talking about very mature themes. “You have so many relationships in this life/ Only one or two will last,” Taylor says reciting “MMMBop’s” song’s opening verse. “It’s kind of a melancholy song really, if you look at the lyrics.”

The brothers—Isaac, Taylor, and Zac—have been performing together for 25 years. It took them five to get a record out on a major label. Since then, they’ve put out six albums including a Christmas one. They’re passionate and, through this anniversary year, have come to find the joy in how universal themes off Middle of Nowhere still ring true. “A song like ‘Where’s The Love’ really resonates right now in this world,” Zac says.

Now, Hanson is gearing up for their Middle of Everywhere world tour. Before that, though, there’s a greatest hits album and new music coming. Hanson found their passion at a young age and managed to make it a 25-year-and-still-going-strong career. “I wouldn’t take away the journey that we’ve had ’cause it makes the victories and it makes the next stuff more exciting,” Taylor says. Talk about work ethic and longevity. Here’s to another 25.

Aside from blood, what is the glue that keeps you guys together as a band?
Zac: We do take the blood pact once a week.
Isaac: Mostly blood.
Taylor: I think if you really boil it down to why are we together when many bands don’t last 25 years, I think it’s because we have this freakish self-confidence thing, a superpower; we know we’re doing fine and we know this is what we want to do. The other part is we’re so focused on what we want to do next that it puts the issues that you’re dealing with in the present in context
I: I know that any of us could be in a situation where we could just walk off and throw the towel in. But the glue is believing what we do matters.
Z: We’ve been talking a lot about our band’s DNA, and when we started, we were—and still are—influenced by late ’50s and ’60s music, which put us into a category where we were not quite in sync with our peers. We had each other.
I: To Zac’s point, one of my favorite stories is when we were listening to the Jackson 5, really enjoying it and all that. Our neighbor friend, who occasionally would come over and hang out, asked what we were doing and we said we were listening to the Jackson 5 and he’s said, “Who’s the Jackson 5?” Zac was like, “Who’s the Jackson 5?“
T: He made him leave until he knew who the Jackson 5 were.
Z: It wasn’t my brightest, most loving moment.

Do you ever get tired of playing the hits?
T: If any one of us wakes up and starts to complain about this, they’ll get a smack in the face because there are worse things they could be doing. I mean, you’re standing on a stage singing music that you get to claim as your own, somehow you get to say that you write songs. The inspiration feels like a gift. If you get inspired to write something and tell a story, there’s a gift in that; so performing songs that are old and new has to be done so with full force. It would be disrespectful to go on stage and act all, “Oh yeah… ‘MMMBop,’ you guys know the song…” It would be disrespectful to the craft really and to the inspiration
I: Some shows can be brutal. Some shows are hard to get through.
T: But part of the job description that we have is to use that hour or two hours to unlock people and connect with them.
Z: This is a funny analogy. Going on stage and half-assing it is sort of like going to the gym on a Friday and deciding not to work out as hard. Later, you wonder why you didn’t get as good of an effect, burn as many calories. It’s because you didn’t run very hard. It’s because you didn’t lift very much. Nobody likes your songs when you sound like you don’t like them.
I: Songs like “Weird,” I will always love. That’s a song that has meant a lot to us along the way. Its message is something that everybody goes through, whether it’s during adolescence or adulthood. We all need that reassurance of “hey, it’s okay, we all feel a little bit out of sorts throughout our lives. We’re all a little bit weird.” I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I feel still very close to all of the songs.

How much control did you guys have over your image back then when you were first starting out?
T: I can honestly say no album cover or photo on a product of this band has ever been released that we weren’t involved in the approval process, from what we wore to the photographer to the final design.
I: There’s actually a very specific thing that happened with the Middle of Nowhere cover. If you go back enough, you can actually find early “MMBop” singles that have a different cover of the Middle of Nowhere album on them. It says something like “Middle of Nowhere coming in May,” and it has this little thumbnail on it. That was kind of decided on by the label; they said this is what we want to do. It wasn’t actually all that bad, we just didn’t particularly prefer the photo. In some ways, I think that photo is more representative of the vibe and the record and the band, but that particular photo, it was just not our favorite. So we basically, in the eleventh hour were like, “Listen we are not okay with the cover of the album.“
T: The orange in the picture was because we didn’t want to use the color photo that they chose. We wanted a black-and-white one. So we compromised and did a colorization of it, which has a retro quality to it, a reference to the covers from the ’60s and ’70s where they had a lot of black-and-whites and they would try to give it some color.

What is the most bizarre rumor that has come out about you guys?
Z: It’s hard to top me being dead. It was when we were making our Christmas record. We were out overseas for a month or so, and it was being reported on the radio that I was dead.
T: It somehow got tied in with the tragedy of Princess Diana—that happened right when we got to the U.K. Somehow reports of Zac Hanson also being in a car accident started coming in. They actually announced it in some schools.
I: It was a very quick blip ’cause we were like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Zac’s not dead.”

Finally, what’s the rest of 2017 about for you guys?
T: There’s going to be new music. We’re really optimistic about the future of putting out music and connecting with people. It may not come in the form of a 12-song album, but this whole arc of going all over the world is to say thank you and celebrate where we’ve been and create a good platform for the next round of music. There’s a lot it.
Z: There’s a brand-new song that’ll come out.
T: It’s called “I Was Born,” and it’s just absolutely optimistic. It’s about this idea of an almost childlike perspective, saying, “I was born to be something,” and the joy of discovering it.
I: I feel like it’s a little bit between “This Time Around” and “MMMBop.”
T: We didn’t write it initially as one of our songs. We wrote it with some friends, and it hung around over the last couple years. We want the song to go out more as a campaign message to what we’re about, which is asking, “What were you born to do?” We’ve spent 25 years living out our dream and for a lot of people, whether they’ve connected with us on the last album or 20 years ago, we feel like we owe it to inspire fans to aspire. So we’re making a bucket list of other stuff we want to do and sharing those experiences across our platforms with the challenge to our fans to do the same. We want to challenge them to go do the thing that they were born to do and make a video of it and post it. What’s stopping you, you know? Songs have this way of encapsulating a thought into this micro-space that you get to communicate something really big in three minutes. It’s a great medium to tell a story, and we feel like it’s a great chance for us to get that message across. As a lover of life, listen to the song and ask yourself, What were you born to do?

Rolling Stone

Songwriter Jimmy Webb’s mammoth catalog of classic songs was mined by artists from multiple genres Wednesday night during “The Cake and the Rain,” an all-star celebration of Webb’s musical legacy that also served as a benefit concert, with proceeds donated to the Alzheimer’s Association and the I’ll Be Me Foundation in honor of longtime friend and fellow music icon Glen Campbell. Dwight Yoakam, Toby Keith, and Glen’s daughter Ashley Campbell were joined by pop trio (and Webb’s fellow Okies) Hanson, Amy Grant, Johnny Rivers, B.J. Thomas, Graham Nash, Judy Collins, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., Catherine Zeta-Jones, and more, with Yoakam unleashing a lugubrious, yet thoroughly soulful version of “Wichita Lineman,” a 1968 pop-country smash for Campbell.

Webb occasionally sat in on piano with the performers throughout the evening, including delivering a solo during Keith’s performance of the epic “MacArthur Park,” which was a pop hit for Richard Harris, a disco smash for Donna Summer and a Top Thirty country record for Waylon Jennings. Another of the performers was Johnny Rivers, who was integral to the Webb-Campbell connection and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” the first of Campbell’s hits penned by Webb. Rivers had recorded it in 1965 and, according to Webb, called producer/arranger to play a test pressing of the song for him for Glen to record.

“That song fit Glen like a glove,” Webb tells Rolling Stone Country. “It sounded like it had almost been written for him. In a sense I guess it was because I was such a fan and I had been enthralled with Glen since his record ‘Turn Around, Look at Me’ [in 1961] when I was 14 years old. I always wanted to write songs for him and I think subconsciously I was always writing songs for him.”

Hanson opened the evening with a brief performance of “Oklahoma Nights,” which Webb recorded with Vince Gill for a 2010 LP. The trio returned to the stage later for a harmony-soaked version of Webb’s “Highwayman,” which topped the country chart in 1985 for the titanic quartet of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, who recorded as the Highwaymen.

Webb’s memoir, The Cake and the Rain, is out now and he penned four of the songs on the upcoming final LP by Glen Campbell, Adiós, including the touching title track which closes that record.

NewsOK

Judy Collins, left, and members of the Tulsa-based band Hanson, Taylor Hanson, Isaac Hanson and Zac Hanson, appear backstage Wednesday, May 3 at “A Celebration Of The Music Of Jimmy Webb: The Cake And The Rain,” a benefit concert marking the release of Webb’s new memoir “The Cake and the Rain” at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Photo provided by Al Pereira

NEW YORK CITY – Fellow Oklahoma natives Toby Keith, Hanson and B.J. Thomas; musical luminaries like Judy Collins, Art Garfunkel, Amy Grant, Graham Nash, Johnny Rivers and Dwight Yoakam; and Oscar-winning actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones paid homage to legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb Wednesday night at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Presented by City Winery, “A Celebration Of The Music Of Jimmy Webb: The Cake And The Rain” honored Elk City native Webb’s singular legacy and his timeless hit songs, including “Wichita Lineman,” “MacArthur Park,” “Galveston,” “Didn’t We,” and “All I Know.” Proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association and the I’ll Be Me Foundation in honor of Jimmy’s dear friend Glen Campbell, according to a news release.

As previously reported, the lineup included Liz Callaway, Ashley Campbell (daughter of Glen Campbell), Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. (original members of the 5th Dimension) and Shelèa. Webb also performed, along with surprise guest Michael Feinstein.

This one-time concert event coincided with two milestones: Webb’s new memoir, “The Cake and The Rain,” released last month through St. Martin’s Press, and the upcoming 50th Anniversary of “Wichita Lineman.” “The Cake and the Rain” provides a snapshot of his unlikely rise in the 1960s, whipsawed from the proverbial humble beginnings into a moneyed and manic international world of beautiful women, drugs, cars and planes.

Webb will return to his home state for a Q&A and book signing from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Oklahoma City’s Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway. For more information, go to fullcirclebooks.com. Look for my new interview with Jimmy Webb Sunday.

Check out these YouTube videos of some of the performances, including Keith’s grand ballad belting on “MacArthur Park” and the Hanson brothers’ stellar harmonies on “Highwayman.”

-BAM

NewsOK

From left, Hanson is Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson. [Photo provided by Jiro Schneider]

Hanson fans can start mmmboping that heart button.

If you read this, you know the Tulsa band of brothers, famous for their 1997 bubblegum pop gem “MMMBop” and a continued music career stretching  25 years, started collectively posting to Instagram on Wednesday. So far, they’ve shared posts involving music duo Tegan and Sara, Nylon magazine and performing alongside Elk City native Jimmy Webb.

Members of Hanson have been vocal on personal social media accounts for years, but they’ve already amassed more than 10,000 followers since they started the new account.

See for yourself.

Okie fans have a chance to catch Hanson on May 21 when the trio headlines its own Hop Jam Beer & Music Festival. Tickets for the Tulsa celebration are available here. The band also recently shared plans for a new EP and have been rehearsing for concerts celebrating their 25 years together.

I attended last year, and Hop Jam was easily one of the most fun festival experiences I’ve had in Oklahoma. Here’s that review.

Available from all digital music outlets
May 26, 2017

Today

Can you believe “MMMBop” has been around for two decades?

Hanson is celebrating their 25th anniversary by going on a worldwide tour called “Middle of Everywhere” — a play on their breakthrough album, “Middle of Nowhere” — and releasing a greatest-hits album by the same name. But they’ve come a long way since the ’90s.

They’ve gone on to start their own record label, create a beer company and have 12 children between them. And unlike the all-too-common tales of child stars, Zac, Taylor and Isaac are proud of their wholesome image.

Noam Galai / Getty Images

“We’ve made choices to be defined not by who we are, but the things that we make,” youngest brother Zac told TODAY. “When people think of ‘MMMBop,’ they don’t go like ‘Oh, that guy was dating Kim Kardashian or I saw him on TMZ.’ They think of the music. It’s not by accident. It’s by design.”

While the trio has released six albums since 1997, they consciously took a break from music over the past few years and opted to raise their families in Oklahoma instead of Los Angeles or New York. “We love New York and LA, but we decided to continue building something in Tulsa,” said 34-year-old Taylor. “It’s more true to who we are and what we want to build into our kids’ identities. I’m a proud family man.” Isaac added, “We didn’t want our kids raised in a place plagued by smog and plastic surgery.”

Ron Wolfson / Getty Images

They also said living in a more rural state has allowed them to continue their business on their terms. “We couldn’t be the band we want to be if we were in (LA or New York) because if nothing else, the cost of living, the studio we want to have, the building our record label is in et cetera” said 31-year-old Zac. “The idea that we would live somewhere that was nontraditional and build our business out of somewhere that is nontraditional, it’s sort of our tradition.”

“Oklahoma is very entrepreneurial,” said 36-year-old Isaac. “I want my kids to know that what I do is work. It’s fun, it’s a great job, but it’s work. I think they see more of the blue-collar element of the job. There is less of the showy LA scene.” Taylor added, “As a parent, half the job is not making them amazing; it’s not screwing them up.”

Despite living a quiet life out of the limelight, their kids have still seen the famous ’90s music videos.

“There are multiple Hanson music videos on the iPad that my 3-year-old watches,” revealed Isaac. Taylor noted. “I don’t think I have shown them anything, but they have seen them. That is just the way it works.”

So, what do they think of their dad’s childhood success? “They know what we do is different, but it’s not different in the sense that we are ‘kind of a big deal’ different,” said Taylor. “And we know being in Tulsa, it’s even clearer. It’s not like there are other dads in bands leaving on tour tomorrow. I think they get that, but they also get how that doesn’t come easily and we work hard.”

“I’m not yet lame to my kids. They generally like what we do,” Zac joked. Isaac added, “When my son was 5, he would tell people, ‘My dad plays rock ‘n’ roll guitar.’ The other kids would be like ‘carpenter’ or ‘accountant,’ and he would say ‘rock ‘n’ roll guitar.’ So, they think it’s cool.”

RELATED: Nostalgia alert! Watch Hanson perform acoustic rendition of ‘MMMBop’

And with so many kids in the family, could there possibly be another generation of musical Hansons?

“All of my kids are learning to play instruments,” said Taylor. “There is definitely musicality and artistry in the genes,” said Zac. “So, we will see what it becomes.”