The Montreal Online

Hanson – Red Green Blue 2022 Tour

Emerging on the world stage in 1997 with the ubiquitous smash single “MmmBop”, HANSON, the pop-rock band of brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson, introduced themselves to the world. Blending their influence of soul and rock n’roll with a love of song craftsmanship, the brothers quickly earned stardom and also respect from peers, earning them three Grammy Nominations and millions of albums sold.

HANSON’s focus on the long game was apparent from the start of their career, with their admiration for touring acts like the Grateful Dead who cultivated fanbases outside of the fickle radio world. Today the beloved band is heading into their 30th year performing together (25 since their major debut), and is in the coveted position of having an active global fanbase and independence as owners of their label where they have self-released music since 2003. Knowing their history informs the bold moves they continue to make, and frames the world tour and new album project which marks their return to the world stage in 2022.

The RED GREEN BLUE Tour and Album utilize the inspiration of colors to reflect the unique creative voice of each brother, with a third of the album written and produced by each individual (Taylor’s Red, Isaac’s Green and Zac’s Blue).

“Going into our 30th year as a band we felt like it was imperative we continue to tell our story like only we can, and telling stories in ways that will continue to challenge us to grow and give people new reasons to listen. Red Green Blue is about sharing what has made us a band that has been able to weather so many storms,” said Isaac Hanson.

The project also brings together a team of collaborators, with the album co-produced by Grammy award winning Producer, Engineer and Mixer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wilco), and Grammy Award winning Artist and Producer David Garza (Fiona Apple, Midland, Sharon Van Etten).

“Our love and respect for Jim Scott has only grown since we first met 20 years ago. He has been behind some of our favorite albums, so it was an absolute joy to have finally made a project together,” said Taylor Hanson.

Added Zac Hanson, “We have had a long friendship and a deep connection with David since our early days as a band. We could not have had a better musical collaborator for this milestone project.”

Fresh off of the release of Against The World, featuring seven songs released consecutively each month, the prolific band of brothers are reinforcing their deep musicality and credibility as writers, performers and producers with the new project. Leading up to May’s full album release of RED GREEN BLUE, fans got a taste of the trifecta of sound, with a single featuring each of the brother. On February 11th Taylor’s earnest and dynamic “Child At Heart”, March 11 saw the release of Isaac’s organic and heartwarming “Write You A Song” and April 15 featured the rock infused pop of Zac’s “Don’t Let Me Down”.

Founded in 1992 at ages eleven, nine and six, brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac spent their first five years building a fanbase as an independent band in Tulsa, OK, performing both classic rock ‘n’ roll and soul music and their own original material, to form their own unique blend of harmony-driven, soulful pop-rock. This unlikely focus was forged by an early introduction to music from the 1950’s and early 60’s, with the young brothers citing influences from Aretha Franklin to Otis Redding, The Beatles, Elvis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. This formed the bedrock of their musical inspiration, helping to forge their signature sound which incorporated strong melodies and song craft, as well as reverence for their musical forefathers.

HANSON has never been driven by trends or fame, but instead is fueled by the personal drive to create great art, inspire connection and cultivate community. Those qualities are at the root of the band’s longevity and lasting connection with fans.

Corona Theatre
Tuesday, August 2, 2022

To purchase your tickets visit: www.evenko.ca

TRBLive

Hanson, a trio of preteen brothers from Tulsa, Okla., burst onto the pop music scene with their catchy 1997 hit, “MMMBop.”

Unlike so many boy bands who hit it big and then quickly faded away, Hanson has endured.

The brothers are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their major-label debut with an international tour supporting their new “Red Green Blue” album.

The tour makes a stop at 8 p.m. July 26 at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg.

“It’s one of the most extensive tours we’ve ever done in one run — 90 shows in 4½ months,” said Isaac Hanson, during a recent hiatus at home in Tulsa. “I actually don’t recommend that many shows in that amount of time, but we feel extremely lucky that we have so many fans in so many places around the world.”

The group is fresh off a month-long run of dates in Scandinavia, central Europe and the United Kingdom.

“Red Green Blue,” their 10th studio album, is something different in the Hanson oeuvre.

Rather than collaborating as a group, each brother — Isaac, 41; Taylor, 39; and Zac, 36 — was responsible for writing and producing five songs.

The brothers perform in different configurations on the individual songs.

“We put a lot of emphasis on the collaboration we do together in this band, and that’s created a very productive and healthy dynamic in most cases,” Isaac Hanson said. “But it’s also important, especially 30 years in, to allow each other to experiment with being your own person.

“For us, this was maybe even about deconstructing the band and asking ourselves what is it about songwriting and working together that gets us excited and keeps us together,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what I thought was gonna come from this record, but I think we each learned a lot about ourselves and each other in the process that was both expected and unexpected.”

As reflected in the album’s cover, each color in the title is ascribed to one of the brothers.

“In a way, there’s an emotional sensibility to those colors, which is appropriate for our personalities,” Isaac said. “Taylor is definitely very passionate, almost like a risk-taking personality. He’s always up for an adventure. I think red definitely implies those kinds of things.”

“My brother Zac is a very imaginative person, an off-we-go-into-the-wild-blue-yonder person,” he added. “Blue makes a lot of sense with him, with the infinite possibilities of space and sky and the ocean.

“Taylor thinks about adventure, Zac is more about possibilities.”

For Isaac, green reflects personal history along with personality. Green was always his favorite color and, as the oldest of seven children, he would buy something in green or put a green sticker on a possession to mark it as his.

“You think about green, you think about nature,” he said. “I’m generally a little bit more of a grounded type of person. I tend to be more community-oriented, more about the bond and the relationships of who you’re on the adventure with, rather than the adventure itself.”

Doing something new

“I think for us, this project was mostly about challenging ourselves to do something we’d never done before and allow each other to explore sides of ourselves we don’t often go to,” Isaac said. “We put a lot of emphasis on the collaboration we do together in this band, and that’s created a very productive and healthy dynamic in most cases. But it’s also important, especially 30 years in, to allow each other to experiment with being your own person.”

Trying something new is crucial to staying creatively fresh, he said. That impulse also was reflected in the band’s 2018 album and tour, “String Theory,” which found Hanson playing with a symphonic orchestra at iconic venues including the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

“We’ve reached a point in our career where it’s important to tell unique stories and new sides of our band — how can we talk about this band in a different way and show people something they didn’t expect or, more importantly, do something that we didn’t expect to be able to do ourselves?” he said.

And yet, long-time fans will hear “MMMBop” at The Palace.

“Do we play a lot of the singles from the past 25 years in a show? Absolutely. Do we play songs like ‘MMMBop’ constantly? Absolutely. Are they mainstays in the show? Absolutely,” Isaac said. “But we also change things up a lot. We think it’s important that people could go to more than one show on a tour and see something they didn’t see the time before. It’s always changing, but it’s always respecting the newest fan and the oldest fan and everyone in between.”

The key to keeping it fresh is remembering that the band is there for the fans, and because of the fans, Isaac said.

“There are nights when it’s hard because you did five shows that week and you’re worn down, and nights when you feel like you could play for five hours,” he said. “The key is taking the opportunity and giving it out to the people who took their hard-earned money and valuable time and decided to spend it with you.

“Like most jobs, it’s hard sometimes, but it’s a helluva lot better than getting shot at or digging ditches,” he said. “All of us are extremely grateful and lucky to do what we do night after night. Hard or easy, it’s always super rewarding.”

Having humility in the midst of success was emphasized by the Hansons’ parents and by people who guided their career from the very beginning, Isaac said.

“It’s a pretty crazy thing that we did, but when we were doing it, it didn’t seem that crazy,” he said. “It just seemed like what we were supposed to do. We had the skill set, the drive and the desire; and our parents were willing to support that and help us chase the dream.

“They probably cautioned us away from getting too concerned with material success or things of that nature, and tried to encourage us to hold onto our integrity and ourselves and not lose our souls in pursuit of greatness.”

Tickets for Hanson’s Greensburg show are $39.50. To reserve, call 724-836-8000 or visit thepalacetheatre.org.

Hollywood Life

Those who lived through the 1990s (or those who have experienced the decade through the 90s nostalgia wave) could not escape the earworm that is “MMMbop.” The breakthrough single introduced the world to Hanson, a trio of brothers – Isaac Hanson, Taylor Hanson, and Zac Hanson – who delivered a variety of cheery pop reminiscent of The Osmonds, the Jackson 5, and other harmonic groups of the 1960s/70s. “MMMBop” helped close out the decade and helped turn the trio of brothers into one of the hottest groups of the 1990s.

However, there are more than just three Hanson brothers – the fourth and youngest, Mac Hanson, is an established talent in his own right. In fact, there are three Hanson sisters, but for those who want to know more about the Hanson brothers – and how many kids they have — here’s the scoop.

Isaac Hanson

While performing a show in New Orleans, Isaac instantly connected with someone in the crowd: Nicole Dufresne. Isaac told Yahoo! UK podcast host Kate Thornton that he “sang the entirety of the show” to her and threw his guitar picks to her as gifts, a gesture he admitted probably “freaked her out.” Afterward, he asked the stage manager to keep Nicole from leaving the venue so he could introduce himself.

“I think that one takes the cake for me as a whole. It was both the most persistent and brave moment in some ways,” said Isaac. “I had to try hard. … My wife is quite introverted, and I think she was a little thrown because I was so gung-ho — like, ‘Hey, we should hang out, we should do some stuff, I’m only here for so long.”

It worked, though. The couple hit it off, and they married in 2006. In the fifteen-plus years since that, they welcomed three children together. “After I finish a show, it’s like, ‘Hold on a second. I’ve got to do an encore, then I’ll call you for the bedtime story,’” says Isaac of his sons Everett (b. 2007) and Monroe (b. 2008) and daughter Odette (b. 2014), per PEOPLE.

Despite nearly two decades of playing with his brothers, the band continues to thrive. “At the end of the day…we share a bond that is a little bit bigger than just our ability to communicate in word and business environments,” he told The Minnesota Daily in 2009. “It’s a bond of music that is, I think, bigger. Music is a universal language, and it also applies to us in the band. I think it’s the thing that really keeps it all glued together, when it’s all said and done.”

Taylor Hanson

Jordan Taylor Hanson was born on Mar. 14, 1983, and was nine years old when the band started. Known for being the Hanson behind the keyboards and singing both lead and backup vocals, Taylor was often the object of many fans’ affections.

“I remember during [an] early promo [tour] going to a mall in New Jersey, and every spot was packed within minutes,” Taylor told PEOPLE. “Looking out at that crowd, it was a feeling of stepping through a door that you can never go back through. I distinctly remember that.”

Taylor is also known for being the Hanson brother who played in a band that wasn’t Hanson. He joined James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), and Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) to form Tinted Windows in 2009. The band released an album that year, and a reunion was in the works when Adam died from COVID-19 in 2020.

“We continue to do things that are about challenging ourselves. I know that everybody has different creative interests and things that people like to express,” Taylor told Entertainment Tonight. “Zac has been a visual artist, Isaac’s done some producing. I love to work with other artists’ songwriting.”

“I think what’s cool about where we are now is we have all this history behind us, but in the grand scheme of things, we have still potentially so many years ahead that I feel like what’s around the corner for us is that opportunity to diversify and connect with other people you’re passionate about, other projects,” he added. “There’s many bands that started at 28 or 30. So I think the sky’s the limit.”

Similarly limitless is Taylor’s family. He married Natalie Anne Bryant in 2002, and they have seven children together: sons Ezra (b. 2002), River (b. 2006), Viggo (b. 2008), and Indiana (b. 2018), and daughters Penelope (b. 2005), Wilhelmina, (b. 2012), and Maybellene (b. 2020)

“We’ve all been incredibly blessed with amazing kids and amazing families. I’ve always taken it one at a time, that led us to seven, so I’m just going to hold right now,” he told ET.

Zac Hanson