"Superstars" Spotlites Hanson

(September 1997)

They're blond, adorable, talented and ready to take over the chart with their infectious brand of pop music. Who are they? Hanson, that's who! Isaac, Taylor and Zachery Hanson are three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma who have been singing and writing songs for as long as they can remember. "We were always singing," says Taylor. "Our parents would go out and ask us to do the dishes, and when they'd come back we wouldn't have done the dishes, but we'd have written a song! We didn't think about it, it just happened." Eventually the guys decided to take their music even more seriously and they started preforming at local festivals in and around Oklahoma. "We started preforming as a group about five years ago at a local festival," says Isaac, the groups guitar player. We were actually doing acapella at first, and then about three years after that, we picked up instruments." The response of the crowds was so great, the guys put together two CDs of their songs to sell on the road, and then decided to take their music to the masses after landing their very own record deal!
The guys have wide and varied tastes in music, and that's one of the things that make their sound so special. "We sang gospel," recalls Isaac. "We sang that acappella (without instruments)." Then they discovered rock 'n roll, "especially '50s and '60s rock and roll, like Otis Redding and Chuck Berry... Our parents introduced us to certain things," says Isaac. "Our mom really loves Billy Joel, so she'd say 'Here guys, listen to this. " "Yeah," adds Taylor. "One of the first songs we ever sang was "For The Longest Time" by Billy Joel."
Their first national CD, Middle of Nowhere, will be hitting a record store near you any day now, and the catchy single, "MMMBop" is just made for the radio (no surprise from this talented threesome!) Of course, rock and roll doesn't leave the guys with much time to date. None of them has a girlfriend, 'cause they're so busy. "We're allowed to date," explains Isaac, but right now is probably not the time. For one thing, no girlfriend would probably want to deal with our schedule!" "Yeah," adds Zac. "They'd only see us for one minute out of the year, because we live in Oklahoma and then we were in Los Angeles making an album and a video, and then we're performing somewhere else!"
We bet most girls would put up with a busy schedule to get to hang out with this group! The only problem? With three gorgeous brothers to choose from, how can you ever decide which Hanson is the guy for you? Meet them one by one and see if you can decide!