Hanson’s reality changes perception

by Joshua Maloni
Niagara Frontier Publications, November 29, 2007

Zac, Taylor and Issac Hanson

Yes, this is the band that brought us “MMMBop.”

But, did you know, this is also the group that, as we speak, is delivering more than 50,000 pairs of shoes to the disadvantaged in South Africa?

The trio that registered a No. 1 record without major label backing?

The group that’s earning spins on alternative radio?

For Hanson, changing people’s minds has become a chief priority.

For those who can overlook the widely popular, thoroughly cheesy pop song the band produced in its teen-age years, they’ll find a group with a lot more to offer now as adults.

For starters, Hanson is raising awareness of the unimaginable poverty and sickness in Third World countries; tribulations often ignored by the rest of us. Isaac Hanson says the time has come to change that mindset.

“The most important thing is that we act,” he said during a phone interview last week. “In three years, the number of AIDS orphans is going to go from 14 million to 25 million. That’s an emergency pretty much like the world has never seen before. Time is not on our side, and we need to engage.”

Isaac said a trip abroad and subsequent research, “really cemented in us the realization that we needed to engage further on the issue.”

He and his brothers, Taylor and Zac, decided to donate digital download profits from “Great Divide” to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, South Africa. Proceeds from the song, Hanson’s first single off 2007’s “The Walk,” went to the Prenatal HIV Research Unit.

Moreover, the band teamed up with TOMS Shoes to make footwear available to the children they met in South Africa. The manufacturer had set out to provide 50,000 donations. Eager to see that goal met, Isaac says Hanson came up with a unique idea.

“We called them up, and we said, ‘Guys, we want to meet, we’ve got this crazy idea,’ ” Isaac said. “ ‘We want to walk a mile in every city on our tour to promote the sale of your shoes. We want to bring your shoes with us, and we want to make sure that you reach your 50,000 shoe goal.’

“We sat down for breakfast one day … we brainstormed about the idea, and three weeks before the tour started, we engaged on the issue, we brought shoes with us, and only about a week-and-a-half ago, we announced that we’ve exceeded the 50,000 shoe goal, and 50,000 shoes are on the ground in South Africa right now being delivered.”

The band hand-delivered the shoes because, “We felt like it’s absolutely crucial that we go ourselves, and that we say to our fans, ‘Look, when we ask you to do something, we make good on it.’ That’s the most important thing for us. We want people to see tangible effects. Direct effects that they are having,” Isaac said.

“Awareness is great, but action is better,” he added.

In terms of the band’s new album, which features backing vocals from some of the Soweto children on “Great Divide,” Hanson’s now-post-teen vocals have made the group appealing to adult alternative radio. In fact, the Oklahoma natives have created a sound that mirrors Maroon 5 and is on par with Rob Thomas and John Mayer.

Isaac says the goal in creating “The Walk” was to merge each brother’s musical influence.

“On this record, more so than any other record, we really took a very holistic approach to recording, writing, everything,” he said. “We are kind of blessed and cursed, I suppose, with an eclectic musical vision.”

Each band member has different interests, which leads to varied writing styles. “But creatively when we get together, there’s a glue and there’s something significant that happens that doesn’t otherwise happen. It creates a diversity, a kind of ‘greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts,’ kind of thing,” Isaac said.

The eldest Hanson boy said songs, recorded sans bells and whistles, cohesively blend bits and pieces of Motown, ’60s R&B, gospel-blues and pop-rock. The result is a product, “That will solidify Hanson over the last 10 years in people’s minds, and Hanson today, all at the same time,” he said.

“The Walk” was produced and released on Hanson’s own 3CG Records. The band went independent after its label, Mercury, turned into Island Def Jam Records and lost touch with the group’s music.

“It’s really hard to get hip-hop guys to understand pop-rock music,” Isaac said. “They just weren’t engaged.”

Not surprisingly, he said, “They didn’t understand who the band was in the first place.”

Contrary to industry expectations, the band’s first self-made album, 2004’s “Underneath,” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart.

“The rest is history,” Isaac said.

Hanson performs at Williamsville’s Club Infinity on Saturday, Dec. 1.