Disney Adventures Magazine
February 1998

Boppin' With The Boys

What's it like to ply in a superfamous band, tour the world and sell zillions of CDs before you've graduated from high school? We talked to Hanson to find out!

When you're hangin out in your room and jamming on your air guitar, you can't help but wonder what it's like to be a big rock star. Well, here anre three guys--Isaac, 17, Taylor, 14 and Zac, 12, otherwise known as Hanson--who are living that dream.

Their album Middle of Nowhere has brought them three bigt hits: "I Will Come to You", "Where's The Love" and, of course, "MMMBop". The band released a holiday album, Snowed In last fall and are going on a worldwide tour this spring or summer.

Calling by cell phone from Sweden on their way from the airport to the hotel, hanson talked about their first love--singing--their travels around the world to meet their fans, and, yes, homework.

Whats the Best Thing about being famous?

Isaac: It's really amazing that, no matter what language they speak, people in so many different countries enjoy our songs.

And they know the words, even though they're in English?

Isaac: Exactly. When we performed in Indonesia, we stopped and let the audience sing, and they knew the lyrics word for word. That's amazing! They were 16,000 people at one of our Canadian appearances, and the audience noise reached 140 decibels, (About as loud as a jet engine at takoff) It was so loud that it was actually painful." [Jared's note: I was there and I still to this day think I have a buzzing in my ears from it :)]

What are some of your hobbies?

Zac: We like to play around with digital video camera's and go on the Net. Laser tag and paint ball are really great too.

What sports do you play in your free time?

Taylor: We like to play basketball and football, but soccer is a favorite becuase that's the only one we're halfway good at. And we love to rollerblade.

What's your favorite song right now--either yours or someone else's?

Zac: Pink by Aerosmith is really good (joking) Also, their is this song called I will Come To You by this group called Hanson. We Like that one a lot.

Taylor: I like Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. But really, we're so busy that we get a little out of touch. Then we go home and our friends say. "Hey, have you heard this song?"

What's the last CD you listened to?

Taylor: Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. There're a lot of great harmonies on that record.

What's the last dream you remember having?

Zac: I don't usually have dreams. I'am too busy sleeping to dream.

Taylor: Yeh, me too. The schedule is pretty hectic, so when you sleep, you sleep hard--your out. Besides, we probably wouldn't reveal our dreams anyway.

How do you keep up with school while you're so busy?

Zac: We home school, so we carry our textbooks with us and have school wherever we are. Also, you can learn about whatever place you're in--if you're in Italy, you can learn about Italy.

Do you have any special rules on the road--like a certain time you have to go to bed?

Zac: No, but if you stay up late and then the next day you're tired and don't feel so great, well then, that's your fault!

What chores do you get to avoid, now that you're so busy traveling everywhere?

Taylor: When you're in a big family like ours--there are six kids--there's always plenty to do. So we just do whatever our parents tell us to. "Go do the dishes" "Oh, ok..."

What did you buy with your first paycheck?

Zac: Um, groceries? People think that we got all this money and went out and bought Porches and Lamborghinis and big mixing boards. We wanted to! But we didn't.