Bopping to the Top of Pop
Durable melodies have helped Hanson move from zoos to the world stage

James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Let the record show that those three gilded Hanson kids have, in fact, paid their share of dues along the road to adolescent superstardom. ``We weren't too picky about where we were playing,'' says Taylor Hanson, the middle one (now 15), reminiscing about his group's lean years. For some reason, they played a lot of zoos. ``It's kind of wild to go into a teeny little amphitheater that smells from llama droppings,'' Taylor says. ``You're standing there singing with bad microphones to about 15 people, most of who you're related to.'' There are dozens more where that recollection came from, he says, speaking on the phone from Massachusetts, the first American layover of a large-scale summer tour that brings the group to Shoreline Amphitheatre on July 15. ``You do all kinds of things you look back at and laugh at.'' Taylor and his brothers Isaac, 17, and Zachary, 12, can certainly afford to laugh. With more than 12 million albums sold internationally, the three straw-haired boys from Tulsa, Okla., are among the bona fide pop commotions of the past few years. Their smash single ``MMMBop,'' a contagious paean to the fleeting nature of relationships, explained the group's world view in a nutshell that bounced around like a Superball: Life sucks, so what's the sense of denying yourself some fun? ``You gotta love it,'' says 12-year-old Zac, echoing the group's motto in a voice that's curiously deeper than Taylor's. ``Don't do it if you don't love it.'' Droning such a ready-made mantra, he sounds like a pint-size ballplayer talking team spirit. Though the boys have been known to act rambunctious for the cameras, poking each other and making flatulent noises during interviews, both Taylor and Zac are oddly subdued during this interview. (Isaac, who goes by Ike, was unavailable, lost somewhere in the hotel.) ``We're very much looking forward to play ing in San Francisco,'' says Taylor, as mechanically as a candy machine. ``It's a beautiful city.'' ``I would definitely say we've had to mature a little bit,'' says Zac. ``Because we're doing business. We have a job. This is what we do -- it's not like we can goof off all the time.'' Still, he argues -- waxing quite philosophic for his age -- he and his brothers are blessed with wonderful careers, even if they have begun a lot earlier than most. In Hanson's collective mind, concerned grown-ups needn't be scrambling for the child-labor law books. ``Anyone has to do their job eventually,'' Zac says, ``whether it's flipping hamburgers, or mowing, or doing a desk job.'' The prevailing notion that Hanson can't be anything more than the winners of a scripted talent search run by some cagey industry Svengali was effectively shot down two months ago when the brothers released ``3 Car Garage,'' a collection of many of the home- demo recordings that got them signed in the first place. Devoid of the help they got in making the '97 debut album ``Middle of Nowhere'' -- the deft mixing techniques of ubiquitous alternative rock engineer Tom Lord-Alge or the trendy hip-hop clatter of the Dust Brothers production team (Beck, Beastie Boys, Creeper Lagoon) -- ``3 Car Garage'' pares Hanson down to the group's bare necessities. And those core talents turn out to be more than enough. While some of the lyrics on ``3 Car Garage'' may be trite and a little embarrassing, the melodies are indisputably durable, and there's no question the brothers can sing their hearts out. In addition to Ike's guitars, Taylor's keyboards and Zac's drums, the boys are touring with the same three musicians -- a rhythm guitarist, a second keyboardist and a bassist -- who joined the group for its live performance of ``MMMBop'' on the Grammy Awards program in February. ``There are six guys onstage, but they're very much in the back,'' Taylor explains. Though the group has been obliged to lip- synch a few times, mostly on European shows on which everyone lip-synchs, Taylor says it was perfectly natural for Hanson to do ``MMMBop'' live. ``We always say the definition of the worst experience ever is being on a TV show where you have to lip-synch,'' he says. ``That's one thing we've tried to enforce. What's the point of being in a band if you're not even doing it?'' Playing live for thousands upon thousands of squealing kids is a relatively new experience, however. ``It's definitely something to get used to,'' Taylor says. ``It's definitely cool to go out and sing for 60,000 people and have them singing your song back at you. That's one of those things you can't describe. It truly is awesome.''

MISPLACED DERISION

Working with collaborators such as the Dust Brothers, ``Nowhere'' producer Stephen Lironi and veteran pop songwriter Mark Hudson (formerly of the goofy short-lived kids' program ``Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show''), the Hanson brothers have maximized their potential in record time, which might be why they now find themselves the targets of so much misplaced derision. ``We sent out (the self-produced version of) `3 Car Garage,' which was called `MMMBop,' to tons of producers,'' says Zac. ``The Dust Brothers had an interest in it, so we decided to, you know, go try songs with them. And it worked out.'' Notorious for their devotion to the bong, the Dust Brothers would seem to be unlikely co-conspirators with the milk-and-cookies Hansons -- until you hear the wonders they worked with the single and ``Thinking of You.'' ``They were cool guys to work with, real laid-back,'' Zac remembers. ``It wasn't really intense, you know, 38 billion-hour days. We spent, like, two or three weeks with them, and then we started working with Stephen Lironi.'' Hudson was especially helpful in co-writing songs for the group's quick-turnaround Christmas album, released last holiday season. Though Zac says he has never seen the Hudson Brothers' 1975 variety show, he likes the middle Hudson brother a lot. ``He's a great guy,'' he says. ``He's a cool guy.'' Relentlessly compared to another bell-bottom-era phenomenon, the Jackson Five, the Hansons are avowed fans of classic rock 'n' roll, doo-wop and soul music that reaches back a decade or more before the early '70s. The logical assumption is that they learned the stuff from their parents. Not so, says Zac. ``See, it wasn't our parents' music at all, really. It was before their time, actually. What we did was, before we went to South America for a year (for their dad's job as an oil company administrator), my mom ordered a Time-Life tape of, you know, all the '50s music. And we just listened to that because we weren't gonna listen to Spanish.'' Here he allows himself a burst of silliness, blurting an unintelligible wail that's supposed to be a foreign language, then addressing himself in a doofus voice: ``What'd he say?'' The tapes, Zac says, introduced the whole family to the wide world of pop music. ``It was Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, Four Tops -- any guy who was popular around then.'' These days, there are plenty of sing-alongs in the Hanson family bus, which is transporting the three performers, their four nonperforming siblings and their parents. ``Usually we take one of our parents with us,'' Zac says. ``The whole family is actually with us on the tour because we're gone for two or three months, so, you know, might as well take 'em. We've got a big enough bus.''

A TRAVELING BROOD