Hanson: Homegrown, organic & good for you

I confess. I had Bop and Tiger Beat posters of them all over my walls and ceiling, and wore yellow Doc Martens with my school uniform. It was 1997: cargo pants and fluorescent colors were “in,” Mike Kasem was MTV Asia’s favorite VJ and like myriads of other girls, I was a Hanson fan. A decade and a half later, I may be no infatuated fan girl, but I undoubtedly have high respect for the band that got me into music—not just listening to it, but actual music-making. Even now, in between painting and writing, I take pleasure in running my fingers along the black-and-white keys of my vintage Kawai and I still bang on the bright blue drum kit my dad gave me for my 13th birthday — around the time Mmmbop got nominated for two Grammys.

Formed in 1992, Hanson, made up of brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is celebrating its 20th year as a band. Fifteen years after the success of their record “Middle of Nowhere,” all three are now married with children and producing albums under their own label, 3CG Records founded in 2004 after a three-year battle with bullies in the music business. Their ordeal was documented in the critically acclaimed film Strong Enough to Break. The fruits of the band’s struggles and eventual victory over their corporate adversaries include three celebrated records, “Underneath” which was number one in the 2004 Billboard Indie charts, “The Walk” which debuted in Billboard’s top five in 2007, and their latest album “Shout It Out” which got the number two spot by Billboard in 2010 — all these while keeping their integrity and strong sense of self intact amidst an increasingly insatiable and collapsing industry. As independent artists, they’ve given birth to music that’s homegrown and honest, with a healthy mix of classic soul, R&B, blues and hearty three-part harmonies. Their recent work may initially sound “pop,” but after considering its creation process, you’ll recognize Hanson’s latest music as organically grown — nurtured by their genuine passion for their art, and with lots of good intention and love put into it.

Hanson’s latest music is organically-grown—the product of independent thinking, nurtured by their genuine passion for their art, and with lots of good intention and love put into it.

Hanson’s emergence as an independent band is one of the reasons why I’m pleased to have supported them as a kid in the ’90s and why I choose to continue to support them as a conscious adult today. Being an independent visual artist and writer myself, I know how challenging it is to stay true to yourself and to your art while preserving the dignity of your work and your uprightness as a human being in an ever more materialistic world where art is diminished to mere commodity and the artist is a mere pawn played on a chessboard. It takes an enormous amount of courage to deviate away from the prevailing system and carve your own path, but once you find the guts and actually do it, you’ll learn there’s so much that can be done. The unknown may be daunting, but it also offers a vast array of possibilities for the new to come into being.

Not only have the brothers grown as artists, they’ve also evolved as people. Whoever declared in the ’90s that fame and fortune would rob them of their youth, and predicted they’d go bankrupt and end up in rehab, didn’t read the cards right. Over the last few years, they’ve been putting their talent, influence and resources to good use by fighting AIDS with music, and raising funds to build water wells and schools in poverty-stricken Africa. In The Walk, a project with Tom’s Shoes, Hanson was able to draw thousands of fans to walk barefoot with them, providing more than 50,000 pairs of shoes to African children.

In ’97, I read every magazine and newspaper with Hanson in it, so to be on the other end writing about them now is pretty surreal. Back then, I also had that teenybopper’s dream of meeting the band which I haven’t really fulfilled (apart from a brief encounter in 2004 where my skirt got torn and I accidentally found myself in their VIP room, thinking it was the ladies’ room.) I remember a portion in one of my old teen magazines where readers were asked, If you could tell Hanson anything, what would it be? Right now I would say: “Keep the good and meaningful work going — and see you at your concert tonight, I’ll be in seat No. 1, Row N!”

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Catch Hanson tonight, March 30 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu tomorrow, March 31, organized by Dayly Entertainment. Tickets available at Ticketnet and Waterfront Hotel lobby. Get your “Shout It Out” CDs at Astroplus and Odyssey outlets, made available by Polyeast Records. I’d love to hear from you: www.katrinaanntan.ph / katrinaanntan@yahoo.com