INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Hanson: Where Are They Now?

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 05:07 PST, Mar 28, 2016

Hanson, a band with brothers Taylor, Isaac, and Zac, who were the crush of many teenage girls in the 90s and the guilty pleasure of many teenage boys, grew up to become craft beer connoisseurs, according to Ktul. The three Hanson brothers are teaming up with a brewery named Dead Armadillo to create something special.

Mason Beecroft, of the Dead Armadillo, brewery spoke on how working with them went.

“This is our first collaboration to work with them and it’s been a real joy.”

The craft beer community is a very close one and the Hanson brother wanted to be a part of it. Taylor Hanson spoke on brewing as a community and building a bond.

“We’re going to be brewing our draft beer here in Tulsa right at the IDL with these guys, we thought to christen the relationship that we should make one together.”

The spirit of community is what the Hanson brothers want out of this, not getting other people drunk. Taylor Hanson spoke on what this means for him.

“It’s not about people going and getting drunk it’s about making things, it’s about building things, it’s about creating something that’s your own.”

The craft beer venture of the Hanson brothers opened up the door to an annual music festival hosted by them. According to Tulsa World, Hanson won’t be headlining their very own festival because the brothers will be joining the audience. Zac Hanson spoke on why they won’t be doing their own show.

“It’s like this: It’s not an annual Hanson show. It’s an annual Hanson party. That means we want to take the stage a lot, but we want to be able to mix it up and add variety. You don’t want people to take it for granted. New beer, new bands, bigger footprint.”

The event is set to happen on May 22 in the Brady Arts District, and the greatest news of it all is that admission will be free. The selection of beer choices will be very vast. Needless to say, everybody that goes will be satisfied. Taylor Hanson spoke on how many breweries were participating, noting that in the first year of their festival, they had 15 breweries participating, but in 2016, they’ll have at least 60 breweries on display.

The festival will also provide local upcoming bands the chance to perform on the day itself. Submissions made to the Opening Band Contest will be personally picked by the Hanson brothers and the winner gets to perform as the opening act on the main stage of the festival. Taylor Hanson spoke on the bands performing at the festival, noting that changeover will be frequent so that festival goers will have the opportunity to watch several shows throughout the day.

He also spoke on what the festival really wants to do, claiming that they’re not interested in building “Hanson” or any other particular music group, but instead they’re concentrating on creating a quality one-day music festival event involving a “tight group of really engaging performers.” For the Hanson brothers, their philosophy when planning their music and beer festival is that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Hanson just might not need to build itself up anymore given that they defined the 90s for a lot of kids. According to Vulture, Hanson’s hit, “MMMBop,” is celebrating its 20th birthday. Well, the demo of it, at least. The demo was originally recorded during 1996, but the version fans know today was released a year after.

Taylor Hanson spoke about the “MMMBop” demo, saying that they hadn’t intended their release to be a demo. It was intended to be the next proper release for their local fan base, but then they were signed later that year. After being turned down by “every record label there is multiple times,” the Hanson brothers had made their peace with creating albums just for their local fans, but in the end it was that final local release that was turned into a demo and eventually got them signed to a recording label.

Little did Taylor and the rest of the Hansons know that this was the beginning of something truly amazing and life-changing for the three of them.

Here it is again, the song that turned Hanson into international superstars: “MMMBop.” Enjoy!

[Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]

Share this article: Hanson: Where Are They Now?
More from Inquisitr