Zac Hanson, still MMMBopping after all these years

“MMMBop,” the 1997 mega-hit by Hanson, established the band as a cultural phenomenon, though the Hanson brothers—Taylor, Isaac, and Zac—were barely teenagers when the song was recorded; drummer Zac wasn’t yet 12 when the multi-platinum Middle Of Nowhere hit stores. The brothers’ precociousness, breeziness, and tween-heavy fan base earned them a reputation as teenyboppers, but in stark defiance of the cynics, the Hansons have turned a hokey hit into a carefully planned career. Twelve years later the boys are still releasing records—now on their own label, 3CG—and touring the country. Oh, and they’re all married with children, too. In advance of Hanson’s show tonight, Oct. 3, at the Ogden Theatre with Hellogoodbye, The A.V. Club spoke to Zac about growing up in a band, music’s evolving business model, and the roadie that wrangled him a wife.
The A.V. Club: Many people think of Hanson as three young brothers, but now you’re all married and have children. What’s it like touring with three different families?
Zac Hanson: I don’t think that it changes the way we tour as much as it just changes the personal perspective on wanting to get finished with the tour, or the reason you’ve got to go out and bring home the bacon, that kind of stuff. For me, I just have one one-and-a-half year old so it’s a relatively fresh experience for me. It’s a little crazy, especially when we bring all the families out on the road. You’ve got a bus full of kids and wives and you’re trying to balance load-in and sound check and everything that has to go with the business stuff with the little kids wanting to play video games or “Oh, I wanna do that!” It does become kind of a circus. I don’t know, we’ve been doing this for so long and people ask me every once in a while, “What’s it like working with your brothers?” and I go, “What’s it like not?” Our first paying performance, I was 6 years old, you know? I almost don’t know anything else, so I guess it feels pretty normal to me.
AVC: You and your two brothers started families of your own fairly young. Was this sort of a happy accident, or something more intentional, maybe a need for grounding after being on the road for many years?
ZH: I think it’s several things coming together at the same time. One is that desire to find relationships that you can lean on and trust. When you become a band and you’ve got people who want to be a part of your experience or want to get close to you for what you are, not who you are, you have that challenge of trying to find out who’s genuine. I think some of it is a response to that, but I think mostly it’s just the fact that we started the band so young. We’ve been doing what we do for a really long time. I’m about to turn 24, but I’m probably closer to the average 34-year-old in a lot of ways. I never had the problem of, “Who am I and who do I want to be?” I’ve known for so long, so I think that’s why [getting married] made sense early. And then the biggest factor is just finding really incredible women. I think that’s the part about being in a band with female fans: You get to meet so many women, and you figure out pretty quick which ones stand out in the crowd and which ones are really connecting with you.
AVC: Is that how you met your wife—was she a fan?