Family Guys

Some 15 years since MMMBop made them famous, Hanson have maintained and developed a deeply loyal fanbase on a completely independent level. They stepped away from the major label system and tried things completely on their own long before Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails even considered it. While it could be the secret behind what stopped them being a one-hit wonder, it certainly didn't hurt them to have such a massive push at the beginning.

Does Isaac think that they would be able to achieve the same heights if they started out from scratch without that big dollar push behind them? “There are so many variables that its more or less impossible to answer a question like that,” he responds quite fairly. “What I will say is that artists starting off these days have more opportunities than ever before to find their audience, to reach out to them and have a direct relationship with them, and that is an important reality, and an extraordinary advantage in many ways. In the early years of the consolidation of Universal and Polygram there was just this constant procrastination. That level of indecision is expensive and ultimately puts an extraordinary obstacle hurdle between success and failure.”

This is eventually why the band chose to go at it on their own, and as the industry has changed over the last ten years, Hanson have been in a great position to make the most of it. “There's so many ways to make your music available to people in various different ways to build that fan base, and that cannot be underestimated. It's like you're always a local band, in a good way.”

It's been over six years since Hanson toured Australia, and Isaac is sincerely enthusiastic about getting the opportunity to finally present their latest album Shout It Out to their Australian fans, even if they had to wait a while to get here. An influence that really sticks out on the album is that of Americana indie rockers Wilco, and it's one that Isaac is quick to back up. “We are big fans of Wilco,” he enthuses.

“I personally am a really big fan of some of their early stages, particularly records like Being There and Summerteeth. The Summerteeth record is one of their more produced records I would say even, and I really like that record – there's a lot of great songs on that album. Wilco has been in various ways an inspiration, but certainly even more than that, I would say that this record really pulls on a lot of our earliest influences. You know, Ray Charles and Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and that early Motown, early R&B records.”

They may have won a lot of awards and have gold records and all those kind of things, but Hanson have also been immortalised in The Simpsons – some would say the ultimate honour. “And on Family Guy!” he starts laughing hysterically. “Not quite as lovingly on Family Guy. It's always taking the piss. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. You gotta have fun with it. The truth is we take our music very seriously but we don't take ourselves excessively seriously. I personally liked the Children Of The Corn one on Family Guy the best. I find that so hysterical.”

He badly re-enacts the scene over the phone, before cutting in on himself. “Oh and you know, you have to feel honoured when Meg has a Hanson poster in her bedroom – and it's for multiple seasons!”

Hanson will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 13 September - HQ, Adelaide SA
Friday 14 September - Palace Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 15 September - The Hi-Fi, Sydney NSW
Thursday 20 September - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Friday 21 September - Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast QLD
Saturday 22 September - Metropolis, Fremantle WA