Let's Begin at the very  start......

          Hanson family roots go deep in Tulsa. The boy's parents, Walker and Diana were
born and live their entire lives  there. The Hanson are well known in Tulsa , their friends
often add that Hanson have deep faith and are very family oriented.Walker and Diana
met at Nathan Hale Higschool in Oklahoma .They were always musical and were really
into arts scene in high school .They did a lot of plays , sang and acted and, later on,
they traveled with a gospel group called HORIZONS.Performing in churches throughout
the country. When Walker and Diana get married , Walker began his career as an
accountant of an oil drilling company which take Hanson to travel in many places.
 

         On November 17 ,1980 their first baby boy was born.They named him Clarke
Isaac Hanson. Soon after Jordan Taylor Hanson was born on March 14,1983. Following
the middle brother, Zachary Walker  Hanson came along on October 22, 1985. Walker
and Diana homeschooled their children because they always travel and they want to have
a close family relationsip. The brothers started music at an early age,they would harmonized
and sing Amen at the dinner table. Harmonizing and singing around their house was
actually just the beginning.

          In late 1980's , Walker was informed to travel in many countries beacuse of his
Job. They explain to their boys that they'de be spending the next year in several new
homes in South America.They  knew that in South America there were no malls, no
cars, and no sports stores! So did the bugs, rats,frogs and bats!The Hanson live in a
company-run compound or camp.  At that  time they would not have televisions and they
would probably not be able to understand the radio because of the language.So they went
out and picked up some compilation of 50's and 60's rock and roll cd's. Soon they headed
out to places like Venezuela, Trinidad, and Ecuador. Sometimes at night Walker would take
out his guitar and play songs for his family and of course his three sons always joined in.
The brothers soon fell in love with classics such as "Rockin Robin" and "Splish Splash"
and memorized the words by heart. By 1989, when they come back home in Tulsa,  Ike,
Tay and Zac had a new little sister . Jessica Grace Hanson was born in 1988. She'd be
joined by another little girl named Avery Laurel Hanson born in 1991. And the littlest Hanson
brother, Joshua Mackenzie Hanson , came along until 1994.

           Starting a band might of been natural for the Hanson brothers but they say it all started
at a Christmas party held by Walker's oil company. The whole Hanson family attended, of
course. For no reason at all - Ike, Tay and Zac, all of eleven, eight and six years old went up
and sang in front of everyone in acapella and entertain Walker's officemates.
 

     Hanson started writing their own songs, In fact they wrote songs dedicated for their little
sisters and litlle brother. The song they wrote for Jessica is called " Funnie Bunny", For
Avery, a rap song called "Baby Avie" and for their lttlest brother, they wrote a song called
" Mackie Baby ". Isaac wrote his first song when he was in third grade called "Rain Falling
Down". When Walker and Diana would go out at night and leaving some explicit instructions
for their sons to get the chores done  like washing the dishes , vaccuming the carpet.By the
time they come home , Walker and Diana would return to a sink full of dishes and a carpet
that still needed vacuuming. The boys haven't been lazy , instead of doing their chores, Ike ,
Tay and Zac spent their time writing a new song.  Most parents might have been annoyed,
but Hanson were not. Instead, they give the boys a chance to sing their new song!

         Their parents were very supportive in many ways. In fact, Diana would send out letters to
everyone who had been at a Hanson Brothers concert and told themwhere they were going to
perform next. She even  sold t-shirts to fans at shows. One day they decided to take a step up
with their music, and they picked up  instruments. All of them had taken piano lessons before
so they were experienced. Sort of, anyway. Taylor used his friends keyboards and Isaac went
to a near by pawn shop and got a guitar. Little Zachary was left with the drums  But before
 they even started, they needed a manager or an agent. So the guys packed up to go to Austin.
At the time there was the South by Southwest Convention taking place with many
agents/managers looking for talented singers and bands. So the brothers caught up with
Christoper Sabec asked, "Can we sing for you?" and they turned up their boom box, started
singing and dancing and his reaction was, "Wow!".Christoper quickly asked, "Where are your
parents?" and with that they had an agent. The Hanson Brothers now had been rejected by at
least 12 recording companies. But that did not slow them down! They went into a studio and
with some financial help from their kind loving parents they recorded "Boomerang". Mostly filled
with R&B sort of songs. But, unfortunally, that did not appeal to record companies. White kids
doing R&B was not their idea of a big hit.

          So they recorded "MMMBop" their second album made on their own label. This
album included  "MMMBop", "Thinking of You" and "With You in Your Dreams".This album
caught the attention of Mercury  Records' A&R guy who heard thealbum but really didn't
believe it. He thought that there must be some adults doing something so he decided to
see for himself. In Coffeyville, Kansas, Hanson was performing at a county fair and Steve
was surprised to see that they played their instruments as well live as on the album.The only adults
he saw were Diana, who was selling t-shirts and Walker, who was loading their equipment.
The rest is pretty much history. They signed up with Mercury Records soon after and
temporarily moved to L.A. to start reccording "Middle of Nowhere".