independent artist

“It’s always interesting to meet your peers that you’ve influenced,” says Zac Hanson.
As the trio Hanson, Zac and his brothers Taylor and Isaac have, after all, been making music together for 30 years — the equivalent of an entire career for many artists. Those peers have included some of today’s biggest hitmakers, who’ve looked to Hanson’s success and stability as a potential model for their own.

“We sat in our studio with Billie Eilish and FINNEAS when they happened to be in town, [with] their parents talking to us saying, ‘We basically decided they should make music ’cause we saw Hanson and you guys seemed like you were OK,’” Taylor recalls. “Like, that’s insane … and here they are, they’ve done incredible, beautiful work.”

Other artists, the brothers reveal, have visited Hanson simply looking to get their take on new music. “In the same studio, Ed Sheeran, when he was opening for Taylor Swift, [was] like, ‘I wanna play you some songs.’ … And you’re just going, ‘This is really fun!’” Isaac says with a laugh.

Hanson is currently celebrating 20 years since going independent and starting their own label, 3CG Records, where they released their third album, Underneath. The band is on a North American tour in support of a deluxe re-release, Underneath: Complete.

“These songs are all richer, layered, we produced a great deal of it,” Taylor says of Underneath. “It’s a record that really works well in a live setting and it’s exciting to go back and really lean into those songs,” which include the radio hit “Penny and Me.”

In a wide-ranging and loose chat with Billboard News, the Hanson brothers also talk about their foray into beer-making with their Mmmhops Pale Ale, also getting a re-release, alongside a new beer, Pink Moonlight Hazy Peach IPA, created in collaboration with noted independent craft brewery Destihl.

Watch the full interview — in which the brothers also discuss their thoughts on how to, as Isaac puts it, “fix the music industry” — above.