Brother Keepers

Hanson are trying hard to go beyond Mmmbop-dom: Along with the release of sophomore album This Time Around, the androgynous bro band have relaunched a spiffy website (www.hansonline.com) and 3-D digital avatars of themselves to hang with fans in virtual community HansonWorld (www.worlds.com). We chatted with the guys about what it's like to go digital.

In a special Hanson avatar edition of Gladiator, who would win: you guys or Beck [Hansen]?
Isaac: Three of us against Beck.... He's a little smaller than us, so three of us versus one of him might be kind of hard. But musically he's much more innovative.

If you could pick one superpower for your avatar, what would it be?
Zac: A lightsaber. I'd have the Force so I could fly, and I could chop through the walls with it instead of needing to actually teleport.

Taylor, is it tough being the middle avatar?
Taylor: Everything's cool in my camp, as far as I know.

Is there anything your avatars can do that you can't?
Isaac: The Macarena. When we were chatting...we were like, okay, on three we're going to do the Macarena in synch. We typed in, ''This is the only time you'll ever see us dance.''

Who would we most likely see as a special guest in HansonWorld: Britney, Jes-sica Simpson, or Shaft?
Zac: Shaft? I don't know who Shaft is. You mean Chef?

Uh...sort of.

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