Ten minutes into a phone interview, Isaac Hanson had to be stopped.

The eldest of the brothers/bandmates from the late-'90s pop trio Hanson was going on and on, talking passionately about Africa. He and his brothers had just returned a day earlier from their latest humanitarian trek to the continent.

"We come home incredibly inspired each time," Isaac said. He even postulated, "Helping Africa is the mission that can make our generation great, like fighting world wars did with our grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations."

That's when he got interrupted: "Would anybody believe this is one of the guys behind 'MMMBop' talking?"

Yes, indeed, the Hanson brothers of Oklahoma have grown up.

All three of the siblings, ages 22 to 27, are family men now. Middle brother Taylor ("the pretty one") has three kids. Even little drummer boy Zac - whose cherubic face and wiseacre smile made it impossible to hate the band a decade ago - is an expectant father.

More startling is the fact that the Brothers H also have a pretty fertile music career.

Hanson's latest album, "The Walk," rose to No. 1 in Internet album sales and No. 4 on the independent albums chart in Billboard. Heck if it's not a pretty good record, too.

An alt-rock station in Chicago, Q101, recently turned heads by spinning the trio's single, "Great Divide," without naming the act. It became the No. 1 requested song.

"We've always believed in our music," Isaac said. "We said from the very beginning that we're in this for the long haul." He laughed. "I'm glad others are starting to see it our way."