Tyler Glenn of Neon Trees

by bill biss

 

Neon Trees is a breaking new band with a tremendous amount of talent. Their music is infused with tough guitars by Chris Allen and Branden Campbell, slamming drums by Elaine Bradley and the amazing vocals of lead singer Tyler Glenn. Their debut CD was just released on March 16 and this band is one to watch out for.

 

The band is a fresh dose of rock and pop fusion that is already got a strong following for their live shows. The Rage Monthly spoke to Tyler Glenn from his tour bus smack dab in the middle of Kansas on the day their CD hit stores.

 

For such a charismatic singer with a strong case of animal magnetism, Glenn is thoughtful, sensitive and truly thrilled about their new CD called Habits.

 

In an industry such as music where lately the ratio of female artists outnumber the males four to one…it is exciting to discover a new male rock star worth talking about. Telling Tyler this, he responds, “Oh! That’s a huge compliment. Look at you. Thank you man.”

 

Tyler’s voice is distinctively his own yet upon first listen one is reminded of the vocal talent’s of artists such as Bono, Billy Idol and Michael Hutchinson from INXS.

 

In one song in particular on the release called “Love and Affection” he really lets loose and his voice just soars with rock majesty. Curious to find out just what he meant in the closing lyrics of that song being, “I just don’t understand/why my blood is/why my love is not.”

 

Tyler gets to the heart of the lyrics as he explains, “Like my blood is good enough in the shock…the violence is good enough but just the simple notion of love just doesn’t seem like it’s good enough. The whole song is about that and that love and affection can heal but I think the last shocking thing in the world is the actual idea of love. Just saying, ‘I love you.’ I know I’ve said that so some of my best friends and they don’t know how to handle it. People are shocked by love because we are all kind of in a weird spot. How love is probably the last thing that people think about but the thing that people need the most.”

 

Tyler Glenn is originally from Temecula, California. He moved to Utah in his early twenties. He followed his friend and guitarist of Neon Trees, Chris Allen, Tyler adds, “Just to play music, he was living there to go to school and I just wanted to continue to make music with him so that brought me out there and that’s where we started and formed the band.”

 

Commenting on his unique hairstyle, which is similar to Annabella from the 1980s band Bow Wow Wow, Tyler laughs and says, “Yes. Somebody recently said that. I don’t know. It raises eyebrows but I think I’ve done it for so long that sometimes I forget that I have a traditional Mohawk and people remind me in one way or another that I do which is fine. I’m just comfortable with it.”

 

Who are some of the musical artists that shaped his musical tastes growing up? “At a young age it was Michael Jackson definitely and Morrissey and Bruce Springsteen. Those are probably the trifecta of singers. I love the drama that Morrissey brings to his songs, I love the epicness of Jackson and I love the storytelling of Bruce. I’m just a sucker for old R&B and old pop. I sang a lot in church before I knew I wanted to be in a band.”

 

One of the band members Elaine Bradley on drums is a sweet choice. She smokes on the drums and adds an important element to Neon Tree’s sound. Tyler couldn’t agree more and says, “Elaine brings a lot of fire. I think our rhythm section is incredibly one of our large strong points. I think for her being in a more pop/rock band is different for her because she’s used to a lot more complicated drumming.

 

Her being able to explore the pop/rock world and add her own complicated way of playing to it makes for a good sound. I think it’s really spotlighted on the song, “Love and Affection” and songs like that. She also brings femininity to the band and it’s cool because I never wanted a woman in the band to be a novelty. The fact that she’s on the drums adds uniqueness to it. She’s a sexless drummer…I’ve said it before. Guys like her, girls like her. So it’s a combo.”

 

Why the name Neon Trees for the band? Tyler explains, “The name goes back to my friends in high school. We would dine at this restaurant and they had neon palm trees there. We just joked that that would be a cool band name and pretended to be in a band for five minutes. Later, when we really needed a band name, we thought Neon Trees would be cool and then it sort of fit the type of music we were playing.

 

This sort of organic rock mixed with dance elements. Ironically enough, when Branden joined the band, his dad was the one who actually made the neon palm tree lights that I named like a decade before. Before I even knew Branden or his father. Branden is from Vegas so it was weird that his dad had that job down in Southern California to make those lights. We believe in spirituality for sure so I think it was one of those ‘written in the stars’ vibe.

 

The standard issue story is that Neon Trees was signed to Mercury Records after being brought there by the band, The Killers. Tyler elaborates a bit more on that, “It totally was. I think the story has been packaged up in a nice bow that they brought us to Mercury. With all gratefulness and thankfulness to The Killers but I think it was a combination of things.

 

There were labels interested in us simultaneously at the time that Ronnie from The Killers asked us to open a couple of shows. Then Ronnie really followed up and put his two cents in. At the end of the day, they signed us because they saw potential. I think our live shows are the strong point and I think the record is finally an extension of that. We want to bring excitement back to good pop music and bring credibility back to it too.”